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

[hong]

No but if I ever want to imagine a game of D&D that's poorly animated with pubescent rape fantasies, I'll bear anime in mind.

Fool. You should be imagining D&D with pubescent rape fantasies for its own sake, rather than relying on anime as a crutch.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

I don't watch anime because I don't like the common artistic aesthetic that underpins the medium (then again, I have pretty much no time for animation in general) . . . but there are plenty of great ideas in a lot of the anime I've heard about.

Still, because I don't watch it, my Asian influences tend to come from legends, wuxia, and kung fu films.

 

[Hussar]

Fool. You should be imagining D&D with pubescent rape fantasies for its own sake, rather than relying on anime as a crutch.

I'm glad people brought up Miyazaki before as well. Come on, Princess of Mononoke (sp)? Tell me that isn't exactly how a heavily Druid based campaign should look. Sen to Chihiro (I think the English title is Spirited Away, but, I saw it over here and don't know) has some great stuff to steal.

Never mind Earthsea.

I find it very amusing. I used to base stuff in game off of Saturday Morning Cartoons from the early 80's. Thundarr the Barbarian, Hercules, and a bunch of others. Who am I to ever turn up my nose at someone using One Piece as a source of inspiration?

Ladies and gentlemen, I don't care if your source of inspiration is the droppings of a semi-concussed gerbil - if it leads to a good game that the players like, it's all good.

 

[questing gm]

I draw many inspirations from anime but it is certainly not the only source of influence in my game.

You can be sure that there are good non-anime (mostly film or sometimes history books) material can be found which gives me the creative flow for my campaigns as much as anime. So i ended up mixing the best of both worlds (Ghost in the Shell + Dark City anyone ?)

Good fantasy animes that i've watched are already mentioned here (Record of Lodoss War, Scrapped Princess, Rune Soldier Louie) and they really give me ideas plot-wise or NPC ideas. Other stuff that i suggest are like Utawarerumono, Full Metal Alchemist and Tsubasa Chronicle.

I'll have to admit that anime is more useful to me for modern or future campaigns (which i used another list of anime for reference and inspiration) because I find difficulty in finding anime series from the fantasy genre or a lack of anime from that genre thereof.

I don't try to imitate the scale of destruction like some characters do in animes (like Naruto, Bleach, DBZ) by pushing the limits of the D&D mechanics and rules because i know it kills the flavor of D&D but i try to invoke the tension/mood/atmosphere and drama found in anime (which i think they are good at) from my players. For descriptions, i don't know i somehow can imagine the fast-paced hack and slash of Drizzt in an anime than in a live-action movie...

If there is a definitive and obvious influence of anime in my D&D game is all the music i used on the gaming table are OSTs from anime.

And just as a side note, sometimes it strikes me that WoTC themselves are inclining to put a little anime influence into the game. Look at the feats from PHB II....

 

[Ghendar]

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

Ideas and inspiration can be pulled from any source. If there was an anime "something" that had an idea I'd like to adapt, I'd sure do it. However, that's where the adaption would stop. It wouldn't feel like anime and it wouldn't look like anime.

I've thought about using Nausicaa of the Valley of the Winds as the basis for a post apocalyptic type d20 modern game.

I've drawn inspiration from many sources. Video games (Fallout), comic books, (Kamandi), Cartoons (Thundarr the Barbarian), Star Trek (Based an entire adventure on the episode Return of the Archons). Totally freaked out my players, it was great.

Find inspiration anywhere you can and run with it.

 

[BroccoliRage]

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.

You forgot FLCL. God, that crap sucks. The characters don't have a single coherent motivation between them. If you're going to attempt to be cryptic, at least have some semblance of a plan.

I dislike anime, too, but there are some exceptions:

Ghost in the Shell series
Akira
Fist of the North Star
MOTU anime series
Fullmetal Alchemist
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Ninja Scroll
Vampire Hunter D
Aeon Flux

Most of the time what bothers me about anime is the horribly written dialogue. I know, "alot is lost in translation", blah blah blah. Bullcrap. Sentiments transcend language, and the worst dialogue seems to be written during moments that could have been emotionally powerful otherwise. Inuyasha is a prime example of this, both edited and unedited. Not to mention in many series, you get a huge crap-talking session, then a fight that lasts three punches, then some stupid flashback about who boffed who, and so on. It's also irritating how everyone wandering around in anime worlds are freaking war gods. this may be my love for lowlevel play and slightly believable heroes speaking, though.

Most of the time, the art is poor and childish. Just look at Loki. There's only so many times I can stomache the "psychotic Revlon spokesperson" look.

Oh, the animation is often wretched, enough to make me scream. In Dragonball and it's various offspring, the fights are nothing more than loops. That's not cool, that sucks.

Don't even get me started on the whole 'screaming out the name of your next kewl mewve' bit. Seriously, how stupid is that? Not only are you preparing your opponent, and you're not adding any magical power or anything by screaming out the gibberish you're hollering, but it's a tremendous waste of energy. If I ran up to any of you with the intention of commiting assault, and made sure I screamed, "Fist of Whammo!" before punching you, made sure I stopped in some cool pose, then took a swing, you would have already kicked me in the jumblies by then. It detracts from the combat.

I also get really frustrated when watching alot of anime, because it seems like there's such potential. Yet so much of it ultimately falls short. Inuyasha could be such a great show, and so could Dragonball, and so many others, if they attempted a semblance of coherence or removed the silly crap like face faults and poor dialogue. A group of adventurers tracking down a villain? That could be great! Several well-trained Martial Artist's based off of Into the West, defeating Cthulhu-esque aliens? There's potential (though a bitt too much sci fi for my tastes). Then I watch these shows and it becomes painful.

 

[hexgrid]

No, I find that I prefer games built around the anime influences then trying to force it on D&D.

There's no "forcing" going on- there's a huge difference between being influenced by anime and trying to emulate it exactly. The influence being discussed here involves story-lines and characterizations, and doesn't effect D&D game mechanics one way or the other.

 

[GreatLemur]

I resently got turned on to anime buy some fellow RPG'ers and all I can say is wow, the writers for Anime have some fantastic imaginations.

Ha. Oh, man, I know it looks that way when you've just discovered it, but trust me, that impression wears off once you've seen enough of it. A lot of the stuff that seems amazingly unique and original to you now is just a different set of cliches from what you're used to.

But your main point it totally right: There is definitely some good stuff out there, and stuff worth stealing from.

 

[GreatLemur]

MOTU anime series
...
Avatar: The Last Airbender
...
Aeon Flux

You've got an interesting definition of "anime".

 

[Desdichado]

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

Mostly true for me too, although there are a bare handful of anime that I've actually enjoyed. Steamboy wasn't bad, for instance. I liked Ghost in the Shell well enough, and a few others. But yeah--I totally see your point.

HOWEVER, even when I think a given anime has been executed in a way that I don't particularly enjoy, I do recognize that there's a lot of pretty clever ideas buried in there, and I've on occasion raided animes (often second hand--I don't enjoy watching it enough on my own) for ideas to enrich my games.