Character Analysis: Tsuruga Ren

As I continue working through the final draft of “Second Chance” (Chapter Two), I find myself being perpetually bombarded by certain elements in the story that I successfully ignored the first time around.  Unfortunately, the more that I try to make story seem more cohesive and faithful to the canon, the more difficult writing this FanFic becomes.  If you’ve taken a good look at the Scene Index from my previous post, you’ve seen that most of my trouble spots are in the scenes with Tsuruga Ren.  He’s probably the main reason why I’m having such a hard time finishing up this chapter and posting it.

Every writer will tell you that writing is just like everything else: there are good days, and there are bad days.  Some days you write a lot, and some days, you’re lucky if you get in a good sentence or two.  About a week ago, I set aside 5 hours just to work on “Second Chance,” and I ended up writing only two paragraphs, both of which I trimmed down to one good sentence later on that day.  It was really frustrating to only have written two meager paragraphs, but thankfully, on the very next day, I was rewarded with churning out a good six pages from the rest of that scene.

I find it ironic that the trouble with Ren is that he is such a wonderfully complex character, filled with flaws and odd compulsions while remaining so deceitfully charming and heartbreakingly aloof, that I want to keep him just the way he is.  Like how he, as an actor, has to put himself in his character’s shoes and creatively imagine how best to portray his role in Skip Beat! the manga, I have to constantly put myself in his character and imagine how he would move, and breathe, and act, and speak.

The scene that I’m working on now is a one of the crucial scenes to “Second Chance,” so I want to get it right the first time around.  A lot of the other scenes build off of this scene, so I’m having a difficult time moving on without finishing this one.  In this scene, Ren does a lot of lashing out, in his cool, calm, deattached way that we see a lot of in the beginning of the manga.

In “Second Chance,” he’s someone that’s supposedly approachable and very amiable, but upon meeting him, his charming facade leaves the visitor delighted and pleased, yet unable to impose his or her presence on him for long.  Although he is someone that’s constantly working and incredibly busy, the visitor assumes this even before the assumption is verified.  Not only does he distance himself from others, the people around him automatically distance themselves before they give him the opportunity to be otherwise.  That is why, as the story develops and he realizes his feelings for Mogami Kyoko, we, as the reader, are pleasantly shocked but delightfully happy when every new development between these two characters soften his false charade and reveal more of who he is at the core.  However, he is still the harsh and unyielding Tsuruga Ren that is married to his vocation, no matter what she may do to his heart.

This is the Tsuruga Ren that I am enamored with and am trying to portray.  I remember that there was a review on the FF.net page that criticized my use of his character; that he wasn’t dark and unforgiving enough.  To be honest, I think that might also be a reason why I’m struggling to get his personality down.  And, to be fair (or biased), I don’t feel that my Ren was entirely off in Chapter One, because the Ren that we know beyond Skip Beat! Volume 10 has been revealed to be a very gentle, kind, and protective man–but only to Kyoko (and Maria).  But, the review reminds me constantly that he is still Ren; still harsh and unyielding.

Well, that’s enough for pent up frustration.  I got stuck writing the rest of this scene so I started to blog and rant.  Then I wrote on LiveJournal and somehow decided to make a wallpaper for the LJ Skip Beat! community and thought about submitting it to AnimePaper.net to get some papers LOL but I haven’t decided what to do with it yet.  I have an idea, but it’ll take some time before I can actually implement it well.  You can see that I started a vector of one of his better profile pictures, but it still needs some work.  I liked the clean lines in black and white, but if I color the rest of the picture, I’ll have to mess around with some textures and brushes before I can really enjoy this picture.  But you guys can have at it.  Enjoy it while you can, friends, because if I start writing, you might not get to see the finished wall until after I publish Chapter Two =) Some sacrifices have to be made, right?

Oh, do be a sweetheart: if you use it, please link back and credit =) It’s always nice to have new visitors and new comments.  And yes, I have an account on AnimePaper.net.  You can friend me, if you’d like.

Cheers,
LyL