Forum - View topic

Answerman - Theatrical Shenanegans

Type A = Story-driven
Type B = Character-driven

relyat08 wrote:

Type A = Story-driven Type B = Character-driven

I've always disagreed with this catergorization mainly because ALL stories are partly plot-driven and story-driven. I mean...you don't have a story without plot (even Slice of Life shows have episodic plots) nor do you have one without interesting characters.

The terms "Shounen", "Shoujo", and "Seinen" are all silly anyway. They are far too broad in terms of style and target audience to really mean anything. Heck, even "Josei", the term that has kept more of its original meaning than the others, is still too vague.

That said, while narrowing all anime and manga down to four categories is useless, narrowing them down to just two is fairly logical. As relyat08 spoke about, in a simplified sense you can boil anime down to story-driven and character-driven. Neither is better than the other, and all fiction has elements of both. Using the labels "Type A" and "Type B" makes it sound like the former is better than the latter, and that just isn't true.

The Type A/Type B labels are dumb. Stop using them.

Uhhh...I don't think you understand what Shonen et al are for. They are demographic categories. They aren't genre descriptors at all.

They work perfectly well for their intended task.

I've always struggled to find a genre of entertainment I really like. I find a lot of Western novels to be an absolute bore, American film and entertainment largely unengaging, and Western Comics to be fun but largely a hollow experience. It wasn't until it dawned on me that my primary interest was in characters that it all clicked. I actually love a lot of movies from the golden age of Hollywood - musicals and dramas from back before special effects became the thing. The common denominator was character driven entertainment.

noigeL wrote:

Haven't been using those labels; this is my first post in this thread. I take issue with the way you phrased yourself.

There's a term for that. Its called Tone Trolling.

Its very obnoxious.

My theory is that many Type A fans are too busy being picky and over-critical, seizing on any flaw or imperfection as an excuse to not buy a series, thereby making themselves look discerning and elite. Type B fans, for all their supposed intellectual and personal failings, are more forgiving and more willing to buy what they love, so Type B continues to dominate.

I skimmed through this thread and this division into type A and B seems ill-thought-out. I mean, Utena and Mawaru Penguindrum are character-driven stories, so they are type B shows?

I haven't seen many moe shows, but from what I have seen, moe girls don't have interesting characterization. One or at best few character traits and sometimes sad backstories to induce tears from viewers, but that's usually all there is to them.

Because of that I cannot call those show character-driven, the girls lack good, complex characterization that needs to be revealed to the viewer and don't undergo any meaningful character development.

They cannot become, for example, mature women, because it is not what the target audience wants. And watching characters, of any gender, that have no or very little character development (in the broad sense) is awfully boring, especially if they are not doing anything interesting.