I just finished
reading Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer, a 2005 manga by Satoshi
Mizukami, and it was such a fast paced, satisfying experience that I
wanted to write a thing on it. So I tried to work out what exactly it
struck thematically, rather than anything technical. For on that side
Mizukami's art is not as polished at what you'd see in Jump or in
animation, especially early on, but it's emotional highs and payoff
scenes were above the level of your average Jump Shounen.But the more
I thought about the story thematically, the arcs the story goes
through and the role of the main character (Yuuhi), the more it
seemed to fall into a manga plot template I've been noticing appear
a lot; often much more explicitly than in Biscuit Hammer: I call it
the "Inside Outside" character / story arc, and it is an upgrade
of the basic "Hero's Journey".
Split into two
acts, the first, "Inside", deals with the hero fighting to
understand himself, to work out what it is exactly that he wishes to
achieve. Often the MC will start as either an innocent child (Simon
from Gurren Lagann for example) or a disillusioned fool (Yuuhi), he
will learn from those around him who have already worked out their
place in the world. Eventually he will discover his true self and be
able to overcome the enemy, thus ending act one.
HOWEVER! And here
is the twist: discovering one's self, the original big bad, turns
out actually to not be the final boss! At this point the identity of
the true enemy is revealed. The outside world. In Biscuit Hammer this
is subverted somewhat, with Yuuhi's realisation that he wishes to
save Sami not being said outright, but implied (although this is
explained fully at the climax), but often it is much more explicit,
such as the revealing of the Anti-Spirals in Gurren Lagann. Team
Dai-Gurren have defeated Lord Genome, he whom they believed to be the
cause of all their ills, thus solving their internal problems. But
once this was solved, it was realised that the Beastmen were the
least of their problems. The true enemy was outside. Throughout act
two, the hero will steel his resolve, mature as a person and finally
accomplish his goal. In Biscuit Hammer through the most engagingly
complex finale since the ending to Twilight Princess. (TL note -
HOWEVER! means SHIKASHI!)
With the second
act over, the appendix of the story often includes abnormally
protracted "what happened afterwards" scenes, giving closure to
all the characters and plot points built up over the series. At least
a common trend from the examples I'm going from.
This story
structure works for one main reason, the twist allows the story to go
through the most engaging part of the "Hero's Journey" twice,
thus extending the best part of the story and allowing for two "final
battles". Especially for a story distributed over a long period of
time, ie. a TV show or monthly comic, this allows the audience to
think that the final is closer than it really is, building tension
and getting a great payoff both for the middle and end of the story.
If you take the basic hero's journey [link], it manages to house
two "Death & Rebirths" (climaxes).
Examples are
boundless, with some more explicit versions being Gurren Lagann or
Kill la Kill where the template fits almost too obviously. These
shows, or at least the first two, are often praised with being huge
inspirations to people, and I think this fits into the basis for the
model in the first place. Fixing up yourself before you fix up the
world. Or "Set your house in perfect order before you critisize the
world", one of Jordan Peterson's "12 Rules for Life". Which
is itself stolen (lol) from Buddha with his "One should first
establish oneself in what is proper; then only should one instruct
others". This isn't something I just came up with, it's been
psychological mantra for hundreds of years.
Since apparantly
all my examples except Biscuit Hammer were Gainax (you know what I
mean), let's carry on that wagon. FLCL is a perfect example of how
this cycle is achieved more subtely, with Naota working himself out
and his transition into adulthood, before he becomes his own man and
decides on his own fate on his own.
Evangelion
actually subverts the model. Shinjin spends the entire series working
himself out, attempting to reconcile his own stubborness with those
around him. The finally in End of Evangelion he defeats the first
boss, realising that he desires to connect with others around him on
his own terms, thus rejecting instrumentality. But the tragedy is
that he is too late. In the course of him finding his resolve the
world has crashed down around him. Leaving him stranded without any
human contact. Except Asuka. And so his first (and last?) act of his
own volition is to strangle her. Amazing right?
Also Mahoromatic.
Watch Mahoromatic.
This is, alas, not
the perfect formula for all stories. It requires a competent writer
to pull of. The problem with having two climaxes, is that if the
first seems undeserving or underwhelming, the audience won't wish
to stick around for round two. A midway twist can very easily become
an asspull. A story can easily fall apart over ramping up the tension
just a bit too high. An example is last season's Darling in the
Franxx. It's the plot of Gurren Lagann with teen drama. Not
necessarily a bad premise. Although tacky, the first act holds up
pretty well, with the interpersonal relations being realistically
complex. But when the final final boss appears, the story falls
apart. It turns into a bizarre collapse as weird unexplained things
just start to happen. And then it's over. I'm not going to go
fully into it right now but basically it failed to make the audience
engaged enough over the first arc to carry it through to the finale.
That's it. Bye.
[Originally posted on the 24th August 2018]
