Mundane Fantastic: Difference between revisions
m
clean up
m (update links) |
m (clean up) |
||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:
More than the [[Fantastic Comedy]] (which is still predominantly normal), the complete mesh of fantastic elements into a universe nonetheless treated as mundane for the most part. It is not ruled by [[Willing Suspension of Disbelief|suspension of disbelief]] since the fantastic elements are presented in a [[Magic A Is Magic A|logical fashion]]; the audience does not demand a plausible explanation.
For a purely artistic standpoint, the
In many cases, this attitude is [[Justified]] as more "realistic". In our world, hackers or pilots may be "more noteworthy than usual", but most of us don't feel compelled to talk about them all the time or give [[Expospeak|detailed explanations of them]] at the drop of a hat. So the people who know their world has two or three wizards in every town would likely consider this normal too. [[Magical Computer|Not that everyone knows the difference anyway]].
Line 10:
[[Anime]] uses this ''very'' frequently, which probably contributes to the perception of inherent strangeness for that medium.
If the fantastic elements are seldom (if at all) made explicit but strongly indicated, it's [[Magic Realism]]. Isolated fantastic elements are typically considered [[Unusually Uninteresting Sight
See also [[Fantastic Comedy]].
Line 31:
* ''[[Aria]]'': A drama about some girls' life as a gondola worker on a Venice replica... In a far future where Mars becomes a water planet after an excavation mentioned in the backstory.
* Another manga example: ''Neko Kissa''. Omigod it has a werewolf and a vampire and a cat-demon and a skeleton and a dragoness and a giant and they're the main cast and [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/neko_kissa/v01/c001/7.html here's a picture of them].
* ''[[Tentai Senshi Sunred]]''. The world is straight out of [[Sentai]]
* ''[[Spice and Wolf]]'': He is a travelling merchant, she is a Wolf harvest goddess, together they ... trade goods with other people.
* ''[[Itoshi no Kana]]'' is about a young man moving in a haunted house, which is haunted by the ghost of a young girl. Within a few pages, they're a couple. The reader is then presented with such exquisite scenes as the girl touching beer to cool it, entering a wall when they have a fight, entering a [http://everyday.3yen.com/2005-12-14/ufo-catchers/ UFO catcher] to assist her boyfriend with the catch and so forth.
* ''[[Patlabor]]'': It's a cop show with [[Instant Awesome, Just Add Mecha|giant robots]].
* ''[[Kamichu!]]'''s main character is most definitely a goddess. She is worshipped and given full honors wherever she goes and even visits the realm of the gods for official god-functions. However, she has a relatively normal school life for most of the series (even a romance!) and her transition to divinity has remarkably little impact on the rest of the townspeople.
* ''[[Love Hina]]'' is an [[Unwanted Harem]] [[Romantic Comedy]] series about a manager of a girl's dorm studying to get into Tokyo University. This doesn't stop flying turtles, [[Ki Attacks]], [[Humongous Mecha]], and [[Magical Girl
* ''[[Hyper Police]]'' is about a [[Catgirl]] and her kitsune partner (previously werewolf). [[They Fight Crime]] in a [[Fantasy Kitchen Sink]] [[City of Adventure|city]] while competing with a [[Mega Corp]] for [[Bounty Hunter|bounties]]...and it's a [[Sitcom|situation comedy]].
* There are a few instances in the ''[[Dragon Ball]]'' series when it's shown that the general public isn't as desensitized to superhuman powers as our heroes. Krillin doesn't understand why bystanders freak out when he falls out of the sky during the Androids Saga.
Line 42:
== Comic Books ==
* ''[[Horndog]]'', set on a [[Funny Animal]] planet, the comic has both Fantastic elements like zombies and aliens, but also more serious subject matter, particularly in the main storyline's deconstruction of open relationships, racism and interracial relationships, to start; as a result of this combination of storylines,
* ''[[Scott Pilgrim]]''. The setting is a [[Video Game]] version of Toronto, and is the trope is in full swing. Examples Include;
** Subspace portals are common occurrences and [[Chekhov's Gun|save Scott at one point]].
Line 78:
* The world of ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' is like this for a lot of people. There's a [[Masquerade]], but for those in the know, daily life is daily life. Harry advertises in the Yellow Pages under "wizard", writes pamphlets for dabblers in magic, and although we don't see this during the books most of his business seems to come from finding lost items and exorcising frightening-but-not-really-dangerous ghosts.
** To be fair, a lot of people still doubt Harry's sanity, if only at first.
* [[Strugatsky Brothers]]
* More of the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' magic is of this flavor than not. Most apparent from the day-to-day [[Boarding School]] goings-on; elixirs, spells, and werewolves become a good bit more mundane when you have to write three essays on them by Monday.
* ''[[Lonely Werewolf Girl]]'' ducks into these plot threads half the time. In between politicking between the high clans of werewolves and the plotting of the queen of the fire elementals, you've got college students trying to get cable, a businesswoman trying to get her layabout musician cousins to actually do something, and an overworked sorceress and fashion designer trying to come up with suitable styles for said queen of the fire elementals.
Line 96:
* Most comic strips exhibit this to a small degree when you realize how many of them are basically stuck in she kind of time warp where the characters never age.
* ''[[Peanuts]]'' (both comic and animated versions) incorporates fantastic elements which don't really seem to faze the characters, such as the never-seen but apparently [[Bigger on the Inside|TARDIS-like interior]] of Snoopy's
** There's also the kite eating tree.
** One story arc involved Charlie Brown's baseball-related... uh, hallucinations leading to his short-lived triumph as "Mr. Sack"
Line 102:
** In the same vein as the above, dogs can converse with humans in ''[[Pooch Cafe]]'', and it's no big deal.
** Don't even get me started on [[Pearls Before Swine]].
* ''[[Dilbert]]'' is the King of
== Theater ==
Line 139:
* ''[[Real Life Comics]]'', though it's been pretty tame for the past year or so, deals with this in the form of the character Tony. He's an evil genius who's conquered the world (and, subsequently, gave it back); he built a WarMech, a time machine, and a portal generator (mostly out of gum and old computer parts); and he spends some time as the Black Pants Samurai. How do Greg and the other characters handle this? "Meh. Business as usual."
* In ''[[Flying Man And Friends]]'', [http://www.flyingmanandfriends.com/?p=224 cookies grow on trees], Camembert cheese can crafted from scratch [http://www.flyingmanandfriends.com/?p=272 in mere seconds], stuffed toys come equipped with [http://www.flyingmanandfriends.com/?p=266 airplane wings and rockets] - and no one seems to notice that these things aren't ordinary.
* ''[[Scary Go Round]]'' featured a pleasant town somewhere in England that happened to be home to (or drew in) devil-worshippers, [[Mad Scientist
** ''[[Scary Go Round]]'''s successor ''[[Bad Machinery]]'' continues in the same vein (and the same location). No-one seems to bat an eyelid at having [http://www.scarygoround.com/index.php?date=20100811 a robot in the school].
* ''[[Skin Deep]]'' is like this half the time with it's plot of "mythical creatures [[The Masquerade|living secret from humanity]]." The characters that grew up in mythical society act as if there is nothing out of the ordinary about a town populated by mythical creatures, while humans understandably have troubles getting past that fact.
Line 161:
== Western Animation ==
* In ''[[The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy]]'' noone seems to think twice about Billy and Mandy having the [[Grim Reaper]] as their constant companion or Irwin's mother being a literal mummy, etc.
* ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' probably owes a lot of its popularity to emulating the
* Same goes for ''[[Family Guy]]''. However, some of the stuff is more commonly an [[Unusually Uninteresting Sight]]: no one sees anything too weird in the personification of Death, talking dogs, or evil babies. [[Seth MacFarlane]]'s other [[Animated Show
* ''[[Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends]]'': it's in a world where imaginary friends are real, as in any creature that children imagine springs into existence. Despite this, the world is largely the same as our own, and most of the plots are quite mundane, if odd.
* Possibly ''[[Total Drama Island]]'': it's supposed to be a parody of reality shows, but there are things that wouldn't exist in the real world: animals that are clearly too intelligent/have superpowers, a living Sasquatch-like monster, and just lots of challenges which only cartoon characters could possibly survive. Chris has also demonstrated having some weird technology to run the show, such as a remote-controlled hail cloud and possibly some method of controlling the weather.
** The Area 51 episode was particularly weird about
* The world of ''[[Kim Possible]]'' has a subculture of [[Easily Forgiven]] [[Super Villain]] with [[Mad Scientist
* This appears to be the entire purpose of ''[[Ugly Americans]],'' where demons, zombies and much weirder creatures like in New York as if they were just typical minorities.
* ''[[The Venture Brothers]]'' does beyond "mundane" to the point of being vaguely bleak. While Dr. Venture's life is filled with murders dressed like butterflies, dog-Hitler-clones, and exotic death traps, it's all treated by the cast as standard and tiresome. In spite of all the enormous scientific leaps apparently made in the show's universe, [[Reed Richards Is Useless|the world at large doesn't seem any more futuristic then our own save for the occasional bad guy in a flying car.]] This might be the point- the creators say that the theme of the show is failure, single out the fact that in the 60s, science was going to usher in a utopia that still has yet to arrive.
|