The Laws of Anime

[Seiryuu]

Thought I'd start this up for fun, similar to an Acrobat list I got from a friend. If someone else is already threading this, tell me.
This thread is to gain a listing of all the various "laws" behind the anime universe, you know, those certain things that you notice that maybe one current anime is not doing. Also, any FUNNY observations. Nothing obvious unless you can back it up with a new conclusion. For instance, please don't write saying how all the girls have big eyes. we know. However, it is acceptable to note that, given cranial space remaining after accounting for the size of the eyes and of the mouth when fully open, the brain of the average anime character is about half as big as a cute girls mouth when she's feeling thoughtful or petulant. The relation is obvious, since the most logical beings have slit viewers instead of eyeballs.

Also, analysis of characters is acceptable. For instance, I've noticed an almost immortal correlation between hair color/style and the personality type of an anime girl. Here's a sample list of types and styles:
Hearthrob: not miss popular, the real thing. The standard DID(Damsel in distress), she's there for the Hero to fall in love with and to give said hero a reason to throw his life away every other episode. Timid as a rabbit in hunting season, loyal and affectionate as a puppy, her hair is almost always a natural color, usually either pitch black or platinum blonde.
Mystery girl: often combined with the hearthrob, this girl is mainly the enigma that spawns the plot. Whether her origin, or something about her nature, she is basically one big unknown. Along with black and blonde, you sometimes find sky-blue hair, almost always straight.
Bimbo: one word: Mihoshi. No brains, too much optimistic cheer. sometimes appears instead of the Spitfire to be the antihero's mate. Hair: big, often blonde or some light shaded, unnatural color like cotton-candy pink. often very curly.
Spitfire: Lina Inverse. Need I say more? overall good girl with some major weak points. Even lightly touch on one of these weaknesses, and you'd rather have a nuclear warhead shoved up your... Hair is often either pitch black or has some reddish hue to it. Rarely has more than a slight wave to it. Almost always accompanied by the...
Classic antihero: only male I can come up with. His hair is usually brown, and about as unkempt as Einstein's. He may be smart, but it never occurs of him to think about what comes to his mind before it comes out his mouth. terrible, if ever, liar, but can be very insulting without meaning to. Him and the spitfire are what I like to call Anime's "Golden Couple". A girl who reacts massively to any slight combined with a guy who has no control over what he says, the possibilities are endless. That's why Ranma 1/2 lasted for more than 100 eps.
One more thing, please note any anime that breaks significantly from the norm. That is, something that's practically forbidden in anime, like one of the primary, favorite characters turning out to be a bad guy. This was a long opening, but I had several requests and examples. If traffic grows, I might split this thread into components, but for now, enjoy.

[Laguna]

Yes, there was thread like this sometime ago in old forum. I might as well list couple observations here:

Characters:

-"Clumsy goody-goody girl": This character is found nearly all animes. She usually doesn't say anything bad to anyone and tries to please everyone. Usually has permanent stupid smile on her face and laughs a lot. Has "always" long hair that usually is either green or brown. Eyeglasses and big breasts are also very common on this character.
-The bimbo character you mentioned: She seem to be always hungry.. and when she get's food, she eats fast and LOT.

Other things:

-"Tokyo-centrism": Everything seems to happen always in tokyo. This conserns of course animes that are happening on this world and not in some fantasy world.
-Ramen noodles: Seem to be rather common food for anime characters.
-That chirping sound outside: There is that insect making that sound, but I can't recall what was it.
-School-uniforms: Well has to be mentioned.. Strange enough, many (especially female) characters seems to be confortable on they're school-uniforms at free time also.
-Festivals: There is these recurring festivals in anime. You know those that include shooting game, fish (or was it turtle?) catching game, various sea-foods stalls.. and of course people wearing kimonos.

[Kuroi_Washi]

Part 2 of the Laws of Anime, laws 35-46 deleted by NoSanninWa.

Copyright Notice - Many of the laws are based on the intellectual input from a variety of sources, but all text on this site is copyright Ryan Shellito and Darrin Bright. You are free to copy, distribute, edit, and add your own laws, so long as you leave all the credits intact. I prefer people link to this site rather than putting up their own copy, so they keep up with any changes.
Unfortunately, this law seems to apply to Otaku in the real world...

Sorry is a bit long the text, but its quite funny, at least some are, If one of the mods thinks its to long i can erase some of the laws and pass them by PM if someone wants them.

[NoSanninWa]

Way too long the text as you suggest. Fortunately it is possible to fix that problem. At the same time I would like to fulfill that last request you cite by the creators of that document. Here are the

Laws of Anime Version 6.0

In case anyone is curious, here is the History of the Laws of Anime

[Kuroi_Washi]

Ah ok, Thanks NoSanniWa, sorry for the extremely long text, next time ill try to post something a bit smaller, like 3 lines

[Seiryuu]

I knew some group had done something similar, I wasn't trying to rip them off. If I'd known the names, I would have accredited them with the notion of this thread. However, only the basic idea of having such a thread came from such a source. The rest that I said was personal observation, even if similar observations are noted in other places. Anyway, I hope that a casual thread can be maintained here for observations and the like. If not, then the "laws" portion can be cut off and leave just some of the other things, like analysis of character archetypes and a listing of anime that breaks the rules. Heres a few new things:
Characters:
The Savant: most of the time, stupid as the Bimbo, shy as the "Goody-goody" or hearthrob, useless as a rock. However, back her into a corner, and she unleashes power that could take out Goku. Usually appears in school or sport anime. Hair is ALWAYS brown, straight, and relatively drab.
The SUPERBimbo: Anyone who has seen Naga or Kodachi knows what I'm talking about. hair is irrelevant to this character, as are looks so long as the girl looks reeeeeally ugly. Usually has massive mammaries, and can't see past the end of her nose. Immediately judges everything as either worship of her person or an attack, and reason will have no effect on her views. Terrifying laugh is a must. Also, eyes look slightly dulled by some substance or other, most likely the drug of her own perceived greatness. Avoid at all costs.

One other thing, both characters can be seen in Magic Users Club, and the club also breaks a standard rule for anime and Star Wars: In Magic Users Club, there is NO SOUND IN SPACE. Never before in history has anyone seen such a novelty.
Once again, I got the notion of starting a thread from the group aforementioned, but the ideas themselves were mine and, if it's okay with them, I'd like to keep this thread up.

[PocariSweat]

Originally Posted by Laguna

-That chirping sound outside: There is that insect making that sound, but I can't recall what was it.

Ah, those are Cicadas! We have them where I live and really do sound just like that. They stay mostly up in trees and you almost never see a live one, but they're very large and ugly with oddly oversized heads. The sound comes from their wings I believe....

http://images.google.com/images?q=cicada

Some other things:

Schools all look the same - a central clock tower with wings off to the sides (classic example: Urusei Yatsura's Tokemiki High) and all feature Big Ben chimes. I'm guessing many Japanese schools must really follow that pattern.

Blond hair can often indicate a foreign character, but blue hair counts as black and any character with it is probably native Japanese.

Students will be too afraid to even talk to someone they have a crush on until they manage to work up the courage to "confess". ...which usually strikes the clueless koibito like a bolt from the blue.

Americans are all crazy, and kiss everyone they meet - which you must accept because it's their custom. (Something I plan to test out if I ever go to Japan )

Anime parents must be frail, ephemeral beings because, if you're a kid, chances are pretty darn good that one or both of 'em is dead.

...but that's ok because even a 12 year old can live completely on their own with no bother from social services!

and while you're mentioning the festivals, don't forget the obligitory onsen episode!

[MAT86]

dont forget the bad guys!

theres always the 'hard' one usualy with white hair
theres always the big fat one usual the leautenent of the 'big boss'
theres always the sadistic weakling weasle type person

last boss is probably the only truly variable. you can have anything you want!
from weak looking magic girl to huge giant robot or even the white haired guy
(siphiroph)

[Kempis Curious]

Originally Posted by Laguna

-"Clumsy goody-goody girl": This character is found nearly all animes. She usually doesn't say anything bad to anyone and tries to please everyone. Usually has permanent stupid smile on her face and laughs a lot. Has "always" long hair that usually is either green or brown. Eyeglasses and big breasts are also very common on this character.

I don't agree with the hair-color ideas. However, I'm having a hard time remembering when a klutzy character didn't make up for her butterfingers with good looks/big knockers, and she was a sweet, kind girl. Not a boy. Girl.


I didn't like how that link said that "time speeds up in a fight". I think the law should say that in a melee/battle time slows to convenient slowness in order to recall childhood events, analyze the opponent's strategy, or to make a speech about the opponent's personality faults.

There also seems to be a lot of high-school thugs in Japan, always on the lookout to start a fight, rape girls, or hold defenseless people hostage with knives. Also, if a kid has an interest in detectives or similar law-enforcement, he'll attract a large number of murderers and their victims to his vicinity... unless, of course, people die violently all the time over there, and few people notice the unlikelyhood of such things always being an accident.


And it's gotten less often recently (thank goodness) that people of African descent have pink lips, and Caucasians have noses which project around 3 inches from their faces.

-k

curious

[Quantsini]

Originally Posted by NoSanninWa

Way too long the text as you suggest. Fortunately it is possible to fix that problem. At the same time I would like to fulfill that last request you cite by the creators of that document. Here are the

Laws of Anime Version 6.0

In case anyone is curious, here is the History of the Laws of Anime

ROFL, that's awesome ^^

[hobobaggins]

dont forget: if a bad guy can beat up the good guy, the bad guy will wait around till they can beat HIM up

the good guy ALWAYS saves his final weapon for last. even if he could have ended the fight with a shot to the head, he has to wheedle around with a sword... before nailing the sucker with a gun.

[luckme10]

100 different hairstyles and colors blue being a particular favorite for many. Dark purple coming off as black under the sun is one too...oh also theres NO LIPS FOR GAWDS Sake! as if we didn't learn from initial D. If there are lips then they are usually just highlighted no outlines. And the eyes there has to be enough space between the eyes to fit a third eye in in a general rule as well

[Seiryuu]

First, some folks have mentioned Ryan Shellito and co.'s law #27, the Law of Conservation of Firepower. Any weapon capable of destroying the enemy in a single shot will only be used as a last resort. I think this is unfair, since there are VERY good reasons for this. For one thing, these weapons usually take alot out ot the one that firres it, sort of like in Outlaw Star, where the most powerful weapon drains the user's own life-force. I wouldn't want to use up 20 years of my life on an enemy that I could beat in any other way, esp. if there might be another enemy later who's really strong. Also, these ultimate weapons tend to be a little overly destructive, and have lingering side effects. It's true that we could end many wars by sending a nuclear barrage on an enemy territory, but I personally wouldn't want to touch something like that if I didn't have to. So don't complain that this sort of ultimate weapon is avoided. Japan learned alot about avoiding strong weapons at Hiroshima.
Now, I'd like to list a few laws that I would probably call laws of Anime Desirability. You know, the laws that make all us otakus wish this world was more like an anime.
1: Guns are extremely hard to find, and those that are available are all in the hands of large criminal syndicates. Unless they're hired assassins, kids can't get their hands on a gun for anything. This is obvious because of law two.
2: Street gangs are always semi-feudal in form and nature. The gang members either bear chunks of wood or metal, chains, or some form of old martial-arts-type weapon, like nanchakus(I don't know if I spelled that right, what Michelangelo uses.) The leader sees himself as a sort of ronin, holding to some honor code and beating the crap out of his enemies with the ultimate street weapon: a big, wooden sword.
I'd say that these two laws make things peaceful over there.
3: The primary reason I would love to be in an anime. A man's sex appeal is directly related to his social ineptitude. The ultimate sex symbol is the guy even the geeks won't hang out with. If you aren't butt ugly, but have no redeeming qualities, the women will swoon with one look at you. In an anime world, I would have my pick of any girl in the universe, and several outside this universe too. One problem, the girls I don't pick will be so crazy that I'd be fighting all my life to stay alive and to maintain my chastity. This is the true key to anime desirability.

[a_nevels666]

Originally Posted by Seiryuu

First, some folks have mentioned Ryan Shellito and co.'s law #27, the Law of Conservation of Firepower. Any weapon capable of destroying the enemy in a single shot will only be used as a last resort. I think this is unfair, since there are VERY good reasons for this. For one thing, these weapons usually take alot out ot the one that firres it, sort of like in Outlaw Star, where the most powerful weapon drains the user's own life-force. I wouldn't want to use up 20 years of my life on an enemy that I could beat in any other way, esp. if there might be another enemy later who's really strong. Also, these ultimate weapons tend to be a little overly destructive, and have lingering side effects. It's true that we could end many wars by sending a nuclear barrage on an enemy territory, but I personally wouldn't want to touch something like that if I didn't have to. So don't complain that this sort of ultimate weapon is avoided. Japan learned alot about avoiding strong weapons at Hiroshima.
Now, I'd like to list a few laws that I would probably call laws of Anime Desirability. You know, the laws that make all us otakus wish this world was more like an anime.
1: Guns are extremely hard to find, and those that are available are all in the hands of large criminal syndicates. Unless they're hired assassins, kids can't get their hands on a gun for anything. This is obvious because of law two.
2: Street gangs are always semi-feudal in form and nature. The gang members either bear chunks of wood or metal, chains, or some form of old martial-arts-type weapon, like nanchakus(I don't know if I spelled that right, what Michelangelo uses.) The leader sees himself as a sort of ronin, holding to some honor code and beating the crap out of his enemies with the ultimate street weapon: a big, wooden sword.
I'd say that these two laws make things peaceful over there.
3: The primary reason I would love to be in an anime. A man's sex appeal is directly related to his social ineptitude. The ultimate sex symbol is the guy even the geeks won't hang out with. If you aren't butt ugly, but have no redeeming qualities, the women will swoon with one look at you. In an anime world, I would have my pick of any girl in the universe, and several outside this universe too. One problem, the girls I don't pick will be so crazy that I'd be fighting all my life to stay alive and to maintain my chastity. This is the true key to anime desirability.

Point 1 and 2 pretty much true in real life Japan.

[BME]

All male clothing is made out of kevlar and therefore does not rip when fighting, all female clothing on the otherhand is made out of tin foil and rips at slightest touch, except around nipples and other sensitive areas where it´s magicly glued on.

[Seiryuu]

A few more things:
1. I am sad to say it seems the Golden Couple is becoming a thing of the Past, to be replaced by the Lemorrah. I think I got the name of those fish that are stuck on sharks right. Until recently, I could always depend on anime to give me this coupling. You know the drill. Guy with no impulse-control coupled with a girl who has an infinite well of suppressed power coupled with absolutely no anger-management abilities. No matter how down I was, I used to be able to find a new series filled with romance and a sort of comedy that takes Slapstick to the ultimate absurdity(What's the best term for this, Nukestick, or Ranma1/2?). Now, instead you have a good, moral guy stuck with a Mihoshi-like bimbo who won't let him go for one second, almost like some kind of parasite, hence the name. I blame Vandread. Good series, but started a bad trend.
2. Minime. Not the ugly, rabid midget with his pinky stuck to his lip. I'm talking what some call Super Deformed Kawaii. Miniature caricatures of a character, with huge heads, thick bodies, and short limbs. Sort of like the original Dragon Ball. I've never met a 12-year-old that short, or who could pack so much punch into such a pathetic arm.
3. My favorite type of ERC(Ecchi-Romance-Comedy): the Harem. One guy living with a large number of girls, and with some reason to be unhappy about this. First was Tenchi and Ranma, where one guy has roughly 5 girls obsessed over him and more or less living with him, but who are so violent he is lucky to survive, even if he's the strongest being in the universe. Now we've spread out a bit more, with combinations of girls who are more disturbingly quirky than violent, such as a girl who likes to show affection by bruising her love, or an idiot who has no idea what's going on from one minute to the next. The ultimate harem, I'd have to say, is Hanaukyo Maids. One guy, 100 gorgeous girls, all of whom are incredibly capable in their fields, and all of whom are religiously devoted to serving their Master's every whim, no matter what. Some, in fact, try to push him to enjoy the full extent of their abilities. One problem, the guy's allergic to females. No matter what the Harem, I love them all. Anyone know of some good harems?(aside from Love Hina, Tenchi, Ranma, and Aoshi)

[NoSanninWa]

Lemorrah should be remora.

[Seiryuu]

Thanks, NoSanninWa, remora it is then. Either way, I think the term quite accurately describes how Midori clings to Yuusuke in Green Green TV.
I've noticed, long action anime, that is, anything above 52 eps(2 full seasons), tends to all fall into one of three categories:

1: InuYasha-style. This is rare, but the definite best. The hero has a clearly defined goal, such as reclaim all shards of a mystical jewel. The goal takes awhile, hence the long story, but it runs relatively smoothly and maintains viewers' interest, since the plot is simply continuing until it reaches the true conclusion.
2: Pokemon. The absolute worst. The hero has a goal, but it is poorly defined, such as be a Pokemon(or other trade) master. Since there is no definitive way to declare that such a goal has been achieved, the story can keep going until the viewers get bored. Also, the story is based on something repetitive, like a game series, forcing the hero to drop inexplicably back to level 1 every 26 eps. I dropped pokemon when he went to Johto with a pack of incredibly strong creatures, strong enough to almost beat the League, and suddenly they seemed to be barely able to beat the level-5 creatures at the start. No growth at all.
3: most well known, Dragon-Ball/Z/GT. The goal is again undefined, usually just "I want to be stronger." with no ultimate goal, the hero just gets stronger, and the producers simply have to decide how long they can keep making the characters more powerful. It attracts alot of attention, since we all like big explosions, but it gets stale after awhile. esp. if theres no real reason for the work, like in dbz, aside from fighting. The big problem with this is that, if the characters always grow stronger, then things start to get absurd. Every season, there is a villain that is the "strongest being in the universe," and when a stronger creature appears next season, everyone just accepts it. I dropped this series when they started making all the villains mere variations of the final good villain, Cell. Also, I thought it was a little much when powering up could rip the fabric of space-time.

[PocariSweat]

Originally Posted by Seiryuu

1: InuYasha-style. This is rare, but the definite best. The hero has a clearly defined goal, such as reclaim all shards of a mystical jewel. The goal takes awhile, hence the long story, but it runs relatively smoothly and maintains viewers' interest, since the plot is simply continuing until it reaches the true conclusion.
2: Pokemon. The absolute worst. The hero has a goal, but it is poorly defined, such as be a Pokemon(or other trade) master. Since there is no definitive way to declare that such a goal has been achieved, the story can keep going until the viewers get bored. Also, the story is based on something repetitive, like a game series, forcing the hero to drop inexplicably back to level 1 every 26 eps. I dropped pokemon when he went to Johto with a pack of incredibly strong creatures, strong enough to almost beat the League, and suddenly they seemed to be barely able to beat the level-5 creatures at the start. No growth at all.

He He, I kind of think these two series are *exactly* the same in this regard - I mean how many shards are there anyway? InuYasha is now at 100+ episodes and could go on in the same fashion forever. Both of these kind of hark at least as far back as Sailor Moon where you had the same basic plot each show (Sailor Scouts *by chance* go to some new shop/attraction, badies have inflitrated to steal "energy", girls discover badies, badies make a monster, girls defeat monster, wash, rinse, repeat).

In any case these plot devices are never the REAL plot - they just provide a framework to hang weekly plots on (like Kane's search for his Brother in Kung-Fu or the Fugitive's hunt for the one-armed man). Often each show is really more or less stand-alone.

So what's the difference? In one word - writing! While Pokemon is a thinly disguised commercial for related toys. IY has enough side plots and characters to keep things interesting.

Generally though I don't like this style because there's never any resolution. How long must we wait for InuYasha to find all the shards? Will Detective Conan ever be able to return to his teen-age form? Will Ranma ever cure his curse? Will Gilligan ever get off the Island? and so on. Eventually they get stuck in a sort of time warp where this framing plot can never progress. Often I think it would be better to resolve this plot and have the characters move on to other things. For example, in IY they could find all the shards - but what happens then? It's not like everyone suddenly stops - writers could go on to take the show in a new direction. In other cases, like Ranma or Detective Conan, it would be more of a problem though.

[Kempis Curious]

Originally Posted by PocariSweat

Generally though I don't like this style because there's never any resolution. How long must we wait for InuYasha to find all the shards? Will Detective Conan ever be able to return to his teen-age form? Will Ranma ever cure his curse? Will Gilligan ever get off the Island? and so on. Eventually they get stuck in a sort of time warp where this framing plot can never progress. Often I think it would be better to resolve this plot and have the characters move on to other things. For example, in IY they could find all the shards - but what happens then? It's not like everyone suddenly stops - writers could go on to take the show in a new direction. In other cases, like Ranma or Detective Conan, it would be more of a problem though.

Whoever is responsible for Princess Tutu really understood the appeal and the pitfalls of the above ideas. One of the many wonderful things about the first season of that anime was how the storyline started in this fashion... heart-piece collection through monster-of-the-week, but then

Spoiler:

broke with that idea before it became repetitive. And then the whole idea of collecting the heart-pieces was called into question when the emotion of fear was given back to Mute, and also Claire's arguments in the final episodes. (Final in the first season. That second season was a disappointing tack-on for me.)

Wow, and the things that had the heart pieces were very surprising while it lasted... ballet-dancing anteater, a woman, a river, a ghost, a lamp.

Ooo I love that anime. It really shows creativity when a piece of art can manipulate genres like that.

-k