Medieval Fantasy in Popular Culture

As Helen Young describes it, gritty fantasy contains glorified sex and violence (sometimes together), blurred morality, "minimalized" magic, continuing trends of whiteness and a "realistic" medieval setting. As I have in previous posts, I've chosen to use this lens to approach Japanese media, particularly anime and video games.  Today's an anime day. Based on the manga by Norihiro Yagi, "Claymore" is a twenty-six episode series from 2007 that follows the adventures of Clare, a member of a specialized organization of half-monster female warriors known as the titular Claymores, as she slays human-eating monsters known as Yoma. Is it gritty fantasy? We'll examine each part of Young's criteria to find out. Glorified Sex and Violence The craziest thing happened when I started watching "Claymore." I sat down, saw the main character was a woman, and waited for the "boob shots" to ensue. None came. None. Don't ...

Where there is light, shadows lurk and fear reigns. Yet by the blade of Knights, mankind was given hope. Garo: The Animation, known as Garo: Hono no Kokuin (literally meaning The Carved Seal of Flames), is a 2014 anime series, followed by a movie, based on a live action tokusatsu (think Power Rangers and Godzilla-style productions) franchise. The writer is Yasuko Kobayashi, one of, if not the, most prominent female tokusatsu writers in the business, having written Mirai Sentai Timeranger (Power Rangers Time Force), Kamen Rider Den-O, Kamen Rider Ryuki (Kamen Rider Dragon Knight), Samurai Sentai Shinkenger (Power Rangers Samurai), and several others. She has also written several anime scripts, probably the most well known of which is the first eight episodes of Attack of Titan, as well as portions of the Jojo's Bizarre Adventures adaptation. The basic premise of the franchise is that evil creatures, known as Horrors, infest the world. Horrors are born out of, and feast on, the dar...

A Netflix-licensed series, Nanatsu no Taizai (The Seven Deadly Sins) is a medieval fantasy anime that began airing back in 2014, with the second season to be released to western viewers sometime this year (any day now, Netflix). The show follows the adventures of Princess Elizabeth and Meliodas, captain of a legendary order of the Holy Knights known as "The Seven Deadly Sins", as they seek to find the missing Sins and more or less save the land from its corrupt military and some demons, more or less stemming from the gist of every Hero's Journey plot ever. And it has to be the least Japanese anime I've seen in my life, in case you couldn't tell from that synopsis. Even King Arthur makes an appearance. Without a doubt, Nanatsu no Taizai is an example of just how embedded whiteness and western culture are into the medieval fantasy genre: a Japanese television program with a medieval fantasy setting has an all white main cast and a europe-like white k...

Deltora Quest is a sword and sorcery series of fantasy books that was adapted into a sixty-five (fifty-two in America) episode anime series, written by Australian author Emily Rodda. The overall series consists of fifteen books, divided into three sub-series. The first, which was the series that was adapted, is simply titled Deltora Quest, and consists of the first eight books, and is the only part of the series that I am familiar with. The second is the three book Deltora Shadowlands series, and the final four are the Dragons of Deltora series. The plot of the series is overall a very simple one. In the kingdom of Deltora, the evil Shadow Lord has taken over and forced King Endon into hiding. The Shadow Lord, an ancient magical being, had previously tried to take over the land before, but was defeated when the first king, Adin, united the seven different tribes of Deltora behind him, and with their help, forged a belt containing seven magical gems, each with a different power, that he...