This's not specific to MangaDex, but it's relevant given the current system of limited tags and how additions and edits are doable only though staff.
1. What's a genre? What's a theme?
2. How strongly should a genre or a theme feature in a work before they're added as tags?
3. What makes a genre or a theme "featured"? Is the presence of a gruesome accident scene in a manga enough for a gore tag? Or a tragedy?
- Is it "presence" of representative scenes?
- Is it a more nebulous "atmosphere" that has to be present throughout the work?
- So Akumetsu or Zetman would deserve a something like a violence tag, but a sports work like Hajime no Ippo for example would not?
- Who judges the "atmosphere"?
Examples for the Sci-Fi "genre":
* Ai-ren
Tagged: Romance, Drama, Tragedy, ...
Why not Sci-Fi? It doesn't feature heavily in the story. Yet it affects the atmosphere and the expectations of what the world is like, how the characters interact and so on. It's in my opinion a useful support tag for the story.
That is, someone searching for `Romance, Sci-Fi` would likely be interested in it.
Same for:
- Shinsekai Yori, Tagged: Action, Drama, Fantasy, Tragedy; Supernatural
- Kimi to Boku no Ashiato ~Time Travel Kasuga Kenkyuusho~, Tagged: Drama, Romance; Supernatural
*** How else (besides the current predominant system of genres and tags) would you represent fiction works in a way that makes it easy for users to find something to their fancy?
I have so tech-centric ideas about this, but they don't really address the problem semantically. Just try to make it easier to match intent with results. That is, if helpful signals and labels are never attached to the work (or never realized as worthwhile labels), such tech-centric methods still wouldn't help much.
*** You can stop reading here and post your thoughts on the matter. What follows is some incoherent rambling of mine. I'm no where near a literary wizard, just an occasional reader; so take everything that follows with a helping of salt.
The question becomes: What is Sci-Fi in manga? It's not one thing. So what different things are people usually looking for when they say "sci-fi"?
1. Realistic Sci-Fi, as an integral element.
- Example: Planetes.
- Planetes builds on a speculative core strongly based on real world science (and speculation).
- It's sci-fi (for fiction readers) because it depends or makes heavy use of a speculative element (space travel) through a highly scientific lens. Scientific here relates to how the speculative element is technological in nature and presented explicitly as an evolution to our real world science. An evolution that we as modern human readers can imagine as the story takes us along.
- The Sci-Fi element is integral to the story and the execution. Its own structure, requirements and implications help shape the plot.
2. Soft Sci-Fi, as an enabler.
- Example: Kimi to Boku no Ashiato; Legend of the Galactic Heroes
- Kimi to Boku no Ashiato makes use of speculative element wrapper in a sci-fi package (in the literary sense). It doesn't (even claim to) explore deeply the needs or implications of the specific version of McGuffin it makes use of. And it doesn't need to. It's an enabler. But also a thematic element.
- Its being intentionally related to sci-fi as a genre (instead of making use of some supernatural element), along with the presence of other tags like Drama and Romance, implies some expectations of what the story and its execution may look like.
3. More speculative Sci-Fi (or Science Fantasy).
- Example: Psycho-Pass
- The Sci-Fi elements are integral to the plot. Their own structure, needs and implications carry very heavy weight. They're presented through a scientific lens (scientific here referring to the elements being woven as extensions of current known technology, not that they're considered plausible).
- At the same time, they're not too constrained by the real world basis. The science in the work is a distant relative (even if not as distant as, say, Asimov's The Foundation, just to get an out-there example). But they are constrained by a soft version of the modern day fabric of reactions and interactions with science and technology. That makes it worthy of being called Sci-Fi, in my opinion.
1. What's a genre? What's a theme?
2. How strongly should a genre or a theme feature in a work before they're added as tags?
3. What makes a genre or a theme "featured"? Is the presence of a gruesome accident scene in a manga enough for a gore tag? Or a tragedy?
- Is it "presence" of representative scenes?
- Is it a more nebulous "atmosphere" that has to be present throughout the work?
- So Akumetsu or Zetman would deserve a something like a violence tag, but a sports work like Hajime no Ippo for example would not?
- Who judges the "atmosphere"?
Examples for the Sci-Fi "genre":
* Ai-ren
Tagged: Romance, Drama, Tragedy, ...
Why not Sci-Fi? It doesn't feature heavily in the story. Yet it affects the atmosphere and the expectations of what the world is like, how the characters interact and so on. It's in my opinion a useful support tag for the story.
That is, someone searching for `Romance, Sci-Fi` would likely be interested in it.
Same for:
- Shinsekai Yori, Tagged: Action, Drama, Fantasy, Tragedy; Supernatural
- Kimi to Boku no Ashiato ~Time Travel Kasuga Kenkyuusho~, Tagged: Drama, Romance; Supernatural
*** How else (besides the current predominant system of genres and tags) would you represent fiction works in a way that makes it easy for users to find something to their fancy?
I have so tech-centric ideas about this, but they don't really address the problem semantically. Just try to make it easier to match intent with results. That is, if helpful signals and labels are never attached to the work (or never realized as worthwhile labels), such tech-centric methods still wouldn't help much.
*** You can stop reading here and post your thoughts on the matter. What follows is some incoherent rambling of mine. I'm no where near a literary wizard, just an occasional reader; so take everything that follows with a helping of salt.
The question becomes: What is Sci-Fi in manga? It's not one thing. So what different things are people usually looking for when they say "sci-fi"?
1. Realistic Sci-Fi, as an integral element.
- Example: Planetes.
- Planetes builds on a speculative core strongly based on real world science (and speculation).
- It's sci-fi (for fiction readers) because it depends or makes heavy use of a speculative element (space travel) through a highly scientific lens. Scientific here relates to how the speculative element is technological in nature and presented explicitly as an evolution to our real world science. An evolution that we as modern human readers can imagine as the story takes us along.
- The Sci-Fi element is integral to the story and the execution. Its own structure, requirements and implications help shape the plot.
2. Soft Sci-Fi, as an enabler.
- Example: Kimi to Boku no Ashiato; Legend of the Galactic Heroes
- Kimi to Boku no Ashiato makes use of speculative element wrapper in a sci-fi package (in the literary sense). It doesn't (even claim to) explore deeply the needs or implications of the specific version of McGuffin it makes use of. And it doesn't need to. It's an enabler. But also a thematic element.
- Its being intentionally related to sci-fi as a genre (instead of making use of some supernatural element), along with the presence of other tags like Drama and Romance, implies some expectations of what the story and its execution may look like.
3. More speculative Sci-Fi (or Science Fantasy).
- Example: Psycho-Pass
- The Sci-Fi elements are integral to the plot. Their own structure, needs and implications carry very heavy weight. They're presented through a scientific lens (scientific here referring to the elements being woven as extensions of current known technology, not that they're considered plausible).
- At the same time, they're not too constrained by the real world basis. The science in the work is a distant relative (even if not as distant as, say, Asimov's The Foundation, just to get an out-there example). But they are constrained by a soft version of the modern day fabric of reactions and interactions with science and technology. That makes it worthy of being called Sci-Fi, in my opinion.
