Of Anime and Games

It goes without saying that I love anime. I will watch almost anything once, but for an episode to drag me in it has to have one heck of a intriging episode. There are many differentiating factors in anime but one of the first things that you come across is the opening.

Most anime openings are very generic nowadays, but some good animes that have started recently have broken the mould and have had openings that are actually relevant to the anime rather than just showing the characters standing there while music plays. High School of the Dead's opening is a good example of a opening done well. It shows off the characters well while keeping them believable and giving them a small amount of character right off the bat. Another opening of honourable mention goes to Working!! which did show all of the characters standing while giving the illusion of movement, but at the same time gave us an idea of what the characters contributed to the story.

For a while now main characters in anime have been very generic and you really could mix and match anime main characters and not get much variety. But the anime main characters that stand out are the ones that adapt to their surroundings. Anime most of the time requires a plot device, and I say most of the time mainly because of Lucky Star in which the only plot device was that they were building up to performing a dance, and even that plot element was put aside for most of the season! The way to make a main character likable in my opinion is to establish a character in the first few episodes and then make them change slowly considering the surroundings. Its called Character Development children.

If your anime has a team or supporting characters (I personally am waiting for a recent anime to only have one character and still be good), they need to be well established and each get the screentime they deserve. Need more main characters than Occult Academy but possibly less than High School of the Dead.

If you want my opinion on Anime, go check out the list below:

• Occult Academy
• Working!!
• High School of the Dead
• Gantz
• K-ON!
• Ookami-san to Shicinin no Nakamatachi

This brings me to my next point though. Why does the transition from anime to game happen so easily in Japan (I know its where it is recognised as a traditional form of media, but i'll get to that), and not in Europe! I for one would like to see more Anime games especially from the more recent anime releases. It can't be that hard for High School of the Dead at least. Surely.