Nuances and gestures of anime/japanese video games taken for granite

[Ophannus]

So I got my girlfriend to watch anime with me the other night and I noticed something interesting. A lot of the gestures/idiosyncrasies that are standard and commonplace in anime and also japanese media in general are taken for by people who are familiar to it in the West.

Anime is very formulaic, take the stock archetype characters that we're all familiar with for example. The main character; if a boy, is usually wide-eyed, brash,adventerous, though sometimes naive with usually some hidden/suppressed power and although weak usually compensates with his will or determination. This archetype makes sense because we can all relate to the underdog aspect. Now this is where it gets weird. I was watching Bleach with my girl and she found it odd that some characters when discussing with another character, do so with either their eyes closed, back turned or a combination of both. She was like "why doesn't that guy face the other when he speaks". I tried to explain it means they're confident/arrogant/badass but she didn't understand. It's true in western culture, in our movies or cartoons, villains or anti-heroes never talk to those weaker than them with closed eyes or turned backs yet any american who typically watches anime 'gets it'. This is true for 90% of anime.

Why is it that both our cultures differ. If anyone is a native of Japan can you clarify? Do badasses or people who are evil talk to others with their eyes closed or turned back? In the west that's considered rude or weird but in Japan or in anime at least it seems to be cool. Furthermore characters like Byakuya from bleach or Legato from Trigun or even Sephiroth from Final Fantasy all portray a rather weak and effeminate character yet they're immensely powerful. Is it common in Japan for those with a lot of power to appear frail,weak and effimineate? In the west(and also in reality) physical strength is determined by muscle density(even Bruce Lee was ripped, he just wasn't bulky like a body builder.)

Another thing that struck my girlfriend as odd is when Byakuya was fighting he was blocking effortlessly and always had an expression of tiredness/boredom/about to fall asleep. This is obviously unreal as no one could maintain that kind of composure in a real fight, but where did the idea of someone being that competent come from? Nobody in real life can fight that effortlessly without breaking a sweat or even moving a muscle in your face. It makes sense to people who watch anime because it's cool, but try to imagine it from an outside perspective where did anime writers get the idea make characters like that. It's not even just bleach it's most anime or movies depict a character usually with silver hair(side note where did japanese people get the idea of a cold hearted silver haired elite badass character? nobody in japanese history or lore had silver hair!). These people usually are epic, elite, weild powers or fight with ease and always speak softly,confidently and never seem surprised,shocked or astonished at anything. And if they are it's always a subtle flintch of their eye followed by a "...interesting."

It was just interesting seeing anime from an outside person's perspective. A lot of the gestures make sense for people who are used to it, but if you break it down I don't see where they could have arose from. It's like anime combines minimum effort with maximum effect. Characters who move effortlessly or weakly make massive explosions or kill hoardes of enemies. That concept doesn't exist in western culture, so where does the seed of that imagination come from, japanese mythology/stories?

[Boyiee]

wow... anyone gonna actually try to read it?

[Kyo]

That enter key is the enemy man.

[Rokku]

I'm sad to say I actually read this whole thing, and all I can say is....what?

You start off on an almost solid note of a popular archetype in anime and then spiral down into something nonsensical.

[Karbuncle]

Its called Imagination =o. its not hard to give someone such badass qualities, you just gotta think to yourself.... "you know, it would be bad ass if someone could ..." and bam, super-cool Anime Char most everyone loves =0

simple creativity, it doesn't take a bunch of effort, typically you'll want a character, or hero, to preform things that no normal person can do, thats what makes it interesting!

[Kaylia]

You're overanalyzing too many things at once.


First of all, anime is 1% original content, and 99% copy paste. It's the same everywhere in the media (tv series, movie..etc). If you don't take your distance, you won't see the direct influences between series. Many thing simply look alike because it sold once, and people copied it.

It's not even just bleach it's most anime or movies depict a character usually with silver hair(side note where did japanese people get the idea of a cold hearted silver haired elite badass character?

Because there is color associated to different personality/emotion? You expect someone with bright red hair to be a little more dynamics than someone with white hair for exemple. Why? Culture, human's perception...there is many reasons why, but they are generally accepted by a majority (ie: it's not a coincidence that emo and goth dresses in black, instead of bright pink).

The same apply to nearly every point you made in your post. Certain clichés carry particular emotion better than another, and that's why they are recurrent.

[SephYuyX]

None of what you said holds strickly to just anime; you can look back to the early days of comics and find answers for all of that.

The things you/the gf all pointed out has to do with physical attributes; color of hair, body language, etc. I actually question her questions because this is all fairly common knowledge stuff.

The hair thing might be a bit trickey, but as stated it holds true to a lot of RL stuff. Red hair = firey, blonde = beautiful and dumb, brunette = shy and smart, but after that it would be hazey. Grey, orange, blue, purple, thats more or less an anime thing.

But all that body langauge stuff, talking with back turned, eyes closed, effortless fighting, all of that is classic comic book stuff.

Body language is a great way to portrait an image without having to explain it. So instead of taking up 10 panels/scenes explaining why this guy is a badass or whats happening, there can be one scene/panel with the proper body langauge/physical features, and it's instantly reconizable.

Scars, shadowy figures, hair color, body mass, etiquette, etc is something that everyone knows what they mean.

There was actualy a show on History or something detailing this.

[Zilong]

Home Page - Television Tropes & Idioms

Enjoy losing the next few hours of your life.

[Tekoa]

Am I supposed to be whoosed by the thread title?

[Parshias]

Am I supposed to be whoosed by the thread title?

LURK MOAR.

[Maguspk]

Home Page - Television Tropes & Idioms

Enjoy losing the next few hours of your life.

First time I found that site I spent so much time reading all the tropes. They are all so damn true.

[Shade]

Like Seph was explaining, it's all visual shorthand.

Like, you draw a picture of an apple: kind of a circular shape with a stick and a "leaf" on top. A real apple doesn't look shit all like that. But you still know what it is.

The main point is though, its cheaper. In most anime scenes you're lucky if you get a few frames of mouth animation for talking and the occasional eyeblink. And those few frames are going to be reused over and over throughout the show. Using the painfully simple shorthand for "worried" (giant sweatdrop) is way easier/inexpensive than actually animating a complex emotion crossing a character's face.

[drwaffles]

In short: zomg sephiroth and byakuya r SO BADASS