Most harem anime I’ve watched follow a template. A gaggle of various girls chase a guy with little personality and an aversion to making decisions and touching female skin. Each of the girls represent an anime trope: the tsundere, deredere, and so on. You’ll see the usual body stereotypes too, from the large-breasted girls to…
Category: Understanding Anime
What Makes Something a Classic?
The dictionary defines classic as “a work of art of recognized and established value.” That’s quite a vague definition. After all, value changes depending on culture, time period, and concerns. Most of us consider classics as dusty works of art that everyone should appreciate but most do not. As a writer, I think of…
Dogged Determination: One of Anime’s Favorite Themes
Determination sits at the top of anime’s favorite themes. When I first considered writing about this, the obviousness of determination made me wonder what I could say about it that wasn’t, uh, obvious. Anime heroes are determined to achieve their goals. Full stop. They aren’t any different from heroes in other stories. But there is…
Anime Visual Language Guide
Anime has a visual language that shorthands character emotions and states of mind. The visual language comes from manga and its efforts to clarify the inner world of characters without resorting to words. Visual language can be thought of as a vocabulary of adverbs and adjectives. They add more detail to a character’s behavior. To…
Pokemon’s Animation Gets Better….Then it Gets Worse Again
Pokemon’s animation style has changed since the first episode of the anime debuted in 1997. The changes often spark controversy among fans. The design changes seen in Sun and Moon has certainly riled many fans. But in order for any franchise to remain strong, it has to reinvent itself time-to-time. Sensibilities change with each decade….
Anime Offers Diversity, More than We Think
When you hear the word anime, you likely think of today’s current styles: moe. But anime offers more diversity than that. Moe is a design that seeks to make you feel a warm protectiveness. Typically, this involves large eyes, small noses, small mouths, and oval faces. A few of you may think about anime designs…