WAFF

[Guest Zyx]

This has been bothering me for a while now... It says on the archive that WAFF is an anime specific code...

So what is it? Is it just really really sweet love stuff? 'Cause if so: I see no reason for it to be anime specific...

Though all is assuming I've correctly guessed what Anime Specific means... (it means just for animes right???)

[Guest Zyx]

I'm guessing you were just ignoring it, but just in case:

My question was: What does the WAFF tag really mean???

[FairyNiamh]

Warm And Fuzzy Feelings

[Guest Zyx]

Yeah, it says so much on the site but why is it anime specific and why fuzzy?

[Raphaella]

I am glad you brought this acronym to my attention. All this time I thought that WAFF stood for: (British slang) a term for a lady with a high degree of lascivity, oft stimulating lewd behavior in males. That, or it was a veiled reference to the World Armed Forces Fourm. Now I know…

[maidenhair]

I was updating my fic last night and I looked for this code out of curiousity. I'd never really noticed it before but after pondering it for a good portion of the night, I've come to the conclusion that it makes absolutely no sense. I consider myself an anime fan and I can't think of any reason at all why anything anime related would be more warm and fuzzy than any other genre. It's just plain strange...

[Guest Zyx]

This seems easier to fix and more important to me than fixing individual stories....

[shinigamiinochi]

I don't think that it's that important. WAFF isn't something that you see on a ton of stories. I think plain old 'Sap' suffices well enough. I think that WAFF is in the anime specific category in the same that yaoi and yuri are. They're just words explaining something that exist in other categories, but the word itself is specific for that genre. It doesn't mean that it makes sense; I'm pretty sure that if you just kept slash and sap, everyone would understand it, it's just the way that it works. I remember that when I first started to read fanfiction, I was confused about the difference between yaoi and slash and WAFF and sap, but I now know that they're the exact same thing, but it was annoying at first.

[Guest Zyx]

There's a difference between yaoi and slash >_>

it's the context which though it may not seem like a part of it defines it.

wtf is sap??

[shinigamiinochi]

Sap: you know when you're watching a romantic movie and something happens that's so sweet it makes you feel ill? That's sap.

[shinigamiinochi]

what exactly is the difference between yaoi and slash? The way I was told, slash was two guys intimately involved, and so is yaoi/shounen ai, so what's the difference besides the genres that it takes place in?

[maidenhair]

what exactly is the difference between yaoi and slash? The way I was told, slash was two guys intimately involved, and so is yaoi/shounen ai, so what's the difference besides the genres that it takes place in?

As far as I know....yaoi and slash are the same thing except, as you said, different genres. Shounen ai used to indicate more of a romantic relantionship versus full on erotica. At least, that's my understanding. I'm not really a fan of any of it. I still remember how disturbed I was when I when I stumbled blindly into an unlabeled slash Snape/Harry fanfic years ago.

Back on topic for a moment, if I may....So you're say that WAFF is basically used to indicate a sappy anime?

[shinigamiinochi]

yep, WAFF are those moments that are so sappy, no matter how into romance you are, you'll probably role your eyes. I figured that yaoi and slash were the same thing, but since I was accused of getting that wrong, I wanted to make sure. I only write fanfiction in the anime section, so it's the one I'm more knowledgeable on.

[hellagoddess]

Yaoi is anime-specific. It's the M/M relationship of two anime characters such as Sasuke/Naruto, though this term doesn't usually extend into american/western cartoons. Slash is RL-specific. It's the M/M relationship of two TV/Movie/Non-anime characters such as Legolas/Aragorn.

Shonen-ai WAS used as a general 'boy-love' term for light yaoi, not very graphic. However, of recent times, Japan no longer really uses this term as much as western culture and it's connotations are more of a older man/young boy relationship.

Hope that helps.

[Kettle]

also on the yaoi vs slash thing, yaoi tends to be like more... I wanna say formulaic? Like it follows certain conventions like the taller, stronger, more assertive guy always tops. And also whereas in slash the pairing is always denoted as follows:

Soundwave/Ravage

with the person in front of the slash typically being the one who tops, in yaoi the pairings can be denoted as

Megatron/Soundwave

Optimus Prime x Bumblebee

Inferno = Red Alert

and the /, x and = all mean different things but I'm not sure what.