[Arabesque]

Well then, this was hard to write without going into very spoiler specific territory, but even then

Spoiler for '' for replay to Dr. Meo":

Originally Posted by MeoTwister5

1. Urobuchi Gen and Franz Kafka

That's an interesting comparison, but I'm unsure how much that actually relates here between The Metamorphosis and Saya no Uta. Without going into too much spoilers for the folks here who hadn't played the game, I took from SnU was more of a reflection on the psyche of just how twisted Fuminori was from within, while Metamorphosis was more of a commentary on the cruelty of humans, or to be more precise, the cruelty of society that places value on humans as the way they look and be in line without any empathy for even those who are meant to be closest to them.

As for the twisted monstrosities that Gen loves to use in all his work or figure out a way to bring them in, I think it has more to do with his own fascination with Lovecraftian mythos. To me it strikes me as a bit of an author appeal for him to find a way to bring in these utter freakish creatures into his work, part of it to give the ugly side of whatever he's trying to portray, be it humanity's or something ''else'', but also because it's something that he's drawn to greatly.

Originally Posted by MeoTwister5

2. Urobuchi Gen and the Greek Tragedy
In the end of Madoka Magika, well, it seems Gen believed that even idealism can win if it's willing to make a few detours along the way. As for F/Z, let's see where it all heads.

Going by the quote from the Fate/Zero novel that Utsuro no Hako posted, I think that it's pretty clear that as far as Gen's position goes, he considers it a futile effort (or perhaps well intentioned but ultimately unachievable and thus foolish?) for anyone to try and go against the flow of pain that he sees the world is drowned in. It might have been that believe that made him go with that conclusion to the Madoka anime, since the only way to give a purpose, a justification for the pain that every girl had passed through in the past is to elevate the lead character into the equivalent of Godhood, in order to rewrite the laws of the universe, and even then it was only to give a reason to the otherwise cruel and purposeless deaths of girls who had been fooled and used like tools before becoming the very monsters they had been slaying.

More likely it's that idea, that humanity is constantly trying to find a purpose, that makes his stories carry the yogurty Greek flavor of Tragedy in his stories.

Originally Posted by MeoTwister5

3. Urobuchi Gen and the Biblical Messiah

To me clearly Gen has done Bible study. I'm curious to know if he has any religious inclinations.

I don't really know what else to say that you hadn't already said. It's pretty clear that Urobuchi had done some form of Bible study, only a single look at any of his work even pre Madoka should give you an idea of that. Blassreiter had a very strong underlined theme with it's Biblical symbolism early on, and Fate/Zero shows he clearly read the Bible and understood it to some extent.

The thing is, I don't know if it's an indication of a relgious conection and his idea that only those truly pure can change the world i.e. those closest to God (I personally doubt that he has any religious inclining) or is it closer to the same sort of fascination with the Lovecraftian mythos. I think the reason why he draws so much from the Biblical Messiah figure is mainly to counter balance with the ugliness associated with the Cuthulu-like abominations that he brings into his stories, since traditionally, the Messiah is meant to embody the very ideal of human goodness.

Originally Posted by MeoTwister5

4. Urobuchi Gen and the Dark Messiah

This is a bit tricker to answer, not because I know what will go on in Fate/Zero (I don't for the record) but because I know what sort of person Kiritsugu will be described as in Fate/Stay Night.

All what I can say is that as far as Urobuchi goes, Dark Messiahs don't chose to go down that route willingly. They get beaten into the road to Hell worse than anyone else in the world before becoming so disillusioned to the point where they have no choice but to drag their helpless bodies and crushed souls into the flames.

In a way, especially with someone like Houmra and Kiritsugu, it's in part due to how ''pure'' they both were at the start of their journey. They never really craved anything out of the world but to help others or to make friends, they weren't anything special to start of with, and would have been content with ending their fight bravely with someone they liked ... but for some reason, a sense of guilt or to uphold a promise, they continue to fight on. Even if their methods are brutal, and in Kiritsugu's case inhumane, they still hold their ideals close to heart and deep down their effort is valiant and their goal is noble ... but the longer they go on, the more and more ruthless they become, and the more they end up becoming worse than the very thing they fight against.

Originally Posted by Triple_R

The irony, for me, is that I typically don't go for really dark shows, and yet I tend to love Gen's forays into the anime world.

I think the reason is that, like pretty much all good writers, Gen has core ideas or philosophies that inform and inspire his writing. This gives his writing a certain purposefulness and narrative momentum that makes for a very engaging and enthralling experience, in my opinion.

I think you have summed it up right there why I like his writing as well. If there is one thing Gen is really good at, is that he is really able to make me understand what has happened, how it came to that point, and how cruel it was for the characters, but not strike me as something unnecessarily cruel. That sense like everything in the story has a purpose and a reason for occurring gives it a more ''complete'' feeling, and the impression that he puts a lot of thought into his stories.

I think that's really the thing that draws me to him, not the dark part, but how it's balanced so it's not a complete crapsack world where no hope is to be found, but there it is a hard path to take to get to where you want to go.

Originally Posted by Triple_R

Gen's quote on love that Arabesque provided is interesting to me. The way love is portrayed in his works is often a slightly scary, pretty obsessed, and somewhat counterproductive thing. You can tell that Gen himself is apprehensive about romantic love. It's probably good that Gen is able to portray love this way, because not all love stories end well, and sometimes it can be good to be reminded of that.

I think that it's sort of something that shows up a lot in different forms across his work as well, in Sayaka and Kariya, how their love twisted them and brought them to their ruin.

Even in Phantom of the inferno, love set a path that ultimately lead to a lead characters death, and in some case was actually used as a weapon in many cases.

I wonder if Gen ever loved someone in his life ...

Originally Posted by Archon_Wing

From what I've seen of Fate/Zero and Madoka, he seems to really have a thing for the unsung heroes.

To torture them?

Originally Posted by TJR

Of course, there's some chance that he's fooling us and has deliberately chosen to set himself apart from other storytellers. There's no doubt that Gen's reputation was built on dark, twisted writing.

I won't remove the possibility that some part of what we read about him or the thing he says might be cleaver marketing to help establish his reputation as a dark writer, but I think that a large part of it has to be truthful.

Unless he's a really, really good liar ...