Abstracts Category : Other

Slice Of Life: Use of the Kishtenketsu (conflict-absent narrative) method of story-telling in animation to create appealing stories

by Jahnvi Shah

Bibliography: pages 36-38 "The East has a long tradition of conflict-less storytelling that originated in Chinese poetry and spread to all formats including prose, journalistic writings, graphic novels, and filmmaking. This style of storytelling, known as Kishtenketsu, consists of a story in four-acts which can exist without a conflict driving it. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that Kishtenketsu is commonly used in the slice of life genre in Japanese live action and animation, which is made up of the mundane, every-day stories of regular people These stories of regular people, which are devoid of conflict, still have a lot of substance and are made all the more compelling with the way they are told using Kishtenketsu. In the following paper, I will consider the roots of this type storytelling and the how it came to be. Using feature and series animation examples, I will discuss how this unique kind of story-telling enhances the appeal and strength of the stories in the slice of life genre. Lastly, I will touch upon the idea that greater usage of conflict-less plots in all formats could lead to a more peaceful world." Keywords: Kishtenketsu, slice of life, Heros journey, conflict-less storytelling, Western animation, Japanese animation, conflict-driven writing, four-act stories, plot twist, Chinese poetryAdvisors/Committee Members: CHAIR: Silva, Jose Luis, Crossley, James, Rutland, Matthew Brett.