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Like Reality Unless Noted: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"[[Robert A. Heinlein|Robert Heinlein]] once wrote that the best way to give the flavor of the future is to drop in, without warning, some strange detail. He gives as an example, '[[Dilating Door|The door dilated open]].' Mention it once, and never mention it again, except to satisfy the needs of continuity. And your readers know, from these subtle details, that they aren't exactly dealing with the real world anymore.''
|'''[[Larry Niven]]''', in his essay "Building ''[[The Mote in God's Eye]]''"}}
The general assumption that all of the unstated details of the setting of a work of fiction that remotely resembles [[Real Life]] can be filled in by the audience's knowledge of the world in which they live, except in areas where the fictional world explicitly or by necessary implication deviates from [[Real Life]].
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A work that is Like Reality Unless Noted has strong [[External Consistency]]. The [[Celebrity Paradox]] is an exception to Like Reality Unless Noted. Contrast [[Call a Smeerp a Rabbit]], where people may use the same terms as they do in reality, but to describe entirely different things. See also the [[Sliding Scale of Like Reality Unless Noted]].
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* In its first episode, ''[[Code Geass]]'' claims that [[The Empire|Brittania]] invaded Japan in order to get access to its vast natural resources. Some viewers called foul on this, since in the real world Japan is a fairly resource-poor nation. It takes several episodes before viewers discover that 1) the world of ''Code Geass'' is an alternate history set in our equivalent of 1962, rather than a future version of our own Earth, and 2) the resource Brittania wants from Japan is "sakuradite," a fictional mineral that can be used as an isothermic superconductor or energy source rivaling nuclear power, and [[Philosopher's Stone|its discovery in the middle ages]] caused technology to develop along a very different path.
* The setting of any given [[Super Robot]] is Like Reality Except That One Phlebotinum, from ''[[Mazinger Z]]'' to ''[[GaoGaiGar]]'' to ''[[Full Metal Panic!]]''. The few settings that aren't that tend to be some sort of adventure or journey (''Combat Mecha Xabungle'', the first half of ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]''). [[Real Robot]]s, on the other hand, tend to be set {{smallcaps|IN SPACE}}.
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==
* Most comic book settings are like this, just with an incredibly extensive "noted" category. Superpowers, magic, alternate pantheons, the confirmed existence of the soul, contact with multiple alien races, and yet [[In Spite of a Nail|everything else is the same as our world]].
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== Live-Action TV ==
*
* The average man's technology and culture remain just like reality in ''[[Power Rangers]]'' despite humanity having made [[First Contact]] and developing hyperadvanced ranger technology. The only noted exception is that the [[Fiction 500|ludicrously rich]] can afford antigravity craft and such (but never use them in public) and universities now have majors in areas like "Galactic Myths and Legends".
* In at least one episode of ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'', an otherwise normal-looking world turns out to be an almost-perfect duplicate.
* ''[[Ugly Americans]]'' is set in a modern version of New York where nonhuman "creatures" ([[Our Demons Are Different|demons]], [[Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever|giant apes]], etc.) exist as minorities. Spattered throughout the series are hints of how this has created an [[Alternate History]], such as a [[Zombie Apocalypse|human-zombie war]] having taken place in [[The Sixties]].
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