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Should a story put it's setting/background in the past or in the future?

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Nov 16, 9:52 PM
#1

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Feb 2014
5601
So this season I'm watching Akujiki Reijou to Kyouketsu Koushaku, which have huge problems involving pacing, where instead of being an anime where two people get married and cook monster, we are constantly getting cockblocked by flashback infodumps, which cannibalizes the runtime and made me call it "A textbook example of 'Surf Dracula'" in my review of it.

I came to the conclusion that there were two easy ways of fixing it:

1: Putting it's setting in the past.
Just do something like Otome Game no Hametsu Flag shika Nai Akuyaku Reijou ni Tensei shiteshimatta and start the story with our characters as kids (You could literally still have monster cooking in episode 1 that way) instead of having to establish the same things multiple times from multiple points of view.

2: Putting it's setting in the future.
Do like Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu did when being adapted from a Web Novel. The two first arcs are short, self-contained and exist to introduce the main "mechanics" of the series (Time loops in that case, here it would be "Monster Cooking") as well as some characters, and are kinda simple to the point that if the anime only had 12 episodes, it would've been quite forgettable. Then you had the heavy world-building and deluge of concepts pushed to the third arc, where they are actually relevant.

Honestly, both approaches are valid, but I want to know your opinion: Which do you feel works better in general? Do one works better for a certain type of anime while the other works for others? What do you think?
Nov 17, 5:35 AM
#2

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Sep 2016
23016
A story should be how the writer wants it to be.
*kappa*
Nov 17, 10:40 AM
#3

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Apr 2023
1853
I mean, it's all up to the author at the end of the day. I don't mind either.
If I had to choose between One Piece and a girlfriend...I think I'll go with One Piece
Nov 17, 3:45 PM
#4

Offline
Dec 2012
10057
Depends on the genre of the story the author wants to tell.
"The name's Gambit. Remember it."
-Gambit "X-Men '97"

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