Anime culture and D&D

[Dragonbait]

That's why I stopped offering you reacharound.

J-Dawg wins this thread. Start the next one.

 

[Ranger REG]

Wait, wait, wait - aren't all anime characters balls-to-the-wall powerful, and don't they all do crazy stunts and have crazy powers? Now, switch out the word "anime" for "Forgotten Realms" and you'll hear the same thing said about that setting too.

Is that generalization true about the Realms, even though people have spouted that all over these message boards?
Is it true about anime?

I grew up traveling through Asia, so their cultures influenced by art and stroytelling style. So, I guess you could say that anime has influenced my games. A lot. I still have dragons, and knights, and wizards, and elves, and the like. I can use any D&D adventure from Dragon in my campaign, and not say "I can't use that, it's too cartoony." or "I can't use that, it's too European."

According to many other posts about anime, I clearly don't know what anime is. Educate me:
What works in a non-anime game that does not work in an anime game?

Forgotten Realms characters don't have face faults.

They also don't swing their 8-foot shortsword one-handed.

Wuxia works, but Anime won't.

 

[Psion]

Forgotten Realms characters don't have face faults.

They also don't swing their 8-foot shortsword one-handed.

That reminds me of this ENWorld comedy classic:
http://www.enworld.org/showpost.php?p=1141053&postcount=20

Anime has influenced my Forgotten Realms campaign. For example:

Alustriel goes through a transformation sequence into a highly-stylized schoolgirl outfit before she begins a fight.

Drizzt is a nerdy teenage boy who is inexplicably surrounded by adoring women.

Elminster is a 50-foot-tall bipedal robot.

The Simbul is a cat-girl.

Evard's black tentacles is the #1 fear among females of the Relams.

Wooden and bamboo swords do just as much damage as steel ones.

I make the male PCs roll fortitude saves against nosebleeds when they see a nymph or succubus.

Called shots: Whenever the player performs an action in combat, his character shouts out what he's doing in-game. Such as the mage shouting "Fireball!" and then throwing a fireball, or the fighter shouting "Five-foot step followed by full-attack while employing my dodge feat against Ogre #2!"

The more delicate and effeminate a man is, the more lethal he is in combat. Level 20 barbarians are as androgynous as Haldir from the Lord of the Rings movies.

 

[Desdichado]

I'm going to have to go look for a DJ post I can posirep now.

 

[BroccoliRage]

Forgotten Realms characters don't have face faults.

They also don't swing their 8-foot shortsword one-handed.

Wuxia works, but Anime won't.

Oh, definitely! Wuxia is a great genre of film, and I'm a gigantic fan. You may want to look up Dragonfist, Ranger; it's a PDF that was recently updated from AD&D to d20, aimed at recreating wuxia.

 

[interwyrm]

...
Avatar: The Last Airbender* (surprisingly neat stuff)
...
*if these can be really called anime.

I love Avatar. When I watched the last season finale, I was practically jumping up and down on my bed during the commercials because I was so anxious for it to resume.

Other than that, Princess Mononoke, Steamboy, and Spirited Away were all... okay.
Samurai Shamploo is also good enough that I won't change the channel/mute the tv if it's on.

I cannot stand any other anime that I've seen.

I think what I typically don't like is...
1. Men that look like women. (Bishonen?)
2. Women that act subservient.
3. Irritating high-pitched voices.
4. Pauses that don't make sense in engrish.
5. Excessive spiritual themes.
6. Chibi.
7. Bad japanese singing.

Anime does not influence my games or my life.
Martial arts movies on the other hand...

 

[Faraer]

Anime is just an artistic style, and covers realistic, bizarre, fantasy, modern, future, and whatever.

It's a medium, and it encompasses a range of artistic styles, just as Western animation does.

However, the best known animes are things like Dragonball Z and Sailor Moon, which are a small and biased sample.

Very true. Both the popular perception of anime in the West and its anime subculture are far skewed from anime in Japan.

One thing that will ruin an entire show for me, however, is that "screaming out the name of the kewl mewve you're going to do" business, god that stuff sucks.

C'mon, calling out stances is a hallowed trope of Chinese culture.

 

[Desdichado]

It's a medium, and it encompasses a range of artistic styles, just as Western animation does.

Animation is a medium. Anime is a suite of related styles influenced by the culture in which they are engendered.

Very true. Both the popular perception of anime in the West and its anime subculture are far skewed from anime in Japan.

Do tell. I hear the myth of anime being "cool" in Japan all the time, but not from anyone who's actually lived there. Granted, stuff like Miyazaki is big--like the opening of a new Disney animated feature here. But otherwise guys who sit around watching a lot of anime are considered just as dorky in Japan as they are here.

C'mon, calling out stances is a hallowed trope of Chinese culture.

The misuse of the word trope in an attempt to appear more intellectual than you actually are is a pet peeve of gaming messageboards. It's become so widespread that that's not even the reason it's done anymore--it's just entered the gaming messageboard zeitgeist as a bunch of people have figured the word out (incorrectly) from the context of folks who were using it incorrectly.

In any case--it's also a "hallowed convention" of Japanese martial arts too. Also, ever play a Street Fighter or King of Fighters game?

 

[BRP2]

Usually, from what I've seen, Anime comes in more varieties than... lets say American cartoons or comics. "Anime culture" becomes a ridiculous the more you look into it. The best you'll get is a sweat drop emote and big eyes... but why would that effect your DnD game unless you draw what happens, panel by panel?

 

[Teflon Billy]

I'm not a huge fan of Anime (and yes, yes, I know that Anime is "every single thing in the world" and not the more common "Big Eyes/Small Mouth" definitiion...but I am still going ot use the latter definition)

I loved G-Force as a kid, and Speed Racer was pretty fun for it's time. Robotech had it's moments...but I mean the stuff I've seen in recent years (with--for the most part--magically powered giggly Schoolgirls, Tentacles-as-penis analogs, overemotional shrieking/carrying on, bad singing and just a host of other incomprehensible/annoying "tropes" (sorry Josh) leave me a bit cold.

The less of that that gets in my D&D the happier I am.