I'm actually in the midst of a Reddit argument about what the anime "BNA" is about, which really comes down to the premises of what justifies suspension of disb

I'm actually in the midst of a Reddit argument about what the anime "BNA" is about, which really comes down to the premises of what justifies suspension of disbelief. It's a Studio Trigger show, and they are known for adding in a lot of over the top elements with subtextual justifications that give love-it-or-hate-it reactions. But with this one, it seems like audiences had no idea how to read the subtext and took it to be "Zootopia racism allegory." So the reading of the rest of the text was completely thrown off and ability to suspend disbelief was lost. Most reviews, even from critics who should have the necessary cultural background, say the writing makes no sense or is contradictory. The actual subtext is "Modern Japan's History". Which, if you know Trigger shows well, you know they've done before in Kill La Kill. And with this reading, and a little knowledge of the various events, it makes perfect sense what is going on, even if the specifics are pretty tangled: the use of traditional mythical creatures, re-opening to the West, the coming of Christian missionaries, etc. There's a main plot, but it discusses these things mostly in episodic fashion, loosely repurposing various symbolic elements to suit the scene. The way in which this repurposing occurs has a nice way of merging otherwise disparate themes into a tapestry of resemblances. That's the centerpiece of the storytelling, and I think they did a marvelous job of weaving it all together and still maintaining a character-driven surface text in a 12 episode series. It's rewatchable, and you can spot new readings in it each time. Nothing is being wasted in the writing. But...it's also clearly inaccessible, going by the reviews. Nobody who wanted another Zootopia wants to be told that actually, there was one episode roughly about that, but also ones about disenfranchised war veterans, exploitation of the poor, the influence of cults on politics, etc. The way in which it rushes through all of those things without time to add a lot of "narrative arrows" for every theme ensured that people were never going to follow along well, especially not foreign audiences. Realism, in the end, comes down to what you believe reality is supposed to be, and that tends to be something an audience older than about 8 years of age is burdened with when they try to experience a story: they can't read it as anything but what they know is normal. So adding magic or magic-indistinguishable technology as a symbolic component - a "wish away the problem" - often does work better than most other strategies of discussing reality. The extra indirection allows profundities to slip into the viewer's mind. But when the premises are unclear to the audience, magic and other fantastical elements also tends to get the reactions BNA got - "I don't know what this is about, and also, why isn't it doing the thing it is about." And from there the nitpicking about how it's unrealistic or "forced" writing sets in.