Anime

I never watched too many Japanese cartoons. Played a lot of video games, watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as a kid, but never got into the anime thing. But I've seen a few episodes from random series because know a bunch of big anime fans and it comes my way once in a while for whatever reason. Even though I'm not addicted or anything, I gotta say that some of what I watched was pretty entertaining and funny.

One thing I noticed is that it seems like the main character is always the same guy. Like this quiet, mysterious guy with a checkered past, acts real hard all the time but has plenty of dorky moments, especially awkward when it comes to the one girl he secretly likes. For some reason it seems like the main character always has the same deep voice too, as if there is just this one Japanese guy in all of Japan that they get to do the voice for every cartoon series. I wouldn't be surprised.

Then there is the girl he likes, usually some hot chick who wears short skirts but is very innocent and sweet. She also has to secretly like him back, but they don't find out each others' feelings until the second season. At that point, they are happy together for an episode or two before something tears them apart and the struggle continues. Also, the main character has to have a number of rivals, usually with one main enemy who isn't just a plain old bad guy, but he is conflicted with his own history that we are supposed to somewhat identify with, yet still hate. I always like that guy the best in these series, he's usually the most complex and well developed character, I've found. A couple examples I can think of are Piccolo and Vegeta in Dragonball Z, or Sephiroth in Final Fantasy VII.

Another thing is that there seem to be a lot of people with blonde, brown, or red hair in these stories. Is this because that is how people look in Japan? I thought all Japanese people were born with black hair. Or maybe they just think black hair looks too lame. But something about blonde hair with chinky face and slanty eyes just doesn't seem right. It's just the guys that have slanty eyes though, the girls always have big round eyes, unlike real life Oriental girls. The other thing about hair is that spiky hair is very common too. Not spiky like Bart Simpson spiky, but I'm sure everyone has seen what I'm talking about.

So basically those are a few of the main guidelines to make a successful anime series, spoken from an observer's point of view. You get your main character (along with that guy with the deep voice to do his part), the hot but innocent chick, and a complex, mysterious, and twisted bad guy. Then incorporate the love story and scattered battles between main character and bad guy in which nobody ever wins. Be sure to also draw more Caucasian looking characters because black hair and slanty eyes aren't cool, and don't forget to add a hip Japanese dance/pop theme song to the beginning title sequence and credits. Shoot, if I could draw and had enough money to produce a Japanese cartoon, I'd make millions...