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| 3 | %% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order. Thanks! |
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| 7 | [[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/paramo_detail1.jpg]] |
| 8 | [[caption-width-right:300:[[BlackComedyBurst Edith being mourned]] by her [[VisualPun boneheaded friends]].]] |
| 9 | ->''"It was as if God had decided to put to the test every capacity for surprise... to such an extreme that no-one knew for certain where the limits of reality lay. It was an intricate stew of truths and mirages that convulsed the ghost of José Arcadio Buendía with impatience and made him wander all through the house even in broad daylight."'' |
| 10 | -->-- '''Creator/GabrielGarciaMarquez''' (after the arrival of the railroad, when dozens of new inventions -- the phonograph, the telephone, the electric lightbulb -- flooded Macondo), ''Literature/OneHundredYearsOfSolitude'' |
| 11 | |
| 12 | Magic realism is a story that takes place in a realistic setting that is recognizable as the historical past or present. It overlaps with MundaneFantastic. It has a connection to {{surrealism}}, dream logic, and poetry. In Magic Realism, events just ''happen'', as in dreams. Tchotchkes telling the heroine what to do (''Series/{{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 (''Series/NorthernExposure'', ''Series/TwinPeaks''). |
| 13 | |
| 14 | "Magic realism" is sometimes misused to explain why a favorite work is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_fiction literary fiction]] and thus [[SciFiGhetto somehow superior]] to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genre_fiction genre fiction]] like {{Fantasy}} and ScienceFiction. On the other hand, the inclusion of well-written magic realism into the canons of LitFic is historically well supported, as UsefulNotes/LatinAmerica's major 20th-century authors mostly wrote in this genre. The literary world outside of Latin America so closely associates the region with magic realism that the [=McOndo=] movement (for which see below) exists chiefly to prove that not everything literary that comes from Latin America involves magic and angels. Also, the way that religious and horror fiction are distinct enough to be distinguished from fantasy even when they fit its basic definition of containing unscientific elements, the same is true for magic realism. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | ''Literature/OneHundredYearsOfSolitude'', ''Literature/MidnightsChildren'', and ''Literature/{{Beloved}}'' are defining examples of magic realism. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | Rule of thumb: Say there are vampires in New York. |
| 19 | * If most people do not believe in the existence of vampires, but the protagonists finally realize that they are real, it's SupernaturalFiction. |
| 20 | * If the existence of vampires doesn't shock anyone, but the fact that they're vampires is constantly being pointed out, it's UrbanFantasy. |
| 21 | * If a cop's partner is very pale, very strong, generally acts odd, and come to think of it, he's never been seen in daylight, but the story focuses primarily on just a PoliceProcedural or the interpersonal relationships, it's MaybeMagicMaybeMundane. |
| 22 | * If the cop just goes through his life as a cop, but his partner [[UnusuallyUninterestingSight is a vampire whose ID has "vampire" printed next to his eye color, who's greeted by cheerful children in the street who are more fascinated by his shiny badge than by his teeth, and who casually drinks blood in plain sight out of transfusion packs during coffee breaks]], it's a case of Magic Realism. |
| 23 | |
| 24 | From another perspective, it is possible to interpret many non-fantasy [[TheMusical musicals]] by definition as magic realism, since spontaneously breaking into song with invisible accompaniment gets taken as a perfectly normal thing, although there are a few exceptions where the incongruity is [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]], such as in ''Film/{{Enchanted}}''. (See MusicalWorldHypotheses for other interpretations.) Or the singing could be taken as just a symbolic representation of the characters thoughts and speeches and not at face value over what they actually said. If the unnatural events happen in only a couple of episodes in an otherwise grounded series, like say a DomCom, they can lead viewers to exclaiming HowUnscientific. |
| 25 | |
| 26 | For when it's ambiguous, as in [[Creator/FranzKafka Kafka's]] ''Literature/TheMetamorphosis'' where the protagonist has either actually turned into an insect or just gone insane, see MaybeMagicMaybeMundane and UnreliableNarrator. Compare/contrast with LikeRealityUnlessNoted, as well as LowFantasy. |
| 27 | |
| 28 | [[noreallife]] |
| 29 | ---- |
| 30 | !!Examples: |
| 31 | |
| 32 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 33 | |
| 34 | [[folder:Advertising]] |
| 35 | * In this [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5DWyg4ylnQ Corona Commercial]] the environment shifts between a ski resort and a beach and nobody finds this weird. |
| 36 | * In many advertisements, living [[{{Mascot}} company mascots]] coexist with humans who find nothing unusual in the situation. |
| 37 | * ''Advertising/TheMythOfOrpheusAndEurydice'' is set in a dreamlike reality where Aristaeus appears to displace Eurydice during her and Orpheus's kiss and may or may not turn into the snake that kills her, while [[spoiler:after Orpheus turns around, Eurydice vanishes into thin air]]. |
| 38 | [[/folder]] |
| 39 | |
| 40 | [[folder:Anime and Manga]] |
| 41 | * While ''Manga/{{Beastars}}'' is about anthropomorphic animals, there are still things that stand out as fantastic even for the world it's set in, [[spoiler: like Legoshi instantly growing all his fur back after after eating a moth in its larval form, then having a dream sequence in which the moth blesses him with its strength. He later briefly turns into a glowing swarm of moths during his fight with Riz. There's also the ghost of his dead mother having a conversation with him while he's in a coma and having an "out-of-body experience", and his fur turning completely white from despair after he believes he's eaten Haru, who reacts to it not with shock, but amusement that they now have something in common (their fur color)]]. |
| 42 | * ''Manga/CafeKichijoujiDe'' is a SliceOfLife manga that deals with the light-hearted, comedic antics that happens in the titular cafe. One of the staffs also happens to be a [[AmbiguouslyHuman questionable human being]] who uses the Necronomicon as his cooking guide, and is capable of curses and minor [[RealityWarper reality warping]]. |
| 43 | * ''Manga/CaseClosed'' is about a teenage detective who solves crimes... even after a failed poisoning attempt [[FountainOfYouth changes him into a kid]] and he has to move in with his childhood friend, who is enough of an ActionGirl to qualify for [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower being borderline super-powered]]. On a lesser note, characters sometimes have successful premonitions of danger, like the ActionGirl does in the first episode before the titular character is poisoned. If that's not enough, ''Manga/MagicKaito'' takes place in the same universe, and the bad guys are searching for a specific jewel that [[spoiler:may [[ImmortalityInducer make a person immortal]], and there is an ''actual'' witch as a recurring character who outright confirms that there are other witches as well]]. Other than that, it's a pretty straightforward mystery series. |
| 44 | * ''Manga/CoffeeAndCat'' focuses on Kon's struggles to find a purpose after failing his university exams and feeling squeamish about going back to his EducationMama grandfather. His primary source of solace is his love for his cat M'Lady, whom he literally can't live without. He also has the unexplained ability to talk to cats and sees them as human beings. |
| 45 | * The crux of the plot of ''Manga/DeathNote'' is a magical item from another world falling into the hands of an ordinary (albeit with some... personality quirks) human boy in our world and what he chooses to do with it. Aside from the Death Notes and shinigami, the world depicted in ''Death Note'' is highly realistic, and much of the plot focuses so heavily on the human characters using real-world methods and technology to try to catch the VillainProtagonist -- and the magic itself is treated in such a mundane and [[MagicAIsMagicA almost scientific]] fashion -- that you might occasionally forget that the plot is founded on the supernatural to begin with. |
| 46 | * ''Anime/DragonPilotHisoneAndMasotan'' is set in a world exactly like modern-day reality, except for, y'know, the dragons that transform into military aircraft. Their "pilots," who have to control the things from inside their stomachs, are treated as just a special category of fighter pilot; [[FishOutOfWater only the protagonist finds any of this odd]], and she adapts to it quickly. Dragon-piloting is explicitly a weird metaphor for [[ComingOfAgeStory transitioning to adulthood]]. |
| 47 | * ''Manga/FruitsBasket'' has an [[TheClan enormous family]] who has several members that [[{{Animorphism}} turn into animals]] from the EasternZodiac [[InvoluntaryShapeshifting when hugged by the opposite sex]], and Hanajima has PsychicPowers, but aside from that it takes place in a completely mundane setting in present-day Japan. As the story goes on, it's made clear that the fantasy elements themselves aren't meant to be deeply examined and function more as metaphors for various difficulties in life. |
| 48 | * ''Anime/HaibaneRenmei'' fits, as Creator/YoshitoshiAbe is a huge fan of the genre. The show is heavily inspired by the "End Of The World" narrative in ''Literature/HardBoiledWonderlandAndTheEndOfTheWorld'' by Creator/HarukiMurakami. Sure, the main characters may be 'Haibane', have wings and halos, and be amnesiacs born from eggs, but the story isn't ''about'' all that, it's about their daily lives in the unnamed city, where Haibane are just an accepted part of life. |
| 49 | * The over arching plot and background of ''Literature/HaruhiSuzumiya'' has elements of Magic Realism even though the individual pieces are UrbanFantasy and ScienceFiction. This is due mainly to Haruhi's powers being very subtle and especially the lack of certainty about what is really a coincidence and what is outright alteration of reality. |
| 50 | * ''Manga/HelenESP'' never explains the nature or origin of Helen's psychic powers, and they don't really change that much about her life. |
| 51 | * Arguably the existence of personified countries in ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'' would count, especially when their dynamics are played with. |
| 52 | * Similar to the example above, ''Manga/HikaruNoGo'' deals with this. The plot is mostly about a normal SliceOfLife exploits of the title character's Go games -- the fact that Hikaru only started being interested in Go is because of a thousand-year-old ghost of a Go master who wishes to continue playing forces him to do so. |
| 53 | * ''Manga/KeepYourHandsOffEizouken'' The anime seems to start off with a solid definition of what is or isn't fantasy in their world. But more and more fantastic elements ({{Kappa}} in particular) seem to creep in, and the final scene is either completely imaginary or a revelation that the world is very much this trope, depending on how you interpret it. |
| 54 | * ''Anime/KikisDeliveryService'' is basically a SliceOfLife about a witch who must, per tradition, live on her own and develop her powers. Since the titular Kiki is only really good at flying, she forms a delivery service in a city - and when she goes to the city, they are impressed but don't [[UnusuallyUninterestingSight see much out of the ordinary]]. |
| 55 | * ''Manga/TheKurosagiCorpseDeliveryService'' might seem like UrbanFantasy -- you've got a psychic, a hacker, a dowser, an embalmer and a channeller of aliens all in the business of physically transporting dead bodies to where ''the dead'' want to go -- but the setting is resolutely realistic, and they've got the [[FootnoteFever footnotes to prove it]]. |
| 56 | * ''Manga/LivingForTheDayAfterTomorrow'': The setting is mundane except for the wishing stone that changes Karada and Shoukos' ages. |
| 57 | * ''Manga/LuckyStar'' dips into this once when the main character's dead mother visits her family as a ghost. |
| 58 | * ''Manga/NagasareteAirantou'' is a comedic first-class example. Ikuto, young man of the modern age and the main character finds himself on an island stuck -- culturally, at any rate -- in the late 19th century. Normal enough at first but before long he's rationalizing away the more... unconventional aspects of his new home, like magic, talking animals, youkai, etc. |
| 59 | * ''Anime/NowAndThenHereAndThere'' is for the most part a brutal, grounded story of [[WarIsHell surviving war and genocide]] (supposedly inspired by the Rwandan genocide in South Africa), albeit one set in a Post-Apocalyptic Earth where TimeTravel/dimension-hopping technology is used to transport the protagonists to this world. One of the main characters is an ageless immortal with [[MakingASplash water manipulation]] abilities who is all but stated to be a goddess, and both sides of the war fight to use her to their advantage. Oh, and unfortunately for everyone, the BigBad has a flying fortress that he gets operational in the penultimate episodes, complete with {{Mini Mecha}}s and giant energy cannons. |
| 60 | * ''Manga/OshiNoKo'''s two main characters are {{Reincarnation}}s with PastLifeMemories. Other than that, the story is grounded in reality about the main characters becoming an idol and an actor respectively. |
| 61 | * ''Anime/PatemaInverted'' implies a sci-fi justification for why some people have inverted gravity, but we're never told exactly what happened, and everyone just accepts it as normal. Well, each society accepts ''themselves'' as normal, and has FantasticRacism towards the other (calling them either "inverts" or "bat people"). It's mainly a metaphor for that, and for shifting your perspective. [[spoiler:The ending reveals that the ones we thought were "normal" were the inverted people all along.]] |
| 62 | * In ''Anime/{{Penguindrum}}'', the main characters' souls are represented by penguins only they can see, aphrodisiac potions brewed from frogs really work, and key scenes take place on a strange, alternate version of the Tokyo subway all pass without much comment. For extra credit, the show makes several references to other examples of Magic Realism, such as ''Literature/NightOnTheGalacticRailroad'' and Creator/HarukiMurakami's works. |
| 63 | * ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'', a series set in a fairly normal, if clearly rich, high school, where students deal with their turmoil, hatred and/or pettiness. And some of the students fence for possession of a [[spoiler: seemingly immortal]] girl underneath an inverted castle, all for the vague end of revolutionising the world. Oh, and there's a guy who may or may not be [[spoiler: God/Lucifer]]. Characters react to all this as they would towards lesser, or at least real world, events. Utena, though shocked by the inverted castle, would probably experience the same level of surprise finding a regular castle hidden in the woods. |
| 64 | * ''Manga/SchoolRumble'' is a normal high school story with normal (if goofy) protagonists. Then Yakumo states that she can magically read people's minds, her older sister can bend spoons with her mind, {{Dracula}} helped out with a school festival, Akira may or may not be a secret agent, and Yakumo and Iori the cat once switched bodies. There's definitely odd things going on, but they're not the focus of the story. |
| 65 | * The works of Creator/SatoshiKon offer a lot of examples of this, specially in ''Anime/ParanoiaAgent'' and ''Anime/TokyoGodfathers''. |
| 66 | * ''Anime/SerialExperimentsLain'' might fit into this category better than ScienceFiction. Among other things, it seems that dead people go to (or through) the Wired after they die, computer equipment can grow like vines, and the physical reality is as much "data" as the computer-world and can likewise be programmed by gifted individuals. It's perhaps the only {{cyberpunk}} or science fiction-ish narrative to convincingly do so. The reason why ''Serial Experiments Lain'' might be an example of this trope [[spoiler:is because it basically deals with the digital world merging with the real world, thus creating a hybrid where the rules of this reality don't apply]]. The problem with this theory is that people do seem to take notice of the change; [[spoiler:one guy even shoots himself in the head because of it.]] Perspective is everything. Lain's point of view perhaps flips towards UrbanFantasy in the end, but Alice's remains in the field of Magic Realism. |
| 67 | * ''Anime/ShoujoKagekiRevueStarlight'', unsurprisingly given its deliberate similarity to ''Revolutionary Girl Utena'', involves this. Just a realistic story about young stage performers going to acting school; oh, except for the secret elevator to an enormous underground automated theater, where a talking giraffe conducts an audition to choose a "top star" who will receive a vague and probably supernatural reward. The magical side of it is an elaborate fourth-wall-breaking metaphor for the behind-the-scenes aspects of stage performances (and the Creator/TakarazukaRevue in particular) so it never gets any in-universe explanation, and the characters rarely suggest that there's anything strange about performing spontaneous swordfight-musicals to win recognition from a giraffe. |
| 68 | * ''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. |
| 69 | * ''Manga/TonnuraSan'' is about a family who adopted a stray cat... [[TalkingAnimal who's quite articulate]], gentlemanly, wise, and overall charming. At one point, the owner was worried that such an animal would cause a great commotion, but his charms simply wins everyone over. |
| 70 | * ''Manga/TwinSpica'' is a hard sci-fi series. And there's "Mr. Lion", the ghost of an astronaut who died in a major shuttle accident prior to the events of the story and now mentors the main character. [[spoiler: Shuu is implied to have become a Mr. Lion-style ghost as well after his death.]] |
| 71 | * ''Anime/WeatheringWithYou'' runs on this. The setting is realistic modern Tokyo except for the weather, which is vaguely supernatural and influenced by "sunshine girls" and "rain girls" who can clear or cloud the sky, respectively. We only meet one of the former, who received her powers though a mysterious incident where she was drawn to a [[NaturalSpotlight sunlit shrine]] on an abandoned building, but a surplus of the latter supposedly caused the recent overabundance of rain. How their powers work is never explained beyond implying that god(s) did it (she clears the sky by praying). [[spoiler:The climax of the story, where she gets "taken into the sky" in exchange for restoring normal summer weather, and her friend/love-interest prays his way into the otherwordly sky-dimension to save her, works heavily on dream-logic. Everyone in the city literally sees her in their dreams when she disappears.]] |
| 72 | * ''Anime/YourName'' is more or less built around this trope -- various fantastical plot-driving things happen, including body-swapping and [[spoiler:time travel]], with either vague poetic explanations or none at all, and the characters never really question the how or why of any of it. After a certain point, they begin struggling to remember anything associated with the magical events, making it unclear both to them and to the audience whether it was AllJustADream. |
| 73 | [[/folder]] |
| 74 | |
| 75 | [[folder:Asian Animation]] |
| 76 | * ''Animation/WhiteCatLegend'' takes place in China during the Tang dynasty, and several historical figures such as Empress Wu Zetian and General Qiu Shenji make an appearance. Aside from the main character being an [[CatFolk anthropomorphic cat]] and one supporting character [[TheJinx summoning natural disasters at random]], supernatural or fantastical elements are few and far between. |
| 77 | [[/folder]] |
| 78 | |
| 79 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 80 | * Several comics anthologies dabble in this, blending fantastical creatures and powers with mundane, slice-of-life type settings. |
| 81 | * ''ComicBook/ArchieComics'': The comics have had some TimeTravel and there was even a series of ''Little Archie'' comics that had stuff like witches, a SeaMonster, and ''dragons''. |
| 82 | * ''ComicBook/Flight2004'': Stories include a girl coping with angelic wings she's been growing since she was little, a family man who moonlights as a ninja for hire, TheBigBadWolf and Literature/LittleRedRidingHood as actors who [[MeanCharacterNiceActor have a father/daughter type relationship when it's not storytime]], and a pair of fisherwomen having a feud over who sells the best produce...which leads to both [[BodyHorror graphically, slowly mutating]] [[{{Animorphism}} into sea creatures.]] |
| 83 | * ''ComicBook/LoveAndRockets'': Both Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez's work has magic realist elements, although more frequently in Gilbert's. For example: |
| 84 | ** A character in Gilbert's Palomar stories has premonitions of people's deaths, when he sees images of them sitting under a certain tree. |
| 85 | ** The supernatural and quasi-magical events surrounding Izzy Ortiz in the "Locas" stories, even after they otherwise become completely SliceOfLife. |
| 86 | * ''ComicBook/TheRabbisCat'': The title character, who is also the narrator, gains the ability to speak by eating a parrot (even though the parrot is never shown talking itself). [[spoiler: He later loses the ability by inappropriately invoking the name of God and then regains it after nearly dying from a scorpion sting]]. Also, there's a search for a lost city whose conclusion may or may not be real. |
| 87 | * ''ComicBook/SinCity'': The world of ''Sin City'' is a CrapsackWorld full of FilmNoir elements, like cynical heroes and {{femme fatale}}s, revenge and prostitution, alcohol and drugs, {{dirty cop}}s and mobsters, drama and violence and romance and heartbreak, all narrated in [[PrivateEyeMonologue first-person dialogues]]. However, is also filled with fantastical things like [[ImAHumanitarian cannibals]] with sharp nails and silent skills, tough huge guys who [[MadeOfIron can survive explosions and blood loss and multiple gunshots]], grotesque people who look like they're made of clay and mud or outright monsters, [[BandOfBrothels prostitutes with warfare tactics]], supernatural {{ninja}} women with ancient training, deranged {{mad scientist}}s and more, all drawn and set in a [[DeliberatelyMonochrome high-contrast black-and-white world]] with occasional [[SplashOfColor splashes of color]]. None of this is explained, and when it ''is'' explained, it defies logic in many ways; in fact, a lot of the events depicted in the series are taken at face value, [[ButForMeItWasTuesday as if this is just how things work in this world every single day]]. |
| 88 | * ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'': The comics are usually grounded in the real world, with tales of crime and political intrigue. A few stories, however, have elements of science fiction (the Phosilite meteorite from "[[Recap/TintinTheShootingStar The Shooting Star]]", a moon voyage in "[[Recap/TintinDestinationMoon Destination Moon]]"/"[[Recap/TintinExplorersOnTheMoon Explorers on the Moon]]", and an alien abduction in "[[Recap/TintinFlight714 Flight 714]]") and fantasy (a psychic vision in "[[Recap/TintinTheSevenCrystalBalls The Seven Crystal Balls]]", sympathetic magic being used to lay an Incan curse in "[[Recap/TintinPrisonersOfTheSun Prisoners of the Sun]]", and more psychic powers and a yeti in "[[Recap/TintinTintinInTibet Tintin in Tibet]]"). |
| 89 | [[/folder]] |
| 90 | |
| 91 | [[folder:Comic Strips]] |
| 92 | * ''ComicStrip/BloomCounty'': The comic strip may only barely qualify, as most of the material revolves around talking animals, but most of the time they're talking about real-world stuff. Then, of course, there's the fact that the Monster in the Closet may actually be real. |
| 93 | * ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'': For the most part, the setting is realistic, aside from the [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane ambiguous nature]] of Hobbes himself. But then there are also things like the Transmogrifier, the Duplicator, and an entire arc where Calvin goes to Mars. He also owns a bike that keeps trying to run him over and a baseball that tries to eat him. All of these things can only ''usually'' be explained away as products of an active imagination. |
| 94 | * ''ComicStrip/{{Candorville}}'': The comic strip is usually credible enough, allowing for a pretty serious undercurrent to the punchlines in Lemont's life. But every few months, he'll meet someone like a talking scarecrow, a ghost, or himself from the future. |
| 95 | * ''ComicStrip/{{Foxtrot}}'': Used constantly. Peter's status as a BigEater is impossible, seeing as how he can eat a whole plate of spaghetti in one thirteenth of a second and be ''disappointed'' by it. Roger can create a fire blast from a grill so destructive it destroys a ''Mars Rover''. |
| 96 | * ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'': A world where one encounters inexplicably sentient plants and animals, mythological creatures who may or may not really exist, buildings that are larger on the inside than the outside, and several young children with unexplained highly-advanced talents and knowledge would probably be considered by many to be a magic realist setting. And that's the world Charlie Brown wakes up to every day. |
| 97 | * ''ComicStrip/PhoebeAndHerUnicorn'': [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Phoebe having a unicorn]] is common knowledge, something even her parents take into account. Justified by the "Shield of Boringness," a spell that causes most humans to think it's nothing significant when they meet a supernatural creature. |
| 98 | * ''ComicStrip/RoseIsRose'': The existence of guardian angels, sentient animals and plants and fairies (although they only showed up once) qualifies the comic strip as this. |
| 99 | [[/folder]] |
| 100 | |
| 101 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 102 | * ''Fanfic/MySisterLeni'' is a realistic ComingOfAgeStory starring an autistic child. But, then, Lisa is born and it becomes clear it's a ''Loud House'' fic after all. Lisa can [[BrainyBaby talk at one month old]]. |
| 103 | * ''WebAnimation/HisHistoryRevealedADrRobotnikBiography'' acts a grounded reimagining of Eggman's life from his birth in the 1940s to his first meeting with Sonic. It, however, contains several fantastical ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' elements, such as a space colony being around in the 1950s and the existence of [[LionsAndTigersAndHumansOhMy Funny Animals co-existing with humans]]. |
| 104 | [[/folder]] |
| 105 | |
| 106 | [[folder:Films -- Animation]] |
| 107 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Encanto}}'', being explicitly set in Colombia (the birthplace of the magic realism genre) has many elements of this, most notably the candle that suddenly miraculously saves the family from the totally mundane and realistic danger of armed militia trying to murder them, creates a sentient house for them to live in and gifts each member of the Madrigal family with specific magical powers has no explanation or connection to a wider world of magic that would turn the film into a straight fantasy. Also, as discussed above, most musicals could be said to fall into this genre by default due to the characters not acting as if it's strange that people suddenly burst into song, but it is particularly appropriate here. Apart from these magical elements, the rest of the film is a perfectly mundane drama of a loving by dysfunctional family trying to cope with various personal pressures. |
| 108 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Paperman}}'' is basically a down-to-earth romantic comedy about a guy, seeing a girl he's fallen for in a building across the street, trying to get her attention by throwing paper airplanes at her. Until he fails, at which point the paper airplanes suddenly come to life without explanation... |
| 109 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}'' takes place in a world where supernatural elements (a talking cricket, an anthropomorphic fox and cat, an AmusementParkOfDoom that turns kids into donkeys, etc.) are surprisingly commonplace and accepted. |
| 110 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Pocahontas}}'' places a talking willow tree in an otherwise realistic 17th century Virginia setting. The titular heroine also has distinct shamanic powers including an unusually close connection with the earth, strong friendships with animals, and the ability to learn English by "listening with her heart." |
| 111 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheRedTurtle'': The only fantasy element happening in the movie is [[spoiler: the titular turtle turning into a woman in the middle of the film]]. This event is never questioned nor explained, just happens. |
| 112 | * ''Manga/{{Tekkonkinkreet}}'' has the main characters that can fly/glide, alien assassins, and psychic bonds between brothers. None of this is explained or even really acknowledged. |
| 113 | [[/folder]] |
| 114 | |
| 115 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 116 | * In ''Film/AboutTime'', the protagonist and his male ancestors have the ability to travel back in time. How they came to possess this ability is never examined or explained, and the world they live in is perfectly ordinary in all other respects. |
| 117 | * ''Film/TheAgeOfAdaline'' features a woman who, after being [[LightningCanDoAnything struck by lightning]] never ages and is already over a hundred by the time the story starts. Besides that, it's a straightforward drama/romance. |
| 118 | * ''Film/ALAventure'': The film has ordinary events to start out, then Mina gets regressed into her past life, a Belgian nun, which causes her to have an orgiastic experience, levitating above the ground and a wind blowing up from nowhere. Sandrine and Greg are both baffled. |
| 119 | * The 1998 theatrical film based on the Creator/CirqueDuSoleil show ''Theatre/{{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]]. |
| 120 | * ''Film/{{Amelie}}'' has some. Talking photographs and paintings, and Amélie watching a documentary about her own life and death being the instances that come to mind the most. |
| 121 | * ''Film/ArizonaDream'': At least three characters take to the air, one flying the ambulance after he dies, and two more levitate at odd times with no particular attention paid to it. A flying fish wafts through the desert, meandering in and out of the story for no particular reason. |
| 122 | * ''Film/{{Barbie|2023}}'': Both the upper brass at Mattel and the [=FBI=] are aware of the existence of Barbieland and the possibility of Barbies crossing over, and [[spoiler:the ghost of Ruth Handler has an office on the 17th floor.]] And the real world and Barbieland both seem to directly affect each other. [[spoiler:Gloria's Barbie drawings]] "decide" what clothes Barbie is wearing, even upon reaching the real world, while conversely [[spoiler:Ken introducing ideas of the Patriarchy to Barbieland, turning it into Kendom affects the toys that are being created in the real world.]] |
| 123 | * ''Film/BagdadCafe'': The central theme is magic, so much of the film has the logic of a FairyTale. At one point, the protagonist does a magic trick that is impossible unless real magic exists. |
| 124 | * The FilmOfTheBook of ''Film/BeingThere'' diverges from its source novel in this manner. Hal Ashby, the director, came up with [[spoiler:a different ending than the one scripted]] as a salute to how believable the actors were -- since the audience would already accept Chance the Gardener becoming one of the most important men in the world in a matter of days simply through misunderstandings, then they would also accept [[spoiler:the final shot's revelation that he can literally WalkOnWater. There's no explanation given as to how, and Chance is as surprised as the audience is; he even tests the depth of the water with his umbrella...but, being who he is, he accepts it right away as just something he can do]]. |
| 125 | * ''Film/BigFish'': Edward Bloom spices up his life story with small magic tidbits every now and then. His son Will believes he's making it all up, until [[spoiler:Edward's funeral, where many of the magical characters show up.]] Will concludes that the only way to tell his father's story is the exact manner his father told it. |
| 126 | * Another 60s comedy, ''Film/BlackbeardsGhost'' is about a college track coach who gets involved with the eponymous spirit. |
| 127 | * ''Film/BlindChance'': There is no real explanation of ''WHY'' Witek lives through the story three times -- ''if'' he really does. The events simply restart on their own accord, each time with minor changes at the train station, which are also left unexplained. There is also [[spoiler: his wife sensing something wrong about the flight and asking him not to go]]. |
| 128 | * ''Film/CelineAndJulieGoBoating'', where MindScrew meets SliceOfLife comedy meets supernatural murder mystery. |
| 129 | * The world of ''Film/ChildsPlay'' is largely similar, albeit [[CrapsackWorld crappier]], to our own, aside from the incantations that allow people to transfer their souls into others or into inanimate objects. |
| 130 | * There are several elements of magic realism in ''Film/{{Chocolat}}'', one of these being the personification of the North Wind as the force driving Vianne and Anouk to [[FlyingDutchman wander the world]]. |
| 131 | * Nearly every film Creator/TheCoenBrothers make has at least some Magic Realist elements, with ''Film/OBrotherWhereArtThou'', ''Film/TheHudsuckerProxy'', and ''Film/BartonFink'' being the most obvious examples. |
| 132 | ** A good specific example is ''Film/RaisingArizona'': the plot is centered around a fairly mundane love story/kidnapping scheme, but it also involves a bounty hunter who may or may not be a demon from Hell! And then there's the main character's tendency to have prophetic and/or clairvoyant dreams, which he doesn't seem to consider unusual. |
| 133 | * Several sequences in ''Film/ComeAndSee'' are implausible and downright surreal, and intentionally so. |
| 134 | * ''Film/CrouchingTigerHiddenDragon'' makes use of the trope as a tribute to Chinese {{wuxia}} cinema, which often features characters pulling off seemingly supernatural feats in otherwise mundane action stories. The film is ostensibly a simple period piece about a group of Imperial bodyguards in the Qin Dynasty who get roped into a battle over a [[{{Macguffin}} valuable sword]], but practitioners of the [[SupernaturalMartialArts Wudan school of martial arts]] are frequently shown to levitate and ''fly'' during action sequences--which apparently isn't just a stylistic decision, but is occasionally tacitly acknowledged (in one scene, for example, Li Mu Bai stops Jen from flying away by grabbing her sword). It's also left deliberately ambiguous whether [[AncestralWeapon the Green Destiny]] is just a mundane sword, or if it's imbued with supernatural powers that make the wielder more formidable in battle. |
| 135 | * ''Film/DaughtersOfTheDust'': A mostly realistic portrait of a black family preparing to leave their isolated island and journey north in 1902 -- except for the spirit of Eula's unborn daughter materializing and spending time with her family. |
| 136 | * ''Film/DaveMadeAMaze'', an indie comedy about a slacker artist who builds a fort/maze out of cardboard in his living room only for it to inexplicably grow BiggerOnTheInside into a [[EldritchLocation sentient monstrosity]], complete with its own cardboard-head Minotaur. |
| 137 | * ''Film/DonJuanDemarco'': The [[Creator/JohnnyDepp title character]] is a mental patient, with delusions of living in a wonderful world full of romance and adventure. In the movie's final sequence, [[spoiler: he and a couple friends hop on a plane and go to that world]]. |
| 138 | * A pair of Creator/ClintEastwood westerns count as this. Both ''Film/HighPlainsDrifter'' and ''Film/PaleRider'' are typical revenge stories, except that it's hinted ''very'' strongly that the protagonists have returned from the dead for their revenge. |
| 139 | * ''Film/EurovisionSongContestTheStoryOfFireSaga'' is an otherwise grounded comedy about a hapless pop music duo trying to get into the Series/EurovisionSongContest, in which [[spoiler:ghosts and elves are real. After Katiana is killed, her ghost appears as a SpiritAdvisor to warn Lars that Karlosson is planning to kill him too, while it turns out that Sigrit's belief in the existence of elves was [[TheCuckoolanderWasRight right all along]] when they save Lars from Karlosson]]. Neither of these things is brought up again. |
| 140 | * ''Film/FannyAndAlexander'' has a mostly realistic setting, but with fairy-tale aspects. Alexander sees a statue move, and sees ghosts. A mummy somehow breathes. Mr. Jacobi casts a spell to make images of Fanny and Alexander appear when smuggling them out of the Vergerus home. Mr. Jacobi's disturbed son Ismael seems to bring about the death of Edvard and his aunt by some sort of psychic link, with the events transpiring in Real Life just as Ismael describes them to Alexander. |
| 141 | * 1992's ''Film/{{Fathers And Sons|1992}}'' is primarily a down-to-Earth story of a strained relationship between a grieving widower and his rebellious teenage son on the Jersey Shore, but gradually unusual elements are stirred in -- a serial killer is stalking the area offscreen, and a bizarre stranger observing both men from a distance is noted and joked about by one character as perhaps said killer. A crate containing copies of a self-published novel about telepathy mysteriously turns up at the father's bookstore; one copy ends up in the son's hands, and he becomes fascinated with its ideas around the time he experiments with a hallucinogenic drug. The father meanwhile has several conversations with a boardwalk fortune teller who warns him to beware false prophets. In the climax, [[spoiler: the author of the book -- the stalker ''and'' the killer -- attacks the son on the beach. He is saved by his father telepathically sensing both that he's in danger ''and'' where he is at the time; it is clear that there is no mundane way he can know the latter]]. |
| 142 | * ''Franchise/FridayThe13th'' is an interesting example as the first two films are relatively mundane murder mysteries before Jason Voorhees becomes a nigh-superhuman ImplacableMan in the later sequels. After death, he's resurrected by a lightning bolt and becomes an outright super-Zombie. Then the series leans more and more into the fantastic, randomly introducing PsychicPowers, turning Jason into a body-switching demon, landing him in a space-based future with androids and bionics, and finally pitting him against a [[Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet demonic fiend who dwells in dreams]]. |
| 143 | ** Material outside the films suggested it was a supernatural series from the start. The first two movies mostly fall under EarlyInstallmentWeirdness and the later installments went to SerialEscalation. |
| 144 | * The 1960s children's movie ''Film/TheGnomemobile'' is about the adventures of an eccentric millionaire and his grandchildren who get entangled in the affairs of a pair of gnomes. |
| 145 | * In ''Film/GriffTheInvisible'', most of the fantastical things that occur seem to be the product of Griff and Melody's wild imaginations, but several things seem ambiguous, like Melody actually being invisible to Griff at one point, or Melody phasing through a solid door with Griff witnessing. |
| 146 | * ''Film/GroundhogDay'': Bill Murray lives every day over and over until he becomes truly selfless. The constraints of this mysterious circumstance is never fully explained. Additionally, his way out of the loop is never really known to the audience. |
| 147 | * ''Film/Halloween1978'' could otherwise be considered a mundane SlasherMovie, but features a super-strong, seemingly-unkillable villain who is heavily implied to be the Boogeyman himself. The sequels lean even heavier into this, as Michael Myers shrugs off injuries that would kill any mortal man, and more or less [[HumanoidAbomination seems to be more force of nature than rational human being]]. Michael is even more of an enigma considering he is the only one who demonstrates such otherworldly traits. Regardless, all anyone cares about is killing the Shape rather than understanding what he is. The few who ''are'' interested in this never come close and swiftly die at Myers' hands. |
| 148 | ** Of course, the series itself has so much CanonDiscontinuity that it's very difficult to come up with ''any'' consistency. Only the first film is canon across all continuities (bar [[BizarroEpisode the third]]) and the films that explicitly state Michael is a supernatural being are most certainly not canon by now. |
| 149 | * ''Film/AHardDaysNight''. Most of it is realistic enough that viewers have mistaken it for a real {{documentary}}; but there are a couple of segments which just cannot happen in even Music/TheBeatles' real life, and (this being a comedy) there isn't even a HandWave for why they happen. |
| 150 | * ''Film/InYourEyes'' is about two people living thousands of miles apart who discover that they can each experience what the other one is sensing. No attempt is made to explain how this connection is possible. |
| 151 | * ''Film/{{Jasminum}}'' has [[LovePotion alchemy]], ghosts and saint Roch, and nobody bats an eye. |
| 152 | * In ''Film/KillBill'', the martial arts master Pai Mei is said to be at least a thousand years old. The credibility of this statement isn't even questioned by any of the characters; [[spoiler: given that he could explode people's hearts, being ReallySevenHundredYearsOld may not be too much to swallow...]] |
| 153 | * ''Film/{{Ladyhawke}}'': In otherwise normal medieval France, a bishop has cursed a pair of lovers to [[ForcedTransformation transform into beasts]] at alternating times, so that they can never be together. |
| 154 | * ''Film/LAStory'', written by Steve Martin, applies many of the tropes of Magic Realism. What else can you call a story where a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable_message_sign variable-message sign]] on the highway offers a character advice on his love life? |
| 155 | * ''Film/LocalHero'' has a classic quirky setting in Ferness: Full of EccentricTownsfolk, and a place not far off from a military bombing range yet full of natural beauty from the land to the sea to the sky. Moreover, it seems to attract other unusual people: Marina may well be a case of OurMermaidsAreDifferent, and EccentricMillionaire Happer finds a soulmate in Ben the beachcomber, which makes some poetic sense given that Ben Knox may be a direct descendant of the founders of Knox Industries. It could be a ContrivedCoincidence, but... (Some critics called the film a "not-quite-a-fairy-tale set in a quaint seaside Scottish village named Ferness.") |
| 156 | * Creator/DavidLynch's films have it both ways. Some of them really do fit the definition of magic realism and fit comfortably within the genre, while others are ''clearly'' supernatural but are lumped in with magic realism because it's an easy way out of the SciFiGhetto. It doesn't help that the only Lynch film they really can't weasel their way out of acknowledging as what it is, ''Film/Dune1984'', really ''was'' bad. |
| 157 | ** There is some disagreement over the setting of ''Film/{{Eraserhead}}'', whether it's a Magical Realist Pittsburgh or a PostApocalyptic nightmare land or [[EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory Purgatory]] or the inside of someone's nightmare or anything really. Perhaps it would be better to say that there may be some agreements about ''Eraserhead''. |
| 158 | ** ''Film/InlandEmpire'' straddles the line of this and Absurdism, but ''Film/MulhollandDrive'' IS magic realism. |
| 159 | * [[Creator/PaulThomasAnderson P.T. Anderson's]] ''Film/{{Magnolia}}'' features a relatively standard ensemble drama, until the final act, which leads to [[spoiler:a rain of frogs all over the town]]. |
| 160 | * ''Film/MidnightInParis''. When [[MostWritersAreWriters Gil Pender]] waits on a certain street corner of Paris at midnight, a car arrives and takes him to famous Paris locales [[TimeTravel in the 1920s]], where he spends his nights with people like Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein and Pablo Picasso. [[spoiler:In the 1920s, waiting in a certain spot allows the protagonist to travel to an even earlier era, and so on and so forth.]] |
| 161 | * ''Film/MightyAphrodite'', another Creator/WoodyAllen film, has a modern New York story being told by an ancient GreekChorus whom the protagonist occasionally converses with. It's Creator/NeilGaiman-esque in the way Greek mythological characters like Tiresias, Jocasta, Cassandra and so on appear as modernized people. |
| 162 | * "Oedipus Wrecks", the final segment from the movie ''Film/NewYorkStories'', is the only story from that film that features a small fantasy element: After vanishing during a stage magician act, the old mother of the main character ends appearing as a giant head in the sky of New York: The short never explains how this happened, and instead explores the humorous consequences of this strange event. |
| 163 | * ''Film/TheOddLifeOfTimothyGreen'' is a charming story about the life of a little boy. It just so happens that he has leaves growing from his legs, and that he was born from a box buried in the ground that his parents had filled with their wishes for a child. |
| 164 | * ''Film/{{Ondine}}'': Subverted, as at first it seems like Ondine is a selkie in the otherwise normal modern Irish setting. Then however it turns out she's just a woman, with the selkie stuff being coincidences and misidentification. |
| 165 | * ''Film/Paddington2014'' and ''Film/Paddington2'' have this general atmosphere. They're set in ordinary 21st century London, but there are certain Wes Anderson-inspired stylistic choices that tend to skew things, such as scenes of the Brown family living their lives as viewed through a dollhouse replica of their house, a calico-style band that seems to be following the characters around [[GreekChorus singing oddly-apt songs about what's happening]], and of course the fact that [[UnusuallyUninterestingSight no one seems particularly fazed or surprised by the presence of a]] [[AccessoryWearingCartoonAnimal surprisingly well-dressed talking bear]] wandering around the place. |
| 166 | * ''Film/RubySparks'' is about a writer who dashes off twenty pages about his perfect woman in a fit of inspiration. When [[ManicPixieDreamGirl said perfect woman]] appears in the flesh in his apartment, at first he freaks out, but soon he accepts it as a bona fide miracle. |
| 167 | * Take "magic realism," replace "magic" with "video game," and that's ''Film/ScottPilgrimVsTheWorld''. Enemies have unique mystical powers, video game graphics show up and may even be interacted with by characters, and people explode into coins once bested in a duel. But otherwise, you know, just the normal lives of twenty-something Canadians. While these elements appeared in the graphic novel source material, the film revels in it all, maybe just because we see it all in motion. |
| 168 | * ''Film/TheSecretOfRoanInish'' nonchalantly introduces the concept of {{selkies|AndWereseals}} marrying humans. The story is mostly about Fiona finding her brother, and the selkie herself only appears for about ten minutes in a flashback. |
| 169 | * The revenge western ''Film/SeraphimFalls'' verges into magic realism in the third act, when a MagicalNativeAmerican and a snake oil saleswoman appear out of nowhere to each of the two main characters and engineer a final confrontation between the nemeses. The Native American is named Charon in the credits and the saleswoman's name is revealed to be [[LouisCypher Louise C. Fair]]. |
| 170 | * ''Film/ShadowsOfForgottenAncestors'': The film has supernatural elements that could be explained as hallucinations and superstition. Ivan's wife cheats on him with a sorcerer who may or may not have actual powers. Later, a delirious Ivan seems to see Marichka's ghost walking through the woods toward him. The use of this trope put the film at odds with Soviet authorities, who mandated Socialist Realism in all Soviet art pieces. |
| 171 | * ''Film/SiegeOfTheSaxons'' is a fairly mundane (albeit [[AnachronismStew highly anachronistic]]) movie about knights, outlaws, and medieval political intrigue, but it still has Arthurian elements like Excalibur and Merlin that are still treated as magical. |
| 172 | * ''Film/SorryToBotherYou'' certainly qualifies. Starting as a story of Cash, a telemarketer and aspiring activist, the story gradually builds more supernatural aspects. Cash sees success as a telemarketer through using his "white voice", which is an entirely different voice to his own (actually Creator/DavidCross dubbed in) and when speaking to customers he literally falls into their house. [[spoiler: Once we see the plans by the villain to turn his workers into horses, things REALLY take a turn for the weird, and place the film in this genre.]] |
| 173 | * ''Film/StrangerThanFiction''. The movie is more or less like this, Harold is struggling with life, and the only magical thing is that he seems to be the main character of a book. The book in question also seems to have Magic Realism elements to it, as his watch becomes sentient for a second. |
| 174 | * ''Film/{{Ted}}'' is a slacker comedy about a young boy who brings his Toys/TeddyBear to life with a wish under a shooting star on Christmas night... and is now a grown man still living with his walking, talking stuffed animal, who has "grown up" into just as big a {{jerkass}} as him. It's shown at the beginning of the film that "Ted" was initially the subject of {{Human Interest Stor|y}}ies (and religious mania) and enjoyed FifteenMinutesOfFame, but then everyone moved on and he faded into obscurity (save for a LoonyFan who's still obsessed with him after all these years). |
| 175 | * ''Literature/TheTinDrum'' is both a novel and a film about a boy who NeverGrewUp, [[NoInfantileAmnesia was perfectly aware while in the womb]], and can [[MakeMeWannaShout create destructive screams]]. While the book version of the character is [[UnreliableNarrator likely insane]], the movie plays it straight. It's a historical/political drama. |
| 176 | * ''Film/ValerieAndHerWeekOfWonders'' is a surreal Czech film based on novel of the same name, in which love, fear, sex and religion merge into one fantastic world. |
| 177 | * ''Film/WhenEvilCalls'': No one expresses skepticism at the idea of a djinn being responsible for the horrific events in the film, or the wish results themselves, suggesting that the film's universe has many such unusual things happen frequently enough so that they're known to be real. |
| 178 | * ''Film/{{Yesterday|2019}}'': The protagonist is one of only three people on the planet who remember the Beatles because of a blackout. But even then the blackout doesn't explain anything, because hard copies of the Beatles records don't exist and John Lennon has no memory of recording those songs. |
| 179 | [[/folder]] |
| 180 | |
| 181 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 182 | * There's a whole sub-genre of historical fiction that fits this. Generally the earlier the era and/or the more non-western the culture dealt with, the more likely this is. Common features are prophetic dreams/visions, an individual or group of individuals with mystic knowledge and something like the Australian Dream Time. Often features a clash with a more "advanced" nation that considers the more "primitive" peoples beliefs rank superstition and are usually the bad guys. Both ''Literature/TheSpiralDance'', set during the Great Northern Rebellion in Elizabethan England and ''Literature/AmericanWoman'', and account of the Battle of the Little Big Horn and the events leading up to it from the perspective of the white wife of a Cheyenne warrior by Rodrigo Garcia y Robertson. In fact most of Garcia y Robertson's stuff qualifies. |
| 183 | * ''Literature/OneQEightyFour'': The setting of the novel is firmly grounded in the Japan of 1984, but that slowly stops being wholly true after Aomame exits the Metropolitan Expressway No. 3 through the emergency stairway and Tengo reads ''Air Chrysalis'' and meets its author, Fuka-Eri. |
| 184 | * J. M. Sidorova's ''Literature/TheAgeOfIce'' follows the protagonist from his conception in a palace constructed from ice, including the bed he was conceived in, over his lifespan which lasts over 250 years. He is also AnIcePerson who may be an incarnation of Old Man Frost. |
| 185 | * Jo Walton's ''Literature/AmongOthers'' is about a Welsh girl in an English boarding school trying, with the occasional help of the faerie, to cope with life and the psychic attacks of her mother, an evil witch. |
| 186 | %%* ''Literature/AndTheAssSawTheAngel'', by Music/NickCave, is either the paragon of MagicalRealism or [[UnreliableNarrator the narrator is even crazier than he seems]]. Or both. |
| 187 | * Sharyn [=McCrumb=]'s ''Literature/{{Ballad}}'' novels, slice of life/mysteries set in rural North Carolina featuring Nora Bonesteel, an old woman who has "The Sight". One book also features a ghost. |
| 188 | * Creator/KateDiCamillo's classic children's novel ''Literature/BecauseOfWinnDixie'' is a mostly mundane ComingOfAgeStory about [[ABoyAndHisX a girl's relationship with her beloved dog]]. It also features an old-fashioned candy that inexplicably tastes like [[TastesLikePurple sadness]], and causes people to relive their saddest memories upon eating it. |
| 189 | * In ''Literature/TheBedroomSecretsOfTheMasterChefs'', the character of Danny Skinner deiscovers that the damage that ought to accrue to his body from his hard-drinking, football hooliganism lifestyle is instead inflicted on his workplace rival, Brian Kibby. |
| 190 | * Toni Morrison's classic ''Literature/{{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. Toni Morrison's earlier novel ''Literature/SongOfSolomon'' is also a good example. Aside from being the fairly mundane story of a dysfunctional middle class African-American family in 1960s Michigan, there's a persistent folk tale about an ancestor of the protagonist who may or may not have discovered the power of flight, a woman who crawled out of her mother's womb as a baby and was inexplicably born without a navel, a few albino animals that mysteriously show up at weird intervals, and one secondhand story about an encounter with a ghost. |
| 191 | * Tananarive Due's ''Literature/TheBetween'' in which a man is haunted by the ghosts of his alternate selves who feel that he should have died in their place. Also her ''Literature/AfricanImmortals'' series which is about a group of ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin given eternal life by the stolen blood of Jesus. There are also ghosts. |
| 192 | * ''Literature/TheBigOne'' and its subsequent series, written by Stuart Slade, is an extremely realistic alternate history, which avoids many of the cliches of the genre in favor of a deconstructivist look at the historical implications of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII-era superweapons. Over the course of the series, however, it becomes increasingly clear that, not only are some or all of SAC's bombers sentient and capable of speaking to their crews, but the Seer, the Thai Ambassador, and several other characters are also nigh-immortal demon-type creatures, who are carefully steering world history. |
| 193 | * Creator/CormacMcCarthy's ''Literature/BloodMeridian'' is an epic historical novel set in the American West in the 1840s, focused on the exploits of a group of mercenaries hired by the Mexican government to pacify hostile Apaches. But its primary antagonist "Judge Holden" (or just "The Judge") is also a mysterious and enigmatic figure who's strongly implied to have supernatural abilities--although his true nature is something [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow mankind wasn't meant to know]]. He's a nearly seven-foot-tall hairless [[AlbinosAreFreaks albino]] who never sleeps, never ages, seemingly [[ImplacableMan can't be escaped or outrun]], and desires nothing less than complete mastery over all life on Earth. And upon meeting him in the desert for the first time, every single member of the Glanton gang claims that they've met him before... |
| 194 | * In ''Literature/TheBoyWhoCouldntSleepAndNeverHadTo'', nobody knows why Eric can't sleep and doesn't have to (and very few people are even aware that's the case): most of the narrative attention is given to his and Darren's life as geeky high schoolers [[spoiler:until TheMenInBlack find out]]. Interestingly, there may actually be an explanation for it. [[http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Sleep/medical-mystery-boy-sleep/story?id=4828035#.TzR7ulyJfNI Rhett Lamb]] almost never slept, and [[http://thexodirectory.com/2008/03/hai-ngoc-sleepless-man-for-more-than-30/ Hai Ngoc]] hasn't slept in thirty years. It looks like this can be caused by odd, rare medical conditions, though it's certainly fantastic. |
| 195 | * Much of Creator/RayBradbury's output, while normally shelved with typical fantasy, science fiction, and horror works, could more accurately be described as Magic Realism in tone and content. He relies on this fairly often when not writing straightforward science fiction. The most obvious example is "Uncle Einar", possibly an homage to the Marquez story mentioned below. |
| 196 | * Michael Bishop's ''Literature/BrittleInnings'' is a coming-of-age story about a mute teenager who plays on a minor-league baseball team in the Deep South during World War II, when all the 'real' ball players are fighting the war. It's almost an incidental detail that the team's slugging first baseman is [[spoiler:Frankenstein]]. |
| 197 | * Creator/ItaloCalvino is a famous Italian writer whose works skirted Magic Realism. His book ''Literature/InvisibleCities'' consisted entirely of Creator/MarcoPolo describing to Kublai Khan various cities he had visited which become less and less real as the book continues. His novellas ''Literature/TheBaronInTheTrees'' likewise has a Baron spend [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin his entire life in the trees and never come down]], and titles like ''Literature/TheNonExistentKnight'' are intended to be taken literally. |
| 198 | * The works of Creator/AngelaCarter tend to fall into this genre: ''Literature/NightsAtTheCircus'' revolves around Sophie [[PunnyName Fevvers]], a Cockney virgin ''aerialiste'' who [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane may or may not]] have {{wing|edHumanoid}}s. |
| 199 | * Happens in two of Creator/JodiPicoult's books. In ''Literature/ChangeOfHeart'', Shay Bourne is somehow able to cure one of his cellmates of AIDS and cause water to turn into wine. In fact, a priest specifically sees him as [[MessianicArchetype a Jesus-analogue]]. The main focus of the book, however, is on the ramifications of the death penalty. The trope is in fact double-subverted because some of his miraculous acts have mundane explanations, but then the little girl who he donated his heart to miraculously brings her dog back to life. In ''Harvesting the Heart'', Paige has the ability to draw pictures of people and weave some of their hidden memories or desires into the drawing. The focus of that book is mainly on Paige's problems with being a mother. |
| 200 | * Writer George Saunders is big on this. In the short story collection ''[=CivilWarLand=] in Bad Decline'' he has several examples, as most of his stories are very dreamlike. In the title story, the main character works in a Civil War themed Amusement Park where he regularly encounters a family of ghosts who lived on the land during the Civil War. Another story features a man hounded by the ghost of a child who was killed due to his negligence. Other than these elements the stories are grounded in reality (if perhaps an overly bleak version of reality). |
| 201 | * ''Literature/CloudAtlas'', also a collection of loosely connected stories, this time spread, not only across space but time as well, has reincarnation as a persistent theme and one of the stories features what may either be visions or hallucinations. |
| 202 | * Creator/MarieCorelli has this in some of her novels, including ''Literature/ARomanceOfTwoWorlds'', which some people still think is partly autobiographical. |
| 203 | * ''Film/TheCuriousCaseOfBenjaminButton'' is a normal life story and period piece, except the title character was born as an old man and ages backward. |
| 204 | * ''Literature/DanceoftheButterfly'' plays with this trope, spending the majority of its telling coming off more as a crime thriller or contemporary fiction with ''something else going on'', but it eventually shows its more magical colors. Despite this, the world at large is still hidden on the other side of TheMasquerade. |
| 205 | * In Literature/PhryneFisher book ''Death Before Wicket'', it is '''heavily''' implied that Phryne is either an actual incarnation of Isis (see Myth/EgyptianMythology), or a sort of mouthpiece that Isis sees fit to speak through, once in a while at least. |
| 206 | * Keith Hartman's two ''Literature/DrewParke'' novels are gritty detective stories set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture but the title character gets visions from a dead [[MagicalNativeAmerican Cherokee shaman]] and his sometime partner is a Wiccan who practices RitualMagic. |
| 207 | %%* Jonathan Safran Foer's ''Film/EverythingIsIlluminated'' has often been described as magical realist. |
| 208 | * Creator/CheriePriest's ''Literature/FourAndTwentyBlackbirds'' mixes this with Southern Gothic in a story about a girl who sees ghosts dealing with the legacy of her great-great grandfather, an evil sorcerer. |
| 209 | * His ''Literature/{{Ghostwritten}}'' is a collection of loosely connected vignettes, some which are this. One has a young girl's ghost haunting the narrator's apartment, two others feature a wandering soul that [[spoiler: has become detached from the cycle of reincarnation]], one of which is told from the souls perspective, the other has it [[spoiler: masquerading as a tree spirit]]. |
| 210 | * Creator/ThomasPynchon's ''Literature/GravitysRainbow''. It's the closing months of [=WW2=], featuring witchcraft, talking mice, a man who can have your nightmares ''for you'', a trip to Hell and a sentient lightbulb. |
| 211 | * Alice Hoffman's ''Literature/GreenAngel'' duet is especially magical -- Green's skill at gardening can make plants grow overnight, the tattoos she does on herself slowly change color from black to green and red, and her damaged eyes are restored to full vision after she finally breaks down and [[SwissArmyTears cries in grief]] for her deceased family. |
| 212 | * ''Literature/GroovesAKindOfMystery'' by Kevin Brockmeier has a pretty normal world, but audio messages are encoded in such unusual things as the ripples on rippled potato chips and the texture of blue jeans. The message? "He's stealing the light from our eyes," which is literally what "he" was doing. Kevin Brockmeier's books and stories are almost always this, with the fantastic elements used to illustrate and explore aspects of human nature. (For example, ''Literature/TheIllumination'' deals with how the world would change if physical pain was suddenly manifested as visible light.) |
| 213 | * The ''Literature/TheHammerAndTheCross'' series by Creator/HarryHarrison and Creator/JRRTolkien scholar Tom Shippey (as "John Holm") merges this and AlternateHistory. The tone is entirely realistic except various characters have divine visions (after the ingestion of hallucinogens) which convey information about things happening elsewhere, and sometimes share and interact inside said visions. |
| 214 | %%* ''Literature/TheHearingTrumpet'' by Leonora Carrington. |
| 215 | * ''Literature/HelenAndTroysEpicRoadQuest'' is set in a version of modern-day America that just so happens to have magic. Enchanted Americans (Orcs, elves and other magical creatures) are treated as minority groups, complete with their own history of Civil Rights Movements, and being a Minotaur is treated as a type of disability. |
| 216 | * While Joe Hill is best known as a horror writer, some of his shorter work is this. |
| 217 | * ''{{Literature/Holes}}'' is [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane deliberately vague]] about whether or not the Yelnats family curse is real, or whether or not the drought is actual divine retribution. If they ''are'' real, the whole story becomes this, with two ''very'' persistent curses being woven into an otherwise-realistic story about redemption, prejudice, and the inadequacies of the U.S. penal system. |
| 218 | %%* The novel ''Literature/HothouseFlowerAndTheNinePlantsOfDesire'' tends to blur the line between reality and folklore. |
| 219 | * You could make a point for ''Literature/HouseOfLeaves'' as Magic Realism, but however you cut it, it sure has a way of straddling reality and unreality. On one hand, the events of the innermost story with the Navidsons and the [[EldritchLocation House]] is definitely and directly supernatural in nature, and the characters in it all react as you'd expect real people to respond in such a situation (i.e., freaking the hell out). On the other, the second layer of narrative, Zampano's essay on the Navidsons' film, plays this up by choosing to focus on the characters, their psychology, and the larger themes while treating the paranormal events as just something that's happening. And then on the ''other'' other hand, you have the uppermost story of Johnny Truant annotating Zampano's paper and journaling his life, where it's unclear ''what's'' happening thanks to Johnny's worsening SanitySlippage and/or gleeful lying to the reader to fuck with them, but things generally settle to a middle ground on the magic with supernatural things [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane maybe happening or maybe not]]. The additional layers of narrative — like the editors and Pelafina's letters — are all over the scale. |
| 220 | * Creator/ConnIggulden wrote a straight historical fiction series about Julius Caesar, with a few liberties from the truth. The most obvious is a character called Cabera, who has minor healing and precognition abilities, and ends up giving the Ides of March warning. |
| 221 | * The ''Literature/{{Illuminatus}}'' trilogy and most of the other novels by Robert Anton Wilson tend to alternate between this genre and ScienceFiction; the world is mostly as we know it, but there's usually some technology that can't exist in the era the stories are set in, such as a sentient computer in ''Illuminatus!''. There are always PsychicPowers as well, some more subtle than others. |
| 222 | * ''Literature/IncidenteEmAntares'', written by Brazilian author Érico Veríssimo (father of Creator/LuisFernandoVerissimo). The first part is setting up the history of the fictional town and the corrupt families who control it. Then the titular incident happens where seven people die, but since the undertakers are on strike, the dead people cannot be buried. So the dead return to life and start wandering around the city, and without fears of reprisals, they go observing closely the mundane lives of their close friends and relatives, revealing their hypocrisy and exposing the rotten underbelly of their society. |
| 223 | * Creator/HarlanEllison's short story "Jeffty Is Five" takes place in the real world with the exception of the best friend of the narrator; a boy who never ages past the age of five and whose room is a time vortex where it's always the fifties and his radio still picks up ''new'' episodes of old classic serials. |
| 224 | * ''Literature/TheJehovahContract'' 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]]. |
| 225 | * ''Literature/JessicasGhost'' is a mostly mundane slice-of-life story where one of the main characters is a ghost. It's left ambiguous if other ghosts exist in this world. |
| 226 | %%* Creator/DianaWynneJones likes to play with this trope in most of her short stories. "Plague of Peacocks", "Little Dot", and "Carruthurs" are good examples. Even ''Literature/{{Dogsbody}}'' has this from Kathleen's point of view. |
| 227 | %%** Creator/JorgeLuisBorges' body of short stories pretty much invented MagicalRealism. |
| 228 | %%** Other prominent writers include Alejo Carpentier, Isabel Allende and Rudolfo Anaya. |
| 229 | * 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, each happening for little or no discernible reason. |
| 230 | * A big portion of Etgar Keret's stories. Few examples: A winged man pretending to be an angel, several magicians [[MagiciansAreWizards capable of real magic]], [[AndIMustScream soldiers who got turned into body targets]], a guy with mind-controlling ability (who uses it to get laid) and a boy who can control ants (and uses them to take the school away). |
| 231 | * A few of the novels and short works in Creator/StephenKing's catalog could be classified as this, for the simple fact that [[TheVerse almost all of his fiction takes place in the same continuity]], meaning that the fantastical elements from his outright horror and fantasy works will often creep into the background of his works that focus on more mundane character relationships. Fantastical stuff is always happening ''somewhere'' in a Stephen King work, but the plot may not always focus directly on it. |
| 232 | ** 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 [[Literature/TheDarkTower2004 the final book]] in the HighFantasy ''Literature/TheDarkTower'' series eventually reveals that the story's events tie directly into the series' SavingTheWorld plot. |
| 233 | ** Probably his most shining example is ''Literature/FromABuick8'', which is as much a grounded, laidback slice of life book about the normal lives of state troopers as it is a bizarre CosmicHorrorStory about said troopers trying to study and understand the terrifying MechanicalAbomination disguised as a car that they have locked up in a shed outside their barracks. Notably, of the various troopers who die over the course of the story, only ''one'' gets killed by the titular Buick, ''[[AmbiguousSituation maybe]]'' two if you agree with Sandy's theory that [[spoiler:it somehow arranged Curtis' death]]. All the others die of perfectly mundane reasons, such as natural causes, car wrecks, and suicide. |
| 234 | * ''Literature/LasMalas'' by Camila Sosa Villada could be a normal biography of a travesti prostitute. Instead, it features a werewolf, someone slowly turning into a bird, headless men (who still have looks, mind you) and other strange happenings. |
| 235 | * Creator/TimPowers' ''Literature/LastCall'' could be a Creator/DonaldWestlake story of a gambler in too deep with gangsters except for the tangle of Tarot mysticism, astrology and folk magic that gets thrown in and that the debt the gangster is trying to collect on [[GrandTheftMe is the gambler's body]]. |
| 236 | * ''Literature/TheLastResort'' by Jan Carson is a slice-of-life about miserable people in a Northern Irish caravan park. Which is home to ghosts, a sea monster, a drunken telekinetic, and a caravan which is BiggerOnTheInside. |
| 237 | * Magic realism is very prominent in 20th century Latin American literature. In fact, magic realism is so prevalent in Latin American literature that the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McOndo McOndo movement]] was formed specifically to distance itself from its clichés. |
| 238 | ** Mexican Laura Esquivel's ''Literature/LikeWaterForChocolate'', wherein the protagonist's strongest emotions get transferred into the food she cooks. For instance, when she is preparing a wedding cake for her sister's wedding (to the protagonist's own beloved), she weeps into the icing, and her sorrow causes everyone who eats the cake, except her, to cry and then vomit. In another chapter, her feelings for her beloved are infused into a poultry dish, which her (other, unmarried) sister then eats, causing her to literally burn up with passion -- she goes to use the outdoor shower and ends up ''setting it on fire'' before a soldier of the revolution rides by on horseback, scoops her up, and they have passionate sex while riding away on the horse. |
| 239 | ** Magical cooking is a popular concept for magic realism and "straight" fantasy both within and without Latin America. See also ''Film/{{Chocolat}}'', for instance. |
| 240 | * Pretty much the entire output of both Kelley Link and her husband Gavin J. Grant. In almost all of the stories the two have written, really weird stuff happens (ghosts, zombie apocalypse, a handbag that holds an entire town, a stream-of-consciousness television show that appears on random stations at random times) but no one reacts as if it was at all strange. |
| 241 | * Louise Erdrich's ''Literature/LoveMedicine'' and the prequel, ''Tracks'', take elements of this trope. In Tracks, natural disasters seem to happen whenever one of the main characters is wronged and throughout both novels the character Nanapush is hinted to be descended from the trickster God of the Ojibwe tribe. Her novel ''Literature/TheNightWatchman'' also contains some of this trope. For example, a ghost named Roderick is regarded casually by the characters who can see him, almost as if he were still alive. |
| 242 | * Much of Salman Rushdie's ''Literature/MidnightsChildren'' is considered Magic Realism, as the children in the title have various powers and abilities ranging from beauty capable of blinding people to an ability to physically hurt people with words. |
| 243 | * In the collaborative series ''Literature/TheMongoliad'' by, among others Creator/NealStephenson and Creator/GregBear, set in 1241 and revolving around a quest to assassinate the Great Khan of the invading Mongols at least one characters has a holy vision. Several others also have visions that are [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane more open to interpretation as hallucinations but may not be]]. |
| 244 | * Virtually everything by Creator/HarukiMurakami falls into this category, along with MagicAIsMagicA, ScrewTheRulesIHavePlot, and HowUnscientific ''Literature/TheWindUpBirdChronicle'' and ''Literature/AWildSheepChase'' are probably the best examples. |
| 245 | %%* In contrast to his better-known works, Creator/JRRTolkien uses this trope in the fragment ''[[Literature/TheHistoryOfMiddleEarth The Notion Club Papers]]''. |
| 246 | * Creator/GabrielGarciaMarquez' book ''Literature/OneHundredYearsOfSolitude'' popularized the term and is often considered to be the master work of the genre, and one of the most important pieces of universal literature written in the 20th century. A few years of rain, a gypsy who keeps coming back to life, a man who just sits in the basement and doesn't speak, and a couple dozen civil wars are some of the more normal aspects of the book. Marquez' other works also tend to feature this to a greater or lesser degree, such as ''Literature/AVeryOldManWithEnormousWings'' (where an old man with huge wings is kept in a manor under the belief he is an angel before being released and flying away). |
| 247 | * Diana Gabaldon's ''Literature/{{Outlander}}'' series, which would be a normal historical romance set in the 18th century if one of the two main characters wasn't from the 20th. Later books in the series throw in ghosts, [[MagicalNativeAmerican Indian wise men and woman]] and [[HollywoodVoodoo slaves practicing Voudoun]]. Although her Lord John Grey stories are set in the same world they're straight mysteries that, ironically in one story uses a ScoobyDooHoax. |
| 248 | * In ''Literature/TheParticularSadnessOfLemonCake'' by Aimee Bender, Rose has the ability to [[TheEmpath taste the emotions]] of whoever cooked her food. The book, however, mostly focuses on her relations with her family. Her brother Joseph is said to frequently vanish without a trace, and near the end of the book it's revealed that [[spoiler: he involuntarily turns into furniture at times. Her father also reveals that his father could smell peoples' characters and he himself is implied to be able to heal people.]] |
| 249 | %%* Before Márquez, there was Juan Rulfo and ''Literature/PedroParamo''. |
| 250 | * Delia Sherman's ''Literature/ThePorcelainDove'', about a cursed family of French aristocrats during the build up to the French Revolution. [[TheMagicGoesAway It's also hinted that once magic was both more common and more powerful]]. |
| 251 | * Zenia from ''Literature/TheRobberBride'' has no provable supernatural abilities, but with her palpable aura of evil she reminds one of a fairy tale witch. |
| 252 | * ''Literature/TheRailwaySeries'' despite the talking trains, freight cars, buses and boats; the rest of the world of Sodor is mundane. The Queen is UsefulNotes/ElizabethII, several real life historical figures are AllThereInTheManual, and real life events such as World War II or the Beeching Cuts are alluded to in the series. Sodor itself is treated as an island in the Irish Sea between England and the Isle of Man, and is part of the United Kingdom; otherwise mundane except in that ''trains can talk''. The decision of the [[WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends TV series]] to add more fantastical elements resulted in a BrokenBase, especially considering the only theatrical film from the franchise ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndTheMagicRailroad'', adds in loads of [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin magical elements]] and alternate dimensions that were never present in the books. |
| 253 | * ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'' and its prequel series ''Literature/AllTheWrongQuestions'' aren't explicitly fantastic but contain several surreal elements like talking snakes, killer leeches, a forest of land seaweed, a hotel organized by the Dewey decimal system, a villain with the ability to mimic any voice or animal call, and a sea monster. |
| 254 | * ''Literature/{{Skellig}}'': The novel is set in real life, but also includes an element of the supernatural. Skellig is an odd man who hangs out in the garage of Michael's new home and seems content to stay there. He claims to be very, very old and it's heavily implied that he's an angel. |
| 255 | * ''Literature/Snown August'' by Pete Hamill pulls out the magic realism card in the last few chapters. In order to punish the gang of antisemitic thugs that beat a Jewish store clerk into a coma, threatened Michael and his friends, beat him up later on, attempted to sexually assault his mother, beat up Rabbi Hirsch, and repeatedly vandalized the temple with swastikas, Michael [[spoiler: performs the Golem summoning ritual in the legend the Rabbi told him and actually succeeds. As part of the miracle, all of the gang's victims are also healed, and the Rabbi's wife who was killed by the Nazis is brought back to life.]] |
| 256 | * While her [[Literature/TheSookieStackhouseMysteries Sookie Stackhouse]] novels fall somewhere between [[MundaneFantastic Magical Mundane]] and UrbanFantasy Creator/CharlaineHarris' ''Harper Connelly'' stories, about a woman who, after being struck by lightning gains the ability to locate dead bodies and know how they died, falls straight into this territory. The existence of other people with psychic powers is mentioned briefly in the first book and we meet a couple in the second. [[spoiler: Harper also encounters a ghost in the second book, ''Grave Surprise''.]] |
| 257 | * While Janet Evanovich's ''Literature/StephaniePlum'' series mostly avoids this (except for Morelli's Great Aunt Bella whose curses are a case of MaybeMagicMaybeMundane) the holiday oriented subseries feature Diesel (now with his own series), a magical bounty hunter who specializes in chasing "specials" (people with mutant powers) gone bad. |
| 258 | * An unusual biographical example in ''Literature/StrangerThanFictionTheLifeAndTimesOfSplitEnz'', which chronicles the foundation and original run of the New Zealand band ''Split Enz''... oh, and {{God}} shows up at one point. |
| 259 | * Creator/MichaelChabon's ''Literature/{{Summerland}}'' starts out as this. It revolves around a quirky little island community where it always rains (but always has inexplicably perfect weather at the local baseball field), and includes a BunglingInventor who builds miniature airships, a teenage boy who's convinced that he's an android, and a 109-year-old retired baseball player. Then the SaveTheWorldClimax plot starts, and it makes a GenreShift into full-on HighFantasy. |
| 260 | * ''Literature/{{Teeth}}'' by Creator/HannahMoskowitz has magical fish that heal any ailments and increase peoples' lifespans upon digestion, but the prospect of ghosts existing is treated as ridiculous to both the protagonist and his parents. |
| 261 | * ''Literature/TheThousandAutumnsOfJacobDeZoet'' by David Mitchell is a fairly standard historical drama set around the Dutch trading post in turn-of-the-19th-Century Nagasaki except for the villainous Lord Abbot Enomoto who can drain the life out of small animals and insects and who [[spoiler: claims to be six hundred years old thanks to [[BlackMagic child sacrifice]]]]. |
| 262 | * ''Literature/TheTigersWife'' tells the story of the buildup to and the aftermath of UsefulNotes/TheYugoslavWars as seen through the eyes of a fairly ordinary family. Except, Death's immortal nephew casually wanders in and out of the story, tangentially affecting the lives of several generations. |
| 263 | %%* ''Literature/TheTimeTravelersWife''. ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, folks. |
| 264 | * Karen Tei Yamashita's ''Literature/TropicOfOrange'' proudly parades its magic realism and Gabriel García Márquez influence. Seven main characters in modern-day Los Angeles and Mexico's lives interweave in strange and not-very-satisfying ways when an orange causes a gigantic traffic accident, then firestorm on a major freeway. Meanwhile, another orange that happened to grow on the Tropic of Cancer (which was fertilized somehow by the woman who works on the property) causes the geography to shift completely when... well, it still doesn't make much sense, except there were lots of [[AuthorTract Author Tracts.]] Similarly, her novel ''Literature/ThroughTheArcOfTheRainforest''. The plot revolves around a massive field of [[GreenRocks plastic with seemingly magical properties]] being uncovered in the middle of UsefulNotes/TheAmazonRainforest, and the manner in which the main characters (including an American businessman with three arms, a Japanese railway conductor with a little ball floating in front of his face, and a Brazilian radio evangelist who thinks that the plastic is holy) interact with it. |
| 265 | * Amos Tutuola's books depict magic realism in an African setting. The protagonists live in a world where they often come in contact with spirits of the Bush. A good example is ''Literature/ThePalmWineDrinkard''. |
| 266 | %%* Kathi Appelt's ''Literature/TheUnderneath'', which takes place in a New-Agey spin on the Louisiana swamps and bayous. |
| 267 | * In ''Literature/TheWatchmakerOfFiligreeStreet,'' the watches made by the title character can never be lost or sold -- they always return to their owners. [[spoiler: Mori is also precognitive.]] |
| 268 | * Creator/HonoreDeBalzac's ''Literature/TheWildAssSkin'' is an UnbuiltTrope. It is psychologically realistic story of a ByronicHero but has the animal skin as a magical talisman used as part of the plot. |
| 269 | * Creator/BruceSterling's ''Literature/{{Zeitgeist}}'', set in the midst of [[MillenniumBug [=Y2K=]]] hysteria and featuring one [[TheTrickster "Leggy" Starlitz]] and his [[MagicalGirl rather odd daughter]]. |
| 270 | [[/folder]] |
| 271 | |
| 272 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 273 | * The {{Brit|Com}}ish SitCom ''Series/TwoPointFourChildren'' is a prime example. |
| 274 | ** It is a perfectly mundane show, with the exception of the strange things that happen to the mother, Bill Porter. Like the number of prophetic dreams she's had, or the time she found herself chased... by a hurricane (the storm literally followed her when she left Miami to avoid it, and was also named Hurricane Bill). |
| 275 | ** Odd things occasionally happen to her husband as well. Yes, it's ''possible'' that his SitcomArchNemesis (who's a ''Series/ThePrisoner1967'' fan) might kidnap him and leave him in Portmerion... but then Rover appears... And the man on the motorcycle who kept appearing whenever Bill needed help and who may actually have been [[spoiler:DeadAllAlong]]. |
| 276 | ** One episode has the characters believing that a neighbor is a vampire, and breaking into his house with a giant crucifix. There appears to be a rational explanation -- but the ending of the episode strongly implies he ''is'' a real vampire. |
| 277 | * Kenneth in ''Series/ThirtyRock'' is ReallySevenHundredYearsOld. This is played totally as a RunningGag. The "Leap Day" episode, which celebrates leap year as an actual holiday, and has an entire mythology built around it, complete with a "Santa Claus" figure, Leap Day William. He turns out to be real. |
| 278 | * ''Series/TheAdventuresOfPeteAndPete'' is a bit like ''Series/TwinPeaks'' [[RecycledInSpace FOR KIDS!]]. The world isn't really ''magical,'' but it is ''extremely'' bizarre and the inexplicable often happens. Like the superhero who lives there, or a boxing match between an evil garbageman and Santa Claus. |
| 279 | * ''Series/{{Alias}}'' does this with the Rambaldi artifacts with which Arvin Sloan has an obsession. They do things that are on the border of magic and technology, and are never fully explained. In the series finale, [[spoiler:the Rambaldi artifacts become clearly magical, as they preserve Sloan alive forever, trapped underground.]] Creator/JJAbrams, y'all. |
| 280 | * ''Series/TheAlmightyJohnsons'', a {{Dramedy}} about a family in UsefulNotes/NewZealand who happen to be reincarnated [[Myth/NorseMythology Norse gods]]. |
| 281 | * ''Series/{{Atlanta}}'' has been described by Donald Glover as "''Twin Peaks'', but with rappers" and it does seem to fit here. We have things like the ''invisible car'' as blatant examples, but also subtle changes and differences that show off the uncanniness of the show, though in its own way, like a ''black Justin Bieber''. |
| 282 | * ''Series/{{Bewitched}}'', about a mixed marriage between a mortal and a witch. |
| 283 | * ''Series/{{Bones}}'': |
| 284 | ** In this universe, ghosts exist. In one episode, Booth is helped by the ghost of a dead soldier while stuck inside a booby-trapped ship. Brennan meets him at the end of the episode without knowing who or what he is. Then in a more recent episode the story is viewed from the perspective of a victim's ghost. |
| 285 | ** Avalon, Angela's psychic, appears to be more than just deluded. She has made several uncannily accurate guesses about Booth and Brennan's relationship and about the victim in one of the Institute's cases. |
| 286 | ** Temperance has a near-death experience in which she encounters her dead mother. |
| 287 | ** Not magic, but the episode with a dead [=UFOlogist=] ends on a ''[[NothingIsScarier very]]'' creepy note. |
| 288 | * ''Series/{{Community}}'' normally stays within confines of (wacky) realism, but it did feature a ghost, a boob-obsessed robot and evil versions of the main characters from an alternate reality. In all instances it's unclear whether the supernatural elements are imagined by the characters or not. With the exception of a zombie virus outbreak, which was confirmed to have actually happened, although none of the characters remember it. |
| 289 | * ''Series/DarkWinds'': The series is set in the early 1970s on a Navajo reservation, with mostly ordinary things going on. However, in keeping with Navajo belief there is actual magic too, as one character is a witch who's capable of harming people using it. |
| 290 | * ''Series/DayBreak2006'' is about a Los Angeles cop who is framed for a murder by TheConspiracy, but finds himself trapped inside a [[GroundhogDayLoop temporal loop]] forcing him to repeat the same day before he fully unravels the mystery, exposes the culprits, and helps the people around him with their problems. The cause of the loop is never explained, although one other person is revealed to have been part of the same loop in the show's closing shot. |
| 291 | * ''Series/{{Dickinson}}'': The series intersperses mundane drama and things such as precognition, talking with Death, even time travel at one point (although that may have been just in Emily's head). |
| 292 | * The live-action Disneyverse as a whole. There have been numerous crossovers, so it's all one world, and you have [[Series/ThatsSoRaven psychic teens]], [[Series/DogWithABlog tallking dogs]] and of course Series/{{wizards|OfWaverlyPlace}}. You also have more normal shows that have the occasional strange occurences. |
| 293 | ** ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody'' had WeirdScience and a ghost that haunted the hotel. Its sequel/spinoff ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOnDeck'' also had a ghost as well as mermaids, the Bermuda Triangle and a sentient computer. |
| 294 | ** ''Series/{{Jessie}}'' had the title character possessed by a ghost in one episode. |
| 295 | ** ''Series/HannahMontana'' had a ''Film/BackToTheFuture1'' type plot with Hannah and her brother going back in time to when their parents met. This turns out to be AllJustADream but the actual details of the meeting without their involvement turn out to be real even though Hannah apparently didn't know them. |
| 296 | ** While ''Series/AntFarm'' is, aside from the occasional flirtation with WeirdScience, realistic, the Halloween episodes feature an AlternateUniverse where Chyna is a GorgeousGorgon, Olive is a big headed MadScientist, Angus is a zombie and Fletcher is a vampire. This became canon in the third season episode when the mutants crossed over into the regular universe via a dimensional portal. |
| 297 | * ''Series/DispatchesFromElsewhere'' drops strange places, inexplicable MaybeMagicMaybeMundane events, and abrupt {{Imagine Spot}}s into the ordinary world of Philadelphia. |
| 298 | * ''Series/DrakeAndJosh'' is a standard teen sitcom set in early 2000s San Diego, CA, USA with no supernatural elements whatsoever, but the PleaseDumpMe episode "Mean Teacher" centers around a very real GoodLuckCharm (a shirt) whose effects are too extreme and too perfectly timed to be explained away as coincidence. The boys accept its magic as real and (successfully) plan how to use its magic to solve their problems of the episode. (Naturally, it's lost once the plot is resolved to prevent it becoming a StoryBreakerPower.) |
| 299 | * As mentioned above, ''Series/DueSouth'' allows ghosts, who demonstrate abilities to affect the real world. They do, however, appear mostly only to those with an emotional connection to them. One story, too, involves the likely involvement of the literal Raven trickster, and another a voodoo conflict which may or may not have involved actual magic. |
| 300 | * ''Series/{{Fargo}}'' frequently features MaybeMagicMaybeMundane events and outright supernatural phenomena. Ghosts are a prominent fixture in multiple seasons, a UFO appears near the end of Season 2, and it's made very clear that [[CreepyGood Paul Marrane]] and [[EnigmaticMinion Ole]] [[NobleDemon Munch]] are supernatural beings despite their [[HumanoidAbomination human appearances]]. SatanicArchetype [[TheCorrupter Lorne Malvo]] is also hinted to literally ''be'' the Devil, although nothing is confirmed and it's equally in character for him to simply have a DevilComplex. |
| 301 | * ''Series/{{Felicity}}'' broke into this by the end. The main character can't decide between Ben and Noah? Simple; her Wiccan friend will cast a spell that sends her back in time a few years so she has enough time to figure everything out. Yes, kids, Creator/JJAbrams created it. |
| 302 | * ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'': Sophia encounters her husband's ghost twice, Blanche may have encountered her grandmother's ghost once, Dorothy may have been cursed by a witch, Sophia may have been a witch, the girls encountered bizarre dreams, and let's not get started about St. Olaf... |
| 303 | * ''Series/GreysAnatomy'' had a storyline in which Izzie's dead fiance Denny came back as a ghost, though she was the only one who could see him. It turned out to be because she had [[ArtisticLicenseBiology melanoma that reached her brain]], though it was never stated [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane whether or not it was just a hallucination or it was because he was trying to warn her.]] It seemed like a bit of both. |
| 304 | ** There was another episode where Meredith has a near-death experience (seeing three dead people, including Denny), at the end of which she encounters her mother (who is dying at the same moment in another room). As soon as she wakes up, she announces that her mother is dead before anyone else can tell her. |
| 305 | * If Halloween specials count, every sitcom in ABC's TGIF line ran into the supernatural but its characters never saw fit to mention it during the rest of the year or adjust their worldview knowing that [[Series/BoyMeetsWorld Cory]] traveled through time or that [[Series/StepByStep JT]] got dating advice from a ghost. |
| 306 | * ''Series/{{Hannibal}}'' -- The title character is written as if he were a FallenAngel, Will's empathic abilities are indistinguishable from actual clairvoyance, and every SerialKiller around is some kind of MadArtist who turns their victims into complicated displays, the logistics of which are never explained. |
| 307 | * ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' sometimes verges into this territory, including events that waver between magical and highly unlikely (doppelgangers, some of Barney's schemes). However, the show can always fall back on the fact that Ted has been established as an UnreliableNarrator, leaving it unclear which events happened exactly as described and which have been embellished or misremembered. Also, a couple of Season 5 episodes have Marshall seemingly time-traveling as minor elements. |
| 308 | * ''Series/IDreamOfJeannie'', a similarly themed show about a human astronaut and a female genie. |
| 309 | * ''Series/IrmaVep'': Irma, after really getting into playing Irma and wearing the costume while not on set, develops [[{{Intangibility}} an ability to walk through walls]], which she uses to [[ThePeepingTom spy on people]]. She isn't surprised at all, nor is this treated as being very odd by the narrative, while the rest of things remain grounded in known reality. |
| 310 | * The Fox dramedy ''Series/KeyWest'' was, in its short time om the air, one of the best examples of this on television. |
| 311 | * It's sketchy, but ''Series/{{Lost}}'' fits the definition of Magic Realism better than it does any other type of SpeculativeFiction. When you boil it down, ''Lost'' is the story of some [[AbusiveParent seriously]] [[TheWoobie dysfunctional]] [[DarkAndTroubledPast people]] who get stuck together, forge some real connections, figure out how to survive in a hostile environment, [[CharacterDevelopment become better people]] and eventually let go of their issues. This story just happens to take place on [[LostWorld an island]] that's been known to move through space and time, can heal people, and is home to ghosts and people with immortality (among other things).[[note]]And just so you lot are clear, there was absolutely nothing magical or supernatural about [[MisplacedWildlife the polar bear]].[[/note]] |
| 312 | * ''Series/ManSeekingWoman'' -- The main character gets set up on a date with a troll, his ex-girlfriend is dating Hitler, and a stuffed toy came to life and attacked. No one really questions any of that. |
| 313 | * The Swedish kids' series ''Mimmi'' is a completely mundane SliceOfLife series -- until the very last scene of the series reveals this trope as the titular protagonist and her friend think there's a monster in their kindergarten teacher's locker and open the locker to release it. It turns out that there actually ''is'' a monster -- a pink, feathered, kite/hat-like creature (although more weird than actually monstrous, and completely harmless) that immediately flies away and passes a lot of the other kids and teachers. Everyone is mildly amused by the creature, but otherwise treats it as another completely mundane thing and doesn't seem surprised by its existence. |
| 314 | * ''Series/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. |
| 315 | * Much like ''The Golden Girls'', ''Series/TheNanny'' has a few moments like this. Fortune tellers prophecies coming true in eerily accurate ways. Fran endures a curse that begins to reset itself the second she starts making things right. The miracle of Hanukkah is reenacted in one Christmas episode (with gas in their car instead of oil in the temple.) They also implied that Fran's family had some kind of supernatural powers (they implied that Yetta had the ability to curse people, and once, when Sylvia is dancing with joy, a freak thunderstorm started.) A short while before marrying Fran, Mr. Sheffield is visited by his dead wife's ghost, where she reveals that not only she's happy to see him get married again, [[spoiler: she was the one who sent Fran to him]]. |
| 316 | * ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' is about as grounded in reality as they come. |
| 317 | ** Except for the slightly surreal Season 4 finale, where Jeanne is implied to see the [[TheGrimReaper Angel of Death]], in the form of a small child. At the end Jeanne mentions the girl and is told that it was a girl who was lost and whose parents were looking for her, so it seems like this is subverted, but then we see the girl... and she looks nothing like the one Jeanne saw before. |
| 318 | ** Plus Gibbs' infallible instincts. And his ability to get a boat out of his basement. Be fair, no one really knows for sure what happened to the boat. He may have simply broken it down and started over. Both this and his instincts are justified by RuleOfFunny. In one episode, Gibbs has a near-death experience in which he encounters dead friends and family. |
| 319 | * ''Series/NightAndDay'' interspersed the typical soap drama with supernatural elements such as parallel realities, witches, and the final episode ending with the revelation that [[spoiler: the main character, who was ostensibly returning home after being released from jail, had actually died on the morning of her release and was now a ghost.]] |
| 320 | * ''Series/NorthernExposure'' is actually a fantasy series. After all, it has characters who have prescient or telepathic dreams, pregnant ladies who speak only in song, ghosts, aliens, tribal magic, Jewish mysticism (practiced by Native Americans no less), and a man who can fly under his own power in his sleep. Unfortunately, people tend to look at you funny if you actually point out that it was one of the most successful fantasy programs in network television history. Lacking elves and whatnot, it usually gets pigeonholed as Magic Realism. |
| 321 | * The real world portions of ''Series/OnceUponATime'' are this. The fairy tale world portions are of course much more explicitly magical. Since [[spoiler: Emma broke the curse, explicit magical elements have creeped into Storybrooke as well]]. |
| 322 | * The supernatural soap opera ''Series/{{Passions}}'' is mostly focused around the mundane escapades of the Crane family... but ongoing subplots focus on the resident WickedWitch Tabitha. WordOfGod claimed that the show was meant to actually serve as a subversion of this trope, since supernatural elements, which proved to be popular in story arcs for soaps, were present from the get-go and lasted throughout the series' run. |
| 323 | * Another "the fantastic exists, but not ''that'' kind" example: ''Series/PowerRangersTimeForce'' shares TheVerse with magic-based teams, but that particular series was all sci-fi -- good guys were a HeroesRUs organization, bad guys were GattacaBabies GoneHorriblyWrong. However, the Yellow Ranger meets the ghost of a previous owner of their clock tower. The ghost is gone once she ends up changing history and giving him a happy ending, and there's some question as to whether or not any of it happened, but we get the OrWasItADream reveal with a painting that is now different |
| 324 | * ''Series/PushingDaisies'' was weird about this: the premise is that the main character can bring the dead back to life, so it's clearly UrbanFantasy, but that's the ''only'' explicitly magical element. The rest of the world is a Magic Realism-esque one: there's a car that runs on dandelions, two characters who can SherlockScan by smell and a jockey who [[spoiler: had the legs of his dead horse transplanted into his body to replace his own]], but none of this is treated as magical, unlike the protagonist's necromancy. |
| 325 | * ''Series/QuantumLeap'': The time travel stuff and the seldom-seen future setting of MissionControl are the only non-mundane features of the universe, as the bulk of an episode is the mission to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong in the lives of normal people. "That guy runs someone over on Friday if he keeps up the illegal street-racing; help him learn his lesson before then" is the usual mission rather than "prevent WorldWarIII." But we once meet the devil, and once has Sam leap into a vampire. He also meets a ghost and an angel. |
| 326 | * The ''Series/PrettyLittleLiars'' spinoff ''Series/{{Ravenswood}}'', about a town haunted by both a curse and its victims. |
| 327 | * Nostradamus' visions in the pilot and later plunge ''Series/{{Reign}}'' into this territory. |
| 328 | * The ghosts that visit Tommy in ''Series/RescueMe'' may or may not be real. |
| 329 | * The Brazilian soap opera ''Series/{{Saramandaia}}'' was responsible for popularizing the genre in Brazilian television. It has a werewolf, a guy with wings on his back, a girl with [[SwissArmyTears resuscitating tears]], a guy who throws up his heart, another guy who has ants coming out of his nose and finally, [[PopGoesTheHuman a woman so fat she explodes]]. |
| 330 | * Even ignoring Zack's [[BreakingTheFourthWall fourth-wall breaking powers]], ''Series/SavedByTheBell'' has some weird stuff going on, including an apparently sapient robot and a lightning strike causing a character to temporarily gain precognition. ''Speaking'' of the fourth-wall powers, Zack can actually say "Time out," and ''everything but him stops,'' and he usually does this to talk to the audience, but he ''is'' capable of actually moving things around while time is frozen, and once quickly uses "time out" to avoid being punched in the face. It's not a gag that "doesn't count" story-wise; ''Zack Morris has for-real time-altering powers.'' |
| 331 | * ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' occasionally introduces supernatural elements for the sake of humor, usually without anyone acknowledging them as strange. Most notably: a RunningGag involves the main characters occasionally having telepathic conversations with each other. And in the episode "My Intern's Eyes", we learn that J.D. can flawlessly replicate Turk's voice ''and'' fit his entire body in a backpack. |
| 332 | * Later seasons of ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' toyed with magic realism, such as a nightclub that turns into a meat-packing plant by day, or Elaine meeting a group of people who are physically similar but emotionally the exact opposites of Jerry, George and Kramer. Also, a woman who seemingly changed from beautiful to hideous on the spot, and Kramer owned a dummy that apparently came to life at the end of the episode. Also the [[EldritchAbomination stink]] in Jerry's car. |
| 333 | * ''Series/SisterSister'' was a standard suburban teen sitcom with the only odd sections being when the girls would address the audience during the intro. However, a handful of episodes featured strange elements. One episode had Roger stealing an ancient artifact from a museum that would attract women to him. Another had [[CupidsArrow Cupid showing up and causing people to magically fall in love with each other]]. In another episode, Lisa encounters the ghost of Ray's dead wife(a plot point played mostly for drama). Coupled with these elements, a few of the shows' wackier, inexplicable and seemingly out-of-place gags(such as Roger running away and leaving a pair of smoking shoes behind, and Tamera doing a WildTake that's straight out of a Creator/TexAvery cartoon) begin to feel like a combination of RuleOfFunny and this trope. Evidently, the Sister Sister universe is just like ours except for some fringe supernatural elements such as ghosts, love gods, and the ability of some otherwise normal people to occasionally display [[ZanyCartoon Loony-Tunes-esque abilities!]] |
| 334 | * ''Series/SlingsAndArrows'', depending on your perspective. It's possible, of course, that Geoffrey's just crazy -- but it's also not made obvious that Oliver's ghost ''isn't'' hanging around. |
| 335 | * ''Series/{{Spaced}}'' features elements of light magic realism, such as Colin the dog (who seems to be more intelligent than he ought to be), a vivisectionist who can disappear at will and a pair of CreepyTwins who speak with one voice. |
| 336 | * ''Series/TheTerror'' is a straightforward what-if dramatization of the real-life lost Franklin Expedition of 1845... that also has prophetic visions, possible ghosts and a mysterious monster only barely under Inuit control that is unfettered by the expedition's imperialist callousness. Characters are about equally likely to die of agonizingly realistic scurvy or suicide by immolation as they are to die of having said monster suck their souls out, and toward the end one character seems to be undergoing a slow slide into AGodAmI. |
| 337 | * ''Series/TooOldToDieYoung'': |
| 338 | ** Yaritza seems to display supernatural fighting abilities and proclaims herself to be the mythical Queen of Death. It's not clear if she's just a badass DarkActionGirl with a knack for self-promotion or if she's really become some sort of supernatural avenger. |
| 339 | ** Diana believes that she receives visions from other-dimensional beings. After one vision, her eyes develop a metallic sheen, which she can only get rid of after a shamanistic ritual. She accurately predicts that she won't see Martin again and seems to intuit the existence of Yaritza. However, all of these could be delusions, hallucinations and lucky guesses. |
| 340 | * ''Series/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 work is like this: mundane human drama interspersed with the '''pants-crappingly bizarre.''' |
| 341 | * ''Series/TheUnusuals'' is an otherwise completely normal (if quirky) cop show that has a character who receives occasional prophetic messages from fortune cookies and, in the pilot, is the recipient of a ''Film/PulpFiction''-style miracle. And then there's the episode "42," which seems to indicate that a psychic they question can really see the future. |
| 342 | [[/folder]] |
| 343 | |
| 344 | [[folder:Podcasts]] |
| 345 | * ''Podcast/WelcomeToNightVale'' could be considered Magic Realism, even more so than SurrealHorror or UrbanFantasy. Making use of an already UnreliableNarrator, such events as a glow cloud invasion, the birth of a human hand to two fully human parents, and a hole in the vacant lot outside the Ralph's are all dismissed as merely the news of the day. Every magical action is treated with the calmness and nonchalance of going to the store, and the fact we don't see any of it allows the listener to draw their own interpretation of how magical the whole podcast really is. |
| 346 | * ''Podcast/WoodenOvercoats'' is set in a world where a man can talk to a mouse as if she were a human, said mouse can write and publish a bestselling memoir, a woman can have shadows follow her everywhere she goes, a set of twins can be born a week apart, and nearly every death is absurdly over-the-top and unlikely. None of this is ever explained, and the characters just accept it all as part of life. |
| 347 | [[/folder]] |
| 348 | |
| 349 | [[folder:Professional Wrestling]] |
| 350 | * Wrestling/TheUndertaker. He can apparently control lightning and fire, the arena lights always dim when he makes his entrance and then there's the rolling fog. None of the other wrestlers question this or even seem bothered by the fact that they are sharing a locker room with an apparent supernatural being. This was later worked into his gimmick as Taker got older and his body couldn't keep up with a rigorous schedule, working (at best) a few months out of the year. It's now explicitly stagecraft; the "power of the Undertaker" is his ability to awe through his mere presence, and being the most long-running performer to still look good by his own merits. |
| 351 | * Wrestling/{{Kane}}, the Undertaker's [[UnrelatedBrothers half-brother]], also has [[PlayingWithFire pyrokinesis]] and the same [[LightFlickerTeleportation teleportation]] powers. DependingOnTheWriter, he's a demon or at least [[DealWithTheDevil sold his soul to them]]. |
| 352 | * Under a similar category, [[Wrestling/CharlesWright Papa Shango]]'s "voodoo curses" seemed completely effective against his targets. |
| 353 | * [[Wrestling/KatarinaWaters Winter]] in Wrestling/{{TNA}}. She only appeared in backstage segments with Wrestling/AngelinaLove and kept disappearing whenever she looked away. The announcers never mentioned her and apparently only Angelina could see her. Then Angelina accepted her as her lover and now she actively competes on the roster. |
| 354 | * [[Wrestling/FergalDevitt Finn Balor]] occasionally turns into a demon. Seriously. WWE acknowledges his time competing in the UK and Japan under the name "Prince Devitt", where he was notably ''not'' a demon, but when he shows up in NXT, he is suddenly able to transform himself into a heavy-breathing, large-toothed demon with tentacle-dreadlocks instead of hair and the ability to switch off arena lights. |
| 355 | * Wrestling/LuchaUnderground is unique even in the inherently magi-realistic world of pro wrestling in that it fully embraces its use of magic realism. While many of the luchador participants fall into the MaybeMagicMaybeMundane category (everyone's pretty aware that Prince Puma is not actually a jungle cat or an Aztec warrior), there are a number that stretch reality to its limits. There is the duo of Mil Muertes and Catrina, a potentially-undead warrior who has been resurrected by a witch with necromancy powers (and every time he comes back, it's ''stronger'' and ''more evil''); Drago, an ''actual'' dragon who seems to take human form and return to draconic form at will; and Matanza, a monster kept chained in the temple by his brother Dario because he has the literal Aztec god of slaughter inside him. |
| 356 | * Wrestling/BrayWyatt has [[LightFlickerTeleportation teleportation]] powers, can project holograms of himself, is capable of MindControl and is said to have a demon within him, which later manifested as the MonsterClown-like entity called "The Fiend". |
| 357 | * Broken Wrestling/MattHardy is capable of brainwashing other people into an "enlightened" version of themselves. |
| 358 | [[/folder]] |
| 359 | |
| 360 | [[folder:Radio]] |
| 361 | * Creator/TheBBC Radio 4 drama serial ''Little Grudges'' is based on real-life experiences of Radio 4 listeners, and is therefore as "real" as it gets. Except for the pixies... |
| 362 | [[/folder]] |
| 363 | |
| 364 | [[folder:Theater]] |
| 365 | * Tony Kushner's ''Theatre/AngelsInAmerica'' takes place in modern-day (well, [[TheNineties modern at the time]]) America, and it has [[OurAngelsAreDifferent angels]], [[Literature/TheBible Biblical]] visions, ancestral spirits, a dream sequence in which two characters who have never met are able to communicate with each other, and on and on. |
| 366 | * In Prokofiev's Ballet of Cinderella, the Prince trying to find the slipper's owner goes to every Shoemaker in his land, then travels the world to find the Princess, then he returns to his kingdom to try it on every woman in his kingdom where with the magic of love it is only the day after the ball. |
| 367 | * ''Theatre/LesMiserables'' is set in more-or-less historically accurate, 1830s France, except for the ghosts that begin appearing following the revolution. Given that they only are visible to the dead/dying, it could be excused by saying it's all in Valjean's head and/or a metaphor for him going to heaven. That is, except for the fact that a) one of the ghosts is [[spoiler:Eponine]], a girl Valjean met once (and assumed she was a boy), had no real connection to, and whom Valjean didn't even know was dead, and b) ghosts also appear during "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables", which Marius cannot see, further suggesting that they are not the product of an active imagination but real ghosts appearing. |
| 368 | * A number of Creator/WilliamShakespeare's plays nonchalantly introduce fantastic elements and would probably qualify as magic realism if they were written today. ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' has a ghost, ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'' has witches, ''Theatre/TheTempest'' is set on an island inhabited by strange creatures and spirits, and ''Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream'' deals with TheFairFolk and their supernatural shenanigans involving {{love potion}}s and [[ForcedTransformation a jester who gets transmogrified into a donkey-man]]. Of course, at the time Shakespeare was writing, belief in the supernatural was more common, so these elements didn't raise as many eyebrows. |
| 369 | [[/folder]] |
| 370 | |
| 371 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 372 | * The ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpires'' series occasionally slides into the supernatural, despite being a historical RTS game. For instance, one Viking level in ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresII'' features lindworms in the sea that devour boats, and the campaign of ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresIII'' 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]]. |
| 373 | * ''VideoGame/AiTheSomniumFiles'' is largely a, well, grounded may be too strong a word with, but "mundane" scifi murder mystery in the near future. However, the story has a girl with unnatural strength (able to bench press 220 pounds at the age of 12 with an age appropriate frame, also able to single handedly take down multiple armed thugs single handedly) that goes almost uncommented on. Also, [[spoiler:similar to the Zero Escape games, there are alternate timelines depending on Date's decisions, and to finish the story, he has to remember events from other timelines. However, this similarly goes mostly uncommented on, with Date just be vaguely confused about the information he's "remembering".]] |
| 374 | * With optional supernatural events turned on, ''VideoGame/CrusaderKingsII'' takes on this vibe. Mostly it's a deeply-researched and intricate simulator of medieval Europe, India, the Middle East, and surrounding areas. But every so often, you'll encounter things like TheAntichrist rising, the [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos Necronomicon]], and characters questing for, and sometimes achieving, immortality. All of these are mere texture in the ruthless politicking of dynasties and nations, however. |
| 375 | * The game of ''VideoGame/TheDarkness'' is about a mafia hitman who just so happens to become possessed by a millenia-old demon that grants him superpowers. The main focus of the plot is still his quest for vengeance against the entirely mortal don who betrayed him. |
| 376 | * ''VideoGame/DiscoElysium''. At first glance, most elements are MaybeMagicMaybeMundane, and playing AgentScully (as your strait-laced partner invariably will do) and brushing off "superstition" is a perfectly valid way to play. But on [[RewatchBonus subsequent playthroughs]], it becomes clear the voices, Shivers and Inland Empire especially are able to intuit things they couldn't actually know, even if it's cryptic the first time around. There's also the matter of [[spoiler:the Pale]] and the [[spoiler:the Swallow in the church]], which is very difficult to offer a rational explanation for (though in-universe, people have tried) and skirts the line between MagicRealism and [[spoiler:an outright CosmicHorrorReveal]]. |
| 377 | * ''[[VideoGame/DotsHome Dot's Home]]'' takes place in modern-day Detroit, but Dot wakes up from her nap one day to find a magic key that takes her back in time to various points in her family's life. There's no explanation as to why the key is magic -- it's just there to show Dot the suffering her family went through in order to provide her the home she's living in. |
| 378 | * ''VideoGame/HarvestMoon'' is a farming simulator with heavy life sim elements. Overall it takes place in a realistic setting, however, supernatural aspects are in almost every game. The Harvest Goddess and the Harvest Sprites are recurring characters, and more recent games give the Goddess a DistaffCounterpart in the Harvest King. Witch and wizard characters are often common in recent titles. |
| 379 | * ''VideoGame/KentuckyRouteZero'' paints the Bluegrass State as one of these. The elements of ghost stories abound, but no one pays much mind to them. |
| 380 | * ''VideoGame/{{Killer7}}'', a political thriller starring a man who can transform into seven different people, see and speak to the dead, and fight exploding monsters that possess human bodies. |
| 381 | * ''VideoGame/KillerIsDead'' features all kinds of bizarre sci-fi and supernatural elements that verge into MindScrew territory at times for the player, but are typically treated as nothing out of the ordinary for the protagonists. For example, one mission ends with [[spoiler: Mondo's client turning out to not be their actual client, who died before they even met, but a bird disguised as her, who simply turns back into a bird and flies away after the job is done.]] Mondo reacts with mild surprise, Bryan simply laughs it off, and Vivienne is more irritated since [[spoiler: a bird and a corpse]] can't pay the contract fee they owe them. |
| 382 | * Square Enix's ''VideoGame/LifeIsStrange'', having been inspired by Twin Peaks, is clearly magical realist in tone. |
| 383 | * ''VideoGame/MaceTheDarkAge'' takes place in a similar Eurasian setting to the ''Soul Series'' except during the Dark Ages, and there is an sinister group of evil men that summoned a demon to engulf the world into darkness. The cast is made up from fighters from Europe, the Middle-East and the Far East, ranging from [[HiredGuns mercenaries]], [[HornyVikings vikings]], {{ninja}}s, {{samurai}}s, [[TheHashshashin assassins]] and [[BedlahBabe harem girls]], with TheDragon being an stone gargoyle and the aforementioned demon as the FinalBoss. And a mythical dwarf is among the secret characters. |
| 384 | * ''VideoGame/MetalGear'': Real world setting, real guns, lots of talking about real-life politics and science, but also features walking robots, magical floating psychics, autotrophic snipers, bee men, and ghosts. The original ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' title featured a collection of CharlesAtlasSuperpower bosses, the EnsembleDarkHorse of which was a floating, fourth-wall breaking psychic. Later games would expand upon this with a steady increase of Magic Realism. ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'' dabbled with DoingInTheWizard, but official WordOfGod is that Vamp was still immortal in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'' and Ocelot [[spoiler:''was'' possessed, but had the arm removed and started faking possession instead]]. |
| 385 | * The entire ''VideoGame/{{Mother}}'' series has definite elements of Magic Realism, which are especially prominent in ''VideoGame/Mother3''. |
| 386 | * ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes'' seems to take place in a fairly dull Californian city. Except for the fact that the protagonist purchases a functioning lightsaber on eBay and proceeds to off progressively more bizarre assassins. At one point [[spoiler:his mentor dies, but afterward the mentor's ghost continues his job working at the gym.]] No one seems to find any of this at all odd. And then there's ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes2DesperateStruggle'', which has Travis Touchdown using dimension warps and fighting ghosts, among other things. |
| 387 | ** ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroesIII'' manages to top both of the above by having Travis fight ''alien superheroes from outer space''. |
| 388 | * ''VideoGame/NoStraightRoads'' takes place in Vinyl City, an otherwise normal, bustling place where all musical artists appear to have magical powers (let alone the VirtualCelebrity, the robotic boy band and the DJ with an astral body for a head), and this isn't seen as strange. |
| 389 | * ''VideoGame/{{Pathologic}}'' and ''VideoGame/Pathologic2''. The setting is realistic, the characters are very human, one of the playable characters has {{Lovecraftian Super Power}}s. There are a bunch of medicine men wrapped head to toe in bandages who sell herbs that grow from blood. There are loads of children walking around without parents, and occasionally wearing the dead heads of dogs as masks. Disease clouds attack you. They come in the form of horrendous, symbolic abominations. An impossibly-shaped tower created as a "factory of dreams and utopias" just to spite the laws of nature. The land and soil, which are alive. We haven't even discussed the rather meta theater themes... |
| 390 | * ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption'' and ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption2'' possess several paranormal or fantastical elements despite being Rockstar titles that take place near the end of the Wild West, the most prominent of which is a mysterious figure in all black simply called The Strange Man. In both installments, he's heavily implied to be a supernatural entity particularly intrigued by John Marston. Members of the fandom debate whether he's an [[AngelUnaware angel]], [[LouisCypher the Devil]], [[GodWasMyCopilot God]], or [[GrimReaper Death]]. |
| 391 | * ''VideoGame/TheRiddleOfMasterLu'' is set in a slightly alternative-history version of our world before the Second World War, but it contains the very literally unlucky Romanov Emerald, and the whole plot is set around the search for the Emerald Seal, which by the sound of it has magical powers that could help anyone become a dictator somehow. The protagonist Robert Ripley doesn't seem too perturbed by the idea of something being magical, in fact he takes it for granted about the Seal, and seems convinced an ancient tower where human sacrifices were committed is literally haunted, even though there is no evidence for this other than a very oppressive atmosphere. |
| 392 | * Arguably every incarnation of ''VideoGame/TheSims'', where witches, vampires, aliens, fairies, and werewolves, as well as a number of magical or high technology objects exist but are treated as perfectly normal in a game that is otherwise supposed to be a simulation of real life. |
| 393 | * A recurring element in the ''VideoGame/SlyCooper'' series. Mojo and ghosts exist, and raising the dead nets you a life sentence in prison. |
| 394 | * ''[[Creator/ChoiceOfGames Somme]] [[https://www.choiceofgames.com/user-contributed/somme-trench Trench]]'' for the most part is a realistic choose your own adventure game about a British private during the [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne Battle of the Somme]]. Then there's a sceen where your character sees (and depending on your choices, talks to) a ghost, though since no one else sees it, you can't tell if [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane it's just your character imagining things]], and the soldiers who you tell about it are just superstitious. [[spoiler:Until the end, where your stuck in a shell hole, and more ghosts show up, including at least one you actually knew and saw die, and there's another (living) soldier with you who sees them, confirming that, yes, they're really there. Don't worry, they're actually friendly, and understand if you decide not to go with them]]. |
| 395 | * The ''VideoGame/SoulSeries'' takes place in a mostly realistic depiction of 16th Century Eurasia. Except there's an evil sword of supernatural power out there that everyone wants to get a hold of. Oh, and there's a good counterpart up for grabs as well. Not to mention the golem, the lizardman, the demon-hunting ninja, that Greek woman who keeps getting visions from [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Hephaestus]], the [[ScaryBlackMan scary black guy]] who claims he was born in Babylonian times, and not just one but ''two'' people who may or may not be [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]]. To the series' credit, they're used well, but they're more played up with each title: the very first game was basically the real world with a few low-key fantastical elements, while ''V'' arguably leaves this trope and ventures into the realm of HighFantasy. Not to mention the times [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Link]] and ''[[Franchise/StarWars Darth Vader]]'' showed up. |
| 396 | * ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine'' might dip into this depending on your interpretation. Just enough odd things happen through the course of the story that can easily be written off as hallucinations in the mind of the [[ShellShockedVeteran PTSD-addled protagonist]]. |
| 397 | * ''VideoGame/StardewValley'' takes place in a fictional republic resembling Small Town, USA in TheNewTens -- there's [[CapitalismIsBad predatory megacorporations]], cubicle offices, ersatz gridiron football, TV sets, and a farm. But soon you uncover all kinds of fantasy elements including {{Nature Spirit}}s, a wizard who lives in a tower in the forest, witches, ghosts, goblins, monsters, [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame dwarves]], mermaids, shadow men, {{Talking Animal}}s... |
| 398 | * Physically impossible {{Finishing Move}}s? Flaming {{Battle Aura}}s that look straight out of ''Manga/DragonBallZ''? Lightsabers, {{Morph Weapon}}s disguised as canes, haunted video tapes, and more cases of MadeOfIron than you can shake a metal pipe at? Just another day for Kamurocho's [[NeighborhoodFriendlyGangsters Neighborhood-Friendly]] (and not-so-friendly) VideoGame/{{Yakuza}}, though it's never made clear just how much of the wacky stuff Kiryu and pals pull off is in-universe and how much is just artistic licence for the fun of it. |
| 399 | [[/folder]] |
| 400 | |
| 401 | [[folder:Visual Novels]] |
| 402 | * This trope is a staple of Creator/KeyVisualArts works, which tend to follow a common formula: firstly there's a common route set in a basic school setting with nothing remotely supernatural or only very vague hints at anything non-mundane, then there are a couple of character routes that involve explicitly supernatural elements (e.g., a character turning out to be a [[DeadAllAlong ghost]]) but also other totally realistic routes, and then the main route reveals some kind of important magical element that forms the basis of the entire game. The character development and interaction is always clearly the focal point and the magical elements merely providing a frame for it. |
| 403 | ** ''VisualNovel/{{Clannad}}'' is mostly a slice-of-life romance in a realistic, present-day setting... except for the GenkiGirl in a coma somehow astral projecting herself whom only some can see, a cat who temporarily turns into a human boy and can grant one wish, a lonely world no-one can see that exists somewhere between the layers of our own, and the past being rewritten after years of tragedy, finally resulting in a happy ending. |
| 404 | ** ''VisualNovel/{{Kanon}}'' is 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]]. |
| 405 | ** ''VisualNovel/{{Air}}'' 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.]] |
| 406 | ** Then there's ''VisualNovel/LittleBusters'', which is a totally normal, happy game about the everyday school life of a boy and his friends. And then there's one unusual girl who doesn't have a shadow but does have a strange doppelganger, and when he starts romancing another girl strange things start to happening such as snow falling in May... [[spoiler:Although in the end it turns out to be a bit more of a subtle example than the rest: all of the supernatural things happened because they took place within the dream Kyousuke created to replay the same month over and over to prepare Riki for the events ahead, meaning that the creation of that dream was the only truly magical thing to have happened.]] |
| 407 | * ''Franchise/AceAttorney'': |
| 408 | ** Spirit channeling is a real thing, but in most cases it stays in the sidelines, being only used as a way for Phoenix to get help from his [[MentorOccupationalHazard late mentor]]. The existence of spirit channelers also leads to Phoenix owning a magical LieDetector artifact, [[spoiler:and to a few cases where spirit channeling was directly involved in the crime]]. While spirit channeling is generally discounted in the story, this is because of a highly publicized incident where the police tried InterrogatingTheDead and got testimony that incriminated an innocent man, which embarrassed the police out of trying it again. If Phoenix tries to argue that a channeled spirit couldn't have committed murder (which is true in this case because [[spoiler:said 'channeled spirit' was alive the whole time]] and there was a conspiracy to fake the channeling) because spirit channeling doesn't exist, all Franziska has to do is present a single photo to prove him wrong. After that, on the rare occasion that someone is channeled in court (and it's not Mia), they're generally treated like any other witness. |
| 409 | ** The other two main lawyers, Apollo Justice and Athena Cykes, have abilities that at first seem like another bit of magical realism, but in reality are purely scientific or at least sci-fi. Apollo's bracelet tightening when someone is lying to him is explained as his family having a hereditary trait where they're hypersensitive to unconscious tells; the bracelet just fits his arm perfectly and so pinches him if his arm tenses up- which he subconsciously does when he spots a tell, which serves to alert him that he needs to consciously focus on something. Athena has hyperacousis, and one side-effect of her extreme sensitivity to people's voices is that she can hear hints of emotion in their tone. Her 'Widget' just serves to dampen her hearing in normal life so she doesn't have to wear earmuffs all the time and to present the information she's hearing in a visual format that she (and players) can easily interpret. |
| 410 | ** ''[[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneySpiritOfJustice Spirit of Justice]]'' introduces the Kingdom of Khura'in, an entire country based around spirit channeling to the point where the royal family (or at least the women) are all expected to be spirit mediums, and a major part of the country's judicial system is a specialized channeling called a Divination Seance (performed by Princess Rayfa) that shows the deceased's last moments... and which is significantly less reliable than said court system would hope. One character who remembers their court system before it went [[KangarooCourt completely crazy]] notes that attorneys and prosecutors used to argue over what divination seances meant like any other piece of evidence. [[spoiler: In fact, the BigBad is defeated by proving she's ''not'' a medium and thus unfit for the throne.]] |
| 411 | * The main character of ''VisualNovel/DaCapo'' is a mage who jumps into people's dreams, there's also a magical cherry tree that grants wishes, a reality altering witch, mind readers, cats becoming human, a human sized cat that the girls see around town, and ever blooming cherry trees, and although it's a bit odd, nobody ever questions their reality. |
| 412 | * In ''VisualNovel/FleuretBlanc'', Squeaker is a FunnyAnimal who can rotate his head 360 degrees. No one finds this odd except for Kant. |
| 413 | * The setting of ''VisualNovel/TheFountain'' is largely realistic, the one exception being that [[LivingStatue Areanna's statue is alive]] and Luca's long-lasting influence on the pigeons he cared for. The two characters aware of these going-ons aren't surprised by it. |
| 414 | * ''VisualNovel/LoveAtFirstSight'' is set in a world similar to ours, with completely mundane humans... and yet a girl with [[{{Cyclops}} a significant eye condition]] co-exists with scarcely any comment. |
| 415 | * ''VisualNovel/UtaNoPrinceSama'' would be just another OtomeGame with an idealistic vision of the idol business... if it wasn't for magic being real (although seemingly only prominent in invented countries like Permafrost or Agnapolis). |
| 416 | [[/folder]] |
| 417 | |
| 418 | [[folder:Web Animation]] |
| 419 | * ''WebAnimation/ThePinkCity'' takes place in a world where many people have some form of supernatural power, ghosts are widely recognized and even celebrated by society, and "clown" is an ethnicity. |
| 420 | [[/folder]] |
| 421 | |
| 422 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 423 | * LampshadeHanging: Within the ''Webcomic/{{Achewood}}'', anything made in Mexico contains "Mexican magic realism". For example, a camera that takes pictures of what a person feels like, an RV that is always raining on the inside, and a helicopter that moves by causing the occupants legs to grow to several hundred feet and walking. Most recently, a Nagel serape that grants wishes [[spoiler:(actually only the "Hecho en Mexico" tag attached to it grants wishes)]]. |
| 424 | * The first two chapters of ''[[http://www.cansofbeans.com/ Can of Beans]]'' focus on [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Carl]] trying to hide his [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent lycanthropy]] from his new roommate, [[SurferDude Dude]]; chapter three explores [[TalkingToThemself other]] [[MentalWorld odd]] [[PensieveFlashback quirks]] about his condition. However, from that point on the supernatural becomes a side point, with the main focus being on Carl and Dude's relationship. {{Lampshaded}} by page 220's AltText: |
| 425 | -->"Oh yeah I totally forgot this was a werewolf comic." |
| 426 | * ''Webcomic/DarkestNight'': Interspersed with mundane drama is a blood-drinking monster mystically linked with Mags and an apparently real seer. |
| 427 | * Aside from being set in a WorldOfFunnyAnimals, ''Webcomic/DeerMe'' is a pretty mundane narrative for the most part. Then you get to the story arc with Viana's wicked niece who has a demon and magical powers. |
| 428 | * In ''Webcomic/TheDevilsPanties'', which is mostly slice-of-life, the main character occasionally chats with both Jesus and the devil, her shoulder angel and devil seem to have lives of their own and one of her roommates used to keep [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Legolas]] naked and locked in a closet. |
| 429 | * ''Webcomic/GirlsWithSlingshots'' is usually normal every day life. Except for the talking plants and the occasional impossibility thrown in for RuleOfFun, such as the laser tag game that somehow removes your clothing when you are shot. The talking house plants is a running gag and often lampshaded. Every time a new character is seen talking with them, they are relieved to find out they are not the only one that has been hearing them. |
| 430 | * ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' starts out somewhat like this, before being revealed to be full on MundaneFantastic and more. Early on, it seems more or less like our world, but interacting with things vaguely follows AdventureGame tropes. When they start up their game and view each others' houses, it doesn't seem so bad. Then they start altering the real life houses, with a game, ''like it's the Sims''. It pretty much stops trying to pretend there's anything normal about their universe at that point. |
| 431 | * ''[[Webcomic/{{Mezzacotta}} Comments on a Postcard]]'' name-drops this specifically, claiming that a [[http://www.mezzacotta.net/postcard/?comic=32 hovering telepathic female pie from the future]] is a totally legitimate example. The entire "comic" is one big joke, so make of it what you will. |
| 432 | * ''Webcomic/PennyArcade'' is a TwoGamersOnACouch comic set in what is nominally the real world, although sometimes UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} comes over to play ''VideoGame/MarioKart''. Or Gabe and Tycho will discuss video games while [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/2/9/ emerging from hideous cocoons.]] |
| 433 | * ''Webcomic/PicturesForSadChildren'' is mainly about the pressures of modern life and the clash between the opposite sides of the [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism Sliding Scale]]. The main characters are Paul, a recently-deceased BedsheetGhost, and Gary, whose extended family was recently revealed to collectively possess the same powers as [[Literature/TheBible Jesus]]. |
| 434 | * ''Webcomic/QuestionableContent'' slips in a fair amount of this, mostly in science-fiction or alcoholic form. |
| 435 | ** Sapient robots, or [=AnthroPCs=] just, exist, with nobody really commenting on it for the first few years of the comic. In one comic TheSingularity came and nobody particularly noticed. However, the comic has started to explore the ramifications of a post-Singularity world, with the formerly two-foot tall [=AnthroPC=] characters upgrading to more human-looking chassises and some downright weird AIs appearing. |
| 436 | ** Steve may or may not have been a Bond-esque super spy during one of his absenses. "[[http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1350 True story, or alcohol-induced fantasy? Either way, Steve's not tellin'.]]" |
| 437 | *** True story, as it turns out. The Russian chick with the scar turns up again in a later strip. Her name is Tortura, and she is happy to meet you. |
| 438 | * ''Webcomic/{{Shortpacked}}'' is an interesting example. The previous webcomic by the same author, ''It's Walky'', was straight-out science-fiction adventure about a group of alien-abductee government agents. ''Shortpacked'' exists in the same world, but in a much more mundane setting -- a toy store. Thus, the elements that took center stage in ''It's Walky'' are pushed to the edges, and the genre shifts to magic realism. Since the weirdness ''does'' have a canon explanation in TheVerse, just not in that series, it's more like AllThereInTheManual. Except replace "manual" with "[[ArchiveBinge the entire archives of several previous comic strips]]". |
| 439 | * ''Webcomic/SomethingPositive'' is generally just satire, but has some surreal elements (like the protagonist's boneless cat), and then some outright supernatural ones, like Silas, a minor character, being reincarnated a few years after being KilledOffForReal. Other dead characters have been specifically shown in either Heaven or Hell, and in recent years Davan has been having [[PsychicDreamsForEveryone dreams of dead loved ones]] who either offer advice or [[FridgeHorror seem to be predicting his own demise]]. |
| 440 | * ''Webcomic/ThinkBeforeYouThink'' happens in a normal world, but the main character can read minds, and he is the only one, as far as we know. |
| 441 | * ''Webcomic/UserFriendly'' starts out in a pretty normal world and focuses on the techs at an Internet Service Provider. Mostly the humor is geek-based and requires a healthy understanding of the computer world. Also there are creatures created from the dust molecules inside a computer, another creature created from spilled coffee and rotting food, the ability to make a coffee out of "distilled usenet bitterness", and the Great Old Ones from Lovecraft (usually just Cthulhu and Hastur) actually exist. |
| 442 | [[/folder]] |
| 443 | |
| 444 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 445 | * The ''Website/Everything2'' short story, [[http://everything2.com/user/Ignis/writeups/How+to+spot+a+powerful+mage?author=Ignis How to spot a powerful mage]]. |
| 446 | * ''Website/TheOnion'': [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlRK-DtcqC0 "Being A Detective Who Talks To Ghosts Not As Exciting As TV"]]. |
| 447 | * ''The Residents''[='=] Bunny Boy series is set in what could loosely be construed as "reality", if it weren't for such things as PsychicDreamsForEveryone, people who might not exist-but on some level do anyways, warped Bible prophecy, and just enough little additions and subtractions from what's "real". |
| 448 | * Many David Firth works, e.g. ''Roof Tiling'', ''World Within a Sock'', can be described as this. Although they can also be described as SurrealHorror. |
| 449 | [[/folder]] |
| 450 | |
| 451 | [[folder:Web Videos]] |
| 452 | * ''WebVideo/{{Kickassia}}'' is ostensibly set in the modern day real world, chiefly in the RealLife micronation Molossia. However, it keeps featuring talking stuffed animals, electromagnetic superpowers, teleportation, two-dimensional people, energy weapons, and [[SantaClaus Santa]] [[UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} Christ]]; how these things exist is never explained, and most of them only have a small effect on the main plot. There's also a curious lack of interest from authorities when a bunch of internet critics invade a guy's home and start talking about conquering the world. |
| 453 | --> "[[Film/StreetFighter OF COURSE!]]" |
| 454 | [[/folder]] |
| 455 | |
| 456 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 457 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'' can veer into this territory on occasion. Normally (aside from the characters not being -- or at least ''looking'' -- human) it's a very grounded, realistic, SliceOfLife show about elementary-school kids. But then you have episodes where aliens have been seen as existing, imaginary friends are regularly show to be physically real, the Halloween episode featured a real ghost, and in one exceptionally weird episode Arthur's dog Pal and his baby sister Kate ''took a trip in a spaceship with Pal's cousin from Pluto.'' |
| 458 | * In ''WesternAnimation/AsToldByGinger'', Noelle has telekinetic powers. These are never explained, and the show is mostly a SliceOfLife show about junior high students. The Halloween episode "I Spy A Witch" involved Hoodsie and Carl summoning a dead woman from beyond the grave. It's successful and she possesses Hoodsie to talk to Carl. |
| 459 | * ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead'' occasionally did this. For example, the Morning Wood Fairy turned out to be real in "The Mystery of Morning Wood," and the Roman god of feces, Sterculius, is revealed to exist in "Peace, Love, and Understanding." Creator/MikeJudge, whose subsequent series ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' is arguably the most realistic series in the history of western animation, views the aforementioned episodes as an OldShame as a result of their fantastic nature, and neglected to include them on ''The Mike Judge Collection'' DVD sets as a result. |
| 460 | ** ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}},'' a SpinOff of the above, also swung into this territory at times. Usually a satirical but realistic take on high school and 90's society, it also featured a BizarroEpisode where holiday spirits come to town, as well as a MusicalEpisode. "A Tree Grows in Lawndale" ends with [[spoiler:the crutch in Tommy Sherman's memorial growing a flower]], and "Legends of the Mall" implies that [[spoiler:Helen may have been attacked by Metalmouth]]. There are also a lot of scenes where minor characters will appear in two places at once, switch places or show up in flashbacks where they don't belong. It's become a fandom joke that these "animation errors" are actually signs of supernatural activities. |
| 461 | * It can be ambiguous whether or not the supernatural beings from ''WesternAnimation/BigMouth'' are an example of NotSoImaginaryFriend, but there are certainly times where other people can see them. |
| 462 | * Some of the characters in the universe of ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman'' are various kinds of talking animals. They have various traits associated with whatever animal they are, but are generally treated as human beings. The story never brings up or explains why the world is this way, it just is. |
| 463 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks'' is sometimes like this. Most notably, the episode in which the vengeful ghost of Colonel Stinkmeaner comes back from Hell to possess Tom Dubois and attack the Freeman family. Despite all the weirdness of the whole situation, the Freemans are more concerned by the fact that it's their old enemy back for revenge, rather than how supernatural it is. |
| 464 | * For most part, ''WesternAnimation/{{Clarence}}'' is a relatively down-to-earth series about the lives of a bunch of kids...And then, there are episodes like "Balance", where the titular character is shown to have telepathic powers. Another episode, "Animal Day" ends with one character turning into a werewolf. |
| 465 | * With the exceptions of the AmazingTechnicolorPopulation, Porkchop (And sometimes Stinky) walking around like a human (Not to mention the supernatural elements of the first HalloweenEpisode), ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}'' is a very, very realistic show. The Disney version has Skunky Beaumont befriending a mermaid, not to mention the Lake Monster from TheMovie. |
| 466 | * ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'' is a SliceOfLife cartoon about kids in a cul-de-sac, and while the show operates primarily on ToonPhysics, is otherwise set in the real world. However, there are some episodes [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane with weirdness that may or may not actually be supernatural]]. In "One + One = Ed", reality starts to break down around the Eds before revealing that none of the weird things they saw had happened and it was just their overactive imaginations... ''all three of theirs''. In "Hand Me Down Ed", a boomerang flies into the cul-de-sac and magically inverts the personalities of everyone who touches them. In "Sorry, Wrong Ed", an allegedly cursed phone plagues Eddy with acts of misfortune whenever it's answered, Edd convinced that it's all one big coincidence. In "Run Ed Run", Sarah convinces Ed that the sky is falling, a fact that is proven [[AccidentalTruth accidentally true]] when they hit the sky, [[CrackInTheSky breaking a piece off and revealing nothing but static just past the cracked skybox]]. |
| 467 | * ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' is set in a mundane, realistic world and focuses on Arnold, his friends, and the people around them with their down-to-earth problems and daily lives. Then it factors in elements like [[TheJinx Eugene's excessive bad luck]], unusual one-shot characters like The Pigeon Man and The Sewer King, and hints that some of the local urban legends [[RealAfterAll may be true]]. |
| 468 | * One episode of ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' had Luanne being visited by the angel of her dead boyfriend Buckley, though they [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane kept it ambiguous]] whether she was imagining it or not. |
| 469 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Littlest Pet Shop|2012}}'' is mostly realistic except for Blythe's ability to talk to animals and the occasional cartoony gag. |
| 470 | * ''WesternAnimation/MarthaSpeaks'' is about a dog who gains the ability to talk after eating alphabet soup in an otherwise SliceOfLife series about a normal girl, her dogs, and her friends. Although at times, some other things come up, such as a device capable of controlling things by spoken adjectives and a photograph seemingly proving that a local ghost is real. |
| 471 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheProudFamily'', an otherwise normal series about a teenage girl and her family, has a lot of strange and fantastic elements, such as: a telepath, an evil talking baby, a talking credit card, an evil, [[RealityWarper reality-warping]] Al Roker, a blue-skinned trio of bullies, a mad scientist and his island of peanut people, ghosts, snacks that give people superpowers, etc. Though it could be chalked up to the writers [[RuleOfFun taking full advantage of the fact that it's a cartoon]]. |
| 472 | * ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'' is a prime example. The main cast includes anthropomorphic animals, a talking gumball machine, an immortal yeti, a guy who looks like a lollipop, a green man, and a ghost that gives high fives. They’re all treated as normal people who just happen to not be human. Weird, supernatural things constantly happen, but they’re similarly often treated like expected hazards or otherwise not uncommon and through it all, the series is pretty much a SliceOfLife show until the MythArc becomes more apparent later on. |
| 473 | * The ChristmasEpisode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' ended by having SantaClaus be RealAfterAll. The episode "Toy Palace" had a working time machine [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment for a brief gag.]] |
| 474 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' started out fairly ordinary, but after the first couple of seasons, inexplicable fantastical elements tended to spring up suddenly, yet the world, characters, and plot move on regardless. Occasionally [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]], like an episode where Lisa says that cartoons don't have to be 100% realistic, to which Homer appears in [[FunnyBackgroundEvent two places at once.]] It would be impossible to list the incalculable number of BigLippedAlligatorMoments where supernatural beings appear briefly for no reason and everyone just ignores them. |
| 475 | * ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'' is generally a satirical take on reality shows and teenage stereotypes. However, even ignoring the CartoonPhysics and {{Nearly Normal Animal}}s, we also have canonical cases of aliens, a Sasquatch and technology that would fit in a sci-fi setting. ''All-Stars'' also had an episode where a BadMoonRising made all the animals act weird and ended with an arc about [[TheMentallyDisturbed Mike]]'s JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind. |
| 476 | * The ''Cartoon Network Minis'' short "Welcome to My Life" is a {{Mockumentary}} about the life of Douglas, the teenage son from a family of monsters who live among humans as if they were just another ethnic minority. |
| 477 | [[/folder]] |
| 478 |
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