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I love, I adore the idea of plot without conflict. You don't have to fight all the time! It's okay! You can just hang out and do stuff and everything will be fabulous, nobody has to worry about winning or losing or anything like that. There doesn't have to be any kind of epic struggle, or any struggle at all. Not in the pure one thing vs. something else sense. Like, idk, most of Natsume Yuujinchou. It's most emphatically not any sort of battle manga, of course, but most importantly it's really just a story about people learning to deal with the world and each other. Which is another of my favorite kinds of stories, because I feel like in some ways that's the big meta-narrative, the Real Story of everyone's lives. Good vs. Evil is untrue and overplayed; it's the story everyone wants to think is true, so they can feel all validated that they're right and good and amazing and someone else is bad and evil and wrong. Or even that right and good don't mean all that much compared to that one thing that's important to you, fuck everybody else.
But that kind of story, I feel, is not the kind that actually needs to be told. The story of people growing and changing and just learning how to deal with the world and the people around them, though, is not just a good story it is THE story. Because that is the essence of people's lives. Everybody has to deal with learning how to interact with people, finding out the difference between what they think and what actually is. Everybody has to deal with, well, life. And I'm pretty sure that's a hell of a lot more important than a bunch of dudes fighting each other because somebody just felt like destroying the world.
(In summary: fuck Supernatural, seriously, that show is like the perfect example of everything that is wrong with the currently popular style of Western storytelling.)
(and also Natsume Yuujinchou and Azumanga Daioh are fucking amazing, okay, and so is Ashita no Ousama.)
(and also also: Gokusen, despite being primarily about Yankumi beating people up, is surprisingly non-conflict-oriented in its main plot. the main plot is: Yankumi teaches students and bonds with them and they become close and help each other and also Shin has a giant crush on her.)
But that kind of story, I feel, is not the kind that actually needs to be told. The story of people growing and changing and just learning how to deal with the world and the people around them, though, is not just a good story it is THE story. Because that is the essence of people's lives. Everybody has to deal with learning how to interact with people, finding out the difference between what they think and what actually is. Everybody has to deal with, well, life. And I'm pretty sure that's a hell of a lot more important than a bunch of dudes fighting each other because somebody just felt like destroying the world.
(In summary: fuck Supernatural, seriously, that show is like the perfect example of everything that is wrong with the currently popular style of Western storytelling.)
(and also Natsume Yuujinchou and Azumanga Daioh are fucking amazing, okay, and so is Ashita no Ousama.)
(and also also: Gokusen, despite being primarily about Yankumi beating people up, is surprisingly non-conflict-oriented in its main plot. the main plot is: Yankumi teaches students and bonds with them and they become close and help each other and also Shin has a giant crush on her.)
