Kamen Rider Gaim - Lock 02 "Deathblow! Pineapple Kick!"

[Glamador]

(tagged for size, rather than spoilers)

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I fear we're in danger of turning this thread into a debate on Gunslinger Girls instead of Gaim. So I'll just say one last brief thing.

My perspective comes solely from the anime adaptation. I do not read manga, and as such have not read Gunslinger Girl. Judging from those pages, either I am incorrectly remembering the show or the adaptation had a very different tone than the manga.

I recall the anime's slow pacing, emotion-lite VAs, and predominantly dark lighting contributing to an overall dour experience in a story already rife with violence, manipulation, and tragedy. I didn't enjoy my time with it enough to watch more than the first 13-episode season, so maybe I never even got to the happy ending at all. But what I watched, I would consider dark in tone.

But perhaps as well, my judgment of what even is "dark" doesn't approximate Lynxara's standards. She separates depressing and dour from dark, whereas I consider them a component. I can't say that I disagree with the assertion that hopeless situations make for dark themes. But I also don't think that what is 'dark' should be entirely dictated by its plot. As I said before, I think dark is a description of tone.

 

[kuroihikari]

For what it's worth, there is a genre called "dark humor": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_comedy , which is dark, but can be absolutely hilarious to the point where there is absolutely nothing bleak to be seen at a superficial level.

The most common recent Japanese work described to me as such would be Zetsubou-sensei.

 

[Lynxara]

I would agree that darkness is about tone and atmosphere rather than plot, actually. But I think the plot has to support that tone, or the work will feel superficial and lack impact.That's where I think a hopeless situation is essential to establishing a truly dark tone. For example, Bokurano. (Moreso the manga than the anime.)

Much of what makes Bokurano feel dark isn't the plot mechanics which specify that the kids are pretty much doomed. It's that layering all their other horrible experiences on top of how they're utterly doomed makes for a relentlessly dark atmosphere. If the kids weren't all doomed, if it was just a slice-of-life story where all the kids were from miserable backgrounds, the story would lose much of its impact. You could imagine them being happier when they grew up, or moving on to better lives. At the very least, you'd expect the kids to do something about their awful situations. But the impending death Bokurano's premise forces on them all means that not only are they suffering miserable childhoods, they will also never grow up. There is no hope at all for them, and that makes the abject misery of their daily lives all the more piercing. It's all they can ever have.

Black comedy is a great genre, and tough to pull off because you need to be both relentlessly awful and relentlessly hilarious. Zetsubou-sentai certainly qualifies. Even though it superficially doesn't seem especially bleak, holy **** that ending. The ending casts a pitch black pall over what came before, and I'm sure that was the intent. The classic literary version of black comedy is Catch .22, which can be a little difficult to read since many of its satirical elements are a bit dated. Dr. Strangelove is probably the classic film version (and, again, a lot of what makes it so bleak can be easy to miss for a modern viewer).

 

[Demi-Fiend]

A show that I can think of that wasn't dark that had death was actually Rurouni Kenshin. Tons of offscreen and onscreen death, but it had so bright and Idealistic at times you could ignore it.

Also Superman in general.