[KineJapan] genre in anime and recent anime hits

[Michael Kerpan]

My guess is that "hybrid" is pretty common -- even in shows that are not
massive super-hits.

For example, I just finished watching ReLIFE -- a series (2016 and 2018)
about NEETS being given a chance to re-start by becoming 10 years younger
and re-doing one year of high school (after which everyone but the subject
and the entity in charge will forget all about what happened).  While all
the trappings are presented as "scientific" -- the premise (that this can
all be done with drug pills) is clearly much closer magic in a fantasy
story. (For the record, this is an utterly lovely slice of life -- with
excellent characters).  SSSS Dynazenon  (2021) looks like a mecha series
(bu actually is as much a slice of life in some ways) -- yet an underlying
element is that some of the characters are reincarnations of people who
lived in ancient Egypt (in the time of the pharaohs). Not certain this is
new -- looking back to Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (2006, 2009) and
Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya (2010), how does one characteize this --
science fiction or fantasy -- or some of both.

I wonder if the literary concept of "science fiction" in the Japan might be
less rigid than in the West (or at least the USA)?  For instance, the manga
(2005-2016) on Which And Yet the Town Moves (2010) won a prestigious
science fiction award (Seiun Awards) -- despite being 90 percent slice of
life and 9.9 percent (roughly) "fantasy" (afterlife and return therefrom,
among other things, I'm reluctant to provide much detail) and maybe .1
percent "typical" science fiction (some flying saucers).

If these are at all useful -- and you want some other examples, I'll try to
dredge more up from my memory.

Michael Kerpan
Boston


On Thu, Feb 3, 2022 at 3:58 AM Eija Niskanen via KineJapan <
kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu> wrote:

> How would you define or discuss genre in anime in relation to the recent
> huge hits Demon Slayer, Hero Academy and Sword Art Online. It seems to me
> they are hybrid, combinign elements of sci-fi, fantasy etc. I see even some
> scenes in Hosoda's Belle moving towards this kind of popular type of anime.
> Any hints on articles discussing this are welcome!
>
> Eija Niskanen
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> KineJapan mailing list
> KineJapan at mailman.yale.edu
> https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/kinejapan/attachments/20220203/c3f665ce/attachment-0001.html>