I’ve heard it said that most anime, even some of the best loved series, are in fact cliche and unoriginal. I’m sure many would agree that the majority of moe/harem/fan service anime that have come out in recent years are annoyingly cliche, but it can even be applied to shonen, shojo, slice-of-life, and other genres…
However, I have a theory that even though an anime can be fraught with cliches, there’s gotta be at least one unique, refreshing, or creative part of it in order for it to become popular.
We all know about the popularity of the big shonen trio – Bleach, One Piece, and Naruto. But if one examines them closely, we can see a number of shonen cliches – fiery, super-powered heroes who always come through in a pinch no matter how badly beaten they get, insanely evil villains, action-packed battles, and fantastical powers and phenomena abound. So if these three series all have the typical shonen cliches, why do they stand out amongst others? The answer is that they’ve each got at least one unique and very original aspect to them that brilliantly works together with the shonen cliches. For Naruto, I believe it’s the amazingly intricate ninja world together with some of the best character development I’ve seen. For Bleach, it’s the hardcore action and cool, hip style of the characters. And for One Piece, it’s the amazingly planned out continuity of the story together with humorous but also very admirable protagonists. Masashi Kishimoto, Tite Kubo, and Eiichiro Oda have the talent for taking shonen cliches, spicing them up with their own unique touches, and thus creating a work that’s unoriginal on the outside, but has much originality on the inside.
Moving on to a shojo series, what is it that made Fruits Basket so successful among the many shelves full of shojo manga? It too is fraught with cliches – lots of bishonen, a Mary Sue-esque protagonist who is often the center of attraction for the bishonen, cuteness, warmth, and “awww” moments all over. Again, manga-ka Natsuki Takaya has a talent for taking these cliches and “weaving” them within her own creative story aspects – the innovative concept of the characters turning into zodiac animals when hugged by the opposite sex makes for many uniquely humorous, as well as dramatic, situations. And of course, she has a certain way with character development and interactions.
Then what about some so-called “moe” series that have achieved immense popularity, like K-ON!, Lucky Star, and Azumanga Daioh for example? Aren’t they just the same old cliche concept of “cute girls doing cute things in cute ways?” I can’t argue that that’s what they are, but as I’ve stated, there’s gotta be something original lurking beneath that. For K-ON! and Lucky Star, I believe it’s the noticeably high-quality animation of KyoAni and the well written humor and cinematography. And for AzuDai, it’s the refreshingly witty, character-driven humor together with some very unforgettably wacky characters.
Looking at all the anime that have achieved notable popularity, it seems like originality doesn’t always matter to fans as long as there’s something unique or creative within the cliches. But I know that there are also plenty of people who are fans of a specific genre and will watch lots of series in that genre regardless of how unoriginal they are. But too much originality runs the risk of alienating the majority, which is probably why shows like Mushishi, Monster, and Kaiba can’t achieve the popularity of Fullmetal Alchemist and Sailor Moon. One Piece may be original in its character designs, but it has enough familiar shonen elements to not have this problem. Similarly, Haruhi has a very original story and literary style, but its character designs and archetypes are familiar. In the case of both series, and many others, some unoriginality is needed together with originality in order to achieve a universal appeal.
When it comes to my personal taste, I’ll watch a seemingly cliche series as long as I can find something that stands out in it that I like. For example, I decided to watch the erroneously cliche and one dimensional Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu simply because I found the basic story to be fun. I’ve watched a number of shonen and slice-of-life series, most of which were not unique, but I enjoy the genres anyway. However, there are a number of anime that I feel are genuinely original, featuring a story, plot, style, and/or characters I can’t compare to any other series (Death Note, Haruhi, Utena, Mushishi, Kemono no Souja Erin, and Spice and Wolf among others). But I can pretty much enjoy any anime, original or unoriginal, as long as what I like about it overrides what I dislike about it.
Extra food for thought (for those who like philosophical musings):
My favorite author, Mark Twain, put forth a very radical view of originality in one of his works. To summarize, he claims that humans are incapable of producing anything original, because everything that dictates what they do comes from outside influences. He even had this to say of Shakespeare…
“He was not a sewing-machine, like you and me; he was a Gobelin loom. The threads and the colors came into him FROM THE OUTSIDE; outside influences, suggestions, EXPERIENCES (reading, seeing plays, playing plays, borrowing ideas, and so on), framed the patterns in his mind and started up his complex and admirable machinery, and IT AUTOMATICALLY turned out that pictured and gorgeous fabric which still compels the astonishment of the world. If Shakespeare had been born and bred on a barren and unvisited rock in the ocean his mighty intellect would have had no OUTSIDE MATERIAL to work with, and could have invented none; and NO OUTSIDE INFLUENCES, teachings, moldings, persuasions, inspirations, of a valuable sort, and could have invented none; and so Shakespeare would have produced nothing.”
I suppose this claim could also be applied to the manga-ka I mentioned – had they not been familiar with other shonen, shojo, etc., series, they would never have anything to work with and couldn’t have produced the works that they did. I’m still not sure how much I agree with this claim, but it’s something to think about.
When there is source material, it gets very difficult to be more creative because you will always have viewers that be dissatisfied saying that it’s not close to the source material or not. When Anime is not based on the source material like with Sora no Woto that aired last winter and Angel Beats, you don’t know what will happen next and that is the best art.
Wether or not the Anime is from a source material or not is irrelevant to enjoyment. The most important part of Anime is the story/material and how enjoyable it is.
@ chikorita157
That’s a good point, though my main discussion in this post is anime (or manga) originality on its own in terms of story/characters and not comparisons to the original source material.
For me, Naruto is the complete package: a compelling protagonist in a beautifully-drawn universe with (as you said) great character development. Bleach to me is just tremendously fun and easy to watch, with its great fight/action scenes and huge number of colorful supporting characters.
Having watched huge swaths of One Piece’s Thriller Bark arc at Fanime in 2009 (where they marathoned all 35 or so episodes in a row, believe it or not), I can say that I see the appeal of One Piece. The character designs remain a big turn-off for me (I find them unattractive – even grotesque), but the main characters are people I can imagine liking and feeling something for.
I saw a few eps of Spice and Wolf at a convention. It looks rather romantic. I may add it to my groaningly large “Plan to Watch” list at some point. ;)
Creativity is important to all of us because we recognize the effort put into making an original story over one that copies what has already been done. On the other hand, we do not require it to be completely original. Mark Twain has a point. Influences from our experiences are always included in a story, whether it be from the concept of langauge, to something like the human species, the physical world, etc. Just try removing the “physical” world and you have an abstract world of thought, but remove that and you got nothing.
We need to have a prior acquiantence with something before we can assign a symbol or object to represent it. So as logical beings, we’re inclined to look for patterns and meaning into what we perceive and think. If pure originality is defined as something that is completely novel in every single aspect then I say that such a story cannot succeed in any coherent and meaningful way. It’s as pointless as attempting to randomly invent a language that correlates to nothing. Creative, perhaps, but artistically meaningless nonetheless.
The issue then is what constitutes as creativity. There’s no simple answer to this, but it of course involves some kind of originality. How is that achieved though? I’d say it involves the conjuction of distinct properties into one new and uniform creation. Let’s take an island that we’re all familiar with but unlike a typical island, this one can actually float. When taken by itself, an island is not something that floats but the abjective adds something that is different and hence creative. That’s kind of the creativity that we usually see in stories. They take familiar properties and combine them into something different but of which are nonetheless understandable by the human mind.
Haha, I think I got a little carried away there. I do tend to like the more original shows because they’re just more interesting. But I can still enjoy the cliche genres since, like you said, there’s still some originality in each of them (though not all of them). Good post btw!
I do not much care about the originality. As long as it has good story and characters, it’s good enough to entertain me. Besides, it’s a pain to think about originality or unoriginality and could spoil my enjoyment in anime.
@ Jan
I agree with you about Naruto and Bleach (except I’m not a big fan of the Bleach characters as a whole). As for One Piece, Thriller Bark is not the best arc. If you really want to see how good the show can be, I suggest Enies Lobby =)
I think you might like Spice and Wolf because it’s different (I actually don’t find it that romantic). Just be warned that it can be kind of slow-paced and dialogue heavy (it’s based on light novels).
@ MacGuy
Wow, thanks for the philosophical input. I think you explained that point better than me XD
You’re right, “pure” originality would be meaningless because it couldn’t convey anything to anyone. You need a good mix of originality together with some familiar properties to create something appealing and uniquely meaningful (the way of combining the two could be in itself a form of originality).
@ K-NIQ
Though a lot of fans like to dwell on intellectual aspects of anime (at times I’m one of them), I agree that anime should just be enjoyed, whether you care if the shows are original or not.
I think it was Aristotle who said that everything has already been told, so there’s little reason to worry about originality. Instead, a dramatist must focus on creating the most pleasing arrangement of elements.
Great advice, but this was ancient Greece. I doubt he imagined anything even close to K-ON!.
@ 2DT
That’s a good quote from Aristotle and sums up much of what I mean in this post. I’m sure he never imagined anything like K-ON!, but it’s interesting how an ideology from so long ago is still applicable to a modern and niche medium like anime.
Cliche is okay as long as it doesn’t killed the plot/story. I mean, what good does an anime/manga is if we already know what will happened next?
hmmm. I just thoght of an interesting writing expiriment for me. I’m going to take an anime cliche like happless boy meets mysterious girl and make a story on those lines. Yep, i’ll do it. bye then
bye.
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