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

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

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BRP2 said:
I mean, wow, it's pretty obvious most of the people saying these things about anime have no actually experienced it with opened minds and probably base their entire opinion on the people who like anime.
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Ah, yes, if I don't like something, it's obviously because I don't understand it.
 

Emirikol said:
What are your thoughts on ANIME's influence on D&D?
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That there hasn't been any. (I voted "other".)

All I've seen of late is a certain amount of anime influence on contemporary fantasy art in general (D&D and elsewhere), and for this I am usually grateful, as I enjoy it a lot more than the airbrushed-custom-van-chain-bikini stuff so popular in years past.
 

Where I have only seen minimal influence in Asian-style storytelling in D&D, the part that for me has been creeping in more and more lately has been the increase of the fantastic at the expense of the mundane (I've talked about the "per-encounter" business elsewhere, but here's not the place for me to dig into it). The greatest influence I've seen is not in the game, but in the fans who play it; I see increasing hidden references to names (whereas Gary Gygax had Rings of Gaxx and wizards called Drawmij, newer players have Hakusho and Yojimbo), and wuxia-style descriptions of the actions the characters take (dodging arrows with wild leaps, splitting stone and reaving trees with every missed strike each round), as two examples.

I'm not saying it's bad, because when I was younger I injected my own pop-culture influences in my games (lightsabers as artifacts, Captain America's shield as treasure, etc.). Heck, even Gary did this himself (Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, the Wand of Force in Tharizdun's Temple, Willingham's drawing of Captain America's shield and Iron Man's helmet in the Spider-man box in module D1-2... :))

But whereas those were my style, the Manga/Anime styles aren't my style. If there is one thing that I watch carefully, it's the "fantastic vs. mundane" thing. I don't mind heroes pulling off miraculous stunts, I just don't want it to ever get to the point in the future where they're pulling them off every minute of the day, as if there's no effort. Again, it's a style preference.
 

Hentai coupled with the Book of Erotic Fantasy has opened up wide, new vistas in my game.
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j/k ;)
 

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

Having watched a decent ammount of Anime, and having played D&D for over 15 years, I haven't seen any Anime influence in D&D.

That being said, the only RPGs that sell well in Brazil use extensive Anime imagery and themes.
 

Ghendar said:
Hentai coupled with the Book of Erotic Fantasy has opened up wide, new vistas in my game.
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Power Word: Strip!

yeah, I'm sure your dream campaign is Those Who Hunt Elves. A babe, a broad, a dipstick, and an Abrams tank.
 


Ah, yes, if I don't like something, it's obviously because I don't understand it.
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Not necessarily, but in many circumstances, this is true. Everything that has worth to someone has a *good* reason to have achieved that worth. Understanding that reason helps you to at least appreciate something, even if it's not for you.

This becomes more true when you talk about a broader group. Anime is a pretty huge grouping of things. There are plenty of valid reasons that Anime is not someone's thing. It's not really my thing, for instance, because I have little patience for some of the archetypes, and I have a very short attention span when it comes to plot. ;)

But there's still anime I LOVE out there, even stuff that uses those annoying archetypes or has very little forward plot momentum. For instance, FLCL is nearly a work of art, and at six episodes, it's brief. Grave of the Fireflies is historical drama, heartwrenching. Cowboy Bebop feels something like the Anti-Trek, all jaded and mistrustful of our future human selves.

There's also stuff that is very poach-able without being that awesome in my eyes. Fer'instance, InuYasha may be insufferably enduring, but the villains are interesting monsters, and the core story about hunting down a broken sacred object has "Multiple McGuffins" imbued in it. Fullmetal Alchemist is astonishingly crystal in it's take on Science Gone Too Far, and is ripe with conflicts and concepts ripe for injecting into any D&D world.

Anime is a very broad group, and it's hard to find many common threads in them. It is possible to dislike those common threads, but fifteen year old boys with giant swords and collectible monsters and pointless flexing matches are only present in some of it. There's still plenty of stuff that's awesome beside that.

So it's often very suspect when someone claims they hate all anime for X, Y, and Z. Usually, this claim is off-base enough to call defenders who say "Look, not all anime is X, Y, and Z. I really lie this one that's B, F, and Q. So you can't say you hate all anime, because my favorite has none of the traits you hate, and it's anime."

It's kind of like saying "I don't like japanese food, because I don't like sushi," neglecting the fact that there's a world of food out there that isn't sushi. Or saying "I don't like the southern USA, because I don't like racist rednecks," neglecting to note that the racist redneck is just a stereotype, not a truism.

You can still not like Japanese food, of course, but there's gotta be a good reason that actually applies to Japanese food. "I don't like most Japanese food because I'm not used to the flavors," is a good one. "I don't like the deep south because I prefer to have snow in January," isn't a bad reason for not wanting to move to the South, too.

And "Anime generally annoys me because I hate reading subtitles and the voice actors are usually horrible" is a pretty solid leg to stand on (for instance). Or saying "The anime I've seen all is drawn with the same kind of giant eyes and little mouths and it annoys me," is good, because it doesn't rule out anime which doesn't use that trope (and they do exist, they're just not common).

But saying "I don't like anime because I don't like the unrealism of spikey-haired fifteen year olds who wield six-foot chunks of steel" is as off-base as saying "I don't like the South because I don't like racist rednecks." It's a stereotype. One that you can certainly find examples of, but not one that defines the limits of what you're talking about.
 


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