What If? Japan gets the “Pulp Genre” alongside the Isekai genre boom

CarlManvers2019

CarlManvers2019

Writers Blocked Douchebag
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Pulp Magazine - TV Tropes

Pulp magazines were a widespread source of affordable popular fiction in the first half of the 20th century. They were essentially regular periodicals printed on paper obtained from cheap wood pulp (hence "pulp") featuring original text stories, …
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Presumably some guys read Pulp and decide to imitate it and succeed

And then more copycats show up

How does Japanese Entertainment handle “Pulp” in the long run?
 
CarlManvers2019 said:
tvtropes.org

Pulp Magazine - TV Tropes

Pulp magazines were a widespread source of affordable popular fiction in the first half of the 20th century. They were essentially regular periodicals printed on paper obtained from cheap wood pulp (hence "pulp") featuring original text stories, …
tvtropes.org tvtropes.org

Presumably some guys read Pulp and decide to imitate it and succeed

And then more copycats show up

How does Japanese Entertainment handle “Pulp” in the long run?
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Isn't this what light novels are?
 
LifeisTiresome said:
Isn't this what light novels are?
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In Pulp there’s pretty much no main plot and the stories can vary from Sword&Sorcery, to Detective, to Horror and even.....Boxing

Can’t exactly say the same for LN

Whose protagonists also don’t look to rely on their wits as much
 
LifeisTiresome said:
All the sword and magic fantasy in manga and anime? Unless you mean the type of conan where the magic is low key and not OP and the MC is kinda a douche?
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Yes

Or at the very least is more physical-based when it comes to combat like Guts and Goblin Slayer rather than using a constant magic empowerment

No need to do a powerup, the enemy dies to even rocks being smashed into them enough and regular knives pierce their skin
 
CarlManvers2019 said:
Yes

Or at the very least is more physical-based when it comes to combat like Guts and Goblin Slayer rather than using a constant magic empowerment

No need to do a powerup, the enemy dies to even rocks being smashed into them enough and regular knives pierce their skin
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Gotcha. I don't think so. Most of Japan and Korea and China like flashy stuff. So even in just pure physical fights, you will see superhumans.

The Name of Love said:
Is that really the central conceit of the isekai? Or is it the idea of a man being sent to another world where he gains superpowers and "waifus"?
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It depends on the isekai world and if it runs on video game rpg logic.

Isekai is all about going to another world through whatever means. What happens next depends on the story and world in question and subtype of isekai in question.
 
LifeisTiresome said:
Gotcha. I don't think so. Most of Japan and Korea and China like flashy stuff. So even in just pure physical fights, you will see superhumans.


It depends on the isekai world and if it runs on video game rpg logic.

Isekai is all about going to another world through whatever means. What happens next depends on the story and world in question and subtype of isekai in question.
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I’m okay with flashy, look at Berserk, guy still kills big monsters

I just very much dislike KI/CHI and Magic Enhancement, if you’re gonna do superhumanly powerful physical attacks, I prefer em more like Kengan Asura or Baki

Truck-kun is a recent way though
 
I would say Japan had their "pulp" era already and have moved on.

Pulp is just about any genre but generally high on the two-fisted action and the hero of the story is somebody extraordinary with a plethora of skills and impressive wits.

Manga and Anime went through a lengthy and, I'd say, their most, successful period using just such heroes, people with amazing skills going on awesome adventures and having epic romances. Rurouni Kenshin, for instance, is an impossibly skilled Samurai going about being awesome. Ranma Saotome is another pulpy hero, generally not as quick witted but definitely clever at what he does and remarkably skilled with his fists and with the ladies. Escaflowne is a girl transported to another world where she meets amazing dashing heroes who fight in giant mecha. A crossover between Doc Savage or Indiana Jones meeting up with Ranma Saotome who wind up teaming up to fight Nazis would be totally believable and awesome.

The current fad for personality-free students who get given their skills by divine favor (and being hit by a truck) will pass and eventually the pendulum will swing to heroes that are actually memorable and awesome. It's notable to me that characters from thirty years ago like Ranma and Sailor Moon are still getting more fanfic written about them than most of the modern Isekai blandness is.
 
Bear Ribs said:
I would say Japan had their "pulp" era already and have moved on.

Pulp is just about any genre but generally high on the two-fisted action and the hero of the story is somebody extraordinary with a plethora of skills and impressive wits.

Manga and Anime went through a lengthy and, I'd say, their most, successful period using just such heroes, people with amazing skills going on awesome adventures and having epic romances. Rurouni Kenshin, for instance, is an impossibly skilled Samurai going about being awesome. Ranma Saotome is another pulpy hero, generally not as quick witted but definitely clever at what he does and remarkably skilled with his fists and with the ladies. Escaflowne is a girl transported to another world where she meets amazing dashing heroes who fight in giant mecha. A crossover between Doc Savage or Indiana Jones meeting up with Ranma Saotome who wind up teaming up to fight Nazis would be totally believable and awesome.

The current fad for personality-free students who get given their skills by divine favor (and being hit by a truck) will pass and eventually the pendulum will swing to heroes that are actually memorable and awesome. It's notable to me that characters from thirty years ago like Ranma and Sailor Moon are still getting more fanfic written about them than most of the modern Isekai blandness is.
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Indeed. Its all about trends. Another trend will take over and isekai will just be another genre like martials arts manga.

I once thought all manga and anime will just is slice of life moe and yet look how it no longer dominates.

I see nothing wrong with isekai. Its something that entertains some people and helps get them through a day. Its time of ruling over all will pass.

Plus its not like it hasn't had interesting ideas. Look at No Game No Life. The magic races there are OP rather then the standard they get BTFO by modern world.

CarlManvers2019 said:
I’m okay with flashy, look at Berserk, guy still kills big monsters

I just very much dislike KI/CHI and Magic Enhancement, if you’re gonna do superhumanly powerful physical attacks, I prefer em more like Kengan Asura or Baki

Truck-kun is a recent way though
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Ah gotcha. Most series don't do that, its all superhumans through magic, cultivation, whatever. Very few aren't.
 
@Bear Ribs
Those protagonists don’t seem to be the Generalists I see in Sword & Sorcery

It’s like really weird to know that Conan’s a Barbarian and yet he wears regular clothes and armor, uses stealth, uses many different kinds of weapons and his melee skills include much grace and I think I recall him doing feints and parries rather than simply a berserker rage
 
CarlManvers2019 said:
@Bear Ribs
Those protagonists don’t seem to be the Generalists I see in Sword & Sorcery

It’s like really weird to know that Conan’s a Barbarian and yet he wears regular clothes and armor, uses stealth, uses many different kinds of weapons and his melee skills include much grace and I think I recall him doing feints and parries rather than simply a berserker rage
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Er, I'm honestly not sure what you mean. Conan significantly predates all the ideas on Barbarians you're referring to there. Things like a berserker rage aren't characteristic of classic Barbarians but Vikings (except in Dungeons and Dragons but that's long after Conan).

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "Generalist" either. Ranma is first and foremost a martial artist but he uses disguises, stealth, magic artifacts, and guile at various points (at one point managing to somehow bluff Ryoga into thinking Ranma was his sister, when Ryoga didn't even have a sister).
 
Bear Ribs said:
Er, I'm honestly not sure what you mean. Conan significantly predates all the ideas on Barbarians you're referring to there. Things like a berserker rage aren't characteristic of classic Barbarians but Vikings (except in Dungeons and Dragons but that's long after Conan).

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "Generalist" either. Ranma is first and foremost a martial artist but he uses disguises, stealth, magic artifacts, and guile at various points (at one point managing to somehow bluff Ryoga into thinking Ranma was his sister, when Ryoga didn't even have a sister).
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I guess the buff near-naked look stuck in people’s minds alongside the use of big melee weaponry

By “Generalist” I mean a sort of Jack-of-All-Stats&Trades, able to be a Solo Adventurer who’s surprisingly intelligent and skilled in many fields but not necessarily to the point of easily defeating enemies just because they’re good both armed and unarmed

Think of Goblin Slayer if he was actually above Ruby-Ranked in melee skills enough to fight that Dark Elf in the light novel
 
Bear Ribs said:
It's notable to me that characters from thirty years ago like Ranma and Sailor Moon are still getting more fanfic written about them than most of the modern Isekai blandness is.
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That sure is true in the Western world. What about in Japan? I don't have the data to affirm either way, but I know that most of the bland stories you see in anime and light novels started in Shousetsuka ni Narou and managed to raise enough interest to get picked up by professional publishers(granted, I'd say that right now the bar to clear is a little lower considering isekai is the current fad).
 
CarlManvers2019 said:
By “Generalist” I mean a sort of Jack-of-All-Stats&Trades, able to be a Solo Adventurer who’s surprisingly intelligent and skilled in many fields but not necessarily to the point of easily defeating enemies just because they’re good both armed and unarmed
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To a large degree you're not going to ever see that in Eastern media due to culture. Violence is regarded differently. What you regard as "everyman" skills are only everyman to your own culture. To draw an example, if you picked up an American hero, you'd probably need an elaborate explanation for how he's an expert at navigating and sailing a longboat. But if your hero is a Viking, no explanation is needed, every Viking can be assumed to know how to handle a longboat because that's an everyman skill for them but not for Americans.

In Amime if there's a high-school boy who knows how to throw a punch, there's only two possibilities. Either he's a delinquent, probably with a pompadour hairdo, or he's in the martial arts club (Ranma is effectively both though sans pompadour). Guns are an even rarer skill and highly taboo. Ordinary kids do not know how to fight, ever. An American comic would have no problem with a normal farmboy who happens to be able to scrap and shoot.

You can compare, f'rex, Highschool of the Dead. Of the seven main survivors, four can fight. Saeko is captain of the Kendo club and thus knows how to use a sword. Rei is in the sojutsu club and knows how to skewer zombies with her broomstick spear. Takashi is in the Baseball club and thus knows how to swing a bat (into zombie heads). And Kohta knows how to shoot guns... because he took a vacation to the USA. Everybody who isn't in a special club that teaches how to use a weapon (or happened to set foot on Ameican soil) can't fight for spit. Those simply aren't everyman skills in Japan and Kohta teaching them how to shoot visibly disturbs some of the other students because even being able to shoot a gun is treated as being very alien and strange.

By contrast the number of people who happen to have amazing calligraphy skills in Anime is surprisingly large. Calligraphy seems to be treated as an everyman skill in Japan whereas an American with calligraphy skills would need some special justification such as being in a calligraphers club to have that skill.

gral said:
That sure is true in the Western world. What about in Japan? I don't have the data to affirm either way, but I know that most of the bland stories you see in anime and light novels started in Shousetsuka ni Narou and managed to raise enough interest to get picked up by professional publishers(granted, I'd say that right now the bar to clear is a little lower considering isekai is the current fad).
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You make a good point. I have no idea what percentage of fanfic/doujins in Japan go to what property in the current year. I'm going entirely off what I see of English (and limited Spanish) works.
 
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