Introduction

Tragedy is one of the oldest literary genres, and since its origins, in the classical period of Greece, this kind of depiction of the unfortunate situation of the characters has grasped the weakest elements of the human heart and has endured. Japan, located in the far east, also has a strong tradition of tragic consciousness, from "Kojiki" to "The Tale of Genji", from "Harukoto" to "Kinkakuji", this tragic feeling has always lingered. Although anime works are entertainment products on a larger scale, the Japanese preference for tragic aesthetics still makes ACG products always indispensable to pathos, in fact, it is this almost stubborn "joy and sorrow" plot that has contributed to the production of many classics. Let's take a look at how this sense of tragedy integrated into the Japanese cultural animation works is expressed through one work after another.

Classification of tragic forms in anime

Although collectively referred to as "tragic consciousness", different works are quite different in terms of concrete expressions. In this article, we will only limit the scope of Japanese anime works, and given the sheer size of ACG's product range, it is almost impossible to summarize all of them in terms of form. Therefore, here are only some more representative and highly recognized works as representatives, and the more typical categories are sorted out for readers.

From a relatively broad point of view, the author divides the tragic consciousness in Japanese anime into four categories: 1. Life has a life, life and death are impermanent-this is the sentimentality of mortals for the cycle of life and death that cannot be jumped out; 2. The grasshopper shakes the tree, unable to return to the sky - this is the weakness and frustration of the individual in the face of the torrent of the times that is difficult to change; 3. Heaven has sent me a fate to do something - this will have a slight smell of fatalism and original sin; 4. Love, love and concubine, it is difficult to achieve in the end - love is an artistic theme that tragedy never fades, and the same is true for animation works.

Life has a life, life and death are impermanent

Death is always one of the themes that most touches the weakness of the heart, and as a people who exalt the beauty of cherry blossoms and emptiness to the extreme, the Japanese are also happy to depict the impact of death in anime, and use the death of the characters to promote the plot and create the atmosphere. Thanks to it, many authors have won the "reputation" of "killing XX", the most representative is undoubtedly the author of "The Legend of the Galactic Heroes" Yoshiki Tanaka, because of his dedication to letting the characters receive the bento, the high death rate of his characters is the best in the same type of works. A "Yinying" is a chronicle of many heroes and trendsetters of the times going to Huangquan one after another. Young, Reinhardt, Gilfias, Rochenthal, and Xiankob, regardless of the severity of the scene, each vivid character carries the murderous Tanaka's different pursuit of the beauty of death, and dies after burning the most dazzling brilliance of life.

Another example is "Big Sword", where the sister character went forward and died tragically, and "X-Men", which did not lose his life because there were too many dead people...... Although it is said that "the death of one or two people is an event, and the death of hundreds or thousands of people is just a count", when the vivid backs are swallowed up by time, the sentimental feelings brought by it are naturally needless to say.

Basically, most of these works that send characters out of the scene have a similar characteristic, that is, the theme of "war". From this point, it may be possible to see a certain reflection of this kind of Japanese anime author on the war - the prolongation of the fire of war must come at the cost of death, and death is fair, no matter whether you are the imperial marshal who points the fingers and rebukes Fang Xuan, or the martial arts master who divides the stone and breaks the gold with explosive combat power, in the face of death, in fact, it is just a matter of closing your eyes and kicking your feet. Endless strife can only lead to equally endless sacrifices, leaving untold suffering for the living.

The main theme of these works is not so much a nostalgia for the fragility of life, but rather an irretrievable form of death (let's ignore the infinite loop genre of X Dragon Ball) that makes people rethink the purpose of war, the obsession with getting stronger, and the endless desire for power—themes that are often seen in these anime. Although it is a bit suspicious of self-slapping, when the Queen Mother Regent of Hilde hugged Alexander and looked at the only remaining Marshal of the Lion Spring, when Gus faced the corpses of the members of the Eagle Regiment all over his eyes, they must have a different understanding of life and death than ordinary people.

The grasshopper shook the tree, and there was no power to return to the sky

Different from the sense of tragedy created by stacking death through guò, there is also another common method of individual tragedy in Japanese anime, which is to portray the indescribable sense of powerlessness and loss of individuals in the face of the unchangeable general situation. Just like Yu Lian in "Red and Black", he tried hard to climb up, trying to realize his ambition that was not actually strong, but in the end he failed fiercely, like a small worm, crushed by the times. Here, let's take Gundam, the most representative series of Japanese anime, as an example.

In fact, from the first installment, Mobile Suit Gundam, the production team led by Yuki Tomino (who was then called Hideyuki Tomino) has deliberately implanted this sense of powerlessness in the face of big history in the face of "small people". From the original Amuro to Camus in Z, from Barney in 0080 to Banaji in Unicorn, almost every UC Gundam has always haunted the protagonist of this tragedy, UC Gundam has never had a chance to be reunited, even if the male protagonist is a NewType who can be a thousand in the vast universe, it does not change the fact that they are just small pawns of different forces in the long and dark cosmic century.

They are strong and weak at the same time, they may go through a lot of growth, break out of the cocoon of middle two and weakness, understand the connection between strength and responsibility, and begin to try to use their own strength to protect the people or things they love, but in the end, the facts presented to them are often cruel and helpless, the wheel of history has not been tilted because of one or two NT active expressions, one qiē and one qiē are still happening step by step. Amuro could not prevent Lara's death, nor could he prevent the whereabouts of Axis, and the decay of the upper echelons of the Federation could not be changed by this ACE driver who had only the rank of captain all his life; Camus, who has always been in the second year of secondary school and has never been surpassed, is actually the male protagonist who has grown up more obviously in the past Gundam works, but he can only watch Feng, Rosamia, and Emma die in his arms one after another, and in the end, even he has to pay the tragic price of insanity......

As a representative of the "little people", Barney, who was just an ordinary soldier from beginning to end, tried to fight a war that only belonged to him within the scope of his ability, but what was the result? The truce between the Federation and Zeon makes his sacrifice almost meaningless (the later version of the novel gives him redemption, which makes the work less appealing), and his gamble on Qiē's actions does not change anything; And Banaji Links, who has almost cheating ability, takes this "tradition" that is not worth boasting about to the extreme, and after an odyssey that runs around and repeatedly brushes with death, he can only watch his Audrey (Minerva Zabi) leave him to fulfill the "duty" of a princess......

In the face of non-reciprocal power (it may be a force, it may be an idea, or it may be an irresistible era), no matter how strong the power of the individual is, no matter how hard the efforts and attempts are, after all, it cannot change anything, and can only watch the one around oneself - even oneself being taken away, crushed, and finally feeling sad and sad, this kind of sighing may be regarded as a projection of Japan's inherent ideas that the collective consciousness is far stronger than the individual consciousness in the anime works.

Heaven has commanded me, and I have to do it

Unlike the above-mentioned personal sense of weakness in the face of the times, there is also a situation in Japanese anime works where the protagonist is unknowingly or involuntarily given some kind of mission, and thus "has to" be placed in a fate. If it is said that the former is against the era of too powerful, and it is "knowing that it cannot be done", then the latter is against the self with fate, which is "knowing what it can do but not wanting to do", and the heavier the fate, the more it can increase the power of the tragic consciousness contained in it to shake people's hearts.

More than a decade ago, a "Winged God of the World" played an ending world that was a mixture of stream of consciousness and all sorts of obscure hints, leaving almost every reader shuddering. In fact, I am afraid that most readers, like the author at the time, do not fully understand the complex construction of the work, but they should be able to basically empathize with the heavy sense of oppression of the things that the protagonist carries. The melody, which is somewhere between beauty and suffocation, is accompanied by a huge humanoid object with a strange shape, presented in a vibrant note, striking the reader's eardrum and heart. Even if you can't sort out the cause and effect of the story, it's hard not to be moved when you see that the protagonist who is a performer needs to dedicate his own qiē to "tune" the world.

If in "Tsubasa Kami Sekine", the male protagonist Ayato has a more positive perception of the fate he carries, so until the end, the audience is mainly embarrassed by his inevitable tragic fate, then in another well-known work "Neon Genesis Evangelion", the male protagonist Shinji, who is also given a heavy fate, is trying to escape most of the time. His weakness actually reflects the negative feelings that human beings show in the face of crises most of the time, knowing that there are some things that must be done and that he cannot do them, but he just wants to adopt a negative attitude and is unwilling to face them directly. In fact, this can be regarded as another expression of this kind of tragic consciousness in anime works, in which the protagonist is even inferior to the general public in his psychological strength, although he bears a fate that is unbearable for ordinary people, so he will always stage a scene of escape and chase fate.

This situation also provokes the audience to think: "Why entrust such a heavy fate to such a fragile young person (or even a minor)?" "Is it really obligated for the protagonist to accept the full burden of responsibility beyond his own means?" Psychological entanglement is the specialty of many anime authors, especially in tragic works, and when the protagonist is given some kind of overly lofty mission, this entanglement will be more "legitimate", which seems to be taken for granted, and it is easier to resonate with readers, making their hearts turbulent with the protagonist's encounter.

Fatalism is often a bit religious, and at the same time, it is very popular in all kinds of Japanese works, especially anime. Whether it is the aforementioned "Tsubasaki Shiyin" or "New World Evangelion", or even the aforementioned "Gundam" and "Legend of the Galactic Heroes" series, there will actually be some more or less similar shadows, the protagonists are often some kind of very special beings - they have the ability to surpass ordinary people, but as a price, they cannot have ordinary happiness. Once he is given a certain mission, the character's life trajectory has actually been shaped on a certain course, and he can only go on according to the "arrangement", and if necessary, he also needs to dedicate his own qi at the appropriate time, whether he agrees with it or not, he cannot change the fact that he is manipulated by fate. Maybe sometimes, being an inconsequential outsider is also a blessing (of course, there is also a high possibility of becoming cannon fodder passer-by when the catastrophe comes).

Lang's love and concubine will be difficult to achieve in the end

Love is an eternal theme in literary and artistic works, and Japanese anime is naturally not exempt from vulgarity, except for shoujo manga, which is inherently inseparable from love, it is not uncommon for other types of anime to tell stories with this rose-colored theme. But since the theme of this article is tragic consciousness, let's focus on some sad love stories.

In fact, there is a special word for tragic love in traditional Japanese literature, called "**", which may as well be borrowed here. Of course, the original meaning of the word "**" is as literal as it sounds, with psychological or physiological meanings, but since it is just borrowed, there is no need to be too entangled.

Counting the tragic works in Japanese romance anime, it can be found that these works will more or less work on the point of "sadistic heart". After all, too sweet love can't make readers have more aftertaste except for flashbangs, but the sadistic plot bit by bit is like a soft knife cutting meat, which makes people feel painful but can't stop. This element of abuse varies from work to work. In "The Final Weapon", Shuji can only watch his lover Chise turn into the "final weapon" step by step, and finally, in a world that has been ruined, he lives in the "body of Chise" (from this point of view, the two are together forever)...... The delicate portrayal of emotional changes in the work makes the love tragedy of this work more lethal, and the strong gap between the cruel plot and the soft character (of course, only the heroine) brings the element of "abuse" to the extreme, and has an extremely strong depressive effect.

Compared with the world love that is enough to ruin miè qiē, Xinghai Cheng's "Five Centimeters per Second" is another style. Although it also takes love as the theme and tells a sad story, the story of "Second Speed" does not see the "big scene" of death or life at all, but is full of a faint youthful sentimentality, but the "abuse" power has not weakened much. Because the environment created is very realistic, the helplessness of the hero and heroine in the work of "Lang love and concubine, it is difficult to achieve it in the end" runs throughout, even if there is no girlfriend time = age of the general house, it is easy to empathize (?) Although it doesn't feel like the whole world is gray like after reading some earth-shattering works, the bitterness that wells up in my throat may still make the sentimentality accumulate for a while.

In fact, in the final analysis, the "abuse" of "**" is not only an abuse of characters, but also abuse of readers, although it cannot be said that most of the audience is M (although there is a "suffer" word), but as mentioned above, tragedy can touch people's hearts more than comedy, and love tragedy is often the more miserable, so that readers feel that they are abused more ruthlessly, the more widely recognized. There are even times when the characters themselves do not have an obvious sense of "abuse", but the audio-visual officials from the perspective of God can burst a few tears after being abused.

For example, the late director Satoshi Kon's "Millennium Actress", many people may have different opinions on whether the work should be classified as love, but in terms of the form of the table, the key given by the painter to Chiyoko has indeed become her inner support and comfort, maybe this is not love in the conventional sense, but Chiyoko, who has been acting all her life, has been pursuing most of her life, maybe it is still the kind of platonic love thirst. For this reason, she worked hard, she struggled, she worked tirelessly, maybe deep down, she already knew that what she was chasing was just a dreamlike bubble, but at least she never gave up. In the case of this work, the worst abuse is probably not Chiyoko, but the viewers who have already known about it in front of the screen. Looking at the woman in the picture who gave everything she had for an illusory dream and struggled for many years, even the hardest heartfelt person would have a little heart-wrenching pain. Jin Min is worthy of being a ghost, and probably after watching this work, people know that the original "**" can also be expressed in such a timeless and long form.

epilogue

The unique geographical environment and historical and cultural background have shaped the unique tragic aesthetic interest of the Japanese people, and even in the field of subculture of the era of anime works, there are also diverse and profound forms of expression. Tragedy is more intimidating than comedy, and tragedy consciousness is more suitable as a bearer of ideas and culture. Even in today's entertainment-oriented environment, anime works full of tragedy still exist. Whether it is the feeling of the fragility of life, or the helplessness of fighting fate, or the praise and ridicule of fate and love, it is the best embodiment of this tragic consciousness. It's just that in recent years, with the extreme development of ACG's commercialization, more and more works have begun to devote themselves to catering to the pure market demand, and gradually diluted the expression of emotions and ideas at all ends.