What's with high school in anime?

Dec 7, 2016 2:47 AM

#101

flannan

Offline

Nov 2009

8716

TheBrainintheJar said:

flannan said:

TheBrainintheJar said:

flannan said:

TheBrainintheJar said:

flannan said:

TheBrainintheJar said:
I don't care whether an invention is real or not in fiction. Fiction isn't real by definition. What I care about is what the invention means.

I do care. Call this a professional deformation, if you will.

Treating unreal things as if they're real is deceiving yourself, isn't it?

Yes, this is what suspension of disbelief is all about!
Hmm... I wonder if this would have been something hard for the past me to approve, before I started playing tRPGs and became well-versed in mixing fiction and reality?
Or is it just @TheBrainintheJar that finds this idea alien?

TheBrainintheJar said:
I don't understand how it proves Asimov could predict the future accurately. His fiction - and I read a shitton of it - shows an incredibly intelligent person not well versed in psychology who knows his limits. He's an excellent storyteller, but can anyone show his merits as a SeriousDeep author? He seemed content telling fun, quick stories and kept his philosophies and science in non-fiction works.

Science fiction stories look at humanity's future.
Soft sci-fi makes up developments (with little concern for how real they are) in a way that will underline whatever the author wants. The most critic-praised of them make the future that will underline the problems of the present day. That's what gives them depth. A famous dystopia, 1984, is very relevant nowadays, as government surveillance expands and news degenerate into pure propaganda. Fahrenheit 451 is worrying too. This is all very appealing to humanities people.

Hard sci-fi takes realistic developments, and runs with them. Many try to predict the way they will shape the future, and that's the way Asimov's sci-fi works. By the way, Asimov is the first sci-fi author who made robots that did not rebel against humans. Because they were not a metaphor for exploitation for him, they were actual technology.
I think actually looking into the future is no less important than using it as a mirror to reflect today.

Note that both kinds of sci-fi can shape their narrative into fun stories, and have believable characters. It's all about the author's skill.

You did not explain how Asimov's story provide a meaningful angle with which to look at the future or today. So robots may not rebel, okay, but what does it mean?

I repeat. Technology is not a metaphor. It does not "mean" anything, it is what it is.

Technology in fiction is always a metaphore. Fiction is only symbolic, never physical.

I cannot agree with this statement, and I'm all out of arguments. I can only hold my head because of how different we are.

Dec 7, 2016 3:01 AM

#102

ibraheem234

Offline

Dec 2014

12539

I Believe they are targeting people who are in those age gaps...plus high is the changing point of your life... your are not a child anymore and you have to get serious about life after it ends...

Dec 7, 2016 11:06 AM

#103

TheRaven60

Offline

Dec 2016

13

Well, it's a nice and flexible setting depending on the story you want to tell, it's a time of joy, drama, love, crazy dumb shit, so writers can come up with all kinds of stories for high schoolers.
And also appeal to the otaku fandom.

Dec 7, 2016 1:33 PM

#104

PeppermintHearts

Offline

Jul 2015

2373

Just not much different than a good old fashioned Archie cartoon set at Riverdale High, just teens having a good time, people relate high schools and teens with youthful hijinks. Old gals may have worked well in The Golden Girls, but for anime I would prefer mostly younger characters with a few old farts thrown in for good measure.

Dec 8, 2016 4:14 AM

#105

TheBrainintheJar

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May 2015

16468