You're not meant to slow down; you're meant to zip past it, only getting a bare impression.
And this is the part that I think goes to the very heart of my bafflement. I can wrap my mind around that much (and it's why I don't mind manga fight scenes as much as I mind the anime counterparts), and usually I can at least work out enough of what's going on to be able to follow the plot. But where I'm often baffled is, what am I supposed to be getting out of these scenes, emotionally or aesthetically?
It's the same narrative issue I often have with sex scenes, in a way. It's like, sometimes they illustrate something about the nature of a relationship, or the characters themselves, that's best shown in this particular context. They're not just there for the porn; if they also manage to be hot that's a good thing (usually), but it's not the only thing. Where it is the only thing, I (and I suspect many others) tend to get bored and skip forward to where things start happening again. And for me at least, it's pretty much the same with fight scenes. Sometimes they can be so beautiful that I don't mind watching them for themselves alone, but I find that's pretty rare. Things like the big fight between Sebastian and Grell in the Kuro Jack the Ripper arc work for me because there's so much more going on in that sequence than the chainsaw-versus-fists and tailcoat routine. There's all the character development, for both characters; there are the hints about backstory; there's the whole Romeo and Juliet riff. There's story, and plenty of it. I know why I'm being shown all of this, and I'm not wondering when it's going to be over so that we can get back to the story. The part where I wonder when it will be over so we can get back to something interesting is all Viscount Druitt. Which may say something right there about my usual reaction to fight sequences -- as I write this I realize that my feelings about Druitt are identical to my feelings about the GetBackers fights.
But usually, when I see anime or manga fight scenes, I'm looking at something that feels to me more like a gratuitous porn scene. GetBackers was a good example because it was filled with them. There would be whole episodes that seemed to be, basically, Kazuki walks through that fortress place, being randomly challenged by enemies. When one appears a fight ensues; the fight seems to consist of the display of exotic magical weapons coupled with dialogue that goes, "Colorful name: Attack!" "Just as colorful name: defense and counterattack!" "Second level specialty of my family attack!"
And so on, and on, for half or more of each episode. There might have been some narrative information embedded in all of this, but I missed just about all of it if there was, and there certainly wasn't the kind of narrative value that you see in the Kuro fight sequences. Or in things like most of the fights in the original FMA anime (I can't speak to Brotherhood, having bounced off it, and I'm still reading the manga). FMA could give us entire episodes that were fights, like the early one on the train, or episodes that centered around them, like the duel between Ed and Roy, but in each and every one of them the fighting was there for something. Getbackers, and other things I've tried to watch, though . . .
But the fact that these scenes get written and drawn or animated argues that they do in fact serve some storytelling function, and that people are enjoying them rather than skipping past them, skimming them to find out who won, or getting bored and wandering off. Which in turn suggests to me that the issue is me not them, and that I'm missing something here. I just don't know what, or where to look for it.
On the other hand, if you're skimming through these chapters as they come by, maybe I'm not doing it wrong after all. Maybe it really is just like porn, and I turn out not to be wired for loving action scenes for themselves alone.
no subject
Date: 26 Jan 2012 08:00 pm (UTC)And this is the part that I think goes to the very heart of my bafflement. I can wrap my mind around that much (and it's why I don't mind manga fight scenes as much as I mind the anime counterparts), and usually I can at least work out enough of what's going on to be able to follow the plot. But where I'm often baffled is, what am I supposed to be getting out of these scenes, emotionally or aesthetically?
It's the same narrative issue I often have with sex scenes, in a way. It's like, sometimes they illustrate something about the nature of a relationship, or the characters themselves, that's best shown in this particular context. They're not just there for the porn; if they also manage to be hot that's a good thing (usually), but it's not the only thing. Where it is the only thing, I (and I suspect many others) tend to get bored and skip forward to where things start happening again. And for me at least, it's pretty much the same with fight scenes. Sometimes they can be so beautiful that I don't mind watching them for themselves alone, but I find that's pretty rare. Things like the big fight between Sebastian and Grell in the Kuro Jack the Ripper arc work for me because there's so much more going on in that sequence than the chainsaw-versus-fists and tailcoat routine. There's all the character development, for both characters; there are the hints about backstory; there's the whole Romeo and Juliet riff. There's story, and plenty of it. I know why I'm being shown all of this, and I'm not wondering when it's going to be over so that we can get back to the story. The part where I wonder when it will be over so we can get back to something interesting is all Viscount Druitt. Which may say something right there about my usual reaction to fight sequences -- as I write this I realize that my feelings about Druitt are identical to my feelings about the GetBackers fights.
But usually, when I see anime or manga fight scenes, I'm looking at something that feels to me more like a gratuitous porn scene. GetBackers was a good example because it was filled with them. There would be whole episodes that seemed to be, basically, Kazuki walks through that fortress place, being randomly challenged by enemies. When one appears a fight ensues; the fight seems to consist of the display of exotic magical weapons coupled with dialogue that goes, "Colorful name: Attack!" "Just as colorful name: defense and counterattack!" "Second level specialty of my family attack!"
And so on, and on, for half or more of each episode. There might have been some narrative information embedded in all of this, but I missed just about all of it if there was, and there certainly wasn't the kind of narrative value that you see in the Kuro fight sequences. Or in things like most of the fights in the original FMA anime (I can't speak to Brotherhood, having bounced off it, and I'm still reading the manga). FMA could give us entire episodes that were fights, like the early one on the train, or episodes that centered around them, like the duel between Ed and Roy, but in each and every one of them the fighting was there for something. Getbackers, and other things I've tried to watch, though . . .
But the fact that these scenes get written and drawn or animated argues that they do in fact serve some storytelling function, and that people are enjoying them rather than skipping past them, skimming them to find out who won, or getting bored and wandering off. Which in turn suggests to me that the issue is me not them, and that I'm missing something here. I just don't know what, or where to look for it.
On the other hand, if you're skimming through these chapters as they come by, maybe I'm not doing it wrong after all. Maybe it really is just like porn, and I turn out not to be wired for loving action scenes for themselves alone.