Unknown Literary Artform

1 week ago 8

Hey all,

Earlier this year, I watched and anime called Hunter X Hunter. At one point in a later season, I truly thought the show was over and it was the most beautiful writing I'd ever witnessed, but the show continued, and I realized that what I'd thought was the ending would never be the ending for a normal show.

Spoilers to follow, but I do suggest watching Hunter X Hunter for a better understanding of the design. If not the whole show, then the Chimera Ant Arc. That arc has some of the best writing I've ever seen.

What I'd believed was the end was the antagonist of the season forming an incredibly close relationship with a person, and he's poisoned. He chooses to live his last hours playing a game with her, and both are very satisfied with their lives because they were able to have that one moment with one another.

Neither one are the main characters, plus because this is a series, the show sets up the next arc before this scene, so it would make no sense to end it there... except it does make sense. Both characters express that nothing matters past that moment, which gave a logical reason for the show to immediately end. What resulted wasn't an interesting and entertaining story, but a perfect expression of the sentiment of forming a close relationship with others.

The reason why I think this worked so well is because the writing elements (world-building, characters, etc) are all used to highlight a specific sentiment. The end goal of this artform wouldn't be to tell a story, but to depict a sentiment. Until I know more about this, I'll call it as a literary sculpture.

Some of the ways the elements helped support the sentiment is:

Voice - the characters all use stream-of-consciousness and so the audience knows them as much as possible and creating a strong investment in what the characters are going through. And the way the characters talk is way more detailed than necessary for the story. I originally thought the show was for young kids based on how the characters explained everything.

World-building/Character - Every character is shown to have a strong need to connect with others, and this includes the bad guys. It feels almost like a genetic compulsion, so this also helps explain the antagonist's suddenly not caring about his failed plans in comparison to spending time with the woman.

Plot - What I'd felt was the end would make for a terrible story because our main characters are still shown as needing to deal with new issues. However, if they were crafted for the purposes of setting up a contrast, allowing this to end at the point where the characters mention nothing is important past this moment... this allows the show to end of the moment to help further emphasize that sentiment, so this is why I see this as a different type of artform. It uses writing elements, but they're utilized in a different way to accomplish a different goal.

Most importantly, because of how the elements are used, all of them help put the audience in an emotional state that builds up to the crescendo of that final scene. Almost like forming an emotional baseline.

Is anyone familiar with an literary artform like this, or that sounds similar enough?

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