So what makes for an "anime" rpg?

[Korgoth]

The BESM thread has me wondering: what actually makes for an "anime" rpg. Anime is an... "overgenre" (?) of a variety of genres. We have Ghost in the Shell, Inuyasha, Kiki's Delivery Service, Dirty Pair, Grave of the Fireflies... this stuff is all over the place. What unites them are their country of origin and certain visual stylistic conventions.

But that's the thing: this is America/Blighty/Oz etc., not Japan (for most of us). And role playing games are anything but visual. So how do you actually have an anime game?

That's the question: what does it mean for a role playing game to be an "anime" role playing game, and especially what type of play experience specifically must it deliver?

 

[Diamond Cross]

This classic should help define it:

HOW STAR WARS WOULD BE DIFFERENT IF IT WERE ANIMEE

[SIZE=-1]*Two words: missile swarms.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*Luke would do a lot more screaming.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*All the important stuff, like Ben's death, would be repeated three times.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*Vader would be at least eight feet tall.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*X-wings and Y-wings would transform, and then combine to form a more powerful craft.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*The Death Star's super laser would have an even flashier charge-up sequence.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*The destruction of Alderaan would be preceded by idyllic ground-side sequences. Then everyone looks up, and BOOOOM. (cf Hiroshima)[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*When Luke lines up on the exhaust port, he hears Ben's voice. Everything freezes, tight clasp on one of Luke's eyes as the background goes black. "Luke. Trust your feelings."[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*Yoda would look much like Happosai.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*Fans would draw pictures of a naked Luke and Leia embracing *after* their parentage was revealed. In fact, it might not be revealed until after they'd slept together (cue the angst).[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*Jabba the Inju would get a lot more, um, friendly with Slave Girl Leia. (FAN SERVICE!)[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*The Emperor would be even taller than Vader.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*The Ewoks would be even cuter. (Eeeeeee...)[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*Lando and the Falcon would be destroyed, probably accompanied by a flashback with lots of cherry blossoms.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*Han Solo, being the epitome of American Power, would be blond, carry around a HUGE gun, and scare small children.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*Alternately, Han would wear an eye patch and cape. (and the Millennium Falcon would have a poop deck...)[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*The Mon Calimari would have ships that heavily resembled units from the various Darius games. (Giant mechanical FISH!)[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*Luke would have black hair, and be a lot more negative.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*Light sabers would be replaced by katanas or Chinese long-swords that would glow so you could see which was flashing against the black background. The swords would have to be metal, so that injuries could be emphasized with gushing blood.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*Chewbacca would have horns, although he might otherwise resemble an upright Mugi.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*The Emperor would have tall spiky hair and little bits of things would float upward in slow-mo when he zaps Luke.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*Lightsaber scenes wouldn't be 9 (counted!) per 6-hour trilogy, but per half-hour episode.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*The AT-AT would have claws. BIG ones.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*Vader would still be Luke's father, but we would have known about it waaaaay before Luke did.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*Luke's uncle and aunt would really be alive![/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*The sand crawler would have flown.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*We'd see the Sarlac's full body.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*Leia wouldn't have a band of surgical tape constraining her generously sized breasts in all three movies except for the Metal Bikini scene.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*For that matter, Leia wouldn't have been wearing a Metal Bikini, either.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*The Rancor wouldn't have had a big bold black outline, but it would have drooled MUCH more.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*The AT-ST would have been either arm less and rounded or armed and squared off, not arm less and squared.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*Imperial pilots would have been cloned from the very beginning.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*Every time Vader tells some fool that he's underestimating the power of the Dark Side, the bystanders would mutter "Sugee!"[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*The music and soundtrack would be much worse and less orchestrated, but have singable lyrics.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*Greedo wouldn't have been the only one with blue hair.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*There wouldn't be Imperial-class Star Destroyers. Super-class Destroyers would be the *very bare minimum*.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*The sound of the Force would have been "DONNNNG!" (a la Akira)[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]instead of "WhwhWhwhWhwhWhwho..."[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*Three words: Super Deformed Stormtroopers.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*Princess Leia would wear a sailor suit...and she would sing.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*Vader wouldn't have to squeeze air to kill a guy with the force. He would just touch him and tell him "You are already dead," followed by gratuitously vile explosions.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*Luke's aunt and uncle would run a dojo instead of a farm.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*The Millennium Falcon would sport a big skull and crossbones.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*Luke wouldn't have to use a rope to jump across a trench. Anime heroes can jump as far as they want to.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*Emperor Palpatine would have a daughter. In an amusing mix-up, Luke would be betrothed to her.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*Bandai would make kick-ass toys.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*R2-D2 would be cuter...and he would fly.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*The explosion of the Death Star would be shown with a sequence of watercolor paintings.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*C-3PO would be a girl robot...with the hots for Luke.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*People would actually drink beer in the cantina.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*Luke would not build his own lightsaber. He would have to win it from a demoness who has been imprisoned for thousands of years... and who has the hots for Luke.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*Obi Wan Kenobi wouldn't disappear when Vader cuts him down, he'd get sliced in half. It would just take him a couple of seconds to figure it out.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*There would be a LOT more walkers.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*X-wings would have cool heads-up displays.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*Emperor Palpatine's legs and lower torso would dissolve into a mass of cables and merge with the new Death Star.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*Did I mention Princess Leia's sporty yet feminine powered armor?[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*Speeder bikes would be replaced by monster-sized racing cycles...with lasers.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*Boba Fett would have a bigger part.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*A nemesis TIE fighter pilot would defect...and have the hots for Luke.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*Luke wouldn't agonize over Vader being his dad until AFTER he killed him.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*The American voice actors would be crap, and the subtitled version would be more expensive.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]*Series titles would be Star Wars, Star Wars Zeta, and Forever Star Wars Double Zeta. People would argue interminably about the time line conflicts. [/SIZE]

If Star Wars Was Anime - Robert's Anime Corner

 

[ProfessorCirno]

As someone who loves anime and tabletop games...

...I have no idea

It's like wanting to play a literature RPG, in my view. Anime, well, isn't a genre at all. It's a medium.

That said, there are a few tropes that are somewhat more common in anime then in western media influences, so I suppose a game being "anime" could be one with a heavier influence of those influences.

At the same time, I've always felt D&D - and tabletop in general - is a mix of, well, almost all and any potential cultural icons mashed together, be it a mix of LotR, Conan, Grey Mouser, Greek mythology, and Dying Earth...or a mix of post-World War I subterfuge, plains Native Americans, Aztec influences, Walker Texas Gnoll, and magitek trains...or a mix of byzantine architecture, the video game Breath of Fire 4, the anime Last Exile, and alternate future Songhai.

You know, to draw from just a few potential influences ;p

 

[shadzar]

So how do you actually have an anime game?

You pick an anime and make a game out of it. Not all anime is about the fantastic or supernatural. Some are simply daily modern life.

Many anime and manga directed towards the younger female audience is about life issues and relationships. Not really sure how you would turn that into an RPG, but it is a part of anime.

The majority of anime people would make an RPG out of always has a dues ex machina or 20 to get the plot to carry through.

Pretty much Elan from OOTS, would be the best thing to base an anime RPG around, since he combines pretty much most of the components of dramatic, action, humor, emotions, etc.

So there is no way to make an all encompassing RPG based on "anime", as anime is just the Japanese equivalent for the word animation. Which would just simply mean cartoon, for everyone speaking an English language.

Also anime covers all sorts of style in artwork, again which isnt really represented in a rulebook so much as it is in the mind for an RPG.

Which brings it back to find a Japanese animation title, and build your RPG around that for it to be anime, otherwise you just have another in a list of strange fantastical powered RPGs that might as well just be an expansion for a Marvel or DC based RPG.

Oddly enough Record of Lodoss War is said to be a good representation of D&D, so if you think about it, an anime RPG already exists.

 

[Krensky]

Idiotic list aside...

It largely depends on what sort of anime you're trying to emulate. That said there's some common elements for most of the types of anime commonly emulated. The elements I'll discuss are largely idesyncratic and are focused on those elements crucial to making a game feel 'anime' rather then things that are present in anime.

Plot is more important than anything. The plot should be epic (although it does not need to be large in scale), and focused on the player characters and their personal stuggles. Sure there's a war on and demons are invading and the universe will end in ten days. The characters romantic subplot is more important.

The plot is generally very linear, and it's finite. There is a beginning, middle and end. The focus may drift to either side following sub plots and speed up or slow down, but it's still linear.

Even the most serious plots are essentially melodramas with a bit of (sometimes black) comedy tossed in.

The more flawed and less 'heroic' the character is, the more of a hero he is for overcoming his challenges.

It's been a while since I looked at BESM, but I know that Mekton and TFOS's GM section describe how to capture the feel of an anime show in your game. I assume the various BESM games do as well.

On the other hand, if you want to play a Lodoss game, pull down your Cyclopedia.

 

[Krensky]

Oddly enough Record of Lodoss War is said to be a good representation of D&D, so if you think about it, an anime RPG already exists.

Because Lodoss is adapted from replays (transcripts) of a bunch of sci-fi and fantasy writers (Cyclopedia, iirc) D&D game. They publisher later went on to write their own system and a series of novels. In fact, if memory serves, the writers of Lodoss shopped the setting and material to TSR (I think) back in the day.

 

[Glade Riven]

With Record of the Lodoss War, it's almost as if I can see the dice rolling on the screen...but enough about that.

Part of something being attributed as "anime" is the general over-the-top nature of a few things, usually involving a lot of melodrama and absurdity that is taken way too serious. While a technically inaccurate description, the concept of anime is somewhat fixated in with these things.

There is also a certain cultural "vibe" in the background. It's like how Avatar: The Last Airbender is obviously not anime, even though it uses an anime-like style and borrows heavily from asian cultures (although it was probably animated in Taiwan or Korea, where most cell animation goes to be animated - even true anime). Some of this has been incorporated into common and geek culture, which means a bit of it does trickle down into RPG products or how a DM handles a session.

Of similar note is the ridiculessness of comparing an RPG to WoW or other videogames, when many videogames lifted rules, themes, and more straight from RPGs. Warcraft was blatently based off Warhammer (okay, wargame to RTS), Fallout was going to be GURPs based until the liscensing fell through so it invented S.P.E.C.I.A.L., and don't forget about the handful of D&D games. Videogames ripped off RPGs first, so of course an RPG can easily feel like a videogame.

 

[shadzar]

Because Lodoss is adapted from replays (transcripts) of a bunch of sci-fi and fantasy writers (Cyclopedia, iirc) D&D game. They publisher later went on to write their own system and a series of novels. In fact, if memory serves, the writers of Lodoss shopped the setting and material to TSR (I think) back in the day.

But that is what I am saying...and you did to an extent...there is no one thing that makes anime, even your list doesnt cover everything that is out there for anime, but that which you could make a game form might as well just be D&D as-is.

Simply you realize anime is no different from cartoons here, in that comics there are mostly what becomes anime, so Superman based RPG would be the same as an anime RPG.

You just pretty much have to capture the culture of China, Korea, Japan, and all other manga/man-wa that uses that culture, and set your own things to it.

Take Howl's Moving Castle, Earthsea, and various other things turned into what is called "anime", and it is no different than any American adaptation that changes parts for the visual as opposed to the literature audience.

Comics all around the world have to do things a certain way to show the action, and are basically jsut storyboards for an animation. So pick any animation from around the world and you create an RPG form it, and you will have that area of the worlds version of a cartoon, Japan/China/Korea being anime.

Again many things are and can be lost in adaptations as culture shock can play a part, so the culture plays a large role.

Which is why many anime programs have things based around Shinto shrines all over cities and such.

There is no real way to make an anime RPG as there is nothing that defines anime other than its artwork stylings and culture of, and stories that interest the people that make it.

 

[Meek]

It would look like whatever anime inspired it and play like whatever RPG mechanics it decides to use. Right now you could make any RPG you feel like be "anime-inspired" if you wanted to.

Like pretty much all the big successful RPGs, you should pick a set of inspirations that you are very familiar and have great affection for, and do your best to translate that into a game where anyone should be able to imagine a character and take on your world after reading the book. I think where "anime-style RPGs" tend to fall on their face is trying to do too much. I don't want to play a game where the party can consist of a literal meiji era swordsman, a modern magic schoolgirl, a sci-fi mecha and a JRPG protagonist – it'll probably be a giant mess.

Though that's just my taste.

 

[shadzar]

I don't want to play a game where the party can consist of a literal meiji era swordsman, a modern magic schoolgirl, a sci-fi mecha and a JRPG protagonist – it'll probably be a giant mess.

So you haven't played Rifts then?