What are your thoughts on ANIME's influence on D&D?

[DungeonMaester]

Oh... they are out there. None of my martial arts instruction shouted ("why expend the energy to shout?") but I has seen demos that did. The one I remember in particular was an Akido weapons demonstration. They went through all of the targets and stated the names to the audience (arm, leg, chest, etc). When they spared they were supposed to yell out thier target with the idea being that this will prove that they hit what they were planning to hit and any hit targets weren't by accident. Of course with two people yelling out targets at the top of their lungs I had no idea who called out what to begin with.

There was also a martial arts competition where they held a ki shouting contest. What's the point of having (an admittedly unofficial and for fun only) shouting contest if no one ever shouts?

I can't be sure of the exact schools (I've been trained in the San Soo style of Kung Fu, but I can't state with any certainty there are no Kung Fu schools that shout) but I have seen them.

Ive yet to see one that supports calling the name of your attacks as you do them. I am currently taking Akido through College (our College offers alot of martial art classes) Our teacher shouts a lot, and its the advanced part of breathing for adding Ki. However, shouting is far different the speaking words. Even if you are yelling words your breathing pattern wont match up for building Ki.

As far as the example, it was a demo. Like I said at the beginning of this post. Ive yet to see any martial art that supports yelling out the name of your attack in a fight.

---Rusty

 

[kenobi65]

I liked parts of it, too. I also LOATHED parts of it, not the least of which was Bakshi just ran out of money and started using crayons on black-and-white film. If the latter 80% of the movie looked as good as the first 20%, for example, I think we'd have seen them complete their two-part movie.

What was even more frightening was the horrid "Return of the King" that was rushed out by Rankin-Bass (the same folks who did "The Hobbit") after it became clear that Bakshi wouldn't be able to finish the story.

Now, "The Hobbit" had its flaws, but it was charming in a way. "RotK" was just scary. I've never been able to decide which of these two was worse:

a) The musical number, "Where There's a Whip, There's a Way", sung by a band of orcs, or...
b) Casey Kasem as the voice of Merry.

(Oh, and the "minstrel", in both The Hobbit and RotK, was a popular-in-his-day folk singer named Glenn Yarbrough.)

 

[ShinHakkaider]

Wow.

First I want to start by saying for a board for D&D players and RPGers who pride themselves on being able to use thier imaginations to have fun, I've seen some pretty ignorant and specataularly narrowminded comments here.

Now to address the question that the OP posted: I think that there are some feats and character types influenced by anime but not the game as a whole. How ever what alot of people on this board seem to forget or ignore is that D20 is really a toolset. A toolset such a that if a DM wanted to run an anime influenced game he/she could do so and most importantly I think if the players are influenced by anime the rules allow them to play characters remincent of Jubei, Guts or Spike Speigel.

I see alot of people not just in this thread implying that there is a way, or not a way to play D&D. Those people are narrow minded and just wrong. The way to play D&D is whatever way you and your DM / Players decide to play when you sit at THAT PARTICULAR TABLE with them.

There's also the case of visualization. I like the action visuals and direction of alot of anime shows. What I mean is I like how the action is depicted from Hieh's Black Dragon Wave attack from Yu Yu Hakusho, to the final fight between Jubei and Genma in the hull of a burning sinking ship at the conclusion of Jubei Ninpucho. Those action sequences inspire ideas and pacing which it seems alot of you seem to be saying don't belong in D&D, but to me I make the translation in action from anime to a D&D game very easily.

Also I get inspiration from interesting character types, Paptimus Sirocco a character from Kido Senshi Zeta Gundam may have been a Newtype mecha pilot and arms dealer, but his scheming and mannerisms inspired me to create a Lawful Evil mage who manipulated the PC's into helping him take over the local mages guild and place his allies in charge of the Thieves guild, much to my PC's chagrin.

I don't see why drawing inspiration from Naruto, One Piece or Ghost in the Shell:SAC is any less valid than drawing inspiration from George R. R. Martin, JRR Tolkien, or Robert E. Howard. It's pretty elitist.

Anyway, anime has influenced D&D as much as it's influenced some of the people who watch anime and play D&D.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I'm not concerned about mediums that produce some bad examples. I dislike anime because I'm not aware of any good examples.

Berserk. If you like D&D and 'standard' fantasy and don't like Berserk on some level I'd be surprised.

 

[buzz]

Am I the only one who loved the Rankin-Bass "The Hobbit" and RotK as a kid?

Bakshi's LotR had some moments.

 

[kenobi65]

Am I the only one who loved the Rankin-Bass "The Hobbit" and RotK as a kid?

I enjoyed "The Hobbit"; it's what got me into reading Tolkein (and I was only 12 at the time).

However, even at 15, I recognized Rankin-Bass' "RotK" for the hack job it was.

 

[Mercule]

Berserk. If you like D&D and 'standard' fantasy and don't like Berserk on some level I'd be surprised.

The image doesn't come through at work, but I'll check out the movie(?). As I've implied, I'm open to finding anime that doesn't suck, I've just been pretty disappointed so far. I also need to check out "Ghost in the Shell", apparently -- that's the one that gets recommended quite a bit.

 

[Thunderfoot]

I enjoyed "The Hobbit"; it's what got me into reading Tolkein (and I was only 12 at the time).

However, even at 15, I recognized Rankin-Bass' "RotK" for the hack job it was.

Come now - hack job is too polite. /except I liked the orcish whip song - I thought it was the ONLY redeeming quality of the movie./

 

[JoeGKushner]

The image doesn't come through at work, but I'll check out the movie(?). As I've implied, I'm open to finding anime that doesn't suck, I've just been pretty disappointed so far. I also need to check out "Ghost in the Shell", apparently -- that's the one that gets recommended quite a bit.

Berserk is an anime of... I think six disks. If you don't like the series, at least check out the outakes they do. Some hilarious stuff there.

The only bad thign, the TERRIBLE thing about Berserk is that it's based on an arc of the manga and ends in a particuarly bad spot that makes you want to read more. Which is why I now read the manga.

It's grim and gritty fantasy and doesn't rely on katanas and ninjas to get across the themes of friendship, betrayal and the rise of the supernatural.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I'm not concerned about mediums that produce some bad examples. I dislike anime because I'm not aware of any good examples.

Generally, the more open-minded can find at least a handful of good anime out there. You've seen Princess Mononoke? Or Spirited Away? That's some great fantasy right there, kind of on par with something Neil Gaiman might pump out with "creepy mythos."

Cowboy Bebop. I didn't really like ANY anime 'till I saw that series. Yeah, some of the characters are close to the archetypes (not a lot of people like Radical Edward at first, for instance), but, like I said, it's the Anti-Trek: it's jaded and hyper-commercialized, corrupt and dirty vision of our glorious space future makes it quite notable. You don't have to watch it all, even: the first few episodes and the last few episodes pretty much tell each character's story, and the rest is just "adventuring for a buck" (but it's still pretty sweet).

For something that's not a series, try Grave of the Fireflies. I'm not a huge fan of the way the characters are drawn, but try and watch it without crying and you'll fail.

Witch Hunter Robin has been mentioned as a "Westernized" anime, so if you want to avoid a lot of the things like face-faults and giant swords, this would do you well. I found it a bit slow-paced for my tastes, but it still has a fairly short story arc.

Last Exile might be good for a more "Westernized" anime as well -- it draws its motifs more from early-1900's aviation style, and then jumps into sci-fi elves, and it takes place mostly in a court of intrigue in the sky.

If you're brave and open-minded, try FLCL. For those who can hear what it's saying, the six-episode arc is definitely saying something deeper than appearances will show. Not everyone "gets" it, though, and those that don't often hate it for what they see as randomness. There are a few anime-isms sprinkled in it, but the art and animation is in a constant state of flux between styles and designs, and the whole thing is delightfully weird enough that the anime-isms don't appear too out of place.

Of course, with any of these, you actually have to have an open mind and be willing to play along. The moment you say "I won't like this, because it's anime," the battle is already lost. Welcome the new experience, and you should be pleasantly treated by any of these above.

BERSERK....let's just say I was with it until it got to the end of the DVD's....and I didn't want to watch more. I really, really didn't. Because o.0