Gyokuyoutama
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Status Replies posted by Gyokuyoutama
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There needs to be some separate term for modern Isekai.
I've previously talked about "Western Isekai" (ex. Narnia, Three Hearts and Three Lions, John Carter, The Dragon and the George, etc.) But even in Japan if you look at classic anime like Dunbine, Escaflowne, Those Who Hunt Elves and so on and you see very little resemblance in terms of plot structure and cliches used when compared to the modern form of the genre.
(Though I'm not even sure if "modern" is the right term here. I haven't seen it, but from what I've heard about the Tanya show it doesn't seem to hit the same notes as other "isekai" shows.)
So there needs to be some new term that refers to specifically this subgenre. This is important because "other world" fiction has a long and rich history, with much of it being very creative. But the modern subgenre allows only the most minor ("gimmick based") innovation.
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On further reflection, I wonder how much of this is due to genre being a spook.
What I mean is that way back in the 30's or so there wasn't really set "genres" in the way that we think about them today. There were "types" of stories but it was more like "moods": adventure, romance, mystery, wonder, strangeness, etc. If you look at a pulp like "Weird Tales" the stories have a particular "flavor" to them but don't fit particularly well in any modern genre. Some would be called fantasy, some horror, some science fiction, some might be "magical realism," etc. It's not until much later that you get a hard divide between science fiction and fantasy, modulo some people mixing the two and thinking that they are doing something unprecedented.
But even after the initial definition of the genres, they just got more and more specialized. Take fantasy: after Tolkien it got dominated by "high fantasy" or "epic fantasy"; think stuff like Terry Brooks, Raymond E. Feist or the prolific Weiss and Hickman duo. Always lots of discussions of alternate cultures and worlds, the world is always doomed in some way or other, etc. Something like an old Conan story where Conan simply robs some ruins or fights pirates or something no longer fits, even though you'd have to call that "fantasy" if you're going to give it a genre at all.
And of course the same thing happened in anime. In both the east and the west a lot of the driving force was ultimately video games, with usually the pipeline being future author plays RPG tie in game -> future author makes pnp RPG campaign -> author now sells works based on campaign world. (This is also why D&D gets considerably more "video-gamey" with every edition, even in the 1st to 2nd edition transition.) As a result of all of this popular works narrow the field more and more and more. It's not "wonder" stories anymore, they have to be "fantasy" storeis in magical kingdoms. And you have to have a certain type of epic scale to them. And that epic scale has to be realized basically in a Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy way. And it's only after you do all that that writers even think about filling in their own details. So naturally everything becomes the same.
It's not like Japan is forced to do this; Spice and Wolf is a great example of how to write a story in the same broad "genre" that barely follows any of the conventions, but also isn't trying to destroy them (it's just telling a story with a different mood and focus.) But we've hit a critical mass where aspiring authors only see video games, books, and TV shows that are all in this very narrow subgenre, so they have a difficult time even comprehending that they could do something else.
But as much as I hate Isekai, they're still probably in the better situation, since over here it's the same basic problem but with capeshit instead.
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There needs to be some separate term for modern Isekai.
I've previously talked about "Western Isekai" (ex. Narnia, Three Hearts and Three Lions, John Carter, The Dragon and the George, etc.) But even in Japan if you look at classic anime like Dunbine, Escaflowne, Those Who Hunt Elves and so on and you see very little resemblance in terms of plot structure and cliches used when compared to the modern form of the genre.
(Though I'm not even sure if "modern" is the right term here. I haven't seen it, but from what I've heard about the Tanya show it doesn't seem to hit the same notes as other "isekai" shows.)
So there needs to be some new term that refers to specifically this subgenre. This is important because "other world" fiction has a long and rich history, with much of it being very creative. But the modern subgenre allows only the most minor ("gimmick based") innovation.
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RPG mechanics are definitely up there in my mind, especially when shows make the gimmick about the build (I'll overlevel, I'll only buff defense, I'll only make potions, I'm too overpowered from the start, I'm a really boring build, etc.)
But I think what's more important than that is having more or less the same fantasy universe. Basically, Dragon Quest with minor variations.
Another common feature is shows trying to justify themselves by not taking themselves seriously. I don't mind this in principle, Dog Days was kind of fun in how much it embraced combat being pointless, and Kemono Michi did get a lot of amusement out of enemies being shocked when the protagonist dropkicks them or piledrives them out of nowhere. But when every show is like that it wears thin fast.
If you want to put all of this together, I would say that a common feature is that there is little to no attempt to bother convincing the viewer that the action is taking place in a real alternate universe that should be taken seriously. I'd say that this is one of the biggest ways that something like Escaflowne or Dunbine depart from the modern genre, much moreso than the giant robots.
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The most insane idea that I know:
"This company bought the rights to the franchise, therefore they determine what is canonical in it."
Seriously, the more you think about this idea, the less sense it makes.
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There's a lot more to my personality than weeb shit, vtubers and bitching about new technology but for some reason those are the only things that ever seem relevant to post here.
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nyan white
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6-month-late annual meh
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Today I realized that if I had an HDMI to component adaptor I could record my computer on my VCR. Thus I could record a Vtuber livestream on VHS.
Such a thing would almost certainly be one of a kind and thus in ten years would be worth either a fair amount... or absolutely nothing.
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Hey! I want you to have a good day today, all right?
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Work that made people a furry by decade:
20s: BNA, Helluva Boss
10s: Zootopia, Pokemon (there were Pokewaifus before but it hit a critical mass here.)
00s: Star Fox Assault, Digmon Tamers, Sonic Adventure 2
90s: A lot of stuff, but most likely Space Jam or The Lion King. I guess Rescue Rangers goes here too since it debuted right before the 90s. SWAT Kats for kids who got in before Turner canceled it. Hell I could probably add five or six more things; any kid growing up in this decade was doomed.
80s: Fairly safe decade; only real Furry Bait was the Catillac section of Heathcliff and Gadget right at the end. Lots of female animal characters, but I don't consider that inherently furbait.
70s: Disney's Robin Hood. Not much else, but it was enough.
60s: Everything here is either "female animal with slight human attributes" or "female cartoon character with almost no sexual appeal." These things only appeal to people who are actually furries, so it was a safe decade.
50s and Earlier: There's some pretty weird blatant furbait stuff, the most famous of which probably being that "leg of lamb" joke in that Droopy cartoon. But the stuff that would show up on TV was always isolated and unlikely to cause any real damage.
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On reflection, there were some important omissions:
1960s: That squirrel from Sword in the Stone was pretty damn blatant. I mean I guess she's still in the category of "animal with slight human attributes" but when she's hitting on the main character you can't ignore it.
1970s: As a side note this is when the Fritz the Cat movies came out, i.e. the first mainstream-ish adult furry movies. But no way any kid was getting within a mile of that so it doesn't affect this list. A real omissions is that lion chick from the Star Trek cartoon show. I guess you might throw the Rescuers in here because throwing Eva Gabor's voice on top of a mouse is just asking for trouble.
1980s: I don't know how many people actually saw Animalympics back in the day, but it certainly fits here. The Great Mouse Detective should also be included for that burlesque scene. The dogs in Oliver and Company are kind of borderline; I mean yeah furries like them but I don't know if they would have caused confused feelings in children.
1990s: Stuff I omitted: Tiny Toon Adventures, Samurai Pizza Cats, Road Rovers, SatAM Sonic the Hedgehot, Mirri n Magic the Gathering, Animaniacs (I don't know how much Minerva Mink actually made an impact considering how infrequently she appeared but man it doesn't get more blatant than this). I guess we can throw Dragon Tales here as well, and to top things off this is where furry webcomics started to explode. Kids were screwed.
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how many stairs to you step at a time when walking up stairs
i usually skip a step
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nuuuuuuuu
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Mixdus.
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In isolation DeepL will translate メスガキ as "female brat."
But in the context of longer phrases I've seen it translate it to "little bitch," "meth head," "meshuggah" and in one particularly bizarre instance "anonymous scholarship system for orphans whose parents have been killed in traffic accidents."
Have yet to see it use Pixiv's gloss of "sassy loli" though.
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MFW I switch my avatar to a furry to try to derail a conversation into further complaints about furries while claiming to want to get it back on track but it doesn't work because I'm posting on a website where everyone is too familiar with my shenanigans.
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MFW I switch my avatar to a furry to try to derail a conversation into further complaints about furries while claiming to want to get it back on track but it doesn't work because I'm posting on a website where everyone is too familiar with my shenanigans.
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MFW I switch my avatar to a furry to try to derail a conversation into further complaints about furries while claiming to want to get it back on track but it doesn't work because I'm posting on a website where everyone is too familiar with my shenanigans.
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