The future of anime may seem promising with the use of artificial intelligence, but it comes with its own set of challenges. Recent articles have been exploring the pros and cons of automating the animation industry. On the positive side, AI can reduce the time and cost required to create anime, while also improving the quality of the final product. However, the downside is that these tools can potentially erase people's jobs. Many animators already fear that their jobs are at risk when AI is involved. Additionally, the lack of jobs in the field may lead to less diversity and creativity in anime productions. It's imperative to weigh the good, the bad, and the ugly of AI in the anime industry and find ways to use this technology fairly and efficiently.
This is a very interesting article and one that is hard to take a firm stance on. I can see why Corridor would want to 'democratise' animation since they require large teams and a lot of money. It would be interesting to see the variety of storytelling that would be available (though the downside to anybody being able to make their own animation is that ANYONE can make their own animation). On the flip side, you are taking jobs from professional animators. It would be fascinating to explore if there is a place for both (perhaps AI can assist in independent material, which would never otherwise be made, while animators' jobs are protected in the future). Excellent topic. – A G Macdonald2 years ago
Analyze what makes Itachi Uchiha, from Naruto, a villain or a tragic hero (based on the Greek archetype of tragic heroes). He was responsible for the massacre of his family, even if for noble reasons. A pacifist, a prodigy, who caused lots of pain. Contrary to villains, however, his motivations were pure, and he led a miserable life, maculated by his choices. Compare him to either Batman or a "darker" or tragic hero, as opposed to a villain or even an anti-hero.
Example: Due to his noble birth and good character, Macbeth is a tragic hero in the traditional sense. But his ambition — his deadly flaw — causes his demise at the play's conclusion. As he sinks farther and further into the shadows, it also drives him to commit several crimes, including murder. He embodies the archetype of the tragic hero, despite some of his characteristics falling short of perfection. – Beatrix Kondo2 years ago
Itachi Uchiha reminds me of another tragic hero, Cassius au Bellona from Red Rising. – Morgan Tracy12 months ago
Yu-Gi-Oh! is a long-running franchise encompassing anime, manga, video games, and trading card games. Between 2000 and 2019, six Yu-Gi-Oh! anime series were produced by Studio Gallop, each focusing on a different cast of characters, setting, and even genre. Although each Yu-Gi-Oh! series offers a distinct story, all six of these anime have received criticism from both fans and critics for their portrayals of female characters. All six Yu-Gi-Oh! anime are centred primarily on male characters, and the few girls and women that appear in the stories are commonly sidelined if not cast into harmful gender stereotypes. From my research, most analyses of gender representation in Yu-Gi-Oh! discuss these problems, but I think there is also scope to analyse how Yu-Gi-Oh!’s problematic depictions of female characters contrasts with its representation of male characters. Despite its marginalisation of female characters, Yu-Gi-Oh! presents a surprisingly non-toxic portrayal of masculinity, in which male characters are allowed to talk about their feelings, show friendly affection for one another, and resolve conflicts without resorting to violence. The proposed article would unpack how Yu-Gi-Oh! offers both reductive and progressive representations of gender and how these representations create contradictory messages for the audience.
There is also a lot to be said of the various difference between the English dub of the characters and the Japanese versions. From what I understand, characters had motivations removed by the 4kids dubbing company, so analysis through a cultural lens could be a valuable aspect to add. – Sunni Ago2 years ago
Agreed on the prior point that the dubs would remove the motivations of the characters. That's most definitely why we would end up with a character like Akiza who started out abused, fearful of her own power, and manipulated by a close confidant. She seemed like she was going to be the strong female character that Yu-gi-oh couldve had in Tea and Alexis but she just ended up being someone who worked off of love for yusei rather than moving forward for herself. – JA12 years ago
I think gender representation in older anime reflect the time period in which they were made. For example, in Naruto, we don't see any strong female characters until 83 episodes into in the show. Until the appearance of Tsunade in that episode, there are no women portrayed as strong or independent. Even then, when Tsunade is introduced, she is drawn with exaggerated breasts. – Morgan Tracy12 months ago
Money in Naruto comes in the form of 'Ryo'. However, it isn't ever explicitly mentioned how money is received or created. For example, Kakashi Hatake. Previously, he was part of the ANBU Black Ops, then soon became a jonin-level, academy teacher. What kind of income did he get while he was working as an ANBU? If any? Compare him to a chunin, academy teacher like Iruka Umino. What kind of income did he get? If you compare them together, would that mean Kakashi is significantly wealthier than Iruka?
Not trying to bash this topic, but I genuinely do not know how interesting of an article this will be, as the series does not focus on money that much. So, there is really not much to say. (I think there might be some filler episodes that address wealth, but they're filler so whether they match/can be considered canon is actually debatable.) We only get a few brief explanations about ninja's pay. I would have to do some digging to confirm, but I do recall that orphans get their needs taken care of by the village (at least in the hidden leaf. Other villages have differing policies.) until they are old enough to earn money for themselves. So, this is how Naruto and Sasuke are being taken care of before they become genin. During the early chapters/episodes when Naruto is getting his early mission it is stated that ninja's tend to get paid upon completion of a mission. A portion of that pay goes to the village and that is how the village and ninja's make money. Where never told how that money is split, but it is made clear that the village is very similar to a private military company. With the Hokage and elders acting as contractors, and the ninja's acting like mercenaries. The pay is based off the difficulty of the mission. (I recalling this being stated just before the Zabuza arc starts. Naruto is complaining about how their getting lame missions like chasing a cat, and wants something more difficult to prove himself.) Other than that I do not recall much else being said about the pay. I do know every village also has a Daimyo (Lord of the country) so they could be getting pay from them as well, but once again to my knowledge nothing is stated. – Blackcat1302 years ago
To add to that, how does Naruto sustain himself? He's lived by himself since he was a child, does he receive an allowance from the Hokage? – EvanLizardiSimo2 years ago
Studying the economics of an anime world sounds like an interesting topic! Maybe you could extend this beyond Naruto as well, and compare a couple of other shonen anime in which money isn't the central focus. – Sangnat2 years ago
This is one of the thing I really don't like about Naruto. Despite being such a long run it never even scratched the economics side of the world building. One of the untouched side by Kishimoto. On the other hand HxH did it really well while explaining the world building.
Now they should do it in Boruto(since Naruto is the Hokege) but I don't think they are doing it. – tasin2 years ago
With so many different anime and manga available in the world, there are bound to be many that grow in popularity much more than others. For instance, series like Demon Slayer/Kimetsu no Yaiba absolutely blew up in popularity in late 2019. Other series like One Piece and Naruto have stayed relevant ever since they began in the late 1990s, and it seems just about everyone knows what Attack on Titan is even if they never watched/read anime/manga. But what is it that makes these series so popular? The characters, themes, accessibility, plot, or something else completely?
A degree of familiarity within innovation and a high-quality storyline tend to be the two main variables. – J.D. Jankowski4 years ago
I feel like it'd be good to note that all of the ones you've mentioned here are generally classed as shonen (marketed at young/teen boys), and I believe they all (or most) were originally featured in the very popular Shonen Jump magazine in Japan. I'd imagine that having such a big audience as teen boys, and coming from such an established publisher, would help the ones you've mentioned. – AnnieEM2 years ago
It will be very important do differentiate between what makes a manga popular in the Japan, the west, and globally. – LukePatitsas2 years ago
The anime/manga could be recommended by someone and then it could get reviews if the person likes it. – Khrista2 years ago
With regards to manga popularity, there's something to be said about a successful anime adaptation skyrocketing it to mainstream notoriety; particularly in the west, the average person who doesn't consider themselves an animanga fan has still likely seen a handful of anime episodes at some point, but is far less likely to have read manga casually. Subsequently, there's a definite trend in shonen and seinen manga getting full-length, multi-season anime adaptations; for shoujo and josei series, if they are adapted into anime series at all, they often are left incomplete after only 1-2 seasons, which prevents them from becoming household names or becoming truly mainstream (notable exceptions would be Fruits Basket and Sailor Moon, which were fully animated). A series like Naruto stays relevant even today in part due to sequel material like Shippuden and Boruto. One Piece is still currently running and has had nearly 1000 manga chapters to build such an active fanbase and sense of recognition. Many series that don't run that long, and therefore don't have such continued advertising, never have much of a chance to break into the mainstream. – Zoe L2 years ago
Jigoku Shojo or Hell Girl is an anime that deeply explores anecdotes of people holding grudges against each other and sending the perpetrator to hell for multiple reasons, sometimes even for what seems like trivial reasons. For instance, a school girl chooses to send her bullies to hell thanks to the website from which Hell Girl appears and invites her to pull the string off a Voodoo doll. Hell Girl gives all her clients the free will to decide whether to pull that string or not, i.e. the choice to send them to hell or not. As such, this is a depiction of how humans carry emotions like hate and resentment within their heart when they go through some kind of unfairness. The show does not only include victims choosing to send their enemies to hell though. It also involves characters misunderstanding situations and misjudging someone as causing some sort of disturbance and they send them to hell while they are innocent. This entails how humans' sense of justice can be distorted due to many factors. This anime is thought-provoking in that occultic elements and events can be analyzed to investigate how they work towards the representation of human unforgiving tendencies against the ones who they feel have wronged them. An interpretation can also be made to invoke spiritual beliefs on the theme of forgiveness as in how not forgiving someone eventually leads the victim to hell as well. From this, a discussion can be developed about the meaning of real forgiveness beyond the anime.
On top of showing how good, evil, and morality are played with outside Judeo-Christian and Western frameworks, it also does a good job showing just what it means to really forgive...and why some fall short of doing so, to their own detriment. Certainly worth pursuing. – md019573 years ago
Analyse the role fillers play in anime to protect long running anime series from running out of source material. Fillers in anime are used to prolong a certain stage of the anime without affecting character relationships or the main plot line. Typically, they are used when an anime series catches up to the manga it is based on, and seeks to give the manga time to "catch up". For example, Naruto Shippuden is a popular anime series that ran from 2007 to 2016. In that time 500 episodes were aired with 205 or 41% of them being considered filler. There are many examples of this (One Piece, Bleach, etc), which have led viewers skipping fillers in their pursuit of the rich storylines these series have to offer. Whether or not a viewer likes or dislikes filler episodes, skips or pushes through them, they are clearly a significant flaw in the process of anime series adapted from manga. Perhaps, it is better now? Or perhaps it is the same? What alternatives are there for writers when the adaptive material overtakes the original? Since in essence it is an adaptation, should it expand on its own? Or should producers of these large anime series go on hiatus to allow the manga to catch up?
This is super interesting! "Filler" happens in a lot of TV shows, mostly animated ones but not exclusively anime (though anime is certainly the most extreme filler to content ratio!). Would love to read an analysis of what it says about shows that need to insert fluff to fill out episode counts. Is it an industry problem? Do shows need to run longer than their stories are capable of carrying them? Or should everything be like the mini-series that are a few hours long and all plot all the time? Great topic :) – SBee3 years ago
I think this is changing with the internet. Now, that everything comes out instantly in seasons, it is hard to have filler. When i think of filler i think of Dragon Ball and Naruto. I wonder how long it will take until anime's start poking fun at fillers and self-aware that no one wants them. A satirical look on fillers if you will. lmaoo – Ninety-Nine3 years ago
A problem in a majority of anime. I first got fed up with Naruto because of the unnecessary fillers (but more importantly the flashbacks - do they count as fillers when done purely to increase episode length?). This topic should definitely be written soon. – rosewinters3 years ago
There is actually a pretty good brief explanation of why fillers exist by an anime itself, Gintama (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4S9NuI6NKo). But as Ninety-Nine said fillers were more of a practice/trend of old anime. It'd be interesting to explore the importance of fillers before in storytelling and how their changes (or decrease in frequency) affect current anime. – Lyka Cali3 years ago
I am definitely the type to skip filler if I can, and I wish it didn't exist. However I think in the case of anime, it essentially has to. Anime has the mostly unique problem that it is an adaption of a written work (usually one that is ongoing). Also, especially with older anime, it is done in a week to week episode format. So if the show catches up to where the original current work is, it is kind of stuck. I personally do not think they should start creating their own "cannon" content. The shows should stick to the original source material as best they can. And there are few options other than filler. An example is One Piece (my favorite anime). They basically did away with filler all together, but instead pad out episodes and fights, making the already long arcs longer. This is not a problem. The problem isn't longer arcs, it's stretched out episodes with bad pacing. But the other alternatives are the anime just stopping until there is more material to work with, or filler. A lot of Netflix anime release in seasons, waiting until there is a new arc in the manga before releasing their next season. I think this might work better. But if you are a network releasing an episode every weak, filler may be your only option. As annoying as it is, filler is somewhat of a necessary evil. – Joel Stadler3 years ago
There is an interesting overlap that I've seen and a concept that I'd like to bring up. What about the idea of "good" filler? I've heard the term thrown around about a few episodes or arcs in some Shonen series. Is filler a one hundred percent bad thing? Or do we resent filler because the filler episodes/arcs are poorly written? I think filler can theoretically be good and even elevate the show. Think about arcs in your favorite anime that don't necessarily tie into the main plot but are still enjoyable. If we accept this clause that filler can be good, now for the next question. Since filler isn't canon is it less less valuable? Hypothetically if the mangaka wrote the filler would it be filler anymore? Or a standalone anime exclusive episode? Just some things to think about. – alexpasquale112 years ago
Filler gets a lot of hate so I think an article on why it’s used so often and what role it plays would be really interesting. However, instead of addressing ways around it…it might be better to just try and help people understand why it’s useful and why it’s in our favorite shows because a lot of it can’t really be reversed. Then again, if you have unique suggestions for decreasing its use and comparing shows like Boruto and AOT for example to analyze their difference in filler count and why that difference is so major…that’d be cool too. – edixon2 years ago
I recently wrote an article about fillers, and I think some of them are really fun to watch and aggregate value to the stories. – kondobeatrix2 years ago
This topic involves an examination of the animated opening/ending credits sequences that bookend most popular modern anime. In anime, an opening credits sequence often highlights main characters, hints at plot arcs, and features the names of studio staff, all while synchronized to music. Analyze how an opening may influence the "tone" of a show, and how that may correlate to sub-genre. What does a "good" opening sequence do for an anime? What does it do or provide for audiences? Perhaps look into the history of opening/ending credits sequences in anime to compare how fans view & share these openings today online. (I had some trouble coming up with a catchy title, so any and all suggestions are welcome!)
Hmm, for title suggestions, maybe something like "How an Anime's Opening Affects Its Audience's Expectations" or something in that vein, since the focus seems to be on how the opening sets the mood and expectations for those watching. – Emily Deibler5 years ago
^Agreed with the title suggestion.
It will also be interesting to analyze how a great anime opening/ending has furthered the career of singers/musicians/artists. For instance, I am automatically attracted to any songs from Asian Kung-Fu Generation used for an Op or Ed. I have discovered this band thanks for anime but now, I find myself "liking" shows thanks to their contribution. – kpfong835 years ago
Interesting! I think openings are a really good set up to anime series and some are surely better than others. I think the soundtrack/opening song may also be a big factor here as well, not to mention the art work or the showing of the stories. For example "Yona of the Dawn's" opening is one of the few animes that uses just instrumental as opposed to a song with lyrics. In addition, it recaps a bit of the story. Other theme songs have lyrics that are written in the character's point of view, introducing you to their world. Carole and Tuesday is a newer anime that used beautiful art to captive its audiences. Older animes like Sailor Moon were also very creative and used different elements to get the audience captivated. For a title you could do: The impact of the Opening: How the opening sequence of an anime has evolved and impacts its viewers. – birdienumnum175 years ago
I think this would make an interesting topic! anime openings haven't been gaining much attention from reviewers and scholars even though they represent a significant part of the theme, tone and mood, characters, and even the story as a whole. They are charged with semiotic features that deliver predictable messages pertaining to the anime in question. – Malak Cherif3 years ago
I really love this topic because, with Netflix's skip intro button, intro's and outro's can become obsolete. Are they even necessary anymore. It is sad to think that they will go away but it could be inevitable. – Ninety-Nine3 years ago
