Surprising depth?

[H-Man]

Let's face it: on occasion, we look down on pieces of media because of their apparent quality. They don't ascribe to be anything more than glorification or pandering, and you want nothing to do with that, so at most you just give it a watch to prove your point.

Then it turns out that the work is actually pretty good because it has depth. It's not just a fanservice-filled fantasy, or a gorefest among gorefests. When you stop and think about it, the series is awfully enjoyable because it actually handles complicated subjects in an interesting way, which improves your opinion of the series.

Let's point out some of these, in this thread, to collect as much data possible in a single location, and even discuss the actual values of this so-called 'depth' we saw.

RULES
First and foremost, the piece of medium we're dealing with is supposed to be surprising in its depth. This means that something that is obviously trying to be deep should not be counted for the purposes of this. Nobody blinks when someone argues that there's more to Neon Genesis Evangelion than giant robot fights, but if someone managed to successfully argue the same of Godannar, I can see heads twisting from that. (...I didn't finish Godannar yet, but you get the point.)

You could say that well-known media can't apply for it anymore, as well. George Romero's zombie movies can be treated as criticism of consummerism, and while that is a deep analysis of something that is shown mainly as dead people eating non-dead people, it's just so obvious even people who never saw it can point it out (like myself). So look into the less-obvious examples, pretty much, unless you found a new depth (maybe the zombies are symbolically representing hipsters and how they ruin everything they touch).

Starting this off? Sora no Otoshimono. It's not just about a super pervert who gets perfect/ideal robot maids who will do anything he wants, but it keeps hitting upon the nail that this is an unhealthy fantasy that cannot lead to actual happiness, and how complicated relationships can get when actual feelings, and not just 'LOL I WUV U NAO', are mixed in this. I actually got surprised to see this much amount of dark undertones used in the series, another reason why I chose to keep buying the volumes rather than just read online.

So, you guys, what do you have to add?

 

[nick012000]

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

For a show designed to sell toys to children, it's surprisingly good.

 

[H-Man]

...why am I even surprised.

Anyway, you barely explained why that show is deep. Though I'll bother arguing the point right now since I'm in a mood...

Western cartoons have a good tendency to try and teach a moral lesson in each episode. Of course, there are some shows that don't (Ed, Edd n Eddy hardly tried to teach kids anything, and simply went with a 'kids being kids' route when the option emerged), but quite often several do. That's referring to mid-teens and lower-intended serials, the ones that expect children to have already somewhat developed minds and capable of understanding more subtle things, while still being rather blunt about it. (Dexter's Laboratory, for instance, did that episode about the two girls who bullied Dexter and his friend by getting his pencil all the way to the back of the bus, and then were punished for being bullies, something kids can understand without saying any of these points.)

On the other hand... cartoons aimed for younger children are hardly subtle about anything. They're teaching moral lessons about good behaviors and attitudes and you can tell, very easily at that, what the intentions are. Similarly to the Neon Genesis Evangelion example above, it's hard to qualify something as being surprisingly deep when the intentions are quite clear and obvious. Just saying 'it's a toy commercial' means nothing when the actual content could be found on any other show around the same age, and I don't really like to think 'IT'S DEEP BECAUSE IT HAS ADULT JOKES IN IT'. That's like saying Watchmen is deep because there were people having sex and being Rorshach, as opposed to because it analyses superheroes in an actual, realistic world, and how terrible it can become because of them.

[I would like to preempt any comments about how I don't get the show with the following: I'm responding specifically to the post's lack of content. If the show is 'surprisingly deep', it means that there are specific qualities that separate it from the standard fare, which are not visible at a first glance. I made sure to point out that Sora no Otoshimono is not standard 'harem fare' and why, because I've seen opinions focusing precisely on that, calling it lolicon bait and shitty, despite having not even read it. I don't like the show, but if you're going to argue it, at least make a point.]

 

[Megaolix]

Well, another one would be The World God Only Knows. For all the crazy antics and schemes Keima manage to put himself in or plan, once this got real when Kanon got stabbed... Keima should now understand the price of failure should he mess up badly again. Shows that even if things seem nuts and crazy, it doesn't mean consequences will be as funny.

 

[ragnarok1337]

The video game Asura's Wrath. From previews and trailers you'd imagine that it's a beat-em-up game featuring insane, over-the-top action and ultraviolence, and you'd be right. But if you take a deeper look at it, there's a lot of depth to the rather short story.

The whole reason Asura is so angry in the first place is because he and his wife were betrayed and killed by his fellow demigods (he got better, his wife didn't), and his daughter was imprisoned and used as a tool for over 12,000 years. Namely the second. The game explores the concept of "necessary sacrifices" and how far one will go for a cause. It also explores Asura's titular "wrath" itself and how it affects his life, the primary reason for it being injustice, not just for his family, but for everyone else. Asura also, ironically, held the most regard for innocent life out of the demigods before he was betrayed, despite his Mantra affinity being Wrath, and he keeps that value throughout the game. More on these below.

Massive spoilers below for the game that explain further.

Spoiler

Meanwhile, the other demigods believe that sacrificing countless billions of lives is necessary to permanently destroy the will of the planet, which is apparently hell-bent on killing all humans, whereas the Emperor before the coup believed that simply delivering temporary defeats to keep the peace was the way to go. Yahsa, Asura's brother-in-law, let his sister be killed and his brother be killed, and his niece be imprisoned, because he believes the cause is necessary. However, after seeing the absurd amount of power Asura has, he begins to realize that there are other ways of saving the world.

The whole "Wrath" aspect of Asura's Wrath is explored as well. As mentioned above, Asura hates injustice above all else, and nothing enrages him more than seeing people suffer. While at first it's just to save his daughter, Asura eventually starts fighting to defend the humans that are being oppressed by the other demigods. When a girl that has been kind to him and reminds him of his daughter gets slaughtered along with her entire village, he just loses it.

In the few flashbacks we see of him interacting with his family, you see a man that has spent his entire life focused on the next fight, his Manta affinity specifically being wrath, doing his best to live a normal life, and making rather humorous, though heartwarming, attempts at being a good father and husband. You see him do a minor freak out when his newborn daughter cries and he clumsily tries to rock her, and admits to Durga (his wife) that all he knows how to do is punch whoever makes her cry. During a cute little scene of a dinner in the Asura home, apparently Asura has eaten Mithra's vegetables because she didn't want them and Durga is reprimanding him for it, while Mithra just sticks out her tongue. Asura is helpless against the gentle teasing of his wife and daughter. For them, and only for them, is he completely disarmed of rage.

Worship, religion and free will are also brought up. When a bunch of villagers start bowing and praying before him, he growls "I will not stand for this", disgusted at the concept, whereas the other seven demigods encourage worship of them, and drink their own kool-aid. This eventually culminates in him literally beating the shit out of God Himself, Chakravartin the Creator, because he apparently set all these events in motion to begin with, roaring that he now understands the reasons for his wrath: That he cannot stand fools who try to rule over others weaker than themselves and forcing others to do what they can't do for themselves. He refuses to pray to anyone, and likewise will not be prayed to. And, most importantly, he will NEVER forgive anyone who makes his daughter cry.

Okay, I probably just summarized the game's entire plot there, but for a game revolving solely around beating the shit out of enemies and over-the top action, there's a surprising amount of depth in the story, despite its length.