- [Narrator] HBO's newest
take on Watchmen is one
of the most anticipated
television shows of 2019.
But one of the things that makes Watchmen
different the others, is
that it is the epitome
of deconstructing genres at its core.
Especially a genre as
large as the superhero.
With this in mind, there's
an incredibly similar
deconstructionist sample but
within an entirely different
and very contrasting genre.
("Sailor Moon Theme Song")
Yes, there's the Watchmen-style
take on Sailor Moon.
Seriously?
That's precisely what Madoka Magica is.
Look at the evolution
of any adventure genre.
Kid's stuff keeps evolving
to intrigue older audiences.
Not only is this an
unavoidable progression,
it's a healthy one.
(ding)
The psychologist Erik Erikson
proposed a theory of development:
The Eight Stages of Man,
which divides the lifespan
into eight specific challenges.
Perhaps it provides a useful analogy
for the evolution of genres, too.
Whether you're looking
at Magical Girl anime
or superhero comics, the
stories do generally seem
to start with an earnest stage,
then grow into phases of deconstruction,
then reconstruction, and so on.
But let's define deconstruction,
which is a form of
literary criticism derived
from philosopher Jacques
Derrida's writing.
In brief, it's a style of critical reading
that seeks to pick apart any text
and show how its parts have
contradictory meanings.
Like, for instance, how stories intended
as innocuous diversions for
kids may actually contain
challenging concepts for adults to ponder.
- Don't do this!
- [Narrator] Viewing genres
as such reveals how series
as seemingly dispersate as
Watchmen and Madoca Magica
actually have similar ambitions.
So this begs the question:
Should genres grow up?
First, let's look at Watchmen.
Serialized by DC Comics in 1986,
Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons'
Watchmen is a murder-mystery
confirming many upsetting suspicions
about costume vigilantes.
Sure, it can be enjoyed
by general audiences,
but it takes on more
significance when appreciated
in the history of its genre.
At an early stage, the series
was going to star superheroes
from Charlton Comics, a company
DC had recently acquired.
Once editorial saw how their new purchases
would be dirtied up, they
suggested new characters
being used instead, and the
creators eagerly agreed.
Thus the comic is cast with analogs.
So Rorschach is inspired by The Question,
Doctor Manhattan by Captain Atom,
and Ozymandias by Peter
Cannon, Thunderbolt.
Changing the cast freed Moore
and Gibbons of restrictions.
Either to be bound by the
Charlton heroes particulars
or to refrain from plot lines
that might damage them commercially.
Like how some heroes might
simply enjoy violence,
or get off on dressing up in costume,
or feel little connection
to common citizens.
The grandest point is
wrapped in the title,
which relates to a Latin
saying, translated as:
Who watches the Watchmen?
If the public trusts mighty
champions to enforce morality,
who's to say those champions
are being moral themselves,
or even have morals that
align with the public's?
Ozymandias is eventually
unveiled as the murderer
behind Watchmen's mystery.
His scheme is to accomplish a
feat that can never be written
into an adventure serial:
an end to all conflict.
The open-ended nature of a monthly comic
requires lessons to be
continually forgotten
so heroes can keep fighting
villains each episode.
Freed of such requirements,
Ozymandias can learn seeing
that reactive vigilantism
doesn't effect change like, say,
the proactive manipulation
of governments can.
- [Ozymandias] I did it.
- [Narrator] He takes a
Gordian knot solution.
- [Ozymandias] I did it!
- [Narrator] Resolving a
seemingly unsolvable problem
by approaching it outside the box.
Does his vision of world
peace not align with yours?
Tough luck.
The implicit message of superheroes
is that might makes right.
And Watchmen makes that explicit
by stressing how Ozymandias
has applied his might to
make this decision for you.
- Do it!
(boom)
- [Narrator] Magical Girl
was an adventure genre
that came about in Japan during the 60s.
Just as superhero comics have,
its manga and anime evolved
to increasing levels
of sophistication over the years.
From the carefree shenanigans
of Sally the Witch
to the epic melodrama of Sailor Moon.
The latter series created
by Naoko Takeuchi in 1991
is the genre's icon.
As such, it's invited deconstructions.
In Sailor Moon, Usagi Tsukino
is a normal high schooler
who gains powers and a
costumed alter ego when Luna,
a talking cat, enlists her to an outfit
of heroic color-coated Sailor Soldiers.
With parallels in place,
screenwriter Gen Urobuchi
uses his analogs to
explore plots too extreme
for Sailor Moon's publisher,
so he has Magical Girls get
brutally killed in combat
with the horrific witches
Kyubey makes them fight.
Then he reveals those witches are actually
former Magical Girls, corrupted
and mutated by their powers.
- What the hell is going on?
Where'd that witch come from?
- That witch used to be Sayaka Miki.
You saw, it happened
right in front of you.
- [Narrator] The talking
cat's deal is Faustian one.
Similar to Ozymandias's response
to the tropes of serials,
Kyubey's revolving door
of recruits is inspired
by happenstance surrounding
Sailor Moon's publishing.
Prior to the series debut,
Takeuchi had essentially
tried out a rough draft,
codename Sailor V,
before her finding the concept
later with the new lead.
However, instead of just
disregarding this prototype,
Takeuchi incorporated Sailor V,
or Sailor Venus, into Sailor Moon.
Albeit in a demoted supporting role
as one of Usagi's Sailor Soldiers.
The change may have been arbitrary,
simply a creator listening to execs
about what works for television.
Still, keeping both heroines
in the series with lore
about them being in a
lineage of Sailor Soldiers
getting the same offer,
inherently raises implications:
Do Magical Girls fall out of favor?
Takeuchi likely didn't
intend for inferences
to be read into such detail.
- [Girl] I'm so sorry.
- [Narrator] Urobuchi's
deconstruction finds
dramatic potential in them,
though, connecting dots
to the mysterious witches the
Sailor Soldiers often fight.
- [Kyubey] I will grant
each of you one wish.
In exchange for that wish,
it will be your duty to fight witches.
- [Narrator] His series
also flipped Sailor Moon
on a more basic level,
by having Madoka weigh
Kyubey's offer for several episodes
instead of just agreeing to
it and asking questions later,
like Usagi does.
While Madoka deliberates, she
evaluates her devilish deal
as she would a legal agreement.
Much like Ozymandias, she does research,
interviewing veteran comrades
and auditing missions.
Effectively, she examines the concept
of Magical Girls herself.
Then, again, like Ozymandias,
she takes a Gordian knot third option
and fundamentally changes her
world's nature of conflict.
She puts many conditions on Kyubey's deal,
exchanging her life to
break the cycle of witches
and make Magical Girl
battles more manageable.
- I wish I had the power to erase witches
before they're born.
Every single witch from the
past, present, and future.
Everywhere.
- [Narrator] Now look,
Watchmen and Madoka Magica
aren't the first and
far from the only time
Moore and Urobuchi have used analogs
to deconstruct icons of genre.
Blassreiter is a harsh
view of motorcycle-driving
tokusatsu heroes like Kamen Rider.
The League of Extraordinary
Gentlemen involves
nearly every literary hero and
villain in the public domain.
One of George R.R. Martin's
aims for Game of Thrones
was to answer deeper questions he pondered
about Lord of the Rings,
such as if a fantasy king like Aragorn
could survive politics.
- What was his tax policy?
- [Narrator] In the 60s and 70s,
Hugo-winning author Philip Jose Farmer
earned acclaim with novels
reexamining pulp heroes,
like his biography of Tarzan
that made the character more plausible.
Farmer's book in turn paved
the way for Greystroke in 1984,
an Oscar-nominated film offering
a more grownup retelling
of Tarzan's origins.
It was the Batman Begins of its day.
- Half of me is the earl of Greystroke.
The other half is wild.
- [Narrator] Deconstructionist
titles widely separated
by geography and era all asking
similar questions of their genre,
as if their at the same
stage of development
on Erikson's chart.
Of course, unlike human beings,
a genre can always go back
to it's earlier stages.
Sailor Moon Crystal,
an anime retelling of Takeuchi's
manga more faithfully,
followed the success of Madoka Magica.
And The Incredibles' resteps
Watchmen-like plot lines
in family-friendly fashion.
Still, the acclaim enjoyed by
the deconstructionist works
we've analyzed here demonstrate
there are clearly audiences
for such explorations.
And they span over generations.
Far from some awful betrayal of purpose,
deconstruction would
seem to be a natural part
of any adventure genre's growth.
But folks, let us know
in the coments below
of some other examples
that would fall under
the deconstructionist philosophy.
Which stories originally
intended for children
deserve a more adult
conversation and vice versa?
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