What's the name for this concept?

The true definition would be "in medias res", it is a Latin phrase meaning "in the middle of things".
It practically defines those stories that begin when situations have already begun and only later explain their beginning...

Hope this helps!

@thewiru Yeah, if you don't really explain the story structure they won't be able to answer your question.
Therefore, no, Gleipnir is not in medias res.

But I'm willing to go through the other answers for you to point out why they are wrong.




This does not apply to Gleipnir. We actually learn the truth in a chronological order. We start the story when the main character gets his power and a side effect is his lost memory, but we learn about his lost memory when he also learns about them in the show. This is a type of mystery aspect in the show.

Just to give you another example. thewiru thinks Lord of the Rings is also in medias res, because the Hobbit exists. He thinks Frieren is in medias res because there were important events before the "present".
This is not what in medias res is.


That's also incorrect, we learn about the events in a linear manner.

E.g. in a murder mystery the murder happens chronologically first, but often times we learn about it last - I mean how and why it happened -, because we are following the detective's perspective. That's still a linear storytelling.
The linearity depends on the POV, which character is our main character. In Gleipnir we start the story when the main character gets his power, because that's what the story is about, that's the start of his story.


Also incorrect.
Star Wars 4 is in medias res because we start with a space battle and not because there are 3 other movies. By that logic every show, movie becomes an in medias res show, movie when they produce a sequel to it. While in reality in medias res is self-contained.

Wrong, the main character gets his power long before losing his memory, and losing his memory wasn't a side-effect of it.

@thewiru I explained it from a story structure POV. Yes, technically it happened way before, but it's not important to actually tell what is the structure of the story and it was faster and way easier to explain it to those who haven't seen it.

So managed to correct me on something that I purposely changed. Good job.

In medias res.
Well in Greek epics they sort of just assumed you know what happened before, and it's not really a plot twist, but here you go.

I think this is kind of the point of in medias res, actually. It's not so much a classification of a type of non-linear storytelling as it is a part of effective writing.

I'm guessing this conversation is spawning from an earlier discussion around thewiru's review of Girls Band Cry, and him referring to the story of it being "An in media res where first we see our characters acting, and only at the end we learn why they acted."

I think he's correct (probably, I haven't seen the show) in saying that the story is in medias res. However, I would also say it's a ridiculous thing to point out, as most, perhaps almost all, well written stories are written in medias res. I don't believe the term 'in medias res' is meant to be used as a classification of storytelling (like 'cyclical' or 'non-linear'), and instead it's simply a technique used to make a story engaging by skipping out on all the historical exposition that led to the point the story becomes interesting.

Pulling this quote from the wiki article on in medias res:
The Roman lyric poet and satirist Horace (65–8 BC) first used the terms ab ovo ("from the egg") and in mediās rēs ("into the middle of things") in his Ars Poetica ("Poetic Arts", c. 13 BC), wherein lines 147–149 describe the ideal epic poet: "Nor does he begin the Trojan War from the egg, but always he hurries to the action, and snatches the listener into the middle of things ..."

Basically, you're a bad writer if you aren't writing in medias res and waste time laying out the historical timeline of all relevant events to the core plot just because they came first. Omitting commonly known historical information or saving unknown historical information for a time when it has maximum impact on the audience's experience isn't novel or notable - it's just normal, effective writing. It'd really only be notable if a story was written with perfect, complete chronology (ie. not in medias res) and still managed to be interesting.