My D&D Game would suffer without Anime!!!!

[Wik]

You know, I've tried watching multiple anime shows, including some of the ones that came really highly recommended. And I've never come across one I like. Not one.

So no, no anime influence for me.

Ditto, with the possible exception of "akira". There's just something about the genre that doesn't sit well with me.

 

[Masquerade]

So does anybody else play D&D with an anime influence?

Yes, be it with exaggerated, over-the-top descriptions during combat or in more subtle ways, such as characterization. I am an avid anime fan, as are most of my players, so we're all on the same page.

 

[Stone Dog]

Wait... you claim to have seen the best the "genre" has to offer and your comment is that it is "poorly animated with pubescent rape fantasies?"

Two things are very wrong with this. One, anime is a medium and not a genre. At best it is generally considered a style. It covers everything from Grave of the Fireflies to Excel Saga to La Blue Girl to Spirited Away and Ghost in the Shell. Not one of those are the same genre.

Second is the "rape fantasy" part. You might as well criticise movies by saying "Not for me thanks, too many movies are hard core pornography."

So you don't like what you have seen. Fine. I understand that anime is hard for some people to enjoy just like horror movies or romantic comedies are hard for some people to enjoy. However, don't go wide brushing an entire medium of entertainment as pubescent rape fantasies, okay? Especially when there are some fantastically moving pieces of cinema that are also Anime.

I can't imagine anybody watching Grave of the Fireflies and not getting seriously choked up.

 

[The_Gunslinger658]

Yes, be it with exaggerated, over-the-top descriptions during combat or in more subtle ways, such as characterization. I am an avid anime fan, as are most of my players, so we're all on the same page.

Now thats what I'm talking about!!

One of my favorite NPC's is just like Kagura from Inuyasha, her favorite spell to cast is "Dance of the Dragons" a weaker version of lightening bolt. The Players hate her because she uses hit and run tactics on the PC's all the time.


Scott

 

[Stone Dog]

But there really aren't many good anime out there. Too many of them are adolescent power fantasies or nihilistic "oh this world is but a dream so I don't have any problem with wiping it out in ways that don't make sense because, you know, it's just easier to become one with death" stories.

That is the main problem though. Not much gets exported or put on regular television. What usually does get over here though is created almost specifically for early adolecent boys and hacked up and mangled by hasty translation and strange editing.

There is LOTS of good anime out there, it just takes some effort to find which may not be worth while for somebody with only a passing interest.

I didn't like Slayers! much, though large bits were funny. Rune Soldier Louie though was a riot to me and I'd be happy to buy the thing.

I pull from anime the same thing I pull from movies like Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, Ladyhawk, Flight of Dragons and all manner of sources. I just want to make things fun for my players, cultivate a certain sense of wonder once in a while and leave them with a few quotable moments.

Oh, and Tarek? What anime are you talking about with the "world is a dream so I can wipe it out" stuff? I can think of a few power hunger megalomaniacs with powers of inscrutable darkness, but true nihilists I can only think of the X series.

 

[ThirdWizard]

My game totally plays like Haibane Renmei.

 

[Tinker Gnome]

BANKAI!!!!!

Rat Morning-Star!!!!

 

[Arashi Ravenblade]

Not too many anime style things in my game. Maybe the description of the action might be a little anime-ish, but i tend to be pretty self reliant on my own imagination, even if sometimes if does betray me and something I forgot about winds up in my game (especially embaressing when your players think your ripping something off on purpose but your not).

As a rule though no one with a Final Fantasy name is allowed in my game or any name that i even recognize as a popular character from an Anime game, movie or Television show.

Try Scrapped Princess, It was a pretty good anime Fantasy ( id say more, but I dont want to ruin the story). Slayers is good, excpet the movies with Naga. Those suck beyond belief. Couldnt get into Akira or Ghost in the Shell and most Miyazaki movies bore me.

 

[Infiniti2000]

One, anime is a medium and not a genre. At best it is generally considered a style. ...

So you don't like what you have seen. Fine. I understand that anime is hard for some people to enjoy just like horror movies or romantic comedies are hard for some people to enjoy.

That's an invalid analogy by your definition of Animé. If Animé is not a genre then you can't compare it to horror and romantic comedy genres. That said, I'm also of the opinion that Animé, genre or medium or whatever, sucks. The stories might be fascinating but I can't get past the Animé-part.

 

[Tarek]

Oh, and Tarek? What anime are you talking about with the "world is a dream so I can wipe it out" stuff? I can think of a few power hunger megalomaniacs with powers of inscrutable darkness, but true nihilists I can only think of the X series.

Oh, dear god, the list is endless... Blue Seed 9, Evangelion, Bubblegum Crisis 2050 (i.e., the new one, not the original), Read or Die... it's like the producers run out of money and hastily wrap up the series by doing this nihilistic "let's all go to nirvana together" crap, with the heroes either aiding and abetting the downward spiral into hell or trying to fight it but only being partially successful. Even Slayers! suffered a bit from it, and Ghost in the Shell (the movie) is almost a perfect definition of it near the end.

It's some kind of suicidal insanity, which usually the villain, but sometimes the heroes too, suffer from.