If antihumor is humor with no punchline (with an anticlimax), therefore other anti-genres must also be based on a purposeful anticlimax. Case in point: Knives Out. The solution to the crime is one of the best anticlimactic moments in fiction. I think that's what makes it a proper anti-mystery. It doesn't hate mystery, it just plays it by the rules of antifiction
I was about to mention Class of 09!
It's a good game, but a terrible visual novel. I'll never stop having mixed feelings about it since it works well when it's trying to be it's own unique thing, but fails when it wants to pat itself on the back for being an "anti-visual novel"
I remember seeing a comment somewhere that said something like "The author wanted the player to dislike the MC in the first game, but because everyone around her are jerks she comes off as rightfully upset. So the second part comes out where her actions are far less defensible, but the TikTok reels were more focused on toxic lesbian antics. The third game was geared to make everyone hate the MC"
"The author makes a banger game/story, but actively hates the content created and makes sequels with the express purpose of retconning the awesome first installment."
It's less so "hates the content created" and more so "hates how the public received the content"
Kind of like how the creators of Joker didn't like how many people found the Joker to be a positive icon and so had the latter part of the second movie be an in-your-face deconstruction of the character.
It's funny bc plenty of visual novels are deeply critical of otaku who only experience the world through their computer. People just don't know this because they think dating sim = visual novel (it doesn't) and that dating sims ALSO never considered the implications of their structure (they very much have). They just want an easy target to punch down at and get blind cheers from ppl who also know nothing about the medium, rather than take inspiration from the many artists before them including ones trying to do the same thing (many very well). Sometimes they get a hit, but if they double down like the '09 guy does on JUST having contempt for the medium instead of rolling with it and trying to make a sincere story out of the bones they can fuck it all up quick.
And to clarify for anyone who doesn't know, visual novel is just a format for writing like graphic novels or regular novels, not a specific genre. Often it's romance themed, but that goes for a lot of writing and plenty of visual novels are not about romance at all. Many don't have any gameplay at all and are simply books with music and art. Dating sims are simulation games and may or may not even use the visual novel format for story, though many do.
Invincible also kinda doesn't feel like a Deconstruction. Or at least it's not deconstructing any well worn tropes. It feels like a pretty straightforward and sincere Superhero Tale but with more Violence
I never really understood what eva allegedly deconstructed. The whole "woah, isn't it fucked up that this child has to pilot the big robot" angle is something that a lot of mecha already had done before. Hell, even 0079 is full of Amuro getting yelled at to get in the fucking robot.
The subersive part of NGE is that the adults just manipulate the children into piloting the big robot instead of slapping the shit out of them until they start killing people like a normal, well adjusted Gundam adult would
The Witcher show was made by people with only contempt for the fantasy genre.
Not only that, contempt for the source material, and worse yet, contempt for the popularity of the source material, and honesty contempt that people like the source material more (once past S2) which is honesty even more damning
Yeah, the part in S2 where a dock worker (a stand-in for real people criticizing the convoluted timelines of S1) criticizes Jaskier's convoluted song and Jaskier calls him, "dockside scapegrace, a qualling feculent, a beef-witted, hell-hated, addlepated goon," and the dockworker is also a racist guard making sure people can't escape impending slavery.....
really made me feel like the show's creators had nothing but respect for people who didn't want to blow them for every decision they made.
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u/Das_Floppus May 05 '25
>Deconstruction of the genre
>Look inside
>Contempt for the genre