I learned about this concept a little while ago and wanted to write a post about it but didn’t have enough to say about it at the time to make it a full post, so I left the topic for a bit. I figured now would be a good time to revisit it.
“Ma” is the idea that between each bit of action there needs to be quiet. It’s the Japanese concept of negative space in art. One thing that we find a lot of in modern art is that it’s loud. Now that’s not necessarily bad, as the entertainment factor of a piece of art can be powerful too. If something keeps you hooked for the entirety of the time you spend with it, then that’s a good thing. But what I also find very impressive is when the quiet moments let you enjoy the action even more. I wrote a post years ago that I never published called “the insane to contrast the mundane.” It was a review of the second season of Kobayashi-san’s Dragon Maid and I wanted to talk about how the quiet scenes in that show brought the insane action episodes to life so much more, but I hadn’t heard of the concept of Ma yet and didn’t quite know how to put all of this into words. I really only stumbled upon the concept on a Youtube short with Brennan Lee Mulligan and Matthew Mercer talking about it.
The reason I wanted to talk about it now is because I saw an application of this in the last episode of Akane Banashi that kind of floored me. In this final episode, Akane’s mentor – Arakawa Shiguma – is taking a walk through the nearby neighborhood as he ponders what Akane’s stage name should be, now that she is finally getting one. We simply see him wandering through the streets, enjoying a bright summer day and thinking back to all the memories he made with the young daughter of his former disciple and how much he treasures all those moments. Without having these quiet moments, the emotional payoff of this show doesn’t hit nearly as hard as it would. It’s the same as with Dragon Maid that I mentioned before. If we didn’t spend several episodes with those characters just enjoying their lives and having a good time, the conflict that arises wouldn’t have nearly the same impact on us.
Ma is a very important part of storytelling. I think it’s part of why so many of us fell in love with Tolkien as well. Sure, he gives us epic wars, journeys to Mordor and encounters with a Balrog, but he also spends several pages describing what a home looks like and how much the Hobbits like their quiet. If we want to immerse ourselves in another world, the best way to do this is by showing how much the people that live in their world enjoy living there.
It’s something I want to apply to The Necromancer’s Daughter, the story I’m writing on the side. I absolutely love deep lore, overly described surroundings and just characters enjoying the moment. I’ve put some of that into my other series as well, but I want to do even more of it in The Necromancer’s Daughter. I want it to be a world I’d like to live in, even if things aren’t always going great for the characters. Fantasy and novels for me will always be about escapism. When I was younger I desperately needed to feel like I was somewhere else and although that desperation is long gone, the love for feeling like you’re in another world for a little while has never vanished. And if we can enjoy the quiet that happens in another world, then what more can we ask for.
I don’t really think this post has all that much to say for itself other than I wanted to talk about this concept for a little bit. I’m a bit of a nerd for Japanese culture as many of us who like anime and manga are, but I think there are a lot of interesting things specifically when it comes to their culture of Yokai and the way they think about art. Let’s not talk about their work ethic though, or how xenophobic the country can be. Yeah, nobody’s perfect. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this little bonus post. Tomorrow you’ll get my review of Akane Banashi and I’m quite proud of the title I thought up for that post, so look forward to that. Thanks for reading!
Opal Kaharis 