In the contemporary debate on the languages of entertainment, the relationship between video games and comics is no longer a simple meeting point: it is a zone of narrative osmosis where the boundaries of genres, media and formats are constantly being re-discussed. It is not just a question of mutual influences or affectionate references, but of a structural convergence that reshapes the very ways in which imaginary worlds are built and enjoyed today.
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While waiting for the big national exhibitions dedicated to comics - from Lucca to Rome, passing through Bergamo - it is enough to observe the current production of video games, both mainstream and independent, to grasp the extent of this contamination. The characters, the aesthetics, even the narrative logic typical of comics have found a second home in gaming, often more dynamic and accessible. In parallel, comics have opened up to an increasingly interactive form of reading, gathering suggestions from the videogame world and rearranging them in an authorial key.
Japan and the Grammar of Narrative Reincarnation
It is in the Japanese context that this intersection shows its most stratified form. Manga are not only a source of inspiration: they are narrative structures ready for use, mythological architectures capable of transmigrating from one medium to another without losing coherence. The case of Dragon Ball is emblematic. Born on paper in 1984, it has become a self-sufficient universe over the course of four decades: anime, video games, feature films, merchandising. But what is surprising is not so much the extension of the brand, but its symbolic endurance, the ability with which each transposition keeps the original spirit intact, while adapting to different technologies and audiences.
Even in the often overlooked segment of online gambling, traces of this aesthetic are becoming increasingly visible. Themed slots inspired by manga worlds — from Hazakura Ways to Mochimon — do not simply decorate the interface: they draw on a visual and imaginative code that the public recognizes and decodes immediately. In this sense, Japan continues to dictate a narrative grammar that manages to unite the archaic and the futuristic, the ritual and the playful, finding in video games a perfectly compatible form of expression.
From Industry to Pop Mythology: The West Responds
If in Japan the transposition between media occurs according to a logic of narrative reincarnation, in the West the phenomenon takes on the contours of a real industrial project.marvel universe, and more recently DC, have clearly shown how comics, cinema and video games can be orchestrated according to an editorial strategy capable of generating synchronized narratives on multiple platforms. Spider-Man, Iron Man, Batman: no longer characters but stratified icons, which cross different narrative cycles while maintaining a solid and functional recognizability.
This transversality is also evident in game titles, from consoles to online platforms, where the visual identity of superheroes is rethought for an interaction that is at once experience, storytelling and entertainment. In particular, the fun slot machines inspired by these narrative universes do not limit themselves to re-proposing familiar faces, but integrate them into game mechanics that enhance the symbolic dimension of the character. Familiarity with the hero, in these cases, is not an accessory element, but a semiotic device: those who play do so carrying with them previous knowledge, a narrative baggage that fuels engagement in an implicit way.
What is striking is that, despite the absence of an updated critical language, these forms of convergence are no longer marginal. They do not move at the boundaries of high or low culture, but redraw their coordinates.
Article published on May 26, 2025 - 13:30 pm
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