The One-Inch Barrier

One of the greatest cultural phenomenon from the past decade was the HBO-produced show based on the series of novels by George R.R. Martin, Game of Thrones. Though its ending was less than stellar, one can hardly deny the impact it has had on popular culture.

There were perhaps many reasons why people watched this television series, but chief among them are likely to be for its storytelling and drama. If I were to recommend shows to a viewer based on a shallow level of the aesthetics and setting of Game of Thrones, I would most likely recommend several which take place in a medieval society or fantasy world. On Netflix alone, The Last Kingdom and The Witcher are two off of the top of my head, both fantastically entertaining shows, perfect for plopping down onto the couch for an evening binge session. But there are two series which I would more readily recommend to one who enjoyed HBO's legendary program, and these perhaps not exactly what they would expect.

The first of these is an anime series called Attack on Titan. Now before you roll your eyes at the word "anime", hear me out. Though the advent of the internet has managed to all but eliminate international borders in the exchange of media, anime and its fandoms have held, and often still hold a certain reputation in the mainstream, one that is often less than flattering. But in the middle years of the 2010s, Attack on Titan burst onto the scene, opening the floodgates and exposing the genre to an audience who would never before have even dreamed of watching anime.

A huge reason why Game of Thrones was so popular was because of its storytelling--it was a subversion of traditional fantasy tropes and a deconstruction of the genre, focusing on the not-so-magic-and-sparkly elements that one tends to associate with the word "fantasy." Instead, it focused on the darkest and most base elements of human nature and how the writer imagined those things would play out in a fantasy world with prophesied heroes, dragons, and otherworldly beings. For the duration of the show while it still had source material to go off of, viewers were left having to pick their jaws up off of the floor during many scenes when they were not too busy screaming and looking away from the brutal nature of them. Yet, with each wild turn of events which the audience did not expect, we saw that what had culminated in the story was the only thing that could have happened, and with each successful subversion of expectations and twist in the plot, we found ourselves even more deeply engrossed in the story and invested in the characters and their stories to a greater degree.

Attack on Titan did for anime during the 2010s what Game of Thrones did for medieval/fantasy television. Attack on Titan takes place in a world where man-eating titans have forced the remnants of humanity inside a walled territory, where one step outside of them can lead to an unfortunate morning rendezvous of becoming a titan's breakfast. The characters attempt to navigate such a world, in addition to the political ploys which occur among the humans within the walls. Attack on Titan not only has the same "oh sh*t" storytelling as did Game of Thrones, filled with gruesome scenes and jaw-dropping plot elements, but it also explores the human nature and psyche as the story progresses, asking some poignant questions about very mature concepts and themes along the way. As long as the viewer is willing to watch Japanese animation without any preconceived notions concerning the genre and what they think it should be, and they are willing to give the medium a try, the viewer will find themselves embarking upon a wild ride which they shall not regret.

The second and last of my recommendations is a work produced by Netflix and available on their website for streaming, a South Korean series called Kingdom. A series which took the viewers of its native country by storm, Kingdom whisks its audience halfway across the world to the medieval Korean kingdom of Joseon. A mysterious outbreak plagues the country, and it is up to a prince caught in political intrigues to find the truth behind the disease and save the nation, or die trying. Like the aforementioned two series, Kingdom likewise will please viewers who enjoy political drama, an exploration of nitty-gritty human nature, and last but not least, zombies. Akin to Game of Thrones, viewers will find themselves sufficiently "subversed" and in shock.

If you have made it this far, you may have noticed that both recommendations I have suggested are not of the English language. Why have I done this? I would like to view my earlier suggestions as a sort of appetizer, a kind of gateway to introduce viewers to different sorts of media from other countries. Too often I have seen people restrain themselves from enjoying a certain medium of storytelling because of preconceived notions or an aversion to that terrible, one-inch barrier we call subtitles. There is so much meaningful and beautiful storytelling happening in all parts of the world, and it is truly tragic if one allows themselves to be held back because the story is not relayed to them in spoken English.

Because of the internet, no genre can truly be considered niche anymore. In reality, when we explore media that has crossed the oceans and which we consider "niche", we are actually consuming what is already popular in other countries. Before we let the stigma of "niche" cloud our judgement, we should try to remember that these things are popular for a reason. After all, we are all human, with a deep hunger for interesting stories and fantastic storytelling, a desire that transcends all cultures. Hollywood movies that do well in the US tend to do well overseas, and there is no reason why it shouldn't work vice versa. Luckily, the general public and established institutions seem to be opening themselves up and becoming more receptive to foreign-language media, as the Parasite Academy Award win shows. As it is with food, one can only know what is palatable and fitting to their tastes only if they are willing to take the first bite.

I regret to inform the reader that what I have written is not a true formula or algorithm for successfully recommending content they will be likely to watch, because streaming services already do that for us. In fact, a viewer who is consistently watching differing types of media will diversify their algorithmic profiles, introducing them to a slew of new content they never knew existed. Rather, it is my hope to convince people (at least a little) to open themselves up to different mediums and genres in languages other than English, to explore whole other worlds beyond what they already know, and to not be restrained by cultural boundaries. In truth, the only borders we must break are those within our minds, and once we have done that, there will be countless stories for us to discover, waiting to be told.