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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WizarDru" data-source="post: 3836852" data-attributes="member: 151">That would explain much.  For the last year, in particular, there has been more than a little vocal debate not just about anime art, but that anime's style (and as Nifft points out 'videogames') have strongly influenced D&D...and never for the better.I've been an anime fan since 1978.  Because of that, I think I have a pretty good perspective of what kind of influences anime has wrought and has had wrought upon it.  It would ridiculous to say that a lot of current comic book and fantasy art has not felt the influence of anime and manga.  We saw American comic book artists (Frank Miller being the first very visible example) being heavily influenced by Japanese influences (note Miller's covers for the US versions of Lone Wolf & Cub, for example).I can certainly understand that many people find most or all anime unappealing, in the same way some folks find the Brothers Hildebrant or WAR's work unappealing.  What I take objection to is the intimation that somehow D&D has internalized, both in art and rules design, some nebulous concept of what the derogatory commenter considers to be 'anime'...and when called on it hedges, hems and haws.  I don't like all anime universally, any more than some folks approve of every fantasy author or science fiction movie.  In fact, as anime's visibility and availability have risen (and as I have grown older), I find there are many series that I really don't like AT ALL.  But no one ever claims that D&D became to 'Star Warsy', 'Star Treky' or too 'Peter Jacksony', despite many people not liking those particular things.  No one even claims that D&D became too 'GURPSy' or 'Science Fictiony', for that matter.  But 'anime' or 'videogamey'?  Apparently that's easy.  However, many of the rules and ideas that are put forth as examples of an 'anime' influence have their direct antecedents in other game systems, stretching back for over 20 years, well predating the rise in popularity of anime in the US.The point being is that whenever these terms are flung around in this manner, it's often short-hand for 'something that I don't like', instead of being an accurate representation of the material at hand.  When many people say that don't like D&D 3.x because it's become so influenced by anime, what they really mean is 'I remember seeing an episode of Dragonball Z or Naruto and it was ridiculous with all those super-powers and so forth and didn't like it all and all this stuff like feats and prestige classes and other assorted rules are just as bad'.  No one appears to be claiming that D&D is becoming like Death Note, Gantz, Love Hina, Monster, BlackJack, Cowboy Bebop, Haruhi Suzumiya's Melancholy, Claymore or a hundred other shows.  'D&D as anime' critics often try to act as though these are rare exceptions, despite the fact that they are phenomenally popular.What's more ironic is that more than a few anime shows list D&D as their roots, not the other way around.  Record of Lodoss War (in all it's incarnations) is based on a series of novels that are themselves based on a series of house-ruled D&D games.  Shows like Slayers and Those Who Hunt Elves are more D&D parodies, but they clearly shows their roots.  Shows like Beserk and Claymore fit right in to the D&D genre (although Claymore is more like True20/fantasy M&M) and again take direct inspiration from D&D.  Certainly the whole idea of western-style fantasy didn't really take off with any sort of volume in anime until AFTER D&D was a national craze in the US.The point being that some it's OK for folks to not like anime, it's OK for folks not like an edition of D&D...heck it's even OK to claim that anime has changed D&D.  But don't be surprised when some folks who are familiar with both are going to question that assertion and refute it.</blockquote>

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