Source: @Tencent Animation, Shilu World Wind Topic

The original meaning of Hunting is "I like strange and alternative things very much, and try to search for things in this area", but in anime, it is generally used to describe unusual works that are "either alternative and decadent, or bloody and violent, and look very exciting". At the end of the day, the curiosity mentality is a manifestation of human beings' uneasiness with the status quo and their desire to challenge their fears.

In ancient times, a keen sense of fear caused weak humans to react quickly and flee to safety, which was a survival instinct. However, the science and technology of modern society are becoming more and more advanced, the environment is becoming more and more stable, there are no natural enemies of human beings on the earth, and human beings are almost invincible except for natural disasters, and they have devoted themselves to the grand cause of exploring and opening up the universe. In such an environment, we have rarely had the opportunity to feel the danger of primitive people being threatened by beasts. As a result, some people began to actively look for opportunities to feel fear, and enjoy the taste of fear from various horror movies and novels and extreme games.

Under such a trend, animation works are certainly not far behind, and more and more hard-tasting and curious animation works appear in our field of vision. Some are full of bloody killings, some are apocalyptic with devastating feelings, and some are sick and beautiful girls who smile and hold a kitchen knife and ask the male protagonist "Do you love me". So, what genres are the hunting anime roughly divided into, and how did it develop? That's what we're talking about today.

Hunting anime with their own magical powers

At the beginning, the headshot of Motoko Kusanagi in "Ghost in the Shell" was regarded as a classic, and the famous scene of Emperor Shakti eating the Asura King in "The Holy Biography" was also a famous scene that deeply shocked the hearts of a generation, but for audiences with increasingly heavy tastes, these are now not enough to satisfy everyone's curiosity. Even the cute mascot in a beautiful girl's queen palace work "Ken Pu" has to drag her intestines out of her stomach, and the heroine of "Is This a Zombie" is holding the weapon used by the ** killer in the former "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" across the campus, what else can be called "hunting" in this crazy world?

The author roughly divides the more common hunting anime works into 4 types, namely "human predator type", "bloody killing type", "mental tumor type" and "sick and shivering S type", and then I will analyze them one by one.

Human predator type

The first is the "human predator type". As mentioned in the introduction, there are no natural enemies of human beings on Earth today. After the extinction of the dinosaurs, the largest animal on land was the elephant, and the difference in the size of humans standing in front of the elephant was far from the difference with the dinosaurs, so in terms of size alone, it is understandable for humans to become the overlord of the land, not to mention the advanced weapons to help support it. Human beings stand at the top of the food chain, and if there are no moral restrictions, it can be said that there is nothing in the world that cannot be eaten, as evidenced by Shimabukuro Lightyear's "Captive of Food".

Such a privileged position made humans forget the fear of being "eaten", so cartoonists created "man-eating predators" to take humans back to the horrors of the age of dinosaurs. The most famous of these works today is undoubtedly "Attack on Titan", and the mere appearance of a giant on Earth that is only dozens of times larger than a human being (with a mediocre IQ) is enough to force humanity into a walled life and face the danger of extinction. Humanity must be caught in this situation before it can truly understand the natural rule of "the law of the jungle".

In addition to "giants", there is another "human predator" with a longer history in the aerial works, that is, "zombies". Nowadays, the zombie theme is very popular, thanks to the first real zombie TV series "The Walking Dead" in the United States, which has repeatedly broken ratings records. Of course, this trend also affects animation works.,I believe that 2010's "School Apocalypse" is still fresh in everyone's memory, right? The sudden outbreak of Resident Evil has brought about a drastic change in daily life, and the students turned into warriors have fought their way through waves of corpses in order to survive. And "Corpse Brother", which has sprung up in domestic webtoons in the past two years, also uses this kind of theme.

The fear of predators has pulled humans from the top of the food chain. Humans, like other creatures on Earth, have become ordinary creatures that can be "eaten" at any time, which is both exciting and thought-provoking.

Bloody Killing

The second is the "bloody killing type". In the modern society where drone technology is becoming more and more developed, it is getting closer and closer to the realm of "strategizing and winning thousands of miles away". Even if war really breaks out, mankind will no longer feel the bloody killing of the Cold Weapon Age.

The documentary "The Resurrected Army" once mentioned the brutal battle scenes of the Qin army during the Warring States Period, "the Qin people charged forward with the enemy's head hanging on their waists", and after the war, the battle exploits would be determined according to the number of heads - you can imagine what kind of picture it was. Even the way of execution has become more humane, how can the execution and electric chair compare to the ancient Chinese Ling Chi cannon branding, the five horse corpses and the ancient European iron **?

In order to satisfy the curiosity of human beings in this regard, many heavy-tasting works will innovate in bloody scenes, striving to achieve a more stimulating effect for the senses. One of the more representative works is Ao Haozai's "Killing City". This work has just ended, and there are animated versions and live-action movies. From the Chinese translation, it can be seen that the selling point of this work is "killing", and it is also a killing that occurs in the "city". Many of the scenes in the manga version use live-action photos, and the real Japanese streets are crumbled in the slaughter, and the familiar scenes are turned into ruins, a shock that cannot be felt in a story set in an otherworldly world.

In addition, there is another work that has become a hot topic because it has just released a series of theatrical animations, and that is Kentaro Miura's "Legend of the Sword Wind". Although the final chapter of the theatrical version of the trilogy, "Golden Age III: Arrival", has been reduced from R18 to R15, it still attracts a large number of audiences with its heavy taste as a selling point.

The "PUPA" that is currently on the air, and the just-concluded "Danganronpa" are both recent bloody masterpieces. The former is a naked cannibal and blood-hungry (although the broadcast version is darkened), and the latter abstracts the scene of the "execution", with a feeling of "horror fairy tale". In addition, Yoshihiro Tomiyatsu's "Full-Time Hunter" also has a strong taste, the Phantom Brigade that has lost an important companion launches a massacre in Yukexin City, almost all the people who participate in the auction are chopped into mashed meat, and the most is sucked away by the vacuum cleaner, and the head of the regiment still stands by the window and directs this killing melody intoxicated. Even if it is a new version that is recognized as "younger age", this plot still looks shocking and curious.

Psychoneoplasty

Again, it is a "psychotic tumor type". In our fathers' time, there was no such thing as a "psychiatrist". In the past, doctors only treated visible internal and external injuries, but now doctors have to study and overcome even invisible "mental illnesses". Perhaps the emergence of this profession is a reflection of the increasing and serious psychological pathologies of human beings in modern society.

Recently, everyone often hears a sentence that is "high pressure", the pressure of students studying, the pressure of small white-collar work, the pressure of families with objects, and the pressure of urging marriage without objects, as if all the things that people do in life can bring us pressure. As a result, there are a lot of stress-relieving toys on the market, such as "screaming chickens", small programs specially designed to knock on computer screens, and a lot of violent games.

This is a well-developed, strong, affluent and wealthy society, and at the same time, it is also a society that sells fame and fame and seeks profit. When the whole society is vaguely showing a pathological development trend, it is difficult for people living in society not to get sick. The mental illness brought on by the stress of life and the emptiness of the spirit is eroding our spirit and affecting our aesthetics.

In the recent dark hunting animation, one name that must be mentioned is the void abyss. This veteran otaku is definitely a terrible mental tumor, whether it is "Madoka Magical Girl" that subverts the traditional magical girl animation, or "FATEZERO" that gathers many **, or "Psychometrician" with the central idea of "eliminating violence and peace" but making ** crazy killing methods more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, each of his works is full of ** magic. These depressing stories are full of venting, and it is strange that there will be a hearty feeling after reading it.

"Magical Girl Anime" is a very mainstream genre of Japanese animation. When everyone's impression of magical girls is still stuck in the lively and cute mascot, gorgeous transformation under catchy spells, wearing beautiful clothes, waving magic wands to fight monsters, but Xuyuan Xuan proposed a new concept of "magical girls' battles are also life-threatening". In his writing, the world of magical girls becomes a sick space full of depression and despair. No matter what danger you encounter, it seems that you can use "love and justice" to get through smoothly, or a magical girl who has Prince Charming to save her, but in fact, she will lose her head if she is not careful.

Sick and shivering S-type

The last is "sick and shivering S". The more representative and influential figures in the sick Jiao are the two heroines in "Day on Campus" and my wife Yuno in "Future Diary". The former is the origin of the word "sick Jiao", and the latter is popular on the Internet and deeply rooted in the hearts of the people with a picture of a god with both hands on his cheeks and an intoxicated expression.

"Sick Jiao" is actually the "sick" of "Jiao", and "sick" refers not to physical weakness, but to mental illness, the biggest feature is that he is pathologically crazy infatuated with the male protagonist, and will use violent threats or kidnapping and imprisonment to force the male protagonist to stay with him.

It is usually believed that the very special "cute girl" genre of "sick girl" was produced after the release of the game version of "Day on Campus" in 2005, in fact, the author can't help but want to say that as early as 1994, my country has already appeared in film and television works A very typical sick role, that is, Jiang Shan played Du Mei in the TV series "Addicted". Du Mei once tied up the dialect of the male protagonist played by Wang Zhiwen, and then held a kitchen knife in his hand to ask the other party if he loved him. It's just that later the illness did not become popular in my country.

"Sick Jiao" is mainly aimed at male-oriented works, but in fact, there have been many roles that have "similarities" with Sick Jiao in female-oriented works recently, and this kind of role is usually divided into "Shake S male protagonist". This is evident in otome games and radio dramas, such as the TV anime "Devil's Lover", which was based on the game of the same name, which ended shortly ago, and the radio drama CD "Egoist of the Eclipse", which will be released in April and May by 5pb., and the radio drama CDs "Imprisoned Man" and "BADMEDICINE", which are currently on sale. The male protagonist is no longer a prince charming who takes good care of the heroine, but a handsome villain who will do things to the heroine and carry out all kinds of "humiliation" with cold disgust and arrogance. In addition, there is a more shameful "Queen Bee" series, which really makes people want to sigh: "Everyone's taste is really getting heavier and heavier!" ”

Both men and women seem to be no longer satisfied with the "sweet and pure love" they used to have, and they are going farther and farther on the road of curiosity. Light love is no longer enough to satisfy everyone's **, and the appearance of sick and shaking S just caters to everyone's desire to "be loved fiercely".

New works worth looking forward to in the near future

After talking about the recent popular hunting works, I would like to recommend a few new works that will come out soon.

The first is "Martian Xenomorph", which has just been announced that the TV animation and OVA animation will be performed at the same time. This work was scripted by Yu Kika, Kenichi Tachibana created the manga, and was selected as the champion work of the adult manga group by the 2013 edition of "This Manga is Really Powerful", and it was also the runner-up of Japan's "National Bookstore Clerk's Recommended Manga 2013", so this announcement of animation is not surprising at all.

It is worth mentioning that when "Martian Xenomorph" first started serialization, Gui Jiayou, who wrote the script, was still a college student. The most special thing about this work is that it brings the protracted battle between humans and cockroaches to the stage of the universe, and tells the story of an alternative battle between humans and evolved cockroaches in the new environment of Mars.

After the release of Stephen Chow's "Tang Bohu Dots Autumn Fragrance", the earth cockroach was affectionately called "Xiaoqiang" by the Chinese. The reason why this name is so deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, in addition to Stephen Chow's personal influence, is also because the word "strong" in "Xiaoqiang" very accurately characterizes the species of cockroaches. The "strong" of cockroaches is reflected in many aspects, such as strong vitality, can fly, cannot be killed, strong fecundity, fast speed, ubiquitous, strong adaptability, etc. The reason why such a powerful enemy did not rule the earth was probably because they were too weak in size. The ordinary cockroach on the earth is already a nightmare for countless people, so when it evolves into a new species that is taller than humans, you can imagine what a terrible picture it will be.

In addition, there is a "human predator type" hunting work "Tokyo Ghoul" has also just announced the news of animation. This is the debut work of manga artist Cui Ishida.,Now a single book out の版 to volume 9.。 Set in modern Tokyo, the work tells the story of a kind of "meow" that looks like a human but feeds on humans, slowly devouring the Anthropocene realm. The male protagonist became a semi-mew because of the transplantation of the organs of the meow species. At first glance, the story looks somewhat similar to Attack on Titan, with the same cannibal monsters and the male protagonist being caught between monsters and humans.

This setting is also very reminiscent of Iwa's masterpiece "Parasitic Beast". Now this work has also been announced as a live-action film, starring Someya Shota and Ai Hashimoto. As can be seen from the title of the book, the monsters in "Parasitic Beasts" exist in a "parasitic" way, which is more secretive than giants and zombies, and the male protagonist is also a "parasitic body" sandwiched between monsters and humans. This seems to have become an unspoken rule of this kind of work.

The popularity of domestic hunting anime exploded

In the hunting craze set off by "The Walking Dead" and "Attack on Titan", I believe there will be more heavy-tasting works. Now we move our attention back to China, in fact, there are many similar works in China, and they have achieved very good results, the more prominent one is the familiar "Corpse Brother". This zombie comic, which was born in 2011, has launched an animated version, and the number of hits of the comic version has exceeded 2 billion in November last year. Different from traditional American zombie works, "Corpse Brother" incorporates a lot of localized silk elements, which makes domestic audiences feel very cordial, for example, in overseas zombie movies, there will never be a male protagonist who escapes zombie hunting by throwing money.

A similar work is "Mr. Marvel in China", which tells the story of Wang Xiaoer, an onmyoji who fights zombies after entering the city to work. In just 3 months after the launch of this work, it has achieved an astonishing result of more than 100 million hits, and there is a trend of latecomers taking over. The animated version will be broadcast next week (February 28), so interested friends may wish to pay attention to it. Although it is a work with a Taoist theme, it is different from the zombies with yellow charms on their heads in traditional Hong Kong-style movies, and the man-eating zombies that appear in this work are more American. While retaining the traditional style of Taoist demons, it also has a little "foreign atmosphere".

"Hunting" is actually a relative concept, and there must be a reference standard to determine what hunting is. If we want to say that a work is "weird", the premise is that there must be a large number of previous works that tell us what is "normal". In the mainstream entertainment that celebrates hot-blooded youth and sweet love, the hunting works that attract attention with demons and monsters and violent gore are like peculiar seasonings, which can bring a little taste stimulation after everyone is tired of eating big fish and meat.

Because of "weirdness", this kind of works seem to be destined to stay in the circle of niche entertainment since their birth, but now we can see that their territory is gradually expanding. "The Walking Dead" has brought zombies from movie theaters to TV screens, and has been successfully signed for season 5. "Attack on Titan" has reduced humans to food, stealing between the teeth of giants, and now it has to make a live-action version. Whether it's "Harry Potter" or "Twilight", these works that are popular all over the world have a lingering dark element in them. They are recognized and welcomed precisely because the audience needs them.

epilogue

Perhaps, in this overly bland society, we need something that can stimulate the heartbeat. Let's really feel the feeling of being "alive" from the pounding heartbeat.