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Kyoukaisen, Audience Base, and the Cultural Gap

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Find me another series where witches on broomsticks dogfight mecha; where super robot King Lear fights spirit summon Macbeth in a contest of Shakespearean tragedies… with Shakespeare participating.

From a literary perspective, I’ve always been told: keep your audience in mind. But since I’m not a professional, this is only a partially-accepted piece of advice. Sometimes I follow for the sake of good writing; but there’s no point to creative writing if I’m not writing what I want. So for someone as split-off tastes as me, it can come off oddly niche.

Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon feels like the word of some author who wrote a book completely tailored to his own tastes… then somehow marketed it successful.

I am impressed.

But that’s also exactly where the problem with Kyoukaisen lays. Why this show is almost impossible to understand for most people (because there are people like me who, by and most, do understand it).

Lesse…

Kyoukaisen is Science Fiction x Fantasy x Alternate History. Each genre already has its own barriers of entry. But to combine them?

A nightmare.

Its character references and its plot deals heavily with both the geopolitical situations and history of the 1600 turning point in both the far east (Sengoku era Japan) and the far west (Thirty-Years War & Defeat of the Spanish Armada).

So you need to be an expert in both eastern and western history to understand things… As well as to have reference points to remember thehuge cast of characters.

Then, the fantasy mechanics of Kyoukaisen is completely based off a tangential interpretation of how modern Shintoism works. For the western audience who doesn’t even understand Shintoism to begin with, this takes a long time getting used to.

Anime as a medium is also bad at explaining complex mechanics. People tend not to like watching a ton of talking, after all (this works better in the light novel series).

Finally, to finish it off — Kyoukaisen uses a lot of knowledge fields. Some rather seriously, like the application of reverse-psychology in an argument or referencing one of Excalibur’s (many) origins or battle tactics carried out during the Spanish Armada. Some completely-unseriously, like comparing seiza postures during business negotiations or flipping topics during a debate (isn’t that cheating?).

The fact Kyoukaisen takes it completely seriously and completely not seriously, at the same time, is quite a killer than throws people off.

So in the end, it’s not good writing. In fact, literature folks would consider it an utter train-wrecked disaster.

However, that doesn’t change it from being one of the most creative anime series in recent years. Setting-wise, plot-wise, and character-wise.

How many other places can you find a feminist prostitute, for example?

So what makes me claim I understand this series? I read nonfiction. A lot =P

(There, I made an anime post. Kadian and mangoseller, I hope you’re happy =P)


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