Grind Fiction: A Summary of GrindWorld

Conspiracy theories, mega corporations, aliens, ultraterrestrials, free running, street punks, super spy sleuthing, anime, goths, emos, fisticuffs hand to hand combat, graffiti, beat’em’uppings.... all these things come together in a weird aesthetics genre known as "animemo".
The creator of the term was the Sky Hedgehogian Maestro, and you read right- it really is called “animemo”- meant to describe the style of anime considered to have “grungy/cel-shaded animation, a punky/poppy indie-rock or stoic piano-hip hop based soundtrack, and containing a specific style of character art featuring emo-ish youths doing rebellious, expressionistic, or even anarchistic things, battling overwhelming odds usually with power hungry adults at the forefront, often with free running and/or magic elements in modern or Roman urban-cyberpunk environments that also featured a heavy nature/natural world influence, where spraying graffiti or playing with light graffiti are what they do for fun or to tick off the authorities, with the sometimes added mixture of teen angst or love. Art is a focal point, and expression is the name of the game.”
In the words of the Sky Hedgehogian Maestro, the best example of an ‘animemo’ work many people know is the 2007 Nintendo DS game, The World Ends With You, even though it didn’t deal with every element described. It held almost every necessary element, but it failed to have some things (the freerunning aspects, the natural aspects, the long haired hero, the hero’s deep understanding of themself, the animemo character’s pride of being animemo, and the extensive use of lighting) although it was a major step in animemo’s evolution. A game by the Sky Hedgehogian Maestro also dubbed “imperfectly animemo, but a step in the right direction” is the 2008 multi platform cult classic Mirror’s Edge. However, the “first example” of an animemo game ever made was the 1999 cult Dreamcast hit Jet Set Radio.
Another game that had/developed the animemo style was the 2010 XBLA game, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game and a heavily JSR-inspired cel shaded online freerunning game, Freejack.
Animemo didn’t end with video games. Fooly Cooly, Durarara!!, Air Gear, and more were all described as animemo. The movies Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World and Kickass both were also put into the animemo category.
Animemo evolved more to encompass totally sci-fi cyberpunk/cybergoth elements when Tron: Legacy and Loopers, and were named as animemo works.

The Central Tenants of Animemo are as shown-

• Intense and vivid imagery, with excessive use of lighting, shading, and hues
  Jet Set Radio/World Ends With You/Freejack esque characters and settings
  
  A particular sound aesthetic, usually consisting of either industrial indie rock such as The Pillows or instrumental jazzy hip hop or freejazz, but not forgetting a funk influence (With Dark Animemo, it switches to darker songs, even tending towards Doom Metal and symphonics). The use of graffiti is also a common theme.

The Sky Hedgehogian Maestro himself wrote many “animemo” works that were meant to cross everyone of these factors into one main genre. The earliest example was from several chapters in the failed 2009 megafic, SBDRF: Sonic and Blaze Do Russia Future, in the chapter Like It Like This Like That.
It was SBDRF that laid the seeds that would become animemo. SBDRF begged, for the first time in the SHM’s literary life, things such as lighting, story and character depth, soundtrack atmosphere, and location importance, important tenants of what would become animemo. In fact, the whole animemo revolution owes its very existence to SBDRF- everything that was future animemo was lain down in SBDRF in some way, shape, or form.
However, it is very, very important to note that SBDRF, by itself, is not an animemo work. At most, it is pre-animemo. At least, it’s a variety story-series that just happened to influence the genre thanks to several chapters that happened to tie-in the animemo "feel." In essence, it's like comparing Led Zeppelin to modern heavy metal- Led Zeppelin is commonly referred to as heavy metal, when, in fact, they simply inspired many elements of the genre.


The first time animemo became its own story was in the never-yet-made summer 2009 original work, Teknopathe_tik. It was mainly a Jet Set Radio Future styled affair, but had more animemo styles of environments- including a super technological, Mediterranean styled city on a 5 mile high slope- but also entirely natural environments that were largely/completely void of human technological contact- something Jet Set Radio, The World Ends With You, Scott Pilgrim, Mirror’s Edge, Fooly Cooly, Durarara!!, and many other animemo influences either largely lacked or didn’t have at all. Still, it was an ‘impure’ example of animemo and only served to continue to push it along rather than define it.
Returning to the Sonic fandom, It’s A Wonderful World, also from 2009, also helped to push along animemo by adding robots into the main character part. Another 2009 original work, KashMir, also continued pushing along animemo, if imperfect at the time. It wasn’t until early 2010 that its real animemo aspects came to the forefront, yet it still also an impure descript of the subgenre- especially following March 2010, when it began diverging from the animemo scene.

The story prior to the SHM’s “first gen” that was the first ever “definition” of an animemo story was the late 2010 failed megafic, 21 Days Of Night. Every major aspect of what defines an animemo story was present in 21 Days. For the first time ever, the genre had a face, but the face never saw the light of day. Because of 21 Day’s immense size and length, the story never made it past the early story boarding process. Still, because the basics had been defined, animemo could only go forward.
For one, 21 Days Of Night was a dark tale, and featured many dark cold colors and much despair. Also, as compared to Teknopathe_tik and It's A Wonderful World, a majority of the story's themes, moods, and characters were rooted in The World Ends With You rather than being controlled by Jet Set Radio with some TWEWY-influences. However, it had the emo-ish characters, the high octane and high-energy hand-to-hand battles alongside magic, the graffiti obsessed street punks, the technological super cities, the untouched but influenced natural world, metaphysical super plots, and grand conspiracies to boot. It was animemo. There could be no debate. Just how animemo is was is a more debatable question. Soon after its own creation came Planet K, which, while wasn’t necessarily meant to be animemo, held a strong sepia tone and industrial Brit-rock soundtrack as well as steampunk settings, yet the SHM considered it “twice as animemo” as 21 Days of Night. This is odd because the story featured little of many elements- most of the game was, in fact, Victorian-esque and very streampirate in nature. However, the characters and over plots remained the same. This only helped to push along what would be considered animemo.

It may be useful to note here that, during the 2010 fall season, the term ‘animemo’ had not yet been created- instead, there was another term for such elements: “kashmiran”, after KashMir

In early 2011, certain quirks about the game Just Cause 2 became inherent properties of animemo- including heavy emphasis on lighting and the artificial soundtrack stemming from the FLCL OST, especially the song Ride on Shooting Star, as well as Fatboy Slim’s Right Here, Right Now, and certain Gorillaz songs, M1A1 and 68 State. It was this that led to the next chapter of the animemo story.
2011.
The Turquoise City Chronicles, an immensely brighter version of what 21 Days Of Night laid down and the spiritual sequel to SBDRF, was begun. It was animemo in that it featured many of the same elements present in 21 Days, but it harkened back to the days of Teknopathe_tik and It’s A Wonderful World when it substituted the chilling indigos, deep violets, dark reds, evil blues, and desperate blacks for bright azures, glowing crimsons, and sunly golds and yellows.
Red. Yellow. Blue. These threes colors are the defining trinity, the tricolor of animemo, brought back to the frontlines after two years of abatement. However, it also featured a wider soundtrack than the once simply “smash’em’up” indie rock, gothic sludge doom, and cheesy funk that was the background music for earlier works.
Intervyvsmestipated, 58th State, and Sonic and Amy Vs. The World were efforts that honed in on the genre to even further levels, with Intervyvsmestipated being a new possible symbol of animemo. Unfortunately, the Turquoise City Chronicles- although it avoided SBDRF's mistake by separating all possible chapters into their own individual stories- still collapsed, although, instead of being due to its over overwhelming weight as SBDRF had been, because of another story the SHM had creating taking over his time.

In 2012, however, a new face of animemo was born, Freejazz Theta. This was to be a cross between Jet Set Radio, The World Ends With You, Durarara!!, Teknopathe_tik, Mirror’s Edge, and Fooly Cooly. It was made with animemo in mind, as a new definition of the genre rather than another imperfect pushalong. While it didn’t last, it helped to more closely define animemo than 21 Days Of Night.

Still, save Teknopathe_tik and KashMir, all the previous stories mentioned were fanfictions. The majority were Sonic fanfictions at that, meaning that "original elements" were few and far between. The two aforementioned originals were years old and irrelevent- KashMir had even become something totally different than Animemo- a Star Wars meets Dragon Ball Z meets Classical Myth affair that had been dead since February 2011 with no chance of revival or a renewal of interest. Teknopathe_tik, in its immensely Jet Set Radio Future influence self, seemed a relic of the summer of 2009. With the SHM's Sonic interests taken up with other stories of other genres, it seemed as if animemo would never continue. (Edit: Actually, Night of the Templars was another original fiction, but it was merely a name with a doodled concept behind it, rather than a full fleshed story; the Third Wave of Animemo (The Turquoise City Chronicles) was dead well before anything more could be done with it)

Then in September 2012, two new stories, the cybergothic novella, Night Raven, and the avant gardish story, Animemo, were the first two times where the animemo ideal was finally a true basic tenant of the story inside a modern, totally original fiction. Much like Cyberpunk thirty years prior, Animemo and Night Raven, more or less, were to announce “this is animemo!” stories rather than follow the path of previous stories- “these are stories that are animemo”.

Where it goes now once it has been released to the world, no one knows. Only you can decide its path.


May 2009 to October 2009 “Origins”/First Wave of Animemo/Classic Animemo

Notable Stories- Teknopathe_tik, It’s A Wonderful World, KashMir

Other stories: A Series of Interesting Events, Total Drama Sonic; It’s A Wonderful Life, Eurobeat Bombed, Take One (After Two); Turquoise City Chronicles


September 2010- December 2010 “The Kashmiran Era”/ Second Wave of Animemo

Notable Stories- 21 Days of Night, Planet K

Other Stories- Tales of Brave Miles; Most Merry Madame, Miss Magnus; Skooled: Class Is In Session!; Tomorrow Comes Today; Circus Gothika


February 2011 to April 2011 “Animemo Яevolution”/Third Wave of Animemo/Pre-Modern Animemo

Notable Stories- Intervyvsmestipated, 58th State, Spacescraper, Sonic and Amy vs. The World, Skooled: Menistrus Academy; Johnny Holiday: Trinity

Other Stories: Vyvsreti Trepado, SXG, 58-3000; Red Faction: Revolution; World’s Most Dangerous Game; Epicenter; Arpeggio; Majiveran Яevolution; Night of the Templars; Cherry Pie; Hedgehog Goes to Albion; At Your Service; Kick-Ass Android Attack!; Sunday After Expo: After Hours; Cemeteries of Albion; Jey Jey Reuket 152; Tomorrow’s Another Day (In Emuran, Neku Means Friend); SXG-Up


November 2011 to February 2012 “Defined”/ SERZ Ruled era/Modern Animemo

Notable Stories- 21 Days of Night (KashMir version); JetKidz, Freejazz Theta, Videochildren, Underground Playground
Other Stories: Wild and Wonderful; Secrets Don't Make Friends


October 2012 to January 2013 “Unleashed”/ Fourth Wave of Animemo

Notable Stories- Tomorrow’s Another Day; Night Raven; Animemo; Youngblood


Age 1 is defined mainly by how scattered it is. SBDRF is barely half a year old, Teknopathe_tik is still in devel, and neither “animemo” nor “kashmiran” are created terms yet by far. At this point in the game, animemo is just a brand new concept, yet to be run with or even experimented on. Turquoise City- the capital of the animemo world- is barely any more than a few streets defined and still has the TC Sky Complex over it. Boy, those sure were medieval times, ain't em? What would become Kash and Mir are faraway memories from a forgotten post TAS story years before, and the high school is still a new experience. The Static Police are still just "paranoid hippies in ball cars" and not yet the K(ick)A(ass) Androids they will be, and TAKs... what... the hell... is a "TAK?" This age is defined more by its converging animemo elements- the shades of the varying times of day in A Series of Interesting Events, the odd game style of It’s A Wonderful Life and Eurobeat Bombed, the so-up-Jet Set Radio's-arse that is Teknopathe_tik, and the weird characters and locale of Take One (After Two) and It’s A Wonderful World were what became animemo. By now, however, they were all mainly just untapped wells of potential.

Age 2 sees animemo as more defined. Thanks to KashMir, the general idea of what is animemo- or, more pertained to the era- what is ‘kashmiran’ is accepted, and bears a strong resemblance to the modern definition of animemo, even though some things had yet to be (re)discovered, such as freerunning in Urban or transhumanism in Cyber. Although no more than 20,000 words were written from September to December 2010, this era saw its share of the rise and fall of several stories- including animemo’s natural enemy, SERZ: Sonic Evil Reborn Zero. However, animemo is still new, and Sonic fanfiction still rules its life. Due to the inactivity, frustration over animemo- the inherent darkness and sterileness of 21 Days of Night- begin building. To make matters worse, KashMir, the long time animemo heavy weight, begins falling to a new force in what is considered the lasting impact of the kashmiran world- Mother Meki, an intense political-violence story that was once tightly intertwined with KashMir. Because the two became so distant, a central character of KashMir was pulled to make Mother Meki an easier write- ultimately upsetting a balance in KashMir and killing off the series for good by February the next year. At the exact same time, the SHM and animemo helper, Tzatziki Bongwater, were entirely frustrated with how far animemo had actually gone in the past year. It was clear even before 2011 that 21 Days of Night would not carry the same impact as Teknopathe_tik or It's A Wonderful World mostly due to its inherent bleakness and the fact it was a tragedy, an ultradark, twisted version of The World Ends With You at best. By January 2011, the animemo world was whittled.

It took a revolution and Age 3 brought it. The third wave of animemo was the most successful by far, despite lasting the shortest amount of time thus far. It’s arguable that it began on February 15th and ended on April 15th. In response to the tragic death of KashMir and what seemed like the end of Sonic: Evil Reborn both in February, there came an almost overwhelming wave of animemo stories, including some from olden days and the first attempted off-Sonic fandom story, Tomorrow's Another Day (In Emuran, Neku Means Friend), a purely World Ends With You fanfiction. During this time, animemo brightened up tremendously and Cyber Animemo and, close to the very end, Hippie Animemo came to the forefront. Exploration, a character called "setting", expression, the glory of Daytime, expansion, and transhumanist/cyberpunk themes were forever cast with animemo (it was during the third wave the schism of Animemo subgenres occurred, effectively separating Cyber Animemo from Standard and Urban for the first time). Red, yellow, and blue- in levels not seen since Teknopathe_tik's complete overabuse of the animemo tricolour- returned in spades and the worlds became an amazingly bright cerulean, like a summer noon, and freeskating, expression, art, and having fun in dramatic comedies was all the rage- all this a stark contrast to the gloom and doom of 21 Days of Night. Unfortunately, Sonic: Evil Reborn's second rise killed this off before most stories could be acted upon. It is during Age 3 that animemo finds its name.

Age 4 saw the post May 2011 evolution of animemo into more subtle shades of blue, and eventually spawning the genesis of what would become the gothic Cyber Animemo tale, Night Raven. Freejazz Theta is born this age, spawned from JetKidz- a Jet Set Radio fanfiction that attempted to cross JSRF and The World Ends With You with Durarara!! as well as experiment with the animemo principles of the day. The story itself morphed into Freejazz Theta, one of the finest animemo literary works yet and the purest example that can be found on the Internet. During this time, the Modern Animemo period, the term "animemo" was also finally defined and being put into circulation. Also born this age is the realization that almost every story the SHM has written since SBDRF in late 2008-extreme early 2009 has been touched by the animemo scene in some way, even if not even close to being animemo works in and of themselves.

Age 5 is the era where animemo finally found itself and is the age we are currently in. The biggest stories this age is Night Raven, called by Tzatziki Bongwater as a "Cybergoth animemo version of Destroy All Humans Meets Jet Set Radio Future Meets Deus Ex" as well as a story itself called "Animemo", a brash attempt to coalesce all possible elements of Pure Animemo into one short story.

What is the quintessential animemo character? While not in any manner a strict guideline, there are some standards set by the First Wave of Animemo writers. A ‘Pure animemo’ hero/heroine has medium to long hair (spiky or fashioned, that part’s entirely up to you) with many of its bangs falling over his/her eyes. This is taken from 1970's rock and roll culture- where it was considered "blasphemous" to be in a rock band and have short hair. This doesn't apply to Urban Animemo. As for clothing, it usually is excessively dark, excessively bright, cyberpunk, emo-ish, urban, or retro-futuro fashions of clothing. Gothic cloaks- or those that are such as these - are seen as well.

Much like Neku Sakuraba of The World Ends With You, they may wear a shirt or coat that flares up over their mouths and nose as well as headphones (also like Beat from Jet Set Radio), if they run more on the emo or cyberpunk side of things. Like Faith from Mirror’s Edge, they tend to have some sort of decent freerunning ability- in some elements, they must be capable of parkour. They may form a gang of similar misfits like the GGs from Jet Set Radio, or they may be entirely independent or with a beau/belle like Mir is from KashMir/Night Raven. Also like Mir, and especially in Magic Animemo and Cyber Animemo, they possess telekinetic abilities. Like Sync from Teknopathe_tik/Freejazz Theta, they tend to be or want to be fluent in the use of superhuman or techno-magical devices, or, like Bomb from Teknopathe_tik/Freejazz Theta, they are and they know they’re superhuman and find ways to have fun with it rather than be “square superheroes.” If not free runners, they are almost always ‘free skaters’, meaning they use inline skating to traverse such as many from Jet Set Radio, Freejazz Theta, Teknopathe_tik, and Night Raven. They definitely hold no qualms about using weapons or guns, as Dr. Hyp portrays in Teknopathe_tik/Freejazz Theta or Soros in Night Raven . Like Ghost from Night Raven, they may be sleuths, even spies. Most often for an animemo star, they do understand themselves, and find ‘being animemo’ cool (as in, they like having their hair fall over their eyes or free running off the beaten path), rather than actually being emo, as the genre name might falsely imply. Among the most animemo aspects about a character is their name- they tend to have flamboyant and outlandish names, usually with ‘hard’ consonants prevailing (K, X, V, Z rule), Japenglish or Vyvsmerian names, or have it be like Jet Set Radio/World Ends With You/Teknopathe_tik, where the name is really a punky take on some sort of noun (i.e. Beat, Gum, Korn, Zoda, Bomb, Sync, Guitar, Eraza, Dell...).

Vyvsmerian is a off-hand animemo sublanguage. (To be elaborated on in the future)


What is the quintessential animemo setting? It can be from any time period, but the place tends to be a city and a countryside. The city can be modern, even postmodern. However, it can tends to be Roman- with sterile colors and paper thin streets that roll up and down hills. But leaving it in a city setting isn’t a “pure” animemo trait- Urban animemo, yes, but not pure animemo. There’s a whole natural world out there, and the parts animemo love to pick up on are the ones that give you the best opportunity to explore and do battle. Being that exploration is the name of the game, an animemo world is often elaborate and convoluted. After all- in animemo, your setting is a character of itself and should be treated as such.



“Pure” animemo is described as being like an open world The World Ends With You mixed with Mirror’s Edge and Just Cause. Unlike Standard, to use Pure is, itself, a choice, not a rule. Look upon it as a challenge to be as animemo as possible.

Also, focus on what the animemo subgenres tell you, but don't fall short thinking that the basics are enough. If it’s Urban Animemo, don’t just focus on the streets and stores. The living people are important, but so is a living environment. The city itself is a character. The light of the sun is a character. The sound of the street is a character.



Standard Animemo- Described as basically any work where an emo/goth esque hero/heroine (sometimes to have long hair to boot) already understands who they are and that they are animemo. Beyond that, anything goes- from there, it might become like Bleach, or Monsuno, or Pokemon, or Dragon Ball Z. The basics stand. As compared to Pure Animemo, Standard Animemo doesn’t take itself too seriously. You might think that the elements of animemo came together by accident in a Standard Animemo work. Constantly, the direction of a Standard animemo work might leave animemo altogether.
This could very easily be renamed 'Animemo-esque', 'Animemo like', or 'Animemo influenced' because having even a few of the Central Tenants makes anything Standard Animemo.

Pure Animemo- Where the elements that make up “pure” animemo are strictly held in an uptight manner. In this case, a Pure Animemo work takes itself too seriously. You should be able to tell that it was shooting to be known as an animemo work by just how much it puts animemo elements to the forthright, in an almost corny way. Any and all elements of animemo are worked in, and there is rarely any straying out of this box. This is the challenge room- you don't "happen upon" Pure Animemo- you have to direct yourself to it.

• Light Animemo- Brighter colors, more emphasis on freerunning and lighter levels of shading- tends to be the style with more Roman styled cities. Often humorous or has more humorous elements than it does serious ones. Red, yellow, and blue tend to rule the day.

• Dark Animemo- Darker colors abound, the “emo” and “goth” aspects of Animemo are more abundant and emphasized. The fist-fighting traits and sometimes tragic elements of Animemo are more prevalent. Hopelessness is a common theme and suspense is built constantly.

Urban Animemo- Tends to be Light Animemo fare, Urban Animemo is any Animemo style where there is little natural world interaction and most or all of the work takes place inside a sprawling city. Urban Animemo isn’t necessarily always Cyber Animemo, just as Cyber Animemo isn’t always Urban Animemo. In fact, what really separates Urban Animemo from Cyber Animemo might just be the time period- “Urban Animemo” usually doesn’t go too far past the ten years after the present, but can extend back to ancient times, for as long as it does take place in a city. An Urban Animemo can be Cyber Animemo as well, but it doesn’t have to be. Urban Animemo, as aforementioned, also doesn’t have to be Light animemo. Jet Set Radio Future and Mirror’s Edge are superb Urban Animemo examples. Because portraying urban street culture is a cliche is “urbanime”, Urban Animemo is actually one of the most prevalent animemo styles, and ultimately, least creative. It was also aforementioned that Urban animemo actually has the fewest standard animemo aspects- in Urban animemo, lead characters tend to have fuzz hair or punkish styles, and fist fighting and outright magic tends to be less pervasive.
As seen in Jet Set Radio, Teknopathe_tik, and Freejazz Theta, graffiti has a love affair going on with Urban Animemo. It's here and in Cyber Animemo that Light Graffiti are also common.

Cyber Animemo- Tends to be Dark Animemo fare, Cyber Animemo is any Animemo style where cybernetic and transhumanistic technologies are the norm. It is similar to Urban Animemo in that cities are a focal point, but cities aren’t the only aspect as the natural world can play a big role in setting up an environment. As seen in Night Raven, dark blues are prevalent to give the atmosphere a “cold” look and emphasize the futuristic environment and characters, just as in Youngblood, where the world is blessed with light blues and aquamarines to give it a similar- albeit brighter- cool feel. Cyber animemo is considered close to being to ‘Pure’ animemo in that the fact that a transhumanistic character understands themselves enough as to want to change their faces. They rarely have qualms about this. And because of the high technology, almost any character can become superhuman- although not necessarily superheroes. In Night Raven, animemo Prog-Goth youths from the future come to the past to wreak havoc, and do this quite easily. To make things more interesting, they even pretend to be much weaker than they actually are. Cyber Animemo is also a place where fisticuffs, AKA ‘beat-em’ups’, is common and even exaggerated. Once again, this is to best effect in Night Raven, where the youths obtain incredibly powerful gauntlets and gloves and exoskeletons- on top of their own transhumanal meshes. However, like Urban Animemo, freerunning, freeskating, and parkour are common aspects. Light graffiti is far, far more common than regular, spray paint graffiti, however.

• ET Animemo- Mainly dealing with Night Raven, Spacescraper, and some aspects of KashMir, ET Animemo is an offshoot of Cyber Animemo in that UFO sightings and interactions are a huge part of the story. These are almost always low-light as to put forth the piercing lights of extraterrestrial/UFO-like craft in the sky.

Hippie Animemo- Hippie animemo is the style where the artificial world is abandoned almost entirely and most of the action takes place in a natural setting. Garments sometimes become a bit looser and more flowing and conservative in this particular style rather than the more modern styles prevalent in the Urban and sci-fi styles in the Cyber animemo, but make note- not always. In fact, as seen in some parts of Videochildren, that some of the most progressive clothing may be seen in Hippie animemo. Nature themes become the focal point, and a highly Romantic element is introduced that had been missing from the urban cores before. Despite this, other traits remain the same. All that differs is the interaction- without the confines of modern and post-modern society, the world might be seen as a playground. Underground Playground is the finest example of Hippie animemo- no artificial landmarks are shown and everything takes place in the countrysides scant of human development. Yet the story is still remarkably animemo.

• Magic Animemo- Variant of Hippie Animemo where pure fantasy is the ruling theme. Intervyvsmestipated played with Magic Animemo before going Cyber.