History Main / MagicRealism

* While her [[Literature/TheSookieStackhouseMysteries Sookie Stackhouse]] novels fall somewhere between MagicalMundane and UrbanFantasy Creator/CharlaineHarris' ''Harper Connelly'' stories, about a woman who, after being struck by lightnning gains the ability to locate dead bodies and know how they died, falls straight into this territory.

* While her [[Literature/TheSookieStackhouseMysteries Sookie Stackhouse]] novels fall somewhere between MagicalMundane and UrbanFantasy CharlaineHarris' ''Harper Connelly'' stories, about a woman who, after being struck by lightnning gains the ability to locate dead bodies and know how they died, falls straight into this territory.

* While Janet Evanovich's ''StephaniePlum'' series mostly avoids this (except for Morelli's Great Aunt Bella whose curses are a case of MaybeMagicMaybeMundane) the holiday oriented subseries feture Diesel (now with his own series), a magical bounty hunter who specializes in chasing "specials" (people with mutant powers) gone bad.

** To complete the trifecta, ''VisualNovel/{{Air}}'' also does this, with several characters supposedly descended from {{Winged Humanoid}}s, or possibly just nuts. A distant-past segment has some winged women, yet [[MindScrew implies that their wings may have been an embellishment to the story and/or a metaphor for their deaths.]] The male lead has a doll which he can control seemingly through telekinesis, but it's never explicitly stated to not be just a trick. [[spoiler:Near the end, he appears to go back in time and become the bird that was hanging around throughout the series. If he actually did, there's no explanation of how, and it's possible he just went crazy.]]

** The short story [[Literature/HeartsInAtlantis "Low Men in Yellow Coats"]], about an IntergenerationalFriendship between a young boy and a mysterious elderly fugitive staying at his family's boarding house, is a particularly good example. The relationship between the two characters is at the center of the plot, but the old man also happens to have PsychicPowers, and his pursuers are a bizarre crew of AmbiguouslyHuman beings who are heavily hinted to be either demons or {{Eldritch Abomination}}s. And the final book in the HighFantasy ''Literature/DarkTower'' series eventually reveals that the story's events tie directly into the series' SavingTheWorld plot.

* ''{{Homestuck}}'' is a great offender. It is perfectly normal that everyone stores their things in a HyperspaceArsenal that can only be accessed in weird ways, item cards have captcha codes that serve strange purposes, and everyone can only use one particular kind of weapon unless they obtain additional equipment slots. The proper response when encountering your loved one is to engage in a brutal but bloodless battle, and a program that can remodel your room over an Internet connection is met with no surprise at all. Rose is also rather unfazed by gaining actual magic powers. And Dave takes everything in [[IncrediblyLamePun stride]].
** Eventually explained by the fact that [[spoiler: the universe was created by internet trolls playing a video game]].
*** Though that's still no excuse for why [[spoiler:the Troll universe follows the same mechanics.]]
**** That's because [[spoiler:the Troll universe would have been created by 48 players from a previous game, following the pattern that the game has. The Trolls created the Kids' universe, where there are only 4 players. It's a big confusing loop.]]

It definitely isn't ScienceFiction and not quite UrbanFantasy and yet... stuff happens. Unlikely stuff like tchotchkes telling the heroine what to do (''{{Wonderfalls}}'') or the ghost of your father showing up at odd intervals to offer personal and/or professional advice (''Series/DueSouth'') or perhaps it's just a quirky vibe that infuses the environment (''NorthernExposure'' or better yet, ''TwinPeaks'').

* ''MySoCalledLife'' was a straight up teen SoapOpera {{Dramedy}} and contained absolutely no supernatural elements whatsoever. Except for the episode "Halloween," where Angela encounters a ghost. Or "My So-Called Angels" (widely regarded as one of the best and most [[TearJerker tearjerking]] episodes) where both Angela and ''her mother'' talk to a (sort of) angel.
* ''TwinPeaks'' actually barely fits here, but it's worth mentioning. Most of the show is fairly mundane, but when it isn't, it's uproariously supernatural. Actually, most of David Lynch's works are like this: mundane human drama interspersed with the '''pants-crappingly bizarre.'''

* Creator/FranzKafka has this in many of his works, such as having an orangutan transform into a human or a man turn into a giant cockroach.

* Creator/FranzKafka

* ''IHeartHuckabees''.

* ''Manga/SkipBeat!'' is a story about a girl who sets out to become a star in the Japanese entertainment industry, and follows her ups and downs, new friendships and possible romantic interests, and her burgeoning career. Said girl also has a demon army that gives her anger and resentment a voice and physical presence, and the resident esper is actually ''not'' a fake.

* ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' is a post-apocalyptic survival horror shooter that doesn't seem to have much magic about it at all... until you get to the alien invaders. And the [[EldritchAbomination Dunwich Building.]]

* Toni Morrison's classic ''{{Beloved}}'' has the resurrection of Sethe's unnamed daughter (whose tombstone simply read [[TitleDrop "Beloved"]]). How this happened, or why Beloved is as old as she would have been, is never discussed.
** The ghost in the opening sequence (implied to be the same character as Beloved) would also qualify.

** The short story [[Literature/HeartsInAtlantis "Low Men in Yellow Coats"]], about an IntergenerationalFriendship between a young boy and a mysterious elderly fugitive staying at his family's boarding house, is a particularly good example. The relationship between the two characters is at the center of the plot, but the old man also happens to have PsychicPowers, and his pursuers are a bizarre crew of AmbiguouslyHuman beings who are heavily hinted to be either demons or EldritchAbomination|s. And the final book in the HighFantasy ''Literature/DarkTower'' series eventually reveals that the story's events tie directly into the series' SavingTheWorld plot.

''The Jehovah Contract'' by Victor Koman in which the protagonist, a profession assassin with a sideline/cover identity as a private eye is given a contract by Satan to kill God [[spoiler: and it actually turns out to be a XanatosGambit by the Triple Goddess to do in both God ''and'' the Devil]]

* The unfortunately TooGoodToLast Fox sitcom ''KeyWest'' was, in its time, one of the best examples of this on television.

* ''VideoGame/KentuckyRouteZero'' paints the Bluegrass State as one of these. The elements of ghost stories abound, but no one pays much mind to them.

''The Jehovah Contract'' by James Kammo in which the protagonist, a profession assassin with a sideline/cover identity as a private eye is given a contract by Satan to kill God [[spoiler: and it actually turns out to be a XanatosGambit by the Triple Goddess to do in both God ''and'' the Devil]]

* The 1998 theatrical film based on the CirqueDuSoleil show ''{{Alegria}}''. It's obvious the world the characters exist in is a little more colorful and eccentric than ours, but possible magic comes in at the end when [[spoiler: the manager/ringmaster encounters and converses with his own stage character]].

* The 1948 film ''The Boy With Green Hair'' about a war orphan who wakes up one morning to fnd that he has green hair.

** Other prominent writers include Alejo Carpentier and Isabel Allende.
*** And don't forget Rudolfo Anaya.

* AgeOfEmpires occasionally slides into the supernatural, despite being a historical RTS game. For instance, one Viking level in the second game features lindworms in the sea that devour boats, and the campaign of the third game involves a mystical fountain of youth in the new world as the MacGuffin which, as we find out later, [[spoiler:really does make people immortal, though that point is completely out of left field]].

* ''VisualNovel/{{Kanon}}'', another Key anime, is very similar: it's just a normal high school anime, except for the fox that turns into a human girl, the girl [[spoiler:with healing powers]] who fights invisible monsters with a sword, and (yet another) [[spoiler:girl in a coma projecting herself and magically producing a happy ending]].

* ''SilentHillShatteredMemories'' follows an ordinary man journeying through a realistic town... which periodically turns to ice and spawns hideous monsters. Exactly what is causing these things to happen is never fully explained (merely implied, and ambiguously so at that).
** Heck, the SilentHill series as a whole. There are various explanations, but they're ambiguous, or contradictory, or there are elements in place suggesting that things aren't quite as they seem.
*** It's not MagicRealism at all. Regarding Shattered Memories, [[spoiler: None of it happened. It's a metaphor. Cheryl, the protagonist's daughter, is sitting on the couch in the psychiatrist's office. The real protagonist, Harry Mason, died in a car accident some time ago. The player's actions follow a symbolic - and absolutely not literal - JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind of the conflict in Cheryl. The game uses the player's actions during that journey to try to guess the ''player's'' nature, and then tries to tailor that journey to pull a PlayerPunch. Whether it succeeds is up to each player.]] Also, the town and setting is clearly not realistic. The town's residents can be counted on one's fingers, despite some pretty big apartment buildings. There's quite a bit of ChaosArchitecture in Shattered Memories (and the rest of the series). As for the others, Silent Hill I and SilentHillHomecoming both have endings which could allow the events to have been fictional or a DyingDream, but if Silent Hill I is a dying dream, then Silent Hill III could not happen. Silent Hill II's, III's, IV's, and Origin's endings all accept that the events in question ''did'' happen, and only the final outcomes could be in doubt (joke endings excluded). They also lack the restraint that MagicRealism requires. Blood splattered trips to a hellish alternate reality populated by things which would make Giger wet himself are ''not'' a feature of MagicalRealism.

* In the ''AceAttorney'' series, spirit channeling exists but is totally incidental to most cases and really just a way for Phoenix to get help from his [[TheObiWan dead mentor]]. [[spoiler: Except in the cases where spirit channeling was directly involved with the murder.]]
** And then, there's Apollo and Trucy, who both have superhuman perception, which basically makes them living Lie-Detectors.
*** It's acually explained in the game that it's not a supernatrual power but [[spoiler:rather a biological gene passed down through the Magnifi family line]]. This is based on an acual biological gene that gives people more then average twitch and nervous detection, it exists, just look it up.
*** Though they may have the gene that permits advanced perception, Apollo still has a bracelet that reacts when it senses that someone is feeling tense.
*** Actually, Ema managed to explain that away... scientifically, of course. Apparently, when Apollo subconsciously senses someone lying he gets tense, and the bracelet, likely made of a material that reacts to changes of temperature, becomes tighter on his wrist as he gets hot, giving him the hint needed to the help find the tell. This also why his senses, while used far less, are much more acute then Trucy's.