I’ve often thought about what the best anime is for introducing people to the medium. Many anime are great for people who hate anime. But what about those who are curious but find anime strange? What about those who find the tropes of anime and the jokes confusing? What is the best anime for them?…
Category: Understanding Anime
Why are Shonen Heroes so Dense When it Comes to Love?
Shonen brims with love-dense heroes and the females that try to get their attention. The MO of these characters involves unawareness of flirtation, female emotions, and the inability to know how to react to emotional situations. These heroes remain unaware of female affection. For example, Bleach’s Ichigo remains unaware of Orohime’s affection for him despite how she…
Why are Harem Anime Popular?
Most harem anime I’ve watched follow a template. A gaggle of various girls chase a guy with little personality and an aversion to making decisions and touching female skin. Each of the girls represent an anime trope: the tsundere, deredere, and so on. You’ll see the usual body stereotypes too, from the large-breasted girls to…
What Makes Something a Classic?
The dictionary defines classic as “a work of art of recognized and established value.” That’s quite a vague definition. After all, value changes depending on culture, time period, and concerns. Most of us consider classics as dusty works of art that everyone should appreciate but most do not. As a writer, I think of…
Dogged Determination: One of Anime’s Favorite Themes
Determination sits at the top of anime’s favorite themes. When I first considered writing about this, the obviousness of determination made me wonder what I could say about it that wasn’t, uh, obvious. Anime heroes are determined to achieve their goals. Full stop. They aren’t any different from heroes in other stories. But there is…
Anime Visual Language Guide
Anime has a visual language that shorthands character emotions and states of mind. The visual language comes from manga and its efforts to clarify the inner world of characters without resorting to words. Visual language can be thought of as a vocabulary of adverbs and adjectives. They add more detail to a character’s behavior. To…