What Makes an Anime Gothic?

[00:00:00]Is this your vibe?

[00:00:08]Haunting storylines, creatures of the night, intricate and spiky architecture, frilly clothes, brooding protagonists, and moody color palettes. Gothic anime has such a vibe to it, [music] and I want to dissect that vibe. lay it out on the table, slice into it, and take a close look at all the little pieces that make an anime like that. My mother used to read Gothic literature to me as a [music] toddler.

[00:00:41]So, it was only natural that as I got into anime, I found myself drawn to these darker story lines that explored the supernatural and also had an underlying sense of dread. It's a genre I have quite literally been a fan of my entire life, no matter what form [music] it takes. But what exactly makes an anime gothic? Is it just aesthetics, or is there more to it than that? When talking about Gothic anime, we have to understand what makes something Gothic to begin with. Gothic literature, Gothic horror, Gothic fiction, it's all kind of the same thing. All Gothic anime and manga should fall into this category.

[00:01:23]Gothic literature paints a narrative on the backdrop of fear, often utilizing supernatural or paranormal elements to explore very real issues and fears present in the real world. Yes, Frankenstein's monster is social isolation and otherness. And there's a million different ways that you [music] could take Frankenstein's monster and the experience of the monster and twist it into whichever [music] worldview you're trying to twist it into. Isolation and otherness works well for a lot of different things. The vampire, a critique on exploitation in all its different forms. [music] It's all metaphors around here. But Gothic fiction is notably different from other types of horror. Plain horror sets out to make the [music] audience react.

[00:02:12]Feelings of disgust, flinching at jump scares. Gothic literature is less heavy-handed in eliciting an immediate reaction. Instead, focusing more on a general sense of dread. And in Gothic literature, we use the monsters as a tool to explore some [music] aspect of humanity beyond the ways that horror uses monsters as a standin for societal fears and anxieties. Some common themes in Gothic literature are vengeance, persecution, imprisonment, [music] death, and grief. The actual narrative structure in Gothic stories can be a bit confusing as we jump around in the timeline or jump between different narrators telling tales within tales.

[00:02:55]There's not a ton of anime that I can think of that does this jumping around.

[00:02:59]The da da da jumps around in the timeline and between different points of views, but I don't think the da da is a gothic anime. Um, but Boogie Pop and others, I've only seen the 2019 Boogie Pop anime, but that one [music] does jump around between narrators, points of views, and throughout the timeline as well. And I would argue Boogie Pop could very well be a gothic anime. Another example of this jumping around the timeline would be Interview with the Vampire. The AMC show is like the perfect example of tales within tales and different narrative structures and framing devices. And we jump all over the place with multiple narrators, which is fitting because the original novels the show is pulling from Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles is a very influential work in contemporary Gothic literature.

[00:03:49]And there's even a manga adaptation of Interview with a Vampire that is definitely a Gothic manga. As for Gothic narratives in anime and manga, I want to take a look at a few series and kind of break down the aspects of their Gothic narratives to kind of talk about how they fit into this literary archetype or genre. Black Butler is one of the main series mentioned when talking about Gothic anime. And if you've seen my channel before, you know I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about Black Butler. It's got the peak gothic aesthetic with the Victorian setting and the late 2000s anime vibe to it, which is notable because most people or at least most posts that I see talking about Gothic anime are also talking about nostalgia anime. So, a lot of the Gothic anime aesthetic post or at least the ones I have seen pretty much exclusively pull from vintage anime cell animation film grain mid 2000s pointy art styles.

[00:04:49]That's not what this video is about, so I'm not going to discuss it much further. What about Black Butler's story makes it a perfect example for a Gothic anime? From the get-go, we're told the story is about one kid's quest for vengeance. a common theme.

[00:05:06]Seal Phantomhive makes a contract with a demon to avenge his family's brutal murder and his own torture at the hands of a demonic cult. The series is steeped in supernatural elements from demons and grim reapers to even zombie-like creatures, ghosts, and witches. Yeah, I know ghosts is mostly a season 1 original thing, but it counts. Most people, including Black Butler in Gothic anime lists, are talking about season 1.

[00:05:34]Time and time again, Black Butler explores themes of grief [music] and exploitation. We see the worst humanity has to offer through the greed that drives people to become villains, through the desperation of pawns, and others aspiring to play God. The Bizarre Dolls, while more of a combination of zombie and vampire and how they function, are also reminiscent of Frankenstein's monster being given life through one man's experimentations.

[00:06:03]And the entire story is painted in grief. For Seiel, it's the grief for his family and his childhood and himself.

[00:06:12]While the series oscillates between its more humorous moments and its darker themes, grief is always present in the background. Many of the main cast and supporting reoccurring characters struggle with their grief, having it be a motivator for many of their actions. A few of the antagonists in this series are also motivated by grief. Rebuilding a family that was taken from them, lashing out to sue a loss, pushing forward in the memory of a lost love.

[00:06:43]Grief is everywhere. Another staple for Gothic anime is Vampire Night, a series about vampires trying to coexist with humans, attempting to show the humanity in these monsters that still ultimately pose a threat. Gothic fiction does a lot to try and sympathize with the creatures often deemed as monsters. Finding the ways that humans can relate and because at the end of the day, humans are the real monsters in real life. Every fictional beast is based on some aspect of humanity. Vampires have been used to talk about many things in fiction. A standin for the rich and the ways that they exploit the working class. a sexualized creature making one reckon with their own desires. A sympathetic being forced into this monstrous life by another who came before, often serving as metaphors for sexual assault or forms of abuse. However, in Vampire Knight, the role of the vampire is more in the realms of exploitation and classism. We focus on the elite vampires and their politics as the story goes on. Moving from a story about a girl trying to protect the vampire secret to a girl wrapped up in the intricate conflict of vampire politics and the coexistence of vampires and humans. In Vampire Night, these vampires are being used as a tool to discuss classism and critique [music] the elite. Within vampires, there is a hierarchy. Pure blood vampires are the most powerful, but they're often born from families who participate in incest [music] in order to keep their family bloodline clean. I'm not entirely sure why, but there is a lot of incest in Gothic literature. There is probably a reason somebody much smarter than me and somebody who has studied this much more thoroughly could probably tell you. Um, if you have any ideas, please let me know. In the case of Vampire Knight, the incest is done [music] to keep the bloodline strictly vampiric. Pure blood vampires can trace their bloodline back to the original vampires that evolved from humans. This is reminiscent of how historically royalty would interbreed and marry within their higher social class and often their own families. It's hard to move up the social ladder when those at the top only marry each other.

[00:09:00]But aside from critiquing the elite, Vampire Knight is a story that is constantly haunted by the past, which is something you will find a lot in Gothic literature of focus on the past and the way that it has affected things going on now and the way that it hurts, harms, and haunts the characters or the setting or the entire narrative at large. In Vampire Night, the past actions of others, Yuki's past that was sealed away in her memories for most of the anime and at least half of the manga, serve as critical plot points that move things forward and shake things up in a way.

[00:09:39]Another series that I think perfectly encapsulates the Gothic anime and manga vibe is Pandora Hearts, the story of a boy whose very crime is his [music] existence. A tale so intertwined with the past that the main characters are running from and reckoning with the [music] tragedy from their past lives.

[00:09:57]On his 13th birthday, Oz is imprisoned [music] in the abyss, a nightmare dimension that was previously thought to just be a legend. Oz has to make a pact with a monstrous entity in order to escape. During his time in the abyss, a decade has passed in the real world, and once he's back, he's still 13. While the world around him has grown and moved on, we spend the rest of the series trying to uncover the truths of the past and why Oz was imprisoned. Clocking in on the very common gothic themes discussed earlier, Pandora Hearts is kind of the itgirl for mid-2000s Gothic series, complete with callbacks to Alice and Wonderland. Anime loved doing a little Wonderland call back in the 2000s. I kind of miss it. I know everything I just talked about is from the early to mid 2000s, but for a more modern example of a gothic series, the mangaka behind Pandora Hearts, Jun Mojisuki also wrote the case study of Anitas, a vampire story set primarily in Paris that focuses on themes of identity. I've not gotten super far into this yet, but I do see it mentioned a lot when talking about Gothic anime and manga.

[00:11:11]You'll find a big chunk of Gothic anime is just vampire stories. Vampire hunting, vampire romancing, [music] vampire vampire ring. Vampire aesthetic is Gothic aesthetics. So, it makes sense that a lot of Gothic anime is also vampires. For anime and manga, it is more than just the story that can make a series be considered gothic. While the narrative and themes are still a huge part of what makes something gothic, anime and manga are visual mediums. So, aesthetics do play a huge role in what people look for when classifying something as gothic. For example, there are series that are not narratively gothic, but still get lumped into gothic anime because of their visual style and potentially their relationship to music.

[00:11:58][music] And on the flip side, there are series that are Gothic, but I think are left out of the conversation due to their style not being what you think of when you think of Gothic aesthetic. But speaking of something I got into specifically for what it looked like, Vampire Hunter D, specifically the 2000 movie Blood Lust, is the perfect example of a gothic aesthetic. From the architecture to the character design, the color palette, [music] and even the shot composition, it's a delectable feast of beautiful animation and many scenes you'd find in a perfectly curated goth aesthetic Tumblr blog or Tik Tok. It's reminiscent of Western Gothic works, taking common elements like ruins, churches, maybe even ruins of a church, isolated locations, and while most Gothic works love to take advantage of a dark and stormy night, Vampire Hunter D.

[00:12:53]Bloodlust leans into the sweltering heat, the sun beating down and the dryness of the hot desert that is often utilized in Gothic works not set in a rainy European [music] region. This is done so to make the atmosphere feel oppressive and [music] um hopeless. I've not read any of the vampire hunterd novels, so I can't speak too much on the narrative at large, but both movies are about fending off monsters and fighting to preserve humanity despite [music] the titular character, the vampire hunter D himself, being half vampire, fighting against his monstrous nature to cling on to his humanity. The very thing that drives him to use his vampire strength to fight for [music] humans. This is a thing I've seen in other anime, fighting off monsters while being a part of the monster group. It's an interesting framing device for a character, a character who's been victimized by [music] the monsters, the system, becoming part of said system, but still vowing to fight against it. Self-hatred, fighting against their own nature. It's tragic, but the tragic character still retains some power against the system or the monsters that victimize them to begin with.

[00:14:08]>> [music] >> holding on to the indomitable human spirit, resisting the societal evils the monsters represent. With D, however, he was born out of love. Well, we can only assume, unless it's touched [music] on in the books, and I just didn't know it.

[00:14:25]A human presumably fell in love with a vampire and had a child. And due [music] to his mixed lineage, D is an outsider in both races. too much of a threat for humans, [music] not enough of a monster for vampires. It speaks to the loneliness some may feel when they're ostracized or struggling to find a place that they belong. In a way, maybe it's not all that different from the Frankenstein's monster story of being isolated and struggling to find a place where you can find love, where you can belong.

[00:14:59]I'm not saying that Vampire Hunter D is Frankenstein's monster, but I am saying I can see some narrative similarities in the themes that the characters could potentially explore. But one thing interesting about Vampire Hunter Deep Bloodlust is the damsel in distress is actually not a damsel in distress. Not in the way you would think. She's running away for love. deeply devoted to a vampire who's promising to whisk her away to a place where they can live happily and love freely. D isn't fighting to protect her from a monster she can see. Instead, fighting to protect her from the monster that he believes vampire to be, but the audience gets to see the gentle care and devotion the vampire holds for the human woman.

[00:15:44]The way he's able to hold back, resist the temptation to drink her blood, the way he's willing to sacrifice himself to protect her, adding an element of romance to the otherwise bleak and horrific world of vampires and demons.

[00:15:57]Vampire Hunter D is a quintessential Gothic anime movie. But when it comes to other aesthetic Gothic series, anime and manga often dive into Japanese subcultures to draw aesthetic inspo from as well. Gothic anime and manga tend to overlap in both Lolita and VK, both fashiondriven subcultures. VK, while fashion oriented, is also specifically about musicians and bands who utilize extravagant stage costumes. VK isn't necessarily a music genre, but originated with musical acts influenced by glam rock, heavy metal, punk, and gothic rock. Some examples of VK bands would be Malice Meiser, The Gazette, Sid, Lark, NCL, and funnily enough, a lot of Gothic anime will have music from VK bands. Black Butler has many opening and ending songs by Sid and even an opening by the Gazette. Death Note also has a couple songs by VK band Nightmare, just to name a couple examples. Lolita and the more masculine form OG fashion are very represented in Gothic anime, specifically Gothic Lolita, which takes the frilly European inspired hyper feminine fashion and paints it in dark colors, [music] sometimes mixed with historical European settings, but most the time linked to [music] a specific character who is often peculiar or otherworldly, perhaps in human creatures themselves.

[00:17:23]These fashion [music] choices are often done to make a character stand out, visually signify to the audience that they're strange and more often than not tied to the Gothic themes of the narrative. With some series like Black Butler or Pandora Hearts, the Lolita and OG fashions are used as a call back to the historical time [music] period, but they're not historically accurate fashion, which is really interesting to me. [laughter] As for VK styles in anime, Misa Man from Death Note often wears a lot of outfits that feel inspired by VK. [music] And series like Twisted Wonderland, which was a game at first, but also now has an anime and manga, definitely has VK inspirations in its character [music] design. Black Butler also doubles as a series with VK inspirations, which makes sense because of the Jana Tiboso of it all. She did both Twisted Wonderland and Black Butler. It seems to me though that VK inspo in anime tends to mostly be about the music used and less so the aesthetics of the show itself. Um, but there are series like Visual Prison where the entire show is dipped in VK both musically and aesthetically. I do find it particularly interesting that when most people talk about Gothic anime, they do mostly mean series that draw a lot on the visuals of Lolita and VK. For example, Nana is sometimes considered a Gothic anime due to its fashion [music] and use of goth music, but the narrative is decidedly not a gothic narrative. There's no ghosts, no monsters, no supernatural element used to explore the pitfalls of being human.

[00:18:58][music] Just two girls with the same name on the same train headed to the same place at the same time. It's a coming of age story of two girls struggling to find themselves as they [music] grow together in Tokyo, chasing past loves and looking for new ones while they build a future and somehow avoid actually dating each other. If you haven't seen it, Nana is the gayest non-gay thing you'll ever watch.

[00:19:24]>> Two girls doing it. How does that work?

[00:19:28]I guess Nana would be on top.

[00:19:32]What am I doing fantasizing about my roommate? If you've gotten really into Gothic literature, you've probably noticed there's more than one way to be Gothic. Swap the cathedrals and isolated English countryside for rotten barns, the woods, and the oppressive heat and humidity found in the American Southeast. And you've got southern Gothic exploring the sins of the American South. [music] Japan has its own spin to Gothic literature that shows up in anime and manga, oftentimes incorporating Japanese folklore. [music] series like Toilet Bound Hanukkan and Dusk Maiden of Amnesia um both explore different situations, fears, and anxieties through ghost stories that feel inherently Japanese or series like Blackbird that deal with Yo-kai. There's plenty of Gothic stories that are steeped in Japanese culture, but from my American perspective, there also seems to be series that tap into whatever the Japanese equivalent of southern gothic is. series like Shiki and The Summer Heeku died use the oppressive atmosphere of small rural villages and the summer heat to make the characters and the audience feel [music] stuck. A sense of dread and the feeling of rotting away as everything around you crumbles as people are stifled by the very community they should be able to rely on. A community choked out by poverty and rural isolation. series that would fall into this rural Gothic vibe are notably different from anime like Tekashi Kashi, which also take place in small rural village in the middle of the sweltering summer with a main girl who even dresses in Gothic Lolita. But it is not a gothic anime. Dashi Kashi is just a slice of life about running a candy shop. [music] And beyond the setting, the series has nothing in common with series like Shiki that are for sure gothic. Shiki is widely accepted into the Gothic anime category due to being about vampires [music] and the story's dark nature as the villagers are haunted by this vampire curse and watch everyone around them die off after this mysterious family moves into a castle on the outskirts of the village. [music] The summer headoo died is also a story I think makes a perfect addition to the Gothic anime diet. The story of a boy came back wrong. An Eldrich monster from the mountain inhabiting the corpse of [music] the main character's best friend. A story about grief, coming to terms with queerness, and feeling like a monster for the sheer difference of being gay in a small stifling community.

[00:22:07]The monster being an allegory for being out of the closet, living in a way that is deemed wrong by the conservative community, [music] and with Yoshiki, a closeted boy, becoming more monstrous and mixing with the monster means learning to accept himself. Switching gears from rural villages in the summer, serial experiments lane is also often considered a gothic series, and it's definitely a mix of goth and cyberpunk.

[00:22:32]Cyber Gothic, but not to be confused with cyber goth. Lane is a story about mixing technology with humanity, abandoning humanity for the cyerspace, and a girl caught in the middle. The series explores the growing fears [music] of technology and advancements that could potentially leave humanity behind. The anime was in fact made in the late '9s, but there is something to be said about the ways we have grown to mirror the world in serial experiments lane. I definitely don't want to come off like I'm saying technology is bad because I love being able to sit at my computer all day. Like unironically, [laughter] the way our real lives and digital [music] lives have merged with social media and how many of us are so chronically online and how now people fear losing themselves to the neverending algorithmic scroll is very similar to the way that characters in Lane lose themselves to the allure of the wired. [music] and the struggles that all of the characters have with balancing their online lives with their real lives and [music] the way the online world starts to spill out into the real world and have very [music] very strong impacts on people's day-to-day lives. The way that the wired is used in Serial Experiments [music] Lane, while it is definitely the internet, it also feels almost supernatural in a way with one character even making himself a god in the internet. Um, so with this in mind, I do completely understand why serial experiments lane is often considered [music] gothic, but it is very different from say Pet Shop of Horrors, Goick, and Hellgirl.

[00:24:08]All examples of Gothic anime that delve very strongly into the supernatural or the aesthetics that you would think of when you think of Gothic anime. When actively looking for Gothic anime, it's been really cool to see the variety of stories. But it's also really funny to me to see how many vampire stories there are. At the end of the day, I've not seen every anime in the world. I've not read every manga, but I do love vampires.

[00:24:35]So, my exposure to Gothic anime and manga is going to be pretty similar to everyone else making interest stacks on my anime list with half of the [music] series listed being vampire stories. But the more you learn about a genre, both the visual styles and the narrative themes and techniques, the easier it is to classify things into a genre yourself. The easier it is to curate your own list of Gothic anime and manga.

[00:25:01]Do you also have any series that you would classify as a gothic anime or manga, but you've not really seen people talk about it in that context? For this video, The Summer Heeku Died is my strongest contender. I would also argue that Revolutionary Girl Utina could maybe be considered Gothic. The aesthetic is similar, but not quite.

[00:25:25]It's more fairy taleesque, which I think is where most of us place it instead of placing it into Gothic. It's almost like a bridge. [laughter] I also think it's really interesting how some of my favorite manga like Kas Tino Uta and The Heart of Thomas both have um influences to Gothic literature, but the manga themselves are not really Gothic.

[00:25:47][music] I wouldn't necessarily describe them as such, but who knows? Maybe you could.

[00:25:52]I've not read Weathering Heights. I know Weathering Heights is Gothic. I know it's a romance. I know there's some like ghost things going on. So maybe The Heart of Thomas is Gothic in a similar way that Weathering Heights is a girl. I don't know. [laughter] Um, but anyway, I think that's it for me. I really like this genre. I really like this vibe of anime and I wanted to talk about it. And maybe my Tik Tok for you page has been full of Halloween videos since April. Who's to say?

[00:26:26]Anyway, that's it for me and I will see you guys in my next video. Whatever that may be.