It occurred to me today that you can use Miyazaki films as a really quick way to explain the difference between urban/modern fantasy and magical realism.
Kiki’s Delivery Service: takes place in the regular world— albeit at some nebulous point in time— but also magic is real and witches are a thing. Witches exist in this world because it’s fun and we like them. It’s fantasy elements in a familiar setting— essentially urban or modern fantasy.
Porco Rosso: takes place in an extremely specific place and time and contains exactly one fantastical element— Marco’s pig head— which is never given an explanation and is never questioned as a biological impossibility. It’s clearly a metaphor and commentary on a real world issue but it’s also very much literal. This dude 100% has a pig head. No other mentions of magic are made. This is magical realism.
This story brought to you by the fact that I’ve never seen a fanfic on ao3 tagged magical realism that wasn’t actually modern fantasy.
#*Strolls into symposium*#Is Scooby-Doo magical realism@mirrorfalls
"is Scooby magical realism" "does Scooby pass the Harkness test" "is Shaggy an asexual centaur geologist" there's no help for you people.















