Friendship: Why is this theme prevalent in anime?
 

This isn't just limited to just anime or more specifically shonen, I noticed that a lot of anime use that whole 'power of friendship' theme. In real life, having friends is a good thing and friends come and go but it seems like in anime friendship is basically the only thing that is important. Does it have something to do with the culture of Japan? I know in the East, friendship and family is a lot more valued here than in the West. I wonder if it has anything to do with collectivism as in the United States we tend to value the individual rather than the whole. With that siad why is this so prevalent in anime especially shonen?

Humans are social beings. Anime reflects that. They portrait either a character has friends, companions or acquaintances. We are social beings even in the beginning of our development. Friends and family are essential for our development.

Imagine an anime character without any of those people. Boring.

I can say there is a lot more focus on romance than friendship. Personally as much as I enjoy a good romance story I think a story focused on friendship is more unique. Love comes in many different forms.

Also some friends come and go...not all.

Because, bros over hos.

And all struggles are best overcome together. No person is ever a one man show. On a more serious note, given the demographic that anime is directed too, these themes are particularly important.

A frenchman said that the colors of friendships are not as vivid as the colors of love but stands the test of time better. And yes that is a rough translation from this tweet. Just like there are many different kind of love, there are many kinds of friends. But I think that what shounen is trying to emphasize is that special kind of friend you meet about once or twice in your lifetime, where you cultivate a bond that last for years and where you share many happy and sad memories, you have been proud of each other, annoyed at each other, but you are still together as friends after many years (personally, I have meet two friends like that, and one friendship is as long as over twenty years). This is the kind of friendship that authors tries for many years to translate in manga form.

I think the collectivist culture is a major factor but I think (and I hope I'm not being too cynical when I say this) that another factor is the fact that it's "safe" and thus conventional. The theme of friendship is very simple, down to earth and easy to relate too, so there's a clear advantage in having such a theme (though I'm not saying they all do it for that reason).

Maybe it's the type of anime I watch, but I actually consider having a romance to be the "safer" path. Reason is that a lot of people consider romance to be a default and often people will complain when there is none. It's just that when there's a male lead and a female lead in a show, the chances of them getting equal focus in a platonic relationship seems a bit more rare.

Though I guess there's also the stale relationship thing where it seems like two characters would want to be in a relationship but the show is unwilling to commit because that would remove the easy tension. So they're just BFF ever. /glares at Seven Arcs.

Hmmm.. Friendship with romance is a way better....

I'm not going to repeat everyone else' words since they're on the mark but I do find the theme difficult to believe when the series context calls it friendship but the character's feelings are so obviously stronger than that.
But what if the bro became the ho?

The concept of friendship is the first step in building any sort of plot. You can't be betrayed if you're not a friend first. You almost never go into true love without a friendship first. Even the lack of a friendship (sociopaths, shut-ins, etc.) are portrayed by showing that a healthy life has friends. See, friendship's a foundation, and a foundation supports greater things. I'd say there's less series focusing simply on friendship alone, but most do use them to establish the true intentions of the characters.

Plus it's interesting, whether it's cute or if it's dark. A set of character studies, if you will.

But it mostly ends that way...:uhoh:

I said when, not usually. O hai Nanoha.

Ask Mari Okada!

Jokes aside, emphasis of friendship over romance is why I enjoyed her work in Anohana. Another anime that did it and I liked lately is Tari Tari.

Personally, I think Key also does a really good job with friendship better than their romance. Look at Angel Beats; it's the only thing it did right. :heh:

That anime made me cry!!!

I don't think it has something to do with culture rather than demographic.

But before that, I think you should understand the difference between ideals promoted in media and the actual thoughts of the people. I don't really remember that many movies, comics or cartoon in the west that outright promote individuality as the best ideal one should strive for. In your typical hollywood movie, whenever they want to show you a positive value, it's usually Love or Family.
But demographic really play a huge factor here. If it's a family movie, usually made to include little kids, Family is always invariably the main theme. If it's for a more adult pubic, then the focus switches to Love. Love is also an overwhelming dominant theme in music.

But when you take media aimed specifically to young teenagers, especially cartoons, anime, comics and manga, then the main them is Friendship. Why? Because at that age they aren't really that interested in Family anymore, and they aren't that mature for love either, most of them.

In Japan they more or less follow the same trend, it isn't really that different.
Friendship becomes less and less a relevant theme the more the anime is aimed at adults.

While there's been lots of great replies on this thread, I think that Jan-Poo is the closest here.

And it's not like friendship isn't valued in western culture, guys. Heck, one of the most popular North American TV shows ever was a TV show called "Friends". :heh:

Then I think of Scooby-Doo. Then I think of Archie Comics.


Here's the thing with anime - It's not so much that friendship is a prevalent theme as it's that high school is a prevalent setting. If you're going to have a high school setting and play it reasonably straight, then what are you going to show? One guy studying endlessly to try to get good marks? :heh:

No, you're going to show school clubs, friendship, and romance; the fun parts of high school, lol.

And anime sticks to the high school setting for a variety of reasons that I'll probably save for a later day.


Once you get into shows focused on older adult characters, friendships tends to become a less prevalent theme. It tends to shift more to pure romance, or "one dude against the world".

Tiger and Bunny? :p

Or an older one Cowboy Bebop also had a focus on friendship.

Well I know that is not what you are saying but I don't think friendship is only a representation of youth.

When I see friendship, I get reminded of a pink beam

I've always chalked up the creepy friendship overobsessiveness (where even an enemy who does horrific things ends up becoming your "friend" at some point), in anime to Japanese society/economy.

When you live on such a small landmass, with so many people, you're bound to have a different psychology in regards to friendship than someone from...oh...the USA.

Cowboy Bebop focused on friendship? Well... I don't really think so.
The way I see it the main characters aren't really that much tied to each other. It's more like a mutual-help group of guys who have lost everything that was important to them. They stay together because they need to to live on somehow, and they do the only thing that they can do to get food on their plates.
There is some sort of camaraderie between them, of course, but it's more on the level of work partnership than friendship.

In the end what's more important for Spike and Jet is the woman they loved, for Faye it's her past, her memories and her past self, for Eddie it's her father. And they have lost them all without a chance to recover them. Completely lost them. So Love and Family are the real important values in Cowboy Bebop. It's just that rather than showing how good it is to have them, it shows you how bad it is to not have them.


Cowboy Bebop isn't telling you that Friendship can replace that, or that it can solve any problem, like in your usual action shonen. If you have watched Cowboy Bebop you know how it ends.

When you look for how individuality is looked at in movies, you look for things like how the choice of the individual conflicts with the choices of the group and how those conflicts are resolved. For example, in a lot of American family movies, it's the parent's duty to understand that their children are growing up and to start giving them distance. For a lot of Japanese anime (which is the only experience I have with Japanese media to be honest :( ), it's the duty of the child to get the permission of the parents.

I'd say that a lot of Japanese anime promote individuality as well, but it's generally within a Japanese context and it's more limited than in American movies.

No wonder jaded viewers are now looking for anime with Lone Wolf MC's.

As pretty much every single evil villain ever say, "Stupid things like friendship are only for the weak."

Because really, it's so prevalent that it's hard to determine which character did something within his own power without being inspired by his friends.

How Cowboy Bebop ends does not negate the fact that there are themes of friendship/companionship in the story. I never said it was only the aspect of the series it is there.

I also didn't say it was about the "power of friendship" but it is about how these 4 characters came to relate to one another & why is powerful on the viewer.

Friendship does not end as you age. Stories about friendship are not immature. Again one of the most popular series of last year Tiger & Bunny was about male bonding & friendship.

Heck lets get out of anime & talk about Sherlock & Watson one of the most enduring pairs in fiction.

Which is a more realistic (certainly more grown up) scenario

Well, what do you think of this line:

"Stupid things like friendship are only for the weak! The only thing that matters is absolute force!"

So that's why people think shows about friendship are immature, huh?

Friendship Is Magic (tm).

Seriously, this is a theme in all of literature, all time, all space.

And I dispute this sweeping generalization: friendship and family is a lot more valued in the East than in the West.

The collectivist tendencies of Asian culture do mean that someone may be more likely to "take one for the team" but its a tendency, not a given.

I'm also unclear on how friendship is "immature" or "unrealistic" in adult settings. It can be more complicated but in no way is it either of those adjectives.

Well, everyone falls inlove and some succeeded to have a good romantic life. :D

Anyway...

Who in the world would stand up against the world in real life alone? :eyebrow:

Hmm... So it really comes to the setting, huh?

Friendship and family is a lot more valued in the East than in the West.

But the above statement is true, but there are always exceptions.

No sane person would ever do that in real life. It generally ends with failure.

Exactly. Every find him a lunatic or a sociopath..:heh:

It terms or realism, I'll go for "pure romance" than the "against the world thing".

But you know, that's exactly why people find "the one dude against the world" cool. He's the rebel who does whatever he wants without caring what the world thinks of him. Pretty badass, don't you think?

Because sometimes, you do need to go against the norms just do something you strongly believe in. But that doesn't mean you're going against the whole world, either.

NO. If I hear one says that in the public plaza, "It's either I think of him as a lunatic or ignore him coz he's a lunatic...."

He is a lunatic..

Probably has a lot to do with Japanese societies ideal that the group is stronger and more important than the individual and an attempt to reinforce that ideal. That through hard work and perseverance together one strengthens the self in body mind and spirit. It's something that seems ingrained in the Japanese consciousness for much of it's history, but especially since post World War II.

I think what is seen mostly in shounen anime isn't only a portrayal of the value of friendship, but an overemphasis on how "The Power of Friendship" makes everything you want possible. Those two are pretty different.

For example, Cowboy Bebop was brought up, and while there is a relevant factor of camaraderie/friendship, it's pretty toned down and mixed with all the other narrative concerns of the work. Compare with things such as Yu Gi Oh! where if the MC draws the card he needed, it is because he has friends and the antagonist doesn't.

I don't think that's bad per-se, it's just an overused approach in (mostly) battle shounen series.

Indeed. It's actually a bit annoying to me the cynical lens through which anime views adulthood sometimes. Adults are often portrayed as washed up and beaten down, cogs in the machine of society without any passion or idealism or individuality. Teenagers are the free thinkers that get things done, unlike all those boorish, incompetent adults. Whatever.

Just to be clear, when I'm talking about "one man against the world", I'm not talking about one man literally trying to conquer the world, or anything like that. I'm talking about the lone individual, the lone man (or woman) trying to carve out his niche in the world. And, in some circumstances, that may throw him (or her) into a lot of conflict. I was thinking of the anime Monster when I wrote that, by the way.

Friendship generally plays a role in shows focused on adult characters, but it's reduced a bit, and I think that's reflective of real life.

I personally think that friendship is important, all throughout life, but it's degree of importance is at its height for kids, adolescents, and maybe post-secondary students. This is due to the way modern society is structured.

Educational institutions, by their very nature, greatly encourage the people in them to make friends. Kids also tend to have more free time than adults, making the benefit of active friendship a bit more clear for kids.

I personally find that the adult workplace doesn't afford the same opportunities for making/growing friendships that educational institutions do, but I'll admit that this probably can vary wildly from one workplace to another.

Long story short, friendship isn't just important for a kid growing up, it's pretty much necessary. As an adult, friendship is still nice to have, but it's not always necessary. A lot depends on the specific individual, his/her place in life, and what s/he's aiming for in life.

I think there's a difference between explaining why friendship is a good thing, and explaining how friendship is so over-the-top in anime.

I'm sure tvtropes has a trope for it, but anyone who's watched anime for more than a few minutes must have their eyes on auto-roll every time the good guys fight the bad guys, with the good guys yelling out the bad guys' names as they magically become best buds once the fight is over.

While it's obviously an exaggeration, it's also probably due to Japanese society, where burning one's bridges-no matter how horrible a person may be-is done far less frequently than in places that don't have the population/space/economy issues Japan has.

Jaded fans avoids harems and moe girls doing cute things.

Because friendship-themed stories have the ability to bring us what we seek in our own lives, especially relationships. Love, action, comedy, naïvety, and idiocy are all part of friendship. The The theme of “friendship” is basically the love between friends, an eternal bond that, at its best, not even time or trials or an untimely heroic death can shake or sunder. And these are the things that make friendship-themed stories very adorable and heartwarming.

Adults may not need to talk about friendship but seeks friends even MORE since workplaces are full of backstabbing opportunists. Not every adults are world-weary jaded cynics.

So what SHOULD adults talk about then? Responsibility, sure, that's a given.

Agreed. Just because you're a grown adult doesn't mean you don't need friends anymore. And you don't need to talk about it all day, either.