Genres

Storytelling, whether on stage, page, or screen, generally has a genre, a *flavor*, an overarching theme that tells the intended audience (and the marketing department) what to expect (or how to sell) the thing they're consuming. Sometimes those genres cross-pollinate and you get screwball romantic horror comedies (*Little Nicky*), and sometimes you get something a little simpler like straight-up horror (*Halloween*).

NOTE: Not all action figure lines have specific intellectual properties attached to them like a movie or video game. Some are purely from the imaginations of the creators (eg: the Accoutrements figures from Archie McPhee), but that doesn't mean they lack a genre. (As in the example given, the genres are Comedy and History.)

How genres are defined vary from person to person, site to site. Here is how Plastic Heroines defines the various genres discussed herein:

#### Action/Adventure

Action/Adventure is a category of fiction that relies on fast-paced storytelling with a lot of dramatic scenes (fights, car chases, shootouts, etc.) that keep viewer and/or readers on the edge of their seats, while the adventure part of the genre usually has the protagonist on some sort of quest (to find someone or something, or to meet some goal). The stories are as diverse as *Pirates of the Caribbean* and *The Chronicles of Riddick* and *Dr. Strange*. For the sake of brevity, this wiki is combining Action and Adventure into a single category; they are not the same, and not all things that fit under Action are necessarily also Adventure, and vice versa.

#### Comedy

Comedies are stories told for humorous intent, like *The Simpsons*, *Bewitched*, or *M\*A\*S\*H*. Comedies can include elements of slapstick, gallows humor, or other genres, forming a more complex landscape of humor to navigate and interpret. *Ghostbusters*, for example, has horror, humor, science fiction, and fantasy elements, but the main theme is humor – the jump-scares and everything else are played for laughs.

#### Detective/Mystery

Detective fiction involves solving a mystery such as a murder or other heinous criminal act. Doyle's Sherlock Holmes character and Angela Lansbury's Jessica Fletcher character from *Murder She Wrote* are two prime examples. A more comedic example is the *Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?* cartoons and live-action movie. The distinction between detective fiction and mystery is that the detectives are professionals (either private investigators or police, etc), while in mysteries the ones doing the investigation are amateurs ("meddling kids!"). For the sake of brevity, this wiki combines the two.

#### History

Some fiction has elements of history that may be embellished to a greater or lesser extent depending on the needs of the storyteller. In the case of *300*, the War of Thermopylae was exaggerated by Frank Miller rather a lot. *Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon* (a novel written by Wang Dulu, part four of a pentalogy, later a 2000 film) is also historical fiction.

#### Horror

Ghosties and ghoulies and long-legged beasties and things that go bump in the night – horror is intended to scare or disgust the viewer/reader/player. It may contain elements of the supernatural or or monsters, but it may not, as in the case of *Halloween*. Some credit Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley with *Frankenstein* as the first work of science fiction, but it was definitely a work of horror. Horror can be combined with other genres to form horror comedies (*Ghostbusters*) or dark fantasy (*The Sandman*), or many others.

#### Magical Girls

Magical Girl is a subgenre of Japanese media that has spilled into American/Western usage. It is centered on the idea that girls (particularly young girls), have magical abilities and transform into alter egos to use them. *Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon* is one of the best examples of this, based on Naoko Takeuchi's manga series (1991-1997) that was made into an anime series and movies, as well as a live-action show. *Winx Club* and *Miraculous* are Western examples of the genre.

#### Military Fiction

Military fiction is a genre that has a strong elements of the military as part of its plot and characters. The genre includes fictionalized retellings of actual wars and/or soldiers (eg *300, Maus,* or *Motor Girl*) and military science fiction (*Call of Duty, Battlestar Gallactica* or *Starship Troopers*).

#### Romance

Fiction in which there is a connection between two people (whether or not that connection is realized in the end), and the chemistry between them is one of the primary elements that drives the plot. The storytelling focuses on their relationship, rather than on action, although romance can be part of another genre, as it certainly was in the action/adventure *Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End* (in particular). *(Bwahaha – who are we kidding though, straight-up romance action figures? Not gonna happen...)*

#### Science Fiction and Fantasy

As a genre, Science Fiction and Fantasy get lumped together, when (as a consumer) the argument could be made they should not be. **Science Fiction** generally contains elements of technology above what is available to the setting the plot is set (Steampunk is science fiction placed in a Victorian setting); **Fantasy** generally contains elements of magic or fantastic creatures that don't exist (Dungeons & Dragons is usually fantasy). There are crossovers with urban fantasy and other genres – Star Wars contains elements of technology above what we have now (faster than light travel, etc.) and magic (the Force), so is Star Wars SF or F? Depends on who you ask, and that's probably why publishers and bookstores don't try to make the distinction...

#### Sports

Athletes of any kind – real people (whether or not they work under a stage name).

#### Spy Fiction

As a subgenre of military fiction, spy or espionage fiction involves as its major plot device the intrigue between two (or more) major international powers and their agents who try to gain information from the other side. Some of the other elements that may be included are major criminal organizations, double (or triple) agents, world-ending weapons of mass destruction, and/or technological sabotage. Examples of this genre are Ian Fleming's James Bond novels (a highly successful movie franchise), *Atomic Blonde*, and the Austin Powers spy comedy films.

#### Superheroes

Superheroes is a subgenre of science fiction/fantasy in which the world as we know it is inhabited by metahumans – people who are super-normal, with abilities above and beyond what "normal" humans possess. Those metahumans may be mutated humans (*X-Men*), the result of an accident (*The Incredible Hulk*, the *Fantastic Four*), or they may not be fully human at all (*Superman*, *Wonder Woman*). They may struggle with other metahumans who have villainous intent against humankind, or against humans who fear them, but that struggle is typically what drives the action/adventurous genre within a genre.