A while back, I commented to someone that thier fanfic needed more 
angst.  However, when I asked, I couldn't describe it very well.  The 
best I could come up with was, "Deep internal emtional turmoil."  
However, some real otaku have given me some additional comments that I 
thought I'd post here.

Frank

=====
Comment #1:

Go see "Marmalade Boy".  (I don't whether there's angst in the show, or if
I'll experience angst from watching it.)


Comment #2:

Try: depression, unfocused anger at the state of things that are, and the
utter futility (or even impossibility) of changing them.



Comment #3:
 
The feelings generated in characters when bad things happen to them.
Especially bad things which are perpetrated by the 'bad' guys or by fate
itself; anger at a bad turn of events; depression manifested as anger,
which can be directed at others but is most angsty if directed at
yourself. Anger at oneself for not preventing a bad thing from happening.


Comment #4:

        Hmm.  'Dramatic emotional pain' might be the start of a definition.
A combination of despair and lonliness, perhaps.  Sometimes, angst
seems to have an added one or more dimensions of self-loathing, apathy,
or hatred.  In shonen anime, angst is shown mostly in the characters,
as a tangible character trait (see most of the characters of Yuu Yuu
Hakusho :).  Example: Hiei <from YYH> was abandoned as a child,
raised himself without benifit of parents in the VERY cruel plane of
Makai.  He spent years in search of his sister, and when he found her,
her, he was forbidden to tell her he was her brother.  YYH shows him as a
character with a lot of carefully bottled built-up anger, hatred, and
despair.  He seems to only smile when he's about to fricassee someone.
        In shojo anime, angst doesn't seem to be as much a part of the
characters' personalities as in the twisted plots that lead those
characters to 'dramatic emotional pain' (see zillions of instances
of plot angst in Marmalade Boy).  Example:  The love triangles,
squares, and flowcharts in MB.

        Another, simpler definition that just occurred to me is 'dramatic
emotional conflict'.  That covers the previous definition plus some.
Characters can have inner turmoil, i.e. internal emotional conflict.
Plots _need_ some conflict to be interesting.  Angst can be just
another type of conflict.



*****   Dark Shadow   *****

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