Coherence and Immersiveness in a made up world/story
#1
For my graphic novel I am thinking about this lately and I am `studying` (which means watching) already existing Animes.
And there is something weird about it, I can not yet tell what the criterions are exactly.

The following I could observe:
Most Animes that I watched have a pretty much completely made up world and rules. For example in many of them magic exists and people are so-and-so `strong` which is completely unrealistic, but in that story it is `realistic` or lets say `believable`.

But there are some Animes, where what the characters do and what happens feels like `yeah, whatever the author wanted to happen, happens, he (the author) can do whatever he wants`.

That is always the case (that the author can do whatever he wants), but sometimes it does not feel as arbitrary.

There are Animes, where, even if the characters are able to do things, that do not exist in the real world, it feels like `realistic` in that fictional universe with those rules.

My big question is:
How to create a fictional world/story without everything feeling for the viewer to be completely arbitrary (because everything IS arbitrary, when there is an author coming up with it) ?

I think I identified one cornerstone for a more coherent and realistic feeling about the story
and that is:
there has to be a specific set of rules determined and explained to the viewer, and everything following in that story has to follow those rules.

But still, there are animes, where there is a set of rules and still it feels `too arbitrary` (to me at least) to feel `realistic` or `very immersive`. There are these Animes where I am watching and when they fight, I am thinking "yeah, whatever, they do whatever the author wants, whatever..."
and there are these other ones, where I think "what, no way! That character can do this? woah, he is so strong, what a cool ability!"


So, yeah, do you know anything about this?
Anybody has some useful ressources about this topic?
or anybody already knows the rules for this?
or knows an interview where a famous director told the rules or something?
Thoughts?

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#2
Well the moment you enter certain genre for example fantasy or science fiction what seem impossible become more secondary to believability.Not everything as to be explain in great detail but the best guideline i could give is to base most of your concept on existing thing.Also consider that it could be set in a completely parallele universe where the law of that universe are different of course you don't have to necessarly explain it to the audience there a posibility of a disconnect from the viewer.But i think what is also important is to have the room to be able to surprise your audience.

I think what your looking for in term of resource is something in the veins of how to do convincing story telling or how to do world building

I think the book:
Fantasy World-Building A Guide to Developing Mythic Worlds and Legendary Creatures
https://www.amazon.ca/Creative-World-Bui...0486828654

here a small video of a preview of the book
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCWSTlY05xE

might be a great start to get an idea about world building.

For my final word i would say there is no one to tell you what is possible what you need to focus on is to be convincing in the way you present thing.How did start wars achieve this for example.My advise is try to take a work of fiction you like and try to ask yourself question about what make them believable and what isn't believable and try to come up with how to explain it to the viewer in a convincing way.Some people are obcess with the most little detail and some aren't but those who are obsess about the detail create even richer universe for there audience but it come with a price tag meaning research,though effort and time spent.So it important to also know how to leave some mystery as to how thing work inside your universe if you explain everything you lost this aspect.
Let remember that story are rule driven in general.But the universe in wish they take place doesn't necessarly.

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