(Note - this post was inspired by the latest anime news network podcast, and the responses it garnered in the ANN forums. Apologies on the lack of quality.)
In Media Res is a storytelling technique as old as storytelling itself. Such longetivity suggests that it is also an effective technique, which I would agree with. It also means that it can and will be used improperly.
I'm no literary scholar, but in my experience, the best stories which start In Media Res are the ones which aren't largely hindered by it. To put it another way, you shouldn't be confused as to what is happening now because you're missing out on events that happened before. A little bit of explanation, and you should be on your way. Later on, the story can fill in some of the gaps, to add more weight or depth to a character or conflict, but in the meantime it should still stand on its own two feet. If you ever read an excerpt from the Iliad or The Aenid back in high school, your textbook probably spent a few sentences explaining what you missed out on. With that alone, you can gleam a hell of a lot from the passages you're actually given to read. That, to me, is good use of In Media Res.
As for more modern examples, there are quite a few, but for the sake of this post's main topic I'm actually going to use a video game - Dragon Quest 8. When the game begins, the hero and his companion are escorting a goblin in a horse drawn cart. We quickly learn that the goblin is a king, and the horse his daughter, and that the hero is trying to help lift the curse which was placed on the two by a court jester in possession of a magic staff. It isn't until much later in the game that we discover how the curse was placed on them, or how the jester turned evil, but until that point, these details don't matter. The information we are given is more than enough to justify the quest, and the back story is filled in only after we've been with the characters long enough for those details to have any sort of impact. Dragon Quest 8 isn't a complex story, but in terms of using In Media Res, we don't lose anything by starting in the middle, and the flashbacks to the past actually sweeten the pot.
In contrast, I consider it bad use of the technique when the reader/viewer is ignorant of critical information as a result of starting in the middle. There will be references to events, characters, terminologies, or important events which the viewer has no clue about, even though they need to in order to comprehend the story. The viewer ends up having to wait for the flashbacks and exposition to kick in in order to piece it all together. A entire rereading/viewing may even be in order.
I'm not going to say that this latter method has no merit, but it isn't easy to do well. There's a difference between sprinkling in a little mystery to keep us on edge, and creating something purposefully obtuse. Unfortunately, this method is used extensively in anime (and anime inspired games), and while the fans on a whole have no problem with it, I think it leads to shitty storytelling more often than not. I know it is tacky to slam others, but I think that for a lot of anime fans, the appeal lies in the fact that they believe that if a show takes them a lot of time to decipher, then it must be complex and deep, and that their ability to decode it is an indicator of their intelligence. In other words, it is more proof that Western anime fandom is fuelled by ego more than anything. These people don't seem to comprehend the possibility that the confusion is the result of bad writing and plotting.
But allow me to turn away from attacks and focus on why I prefer the other, more clearer method of In Media Res. I don't think you can really analyze and appreciate the depth of a story until you understand, at the most basic level, what it is about. In order to really appreciate a dialogue exchange, you need to know why it is taking place. In order to be shocked at a character's actions, you need to know something about them. There's this pervading sensibility among otaku that a story is only good if you have to put it together like a puzzle. I think it is this same sensibility which causes them to assume that anyone who says they "simply want to be entertained" by media is a plebe looking for mindless distraction. To use another tired example (sorry), Shakespeare's plays aren't terribly confusing, but watching one of his plays being performed by skilled actors is still dammed entertaining, because they generate so much excitement and emotion. That's still entertainment, and it is far from mindless.
I guess, for me, there's a difference between a work that rewards you for paying attention, and one which plays games and rewards me for putting up with it. I like when a work makes me think, but a good one will make me want to think, because I am already interested in what I see, and want to dig deeper. It shouldn't make me have to think because that's the only way I'll get anything out of it. I don't need my ego stroked, nor do I want to stroke the author's.
TL:DR - I wish fucking anime fans would stop throwing around literary devices to excuse bad shows, and actually ponder whether the show used any of them effectively.
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