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

[Jürgen Hubert]

There's really not all that much anime influence visible in the D&D rules and books, and I suspect that people who claim otherwise are projecting something into it that just isn't there.

On the other hand, anime can have a profound influence on D&D players. And to this I say... anything consenting players want to do within the confines of their own gaming room is none of my business.

Nor is it the business of anyone else.

 

[Nifft]

I think this is symptomatic of everything which draws our interest.

Touché.

-- N

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

I don't like Anime. I don't understand it, I don't see why there's a big fuss over it and I don't care enough to make the effort to understand it.

I once said the same thing about the whole superhero genre. Until I saw a few good episodes of "Batman: The Animated Series" and reconsidered.

And anime is far more varied than the superhero genre.

 

[Glyfair]

I've seen very little anime influence on D&D so I need a "there isn't any" answer

I agree as well.

In theory, I like that D&D has options to run a very anime style game. Anime is very popular and anything that draws anime fans to D&D is a plus. Forcing those things on the core game from anime that run counter to the D&D and classic fantasy style I'm against. Again, I haven't seen this.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

Anime hasn't had any noticeable effect on D&D as published, and it hasn't had any effect on my games.

Well, that last part isn't true. I have a friend whose mother is Anglo-Australian and whose father is Japanese, so he's grown up in a household where he was exposed to both Western and Eastern media - he loves anime, and I suspect that the moody swordsman-magician antiheroes with tragic backstories he's played in campaigns I've also been in were at least partially inspired by anime.

But, you know, he could also have thought them up after reading Michael Moorcock's Elric stories, so . . .

 

[Umbran]

I'm pretty much with Crothian, and with the "anime is not really a single genre of fiction".

That's important for this analysis - amime is a presentation style that may be applied to any other form of fiction. So there's sci-fi anime, fantasy anime, magical girl anime, soap opera anime, etc. Each of these applicatiosn use different fictional tropes and story styles, so they don't have a unified effect on D&D as a whole.

 

[Einan]

I once said the same thing about the whole superhero genre. Until I saw a few good episodes of "Batman: The Animated Series" and reconsidered.

And anime is far more varied than the superhero genre.

True enough. I think the difference between superheroes and anime is that Anime is rooted pretty deeply in japanese culture and cultural values, moreso than, say, Batman or Spiderman. To understand or grok anime, you must grok the nature of japanese thought and culture. It's not something that appeals to me enough to spend the time getting educated enough to understand. I only have a limited amount of free time, so if something doesn't immediately inspire or amuse me, it falls into the category of "things I'll do if I have the time." Anime's not too high on that list. I've seen a few different videos, had friends recommend things that they thought I would enjoy (friends who know me pretty well) and just haven't seen anything that just touched a nerve in me.

Meh. But I reiterate, if it brings more people to the hobby, great!

Einan

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

True enough. I think the difference between superheroes and anime is that Anime is rooted pretty deeply in japanese culture and cultural values, moreso than, say, Batman or Spiderman.

The whole superhero genre is no less strongly rooted in American culture and cultural values than anime is rooted in japanese culture and cultural values.

 

[Einan]

The whole superhero genre is no less strongly rooted in American culture and cultural values than anime is rooted in japanese culture and cultural values.

Agreed. I guess the root of my anime-dislike is that I don't understand japanese culture well enough to understand anime. I do understand american culture, having been steeped in it from birth. However, I wouldn't say I'm a fan of the superhero genre as a whole either. There's simply too much that I find uninteresting. However with anime I've seen at least seven or eight films and over twenty episodes of various types. I found all of those uninteresting as well.

However, I'm not saying anime isn't valid; I am saying that I don't find it compelling. If you do, cheers. I don't. Course, I don't find country music, right-wing politics or soccer very compelling either. Not everything suits everyone, thank goodness. I already have too much to do in the time I am allotted. Anything more would be wasted on me.

Einan

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

Anime is an entire media and generalizing about anime as a whole is mostly nonproductive because you're just focusing on a subset. BUT I think certain subsets of anime gather the lion's share of face time on American mainstream media. And certain aspects of these types of anime tend to give it a bad name in many eyes.

(1) Cult of Youth - everybody assumes that your 15-year old girl should be able to be a ninja/swordmaster/olympic gymnast, or maybe also a wizard and ranger if she's so long in the tooth as to be 17 years old (practically out to pasture!). If you haven't made Epic by the time you're 19 you're probably an NPC.

(2) Soap Opera - so the teenaged girl with Death Star-level psychic powers and the teenaged ninja/swordmaster/gymnast girl are having an affair, but the teenaged ninja/swordmaster/wizard boy likes the psychic girl, and how can he compete with Ai for Noriko's favor because he's only a wizard and not a gymnast, and maybe if he buys her roses in the next town blah blah blah. None of which has anything to do with exploring the Mad Wizard's dungeon. Unless someone casts Power Word Angst.

I think the particular subset of Anime that causes these feelings to happen is over-represented on American TV. At times it has made me want to go find the writers of certain shows and perform a shaped-charge enema, but I don't blame anime as a whole because of it. There are plenty of great ideas to be mined, you just have to get rid of the dross.