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TLDR: What are your thoughts on stories with dark themes?

So, I just finished reading Hachishaku Hachiwa Keraku Meguri - Igyou Kaikitan ( warning, half hentai ) and got halfway though Towako Ichi ( Warning, lots of hentai ) and they can get DARK. Yes, they have a lot of nude and sex scenes, but the stories during them are super interesting and steeped in Japanese lore. Which is freaking DARK!! I've also read Goblin Slayer, Kaifuku Jutsushi no Yarinaoshi and a few others, and some seriously screwed up stuff happens in them! There are plenty of VNs with similar themes.

And I'm talking super screwed up. Rape, torture, slavery, etc. Thing is, I LOVE a good story. Both reading and creating these kinds of stories is my main hobby. The problem is, some of these dark stories are extremely interesting, plot driven or steeped in real world lore! Hachishaku Hachiwa Keraku Maguri is one of these, where i couldn't stop reading just because i wanted to know what happened! The hentai part was completely irrelevant other than to expound upon how horrible some of the stories were (it's kind of a collection of short stories). 

Personally, these type of things really affect (effect?) me. After reading those first two titles i mentioned, i was literally in a slump and it was kinda hard to focus on other things since those stories and scenes kept filling my head. I have a hard time stomaching these types of dark stories......

So, thoughts? Anyone else have this problem, or do you enjoy some of these darker themes? I know they aren't real and they are simply tools to create stories, sometimes amazing ones, but idk......

 

 

 

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i mean, i dont bother with them. nothing wrong with them existing as i know someone is enjoying them but theyre usually not for me. need to get started on a clock up title since im trying to see for myself if they really do stand as one of my favorites by the end of it. listen, it all makes sense in my head. :meguface:

 

bottom line, usually not for me but not against their existence. 

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Not my favorite if we talk about VN with dark sexual themes, but I guess there's some people who like that so I'm more or less neutral with this whether it should be exist or not. That say, I might find some title with dark theme are interesting though although for majority I wouldn't try that to find out, especially if the example was something like euphoria (There's some interesting twist from what I'd read, but to find the twist we need to go through some twisted (Sorry for the pun) sex scenes with some of those involving scat iirc).

Edited by littleshogun
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Mmm... lets be clear.  I'm a Texan who grew up in a family that watched violent crap every day.  My first TV show was the Vietnam War drama Tour of Duty... and as a result, I have few hangups when it comes to violence.

Rape on the other hand... I generally don't like rape scenes.  At best they are distasteful, at worst they are outright disgusting. 

I'm well aware that a lot of dark stuff, like Maggots Baits, have great stories... and my own experience with Mugen Renkan backs this up.  However, I can honestly say I don't like dark sexual themes.  Violent themes?  Yeah, I eat it up.  Bloody?  Go for it.  But ryona or sexual slavery... no.

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Wait the mighty Clephas is from Texas as well? Well tarnation does this change everything! How or why I don't know, but we'll get there, together. I promise.

I can handle darker themes if they are handled in a subtle and thought provoking manner. Unfortunately, it seems that a lot of hentai and eroges handle subtlety like a steam locomotive on a collision course with about a dozen orphanages, which means very poorly. So that's a shame.

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I quite enjoy those types of dark themes in visual novels. Certain tags are definitely a refined taste, but you'd be surprised how many great games there are out there with those tags/ themes. Like Clephas mentioned above, Maggot Baits has a great story, but is also one of the darkest VNs I've ever read, with pretty much every messed up tag you can think of and more crammed in there.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Extremely over the top dark VNs or stories in general are usually not my cup of tea, but I can definitely appreciate and often find myself enjoying more moderate VNs that happen to have some very dark or gruesome scenes. If those scenes are the norm however, it'd take away most of the impact from them. I believe that how shocking a scene ends up being depends more on the context and atmosphere it'd previously set up as well as the relative strength of the scene inside the work. The reason being the initial approach and mental predisposition of the reader.

As for my personal experience on the subject, I can stomach pretty much anything as long as it doesn't take me by surprise so I'm not deeply involved. It's just a matter of keeping the appropiate emotional distance from what I'm reading. Then there are asshole writers who know exactly how this works and intentionally write the story so that when all the shit happens it's both unexpected and impossible to cut off the emotional link, but oh well, that's not that common :sacchan:

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  • 4 years later...

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