Hello dear friends, I hope you are well and good. Last article was about story development from Anime Perspective. But we only covered two elements, Characters and Objectives. Following is the link for the same-
https://peakd.com/hive-121744/@venoswriter/development-of-a-story-anime-perspective-part-1
Now in this article we will cover the remaining ones. Starting with the most important element.
1. Conflict-
Conflict is something that takes the story further. Conflict means disagreement, clash or dispute and challenges. Unless a character, whether protagonist or antagonist, doesn't face any conflicts or obstacles to reach his/her objective, the story will not take an exciting turn. One important point to note here is that many times without the conflict, objective of the character is not triggered. conflict may be of a protagonist himself or a supporting character. But these factors are sometimes too complicated to take the story further, like one's conflict can be an opportunity to solve another's conflict.
Let's take "Boku No Hero Academia" for example. It is a pure Action Pack Sci-Fi Anime based on Superhero Theme. The objective of Izuku Midoria is to become the world's greatest Hero, But he doesn't have any superpower, so its his conflict, whereas the world of MHA itself is where 80% population have some or other type of Superpower (Quirk they say in Anime). On the other hand the number 1 Super Hero, All Might, his powers are degrading, he is in hunt of someone who could be his successor. Now here All Might's conflict becomes an opportunity for Izuku Midoria.
In many cases conflict arises later. It means the objective is already set, but to reach the same is a real task. In the case of "Hunter X Hunter", objective is already set. Gon's objective is to find his father, but to reach the goal, he has go through many challenges. First conflict is his father don't want to meet him until he becomes a Hunter. So here we get to know that conflict triggers after the objective.
Honorary Mention- Inciting Incident
Now these conflict factors are recurring in whole of the anime/tv series or a movie as well. But when the first conflict arises it is the point where the real story starts. Till then all the characters are leading a normal life. This point of turn is called as Inciting Incidence. In case of a character his life changes post Inciting Incidence. Kindly note all inciting incidents don't result in conflicts, some are to set a story for protagonist.
Lets look at some examples. Like in case of Eren in "Attack on Titan", we can say two inciting incidences. One is the death of his mother by the hands of titan and second his transformation into the titan itself. So the first one shows the conflict and second gives the thrust to the story.
So all the Animes have these inciting incidences at different point of times. In case of "Boku No Hero Academia", we can say that, the inciting Incidence is where Midoria goes to save his best friend and All Might catches a glimpse of the same, he decides to chose Midoria as his successor. This incidence end when he conveys the same to Midoria. But conflict has already been declared when Midoria comes to know that he cannot become a superhero as he is quirkless/powerless. So another example where conflict and objective are triggered on different instances.
All these elements work only if there is a right background, right environment and right setting. Lets look into it.
2. Setting of a story-
Setting means the world in which the story is set. Sometimes Setting of a story is the most important aspect of any Anime. It gives your story a different flavor which will keep the audience intact with your art. Many Animes are examples where setting is actually not logical. Writers have been unsuccessful to provide a valid reason for such a setting. This is not the case in Top Animes though. But let's understand this through an example.
"Seven Deadly Sins" is set in the medieval age as it is a story of a Demon and Fairy God who fall in love but their love is not accepted by their respective clans. Now if you ever watch Indian Series or Movies, They have Tons of such stories on which there are daily soaps and movies made. But as said in an earlier article, Japanese Manga/Anime writers like to create a fascination, excitement and something different than normal in their stories and hence the setting of Seven Deadly Sins is a world or an age in which all the clans like Demons, Gods, Witches etc. live under one roof, Earth. So this concept made it a lot more exciting even though the story format is old.
These settings changes the perspective of viewers 360 Degrees. If you look at the setting of "My Hero Academia" or even "One Punch Man", both are set in the world where humans or 80% of the humans have super powers. Now these setting is completely different from what we have seen in last 60-70 years. Yes this is a superhero world but with different scenario. In western world, the likes of Marvel and DC, it's exactly opposite where a Superhero discovers his superpower and in the case of "My Hero Academia" where a normal human wants to become a superhero but doesn't have powers. So these are contrast settings and ideas. But both are amazing to watch.
So the setting is something which gives story a required boost. This one thing is where anime/manga writers have excelled a lot. They have taken as much possible scenarios and made an anime on it. Sports animes are best example to learn setting. Writers of animes like "Kuroko's Basketball", "Yowa mushi Pedal", and the recent ones like "Haikyuu' and "Shakunetsu Kabadi" have analyzed each and every small details about the sport. Because they did this study, respective animes were very well presented and liked very much by the audience.
One such honorary mention where the setting was the brain of the story is "Pokemon". Its set up in a world of Creatures with different powers and characteristics. These creatures are called Pokemons. Initially these pokemons were based on animals in our world (all types- Mammals, Reptiles, aquatic, Birds and Insects etc). Later they were based on non living structures as well. But this series have been a huge hit in the 2000 decade. 14-15 year old's were crazy fans of "Pokemon". The story is about a young boy Ash who wants to become the world's best Pokemon Leader. The setting was really awesome as this world has regions of its own, like jhoto region, sinho region etc. So the pokemons changed according to the regions. So we can say that this series was or is the masterpiece when it comes to setting. Such more are "Beyblade" and "Digimon" as well.
Now the story which have started with all these elements should end somewhere and not only end but end in logical and acceptable manner. This acceptable manner is very important otherwise all efforts taken to take the story further, goes in the vein. The acceptable manner is simple language is completion of the objective of the..... This is where it all started and this is where it should end.
I thanks @fitzcarraldo to curate my 2nd article which you can check in my post. Keep loving, Keep Reading.
Image source- Google
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