At it's finest I hope! and at it's saddest...
Alright kiddies, let me educate you on one of the clichés used in the entertainment world. It is what I like to call "The Dream/Magic Curve Ball!" Catchy isn't it? Still a name in progress though.
You may be wondering what the fuck this is... and I don't blame you, because whenever someone enters my mind, they are changed, and not for the better. They become insaner, more on this later. NOW THEN!! The Dream/Magic Curve Ball has a few rules to follow before I consider it such. *clears throat*
RULE NUMBER ONE: The [insert one or more of these forms of entertainment here: anime, manga, movie, TV series, book, um... other things] must have one or more characters, not being the main, that the [insert appropriate person here: reader, watcher, um... victim] can become attached to (if it has characters that the watcher, reader, and/or victim gets attached to, the odds are better that there will be more pain later) and those characters must meet a tragic end, suffer, or something similar (maybe hospitalized or extremely depressed with little to no hope of recovering) and/or RULE NUMBER FOUR.
RULE NUMBER TWO: The story must have either one steady LONG climb to a bright happy climax before it quickly falls into utter despair, OR it can have several smaller climbs with less harsh falls into despair. The smaller climbs and falls help to lead to RULE NUMBER THREE.
RULE NUMBER THREE: After the short, and sometimes fast, fall(s) into despair, the story can either: A, quickly reveal that it was all a dream and that everything that happened wasn't real (this equals a happy ending typical of the first half of RULE NUMBER TWO). B, have everything actually happen and than everything is erased by magic that may or may not be explained (this also equals a happy ending and is typical of the first half of RULE NUMBER TWO). Or C, slowly build up the despair by picking away at the lovable (if they are lovable or course) side characters that they have given the main character and/or [insert one of these here: watcher, reader, umm... sap] has come to love, and then, like B, they resolve it by magic (this still equals a happy ending, but tends to be a little predictable, also is typical of the second half of RULE NUMBER TWO).
RULE NUMBER FOUR: The main character has to suffer through a lot and reach a point of despair themselves. We're talking about deaths (this can vary a lot), disease, opportunities being taken away, fights, job loss... as long as it causes the main character to suffer, than it works. There can be times in which the main character slowly comes out of despair. This of course means that they are only going to fall into deeper despair later on.
Alright, that should be all the requirements for TD/MCB (I shortened that bastard). I put a lot of damn thought into those rules and I don't think they are quite done. But let me give you some examples to show what I consider to be a piece of media that can be labeled TD/MCB.
Alright I am going to describe an anime that has twelve girls. These girls have a power that allows them to summon weapons and monsters to fight. They don't know why they were chosen to receive those powers, they just were. They start out fighting monsters together to save the world, only to learn that they have to start killing the other girls' monster in order to ensure that the world is safe from a star that is going to crash into it. When one of the girl's monster dies, the person that girl loved the most dies as well. Once there is one girl left, she is then given vast power to ensure that the world if saved.
Let's face it... that was a shitty description (I was describing the anime Mai-HIME, you can search for a better review of it with the search bar on the left), but it works anyways. It has a bunch of people, who may or may not want to be involved, suffering. It has a slow build up of despair. I didn't include this in the description, since it has a RNTC (RULE NUMBER THREE C) ending to it, but everyone comes back to life at the end.
You may be wondering, "What the fuck is he getting at here?" I shall now tell you... I am fucking tired, slightly pissed off, bored, and a bunch of other random shit. I more or less thought it would be entertaining to come up with some dopey name to describe this cliché of having a shit ton of bad things happen, just to erase it all via a dream or magic. And while they are at it, make the watcher or reader suffer a bit... or a lot for me. There are quite a few anime out there that have done this and I have found another one, which is the whole reason for the past nine hours or so... The only anime that as ever caused me so much pain and suffering and yet did not fall under this cliché is School Days... As sad as it is for me to still be moaning over that, it is true.
There we go... I am done rambling. Time to pass out. NO WAIT!!! Picture:
I'll probably add more to this later...
Edit: Alright then! I have returned from my slumber to type more! Don't get too excited now. I am not really sure as to what I am going to add to this... I could explain TD/MCB a bit more... I'll give it a shot.
My understanding of a curve ball goes like this: the pitcher throws a slightly slower fast ball. As it reaches the batter it suddenly twists (or as the name implies, curves) into a different direction. The slow pitch gives the batter a false hope that the hit will be easy. When it curves they are of course dismayed at the thought of it being easy to read. This same concept can be applied to how the watcher, or sometimes reader, feels when they get into a story. With the first curve in the story, the person may feel extremely distraught and end up finding it harder to continue on, or to continue with the baseball stuff have a hard time getting the next hit. With the second curve, the watcher may start to anticipate how the next pitch is going to be, and yet still miss. With the final pitch, the watcher, or batter, has given up all hope on hitting it. They simply let the final pitch go on by. With that they realize that the other two pitches weren't even curve balls, and that the final one was. They end up regretting that they did not see it sooner and are annoyed at the pitcher (the form or entertainment the watcher is watching or reading) for their false throws.
Like most of the things I try to explain, it makes sense to me, and undoubtedly not to you. The point is that I watched an anime in which it threw me into a depressed state, twice, and then went and made everything better, right at the end, with a "it was all a dream"/"magic made a miracle happen" thing. I hate them... but then again this one had one of the best character developments in both the dream world and the real (real being in that world of course, there is no way this could happen in our world) world. I came to be very impressed by it actually.
Anyways... I think I will leave your mind at ease by ending everything here... NO WAIT! Picture! :)
