The recent upsurge of anime popularity that we’ve been covering has had a lot of positives. But as I was doing research for my previous articles, I could not help noticing a few negatives. Mainly, people who seem to find anime weird, or its viewers weird. Well, the reason for that is easy enough.

Anime is weird because it delivers an animation style, plot events, tropes, and general viewing experience that is of a different cultural, and moral standard to non-native Japanese people. This is due to things like limited animation styles, wuxia inspired fight scenes, and Go Nagai inspired interactions.

I am fully aware that this may mean nothing to you, so here are an additional set of examples to explain what I mean:

• Why Is Anime So Weird
• Most Common Anime Cliché’s, and Why They Exist
• Why Are Anime Watchers Weird
• What Writers can Learn From Why Is Anime So Weird

Why Is Anime So Weird

Anime is weird because of the cultural differences, leading to unrecognizable humor, art-styles, and story patterns.

There is a surface level meaning to this, before we have to go to the deeper level.

On the surface level, cultural differences manifest in things like expectations of what “cartoons” are. As covered in the other article, anime does not mean the same thing in Japan as it does in other countries. In other countries, anime means the cartoons from Japan, or a specific art style consisting of big eyes, and other hallmarks. Thus people from those places often associate anime as work for kids. This is because most of their cartoons are for kids. However, for people in Japan, anime is not only meant for kids, especially in the case of late night anime, which is anime specifically targeting young adults, and adults. Instead, anime in Japanese refers to all animated works, even things like Ice Age.

So what do these difference lead to?

Well, someone comes along and picks up an anime, expecting to see children friendly stuff. And lets just say that’s not what they find. This is the surface level cultural difference. However, there is a deeper level to it.

There is a difference in certain themes, and tropes in cartoons that exist between anime, and cartoons. Basically, people often use cultural differences as a means of excusing the undetectable human proclivities expressed by another group of people, when in reality cultural difference does not point to a different moral make up (human proclivity), but rather to it points to a different past experienced.

Different past means different problems historically faced by that group of people leading to the creation of certain cultural mores for the group, which would have been developed in other groups of people too if they’d been placed through similar situations.

That’s a mouthful, but really, you will begin to understand exactly what it means with some examples of anime clichés, and why they came to exist, but they not in cartoons.

Most Common Anime Cliché’s, and Why They Exist

1 Animation

Anime has animation style that feels static. From scenes where the characters seem to be running in place, and moving the same way, to scenes where the camera will be moving across the screen, anime has some strange animation practices.

One of the things that anime is known for is limited animation practices. These are budget savings and time saving practices, where things like cycled animation, mirror image, and symmetrical drawings are used extensively. This gives the anime a distinct feeling, like the characters are just moving the same way over, and over again. In order to hide this, some anime will make the background move, or they can make the camera pan the character.

The reason this technique exists is covered in the other article. But the short answer for now will be, Osamu Tezuka, the godfather of anime.

2 Art style is weird

Anime characters look weird. From the massive breasts, massive muscles, and massive eyes to the skinniest, tiniest, and youngest old people, anime has a wide range of strange looking character designs.

There is a common meme that you will see around anime spaces. On one side, you’ll have what clearly looks like a child, and on the other side, you’ll have what clearly looks like an adult man. Then you will learn the child is about give or take 1012-1023 years old, while the man 6 foot 8 man is about 15 years old. The criticism states that anime characters tend to look beyond strange, and unfitting. However, there is a reason for this too.

Anime focuses mostly on the necessities of the plot, and not too much on the dynamics of physics. If the story needs someone who can fight, or rather, if the writer knows that he wants his young readers to connect to someone who can fight, then he will make a young boy with a body that can fight.

I guess the least we can say is that they at least make a point to try and explain away these discrepancies. Usually we will learn that the young girl is a vampire of sorts, and that the man-boy is genetically modified or has some sort of gift. However, the story is written as a fantasy. As a story that most of the target audiences would want to live in, thus it will have these strange sights.

3 Exaggerated Dramatic Plot Events

Anime is overly dramatic. From characters having the most tragic backstories like their whole family dying, to characters being hated by their parents, or being abandoned by their parents.

A bit of tragedy is not the worst thing in the world, and it can even help you connect to your character and pity them. But sometimes anime goes so far, that it becomes hard for the characters to be pitied.

The reason why a lot of characters tend to go through so much pain in their past is to connect the reader to the character, true. (This point is expanded upon on the 5th point.) However, another reason why this happens is not to make the character suffer, or make you connect to him. It is also done in order to allow the character to experience the adventure. If the parents were around, it is unlikely that they would have consented to their children running of to risk their life, even if it is to save the world.

So that’s why anime character’s lives are so dramatic.

4 Plots are Predictable

From the power of friendship saving the day, to the brooding bad-ass rival, anime has a number of predictable plots… Or so it may seem to most people.

You may go right on ahead and relax, I am not going to tell you that Sasuke is secretly the Buttercups of the Naruto verse. There is legitimate reason for this criticism, as there are many tropes in anime that reappear over and over again. So it can really look like this is all anime has to produce. But you must understand that there is a reason why these tropes appear so frequently; they are popular.

Most anime target audiences are young adult boys. I mentioned in the anime article how late night anime is made specifically for these target audiences. Also as covered in the other article, there is a correlation between anime sub-culture and depression. Most of the people who are attracted to anime tend to feel lonely, and depressed. So anime which features stories of characters who form close bonds, and have a wide cast of friends appeal a lot to those groups of people. That’s why the most popular anime tend to have these tropes. However, that does not mean that these tropes are all there is to anime.

The truth

In truth, there is a lot of anime produced each year, and many anime tend to put a spin to these tropes, or sometimes they will not even have these tropes. Today anime fans have found each other, thus decreasing the feeling of loneliness and depression. As a cause, we are seeing a steady rise of anime that does not rely on these tropes. For example, (5 major tropes of anime and the shows that avoid them)

That is why anime can come across as being predictable.

5 Story Pacing is off

Anime has a lot of terribly slow pacing.

When it comes to story telling, something else as important as character, setting, and plot, is the pacing. The pacing is the speed at which events happen in a story. If many events take place over a short space of time, then it is a fast paced story. This can make the viewer lose track of the plot, and not understand what comes next. However, if not much happens and yet the story has gone on for a long time, this is slow pacing, which is dreadfully boring. And some fans feel like anime has a lot of these.

Admittedly, I only know a few anime which had pacing that gave me subtle whiplash, so yes, most anime can be slow. However, that happens for a reason to.

Anime’s human connection

Anime is a lot like other Japanese medium. It focuses a lot on the human connection that it creates to the viewers. Basically all stories connect either on a human (psychological) level or on a spirit (mythical) level. Stories that connect on a spirit level are stories like Star Wars, or Journey to the West. Basically, these are stories that cover the heroes journey, which is heavily discussed in ‘A Hero With A Thousand Faces’. That book argues that most stories around the world are basically telling the same story, which is a story that connects all human beings at heart. This is because it details human development throughout their lives. These stories usually have tropes, or symbols that are easily recognizable to the human subconscious. ‘The Wizard’, ‘The King’ and stuff like ‘The Princess’.

In contrast, stories that connect on a human level are stories that stress the human experiences, and emotions we feel. These are stories like ‘The Stormlight archive’ by Brandon Sanderson. The main character, Kaladin, suffers from a severe case of depression. In spite of his fantastical surroundings, his main trial is a human one, and all people who suffer depression connect with him over this.

Anime stresses this human connection.

Consequentially, it takes a lot of screen-time to try and stress out the experiences a character feels. Thus we get the character’s entire monologue, monologues which can go for episodes at a time. As seen by the legendary Talk-no-Jutsu.

This is why anime pacing comes across as slow.

6 It Has Weird Humor

Anime humor is weird. From the wide eyes, and overreaction, to the people being beaten to a bloody pulp, or sent flying by a nose bleed.

One of the things that instantly stand out to you when you want anime will be the bizarre humor. This is something youtuber Daniel Greene mentions in his review of Attack on Titan. That he just can’t get anime humor. And that’s understandable! Unlike Western shows, where the humor of the story will often be found in plot events, or wordplay, anime uses a lot of body humor, slap-stick comedy, and overreactions for humor. However, there is a good reason for these I swear!

First we will start with the body humor, meaning the wide eyes, and open mouths. The reason why this humor is favored a lot in humor boils down to the nature of anime production. As previously stated, anime is the adaptation of manga. In manga, a visual medium, the only way for you to properly show what is happening is through pictures and words. It is extremely hard to make humor using words, which is why you will scarcely here of a purely comedic book.

The problem of humor

Humor is dependent on social cues like faces, and quick snappy words, the effect of which is lost when one reads it. However, with the addition of pictures, you can use the images to express the tone you wish, and cue the reader in on the humor of the moment. They may not find it funny, but at least they will know that it is not meant to be taken seriously. Now, when this is animated, it ends up looking rather strange, and jarring the first few times around.

Then there is the slap-stick comedy. This features stuff like a character being beaten, or sent flying due to a misunderstanding. This one is… well, its indefensible. I’m sorry for wasting your time.

Finally, we have things like the nose bleeds. These usually follow some sort of sexual moment. Maybe a character sees a women’s breast, and as a result, he is sent flying. Well, this one will take more than a simple paragraph so, meet you on the next subtitle?

7 Oversexualized

Anime is overly sexualized. From the unexpected entries, to the stumbling, and falling on each other, there are many forms of sexualizations found in anime.

Saving the best/worst for last, we obviously need to address the level of sexualization in anime. The reasons this one exists is as mentioned earlier, culture. As stated, culture is not merely constituted by mores but also by previous experiences lived through by a people. Basically what I’m trying to say is, a lot of the lecherous elements of anime are not good, and the Japanese think so too, but because of the stuff that happened in the past in Japan, these traits have become inseparable to anime. How is that possible? You know this would not be a mastering article without a bit of light history.

Anime’s history

Anime is made from the serialization of manga series. So what are these manga series? What’s manga? Manga are basically comic books that are published by manga publishing magazines. While today, the titan of these manga publishing magazines is Shonen Jump, this was not always so.

In 1959, Shueisha started a magazine publishing company that published manga. They released a Shojo book the same year. The magazine was a smash hit, and so the company decided to publish a male centric version that they called Shonen book, also released in 1959. Finally in 1968, Shueisha started publishing Shonen Jump. So where does the Weekly come from? Well, Shonen jump was published every 2 weeks, and it would not be until 1969 when Shueisha would create weekly Shonen Jump, publishing their magazine every week you see?

During the time when Weekly Shonen Jump was still new, it was being beaten by all its competitors. Weekly Shonen Jump worked with young authors and mangakas, but not because they wanted to. It was actually because all the established successful mangakas were taken by their competitors. With all that young energy, and no pressure to be successful, this led to them working with freedom that Go Nagai often spoke of.

Go Nagai himself went on to produce a series known as Harenchi Gakuwen. It featured a lot of erotic humor that was so bad, skirt flipping became a thing even in elementary schools. The people did not like this, and PTA protested. It was controversial all over Japan, however, the series was extremely successful. This made it the first ecchi manga, and till today, some of the tropes it started have become intricately tied to Japanese anime.

That’s why Japanese anime is so overly sexualized.

Why Are Anime Watchers Weird

Social isolation. They’ve only watched anime since they were kids. This things worked on them, making them cry to the anime, connect to the characters. If these things did not work on you, they worked on them, and make them experience all those things

What Can Writers Learn From Why Anime Is So Weird

What connects readers to your story?

This is a simple and rather obvious question, but one of the things I notice a lot from writers, even more experienced ones, is a complete lack of understanding. They do not know what is the appeal of their story. Why do people want to read their story? Or why do they want to write the story themselves? What is their stories draw?

Ask yourself as the writer why you do what you do. Is it a mythical connection? Or is it more of a psychological connection? When you have your answer, it will make the writing process that much more clearer. Then you will have taken that much more steps to mastering mastery.