Mastodawn

Unlikely Genres Pairs!

I’ve recently been branching out in my novel reading. Trying out different genres that I usually wouldn’t read. One of the books I picked up was, “Knights, Witches, and Murder”, by RM Schultz. It was a murder mystery set in a realistic fantasy medieval era. I’ve honestly never seen a mystery set in the dark ages and definitely not one that had magical elements in it. And that got me to thinking, why? It’s not like a mystery couldn’t take place in the dark ages. There’s nothing special about the 1800’s or the 1920’s that make theses eras the only time a mystery story could be set in. So why so few medieval mysteries, or classical era mysteries, or cave man mysteries? I’m not saying there’s none, there are billions of books on this planet and surely there’s some out there, but they certainly aren’t common.

And that got me thinking again. What other genre pairings do I just not see in Western story crafting, and is there an anime answer for that?

Hmm, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a medieval sci-fi story either, other than futuristic people traveling back in time to visit the dark ages (Like Dr. Who). But those aren’t really medieval sci-fi stories. Those are futuristic stories that happen to have part of the story take place at some point in history. The history part is the conflict the main characters have to over come to meet their goal, it’s not really a setting. It always focuses on futuristic people that came from the future and will be returning to the future.

For anime, a good comparison would be a sci-fi that takes place during the feudal era. Hmm, again there isn’t many that I can think of. Samurai Deeper Kyo is set in the feudal era, but it’s only a very light sci-fi. A comet crashes into a battle field and the feudal lords present gain super natural powers. There’s some sci-fi elements there, but it’s mostly a samurai story.

There’s also the older anime Puppet Princess, in which a princess of a fallen castle teaches herself the engineering and mechanics of puppetry and makes puppet warriors to defend her and defeat the enemy faction that killed her family and burned her castle down. These puppets work via cogs, wheels, and strings, so there is some science there and would be considered “high tech” in the feudal era, but was the story really sci-fi? Hmm, it’s hard to say.

I also haven’t seen a whole lot of romance horror stories. And I don’t mean horror movies with some smoochy scenes thrown in. That’s not really romance, and they usually seem ham-fisted and awkward being forced into a scene where the main characters are running for their lives. No I mean actual romance, with wooing, pursuing a love interest, coming up against obstacles, and over coming them to strengthen as a couple!

The only story I can think of is Warm Bodies. I really enjoyed both the novel and the movie, and it truly was a horror romance! Zombies are old school horror, and the zombie apocalypse started from a plague, that’s pretty horrory too. There’s a proper amount of blood, gore, and chase scenes for a horror story, yet it also follows all the classic romance beats too. A guy sees a beautiful maiden and instantly falls in love! He chases after her, he’s awkward and fumbles in his courting tactics (he is a shambling undead after all) he tries to give her gifts that are not well received, there’s even the tropey obstacle of a disapproving dad. And in the end, love conquers all and there’s a happy ending. But that’s probably the only romance horror story I can think of from Western media.

On the anime side of things, there’s a bit more, but again, not a lot. There’s the anime Sankarea: Undying Love, in which a girl is turned into a zombie and a high school boy falls for her. It has all the cute high school romance tropes you would expect from a school romance, but it definitely has darker elements too. There’s the creepy dad that’s definitely hiding something. There’s the mystery behind the girl’s murder, and something nefarious lurking in the home she doesn’t want to return to. Is there enough horror to balance the romance, or is this anime just a creepy romance? Hmm, that’s a tough call. I would lean on the side of not enough horror, but I like some seriously scary stories, so it could be just me.

Another would be Dusk Maiden of Amnesia. Though, again it is kind of light on the horror. It’s a story where a high school boy meets a ghost haunting his school, and she starts playfully flirting with him. Of course, there’s plenty of creepiness around the ghost’s murder, but it also has the classic high school anime episodes too. Like a classic school fair episode featuring a class haunted house display. There is some truly dark episodes near the end of the series, but most of the anime is pretty lighthearted and probably can’t strictly be considered horror.

I’m sure there are other genre mash ups that are pretty rare that I’m just not thinking about, but my big question is why? Why aren’t there more truly horror-tastic romances? Why aren’t there more robot and science filled medieval adventures? Why can’t witty sleuths discover murderers in the distant past? Is there something I’m not seeing that makes story creators avoid these unusual combos?