Forum - View topicTrends in hyperviolence in anime.
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18262 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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First, to be clear about terminology: By "hyperviolence" I am referring to the most extreme examples of intensely graphic violence, the ones that pull no punches about what they show and seem to go out of their way to emphasize the bloodiest aspects of action scenes. A series like Claymore marks the low end of this range, with Elfen Lied and the Ninja Scroll movie being standard-bearers.
I have recently had reason to consider the varying affinity of anime fandom for hyperviolent content over the past three decades. It definitely hit a high point in the late '80s and early '90s, but seemed to have faded quite a bit by the early 2000s. However, I am inclined to think that fandom's taste for it started increasing again in the mid-2000s, probably thanks in large part to the popularity of Elfen Lied, and the relative popularity of Deadman Wonderland suggests that there's still a taste for it in the 2010s even though offerings of this ilk have been very sparse over the last 2-3 years. I'm interested to see how other forumites evaluate this. Do you agree with my assessment or have you seen different trends? (And yes, I do have an ulterior motive for this.) |
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HaruhiToy
 Posts: 4118 |
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Because all entertainment industry tends to be imitative (investors angling for a sure thing rather than better art) the prominence of any given technique tends to move in cycles:
1) A trendsetter tries something, hits commercial success. 2) A bunch of imitations, some improve on the original but most do not. 3) The market gets saturated -- the "something" is no longer money in the bank. 4) Nadir of interest for a few years -- then back to step 1. Since this is about hyper-violence yes I would say those you mentioned did seem to be on the upswing of the trend. I can't say if they were the trendsetters. Last year we had Another and High School Of the Dead and Corpse Princess all of which I think were quite good either in spite of or because they were pretty gory. Hyperviolence was used to good effect also in Bakemonogatari and its sequel. This year we get to watch aliens tear apart screaming human bodies in Muvluv. I haven't seen a lot else. Perhaps other readers here will suggest something in the current season I'm not watching, but from my view it is leveling off or declining. |
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dragon695
 Posts: 1377 Location: Clemson, SC |
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I've noticed the resurgance of it as well, but I don't think it is quite as sparse as you think. First, I think it is certainly the case that the new Berserk films are no shrinking violets, though which era they technically count as might be a matter of debate. Truly, Miura-sensei takes violence to an artform, well at least until he god corrupted by that God damned IdolM@ster! But what does that mean? Is it not still hyperviolent? To me, hyperviolence is violence fan-service that drives the plot instead of being a side element; some might call this type of fan-service violence porn. Then you had that show Mirai Nikki, which I felt was on the same level of violence as Deadman Wonderland. However, unlike the first series I mentioned, both of these seem to use excessive and extreme violence to drive the plot. There's no art or tragedy, none that I really feel compelled to care about, so it seems to just be there. I think that breast chopping show also falls into this category, but I suppose the censoring might dull the hyper misogynistic violence. I hate it for the misogyny but I also appreciate it, since it is the closest by far to show the reality of what would happen if F+ cup, scantily-clad women engaged in hand-to-hand combat. Other shows that I can think of: BTOOM! is certainly rolling down that path, rapidly. We'll see, but there are definitely some gruesome elements to it. The fact that there's a serial-killer shota on the loose, who raped dead women is pretty shocking. Bombs are not exactly neat and clean killing devices, either. Those are quite a number of hyperviolent shows in just the last two years. I haven't completely sat down to think, but I am almost certain there a more. So yes, we are seeing an uptick, but I doubt it will become too prevalent since I am inclined to believe that Japanese otaku prefer their ecchi/harem/loli shows, most of which are safe and mundane. Unfortunately, their bad taste is driving the market at the moment. tl;dr - I don't care for it that much. I think it is fine in stories like Sword of the Stranger and Berserk, where it really feels much more meaningful than in a series like Mirai Nikki. |
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15519 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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I can't say I am a big fan of the theme, the one I most enjoy within it is Hellsing, which is fairly popular. I think that people enjoy the shock value, that they are so used to anime prettying things up that a sudden change to really bloody creates a sense of excitement. My brother recently bough Game of Thrones which I check a couple episodes of, and I suspect may be popular for a similar reason, making something more adult after a number of others in the genre being somewhat juvenile.
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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No mention of BLOOD-C? That had people being killed in the most gruesome ways, for example spoiler[a girl being ripped in half (she had it coming though). Then there were the people being thrown into giant blenders and liquefied.]
Here is a YouTube video which shows how gruesome some of the deaths are. There are many notable violent deaths it does not cover. Please note the video is not work-safe (and not for the faint of heart either), and contains plenty of spoilers. Oh, and I forgot about Hellsing Ultimate. Sure, it's a (partial) remake, but the violence is definitely there. |
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bonbonsrus
 Posts: 1537 Location: Michigan, USA |
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I haven't thought of it as increasing, but perhaps the more well know Afro Samurai helped more in the resurgence of this genre (if we are calling it a genre) than Elfin Lied. That show seemed to have had more popularity among even those who were not normally anime fans, probably in no small thanks to SpikeTv airing it and Samuel L. Jackson voicing it.
RIN was fairly disturbing in the violence as well if I am remembering correctly, and When They Cry didn't shirk from showing some of the hyper violence either, did it? I wouldn't be surprised if it was actually more prevalent again as movies and shows in general (non-animated) seems to be going through a stage of this as well. Must be more demand for it, or at least acceptance of it. |
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Kruszer
 Posts: 7987 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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*Gendo pose*
I, for one, welcome it's resurgence, considering the violence was one of the things that first drew me to the medium (well moreso the serious "removal of the safety net" aspect). I'm hoping this means we'll get more violent, story and action-driven works such as the ones currently airing. Don't get me wrong I like all the romances, slices of life, and other milder things but I like a little gory action every once in a while which was kinda lacking. This is, of course, assuming that the show in question has other things going for it other than the bloody mayhem, such as characters and a decent story though. Last edited by Kruszer on Mon Nov 26, 2012 8:24 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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One-Eye
 Posts: 2262 |
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There might be a slight resurgence in hyperviolent anime, but I think its been balanced out so far with the moe, slice of life, etc. stuff. I'm not sure there has been a hyperviolent show or movie lately that has been so popular that it has set off a rash of copycats and thereby a trend in more hyperviolent shows/movies. However, my impression is that hyperviolent scenes or gratuitously violent scenes--and not necessarily a whole show that wallows in it--have possibly increased. I mean even Birdy the Mighty which is pretty tame in comparison to many of the shows listed in this thread has a scene with a character tearing off another characters arms. Shows that maybe don't need the added layer of goriness, now do perhaps because its become more accepted or its an attempt to stand out. Anyways that's my impression.
Oh, as far as there being a taste for it among fandom well of course, just like you have people that like their violent or over the top live-action movies. Has that taste for it increased in fandom lately? Not that I have seen, but maybe tolerance for it has. Since we are making lists of some violent stuff I thought I might mention that Gantz was in 2004 right? I think Shigurui: Death Frenzy might have had some violence in it too or maybe I just blocked it out? Last edited by One-Eye on Thu Nov 22, 2012 3:24 am; edited 3 times in total |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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Yeah, well, like Harem shows with their braindead fanservice, the more hyper-violent a work is the less chance (statistically-speaking) of it being good in other areas. That's because if something is really, really violent, the violence becomes the main drawcard and therefore you don't need to waste time on things like characters and plot to actually attract an audience. Therefore, those things get cut, and you end up with the sort of nineties hyper-violent OVAs that we all know and I like watching a swordsman go about lopping off limbs, but if it really wants to get me interested there has to be a good story and characters. |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23898 |
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Interesting topic. I'm personally not sure that there is a resurgence going on - my own unproven, unquantified suspicion is that the number of such shows has remained relatively stable over the years. Really, the only way to know for sure is to look over the catalogue of anime shows from, say 1985 to present, and physically count how many splatter shows came out in each of those years. I'd be willing to bet the absolute number is fairly constant. It's just that because there are so many more anime titles made after 2000 compared to before that, proportionately, splatter shows made up less compared to the overall output and thus seemed to have diminished. Just my theory, of course.
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dragoneyes001
 Posts: 873 |
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depending on the actual definition of hyper-violence there can be more or less anime attributed to it. since simple blood and gore shows up in many anime that wouldn't be considered all that hyper-violent.
one title that may be Korean in origin but falls under the heading of hyper-violent is: the King of Pigs. the level of gore so to speak has increased in that the animators are aiming for more realistic effects over the old style blood slpater. yet the same has been true in Hollywood with movies like saving private Ryan showing just how nasty it was to storm the beaches during the landings with far more realistic effects. many other movies have adapted this change towards realism and its also being carried over into anime which will help to change north American animation to do the same. that does not say that some titles didn't precede the more obvious trend that's been occurring its simply that a block buster was needed to push the idea forward as being financially worth the risk by the more mainstream corporations. |
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 18262 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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The point about how hyperviolent scenes are showing up more commonly in content that isn't otherwise dedicated to hyperviolence is an interesting one. The awful OVA series ICE immediately comes to mind on this, as does Legend of the Legendary Heroes, and I'm sure that I could come up with others if I thought about it; heck, Total Eclipse falls more into that category, as it really only has those couple of early scenes that are truly gory. Do others agree or disagree on that?
And concerning Blood-'s point about how hyperviolent titles have remained fairly consistent in their release over the years, what about the early 2000s (i.e., 2000-2003)? I'm having trouble coming up with any good examples from that period. Oh, and we've definitely been neglecting to mention Baccano! so far. I think that one has to qualify as the kind of title that dtm42 was talking about: a hyperviolent title that still has well-developed story and characters. |
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dragoneyes001
Posts: 873 |
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you could add : Ghost in the Shell to the list of "its not the driving force" type there's no shortage of splatter scenes in the anime.
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 18262 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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I assume you're referring to the original movie, since the TV series (with the possible exception of one episode) wasn't that graphic, but that's a product of the '90s. |
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dragoneyes001
Posts: 873 |
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no i mean the entire series movies included. they may be shooting the heads off of cyborgs and even AI's for the most part but they do shoot someone pretty much every second episode and they don't hold back on the scenes of impact. let me couch that a bit; the violence seems a lot less graphic because intellectually we recognize that the targets are not simply humans. the implication that they blow the heads off of robots and even cyborgs doesn't hit home as much as if they were all flesh and blood so to speak. but the amount of violent deaths in the series is very high. in comparison: completely on the other side with a death rate even higher than GiS is Detective Conan where they pretty much don't show any gore worth speaking of yet someone die's all the time and its pretty much murder 90%+ of the time. Last edited by dragoneyes001 on Thu Nov 22, 2012 11:10 am; edited 1 time in total |
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