Common Anime Theme's

Has any one ever noticed there is usually a common theme in anime's at least that I've seen so far and read about.

1.) reincarnation: I think this is what occurs most often.

2.) I hope no one hates me for this but cross-dressing in anime and manga I see it all the time even if it just happens in one episode or not event that.

3.) Finally tragic love couples, I love it but every where I see there is a couple and its always sad/tragic and only "sometimes" comes out to be a happy ending.

Magical girls.

Cute animals.

And there's ALWAYS a person who can talk to said cute animals.

[Cap'n Boo from Timbuktu]

A common theme is power. A great many series involve characters who have powerful artifacts/amazing abilities/supernatural allies; these characters spend most of their time fighting off either people with similar abilities or people who want to harness those abilities for their own agendas. Alternately, we have characters who are looking for powerful artifacts or whatever, and have to fend off attacks from rival adventurers.

Also another theme similar to what Cap'n Boo from Timbuktu just said. Competiton either between the hero and enemy, rivals, or even friends sometimes.

That's stupid, Sailor Vesta, anything can have a competition between hero and enemy. Not just animes. I mean hero vs enemy? That is hardly an anime theme as much as it is a story theme, and everything (movie, TV show, anime, video game) has a story.

I can name at least three anime for for each of mine, so here goes ^_^:

1) Dragonballish theme: Searching across the worlds for shards/pieces/people/etc. Someway through the whole thing, some of that is stolen or kidnapped or etc.

2) The normal main hero boy. He's normal. And a bit bored. He has really unusual people near him, though. And he's got a very good heart.

3) The loser main hero. He's a joke, almost an antihero. But he's got a sad past. And he's gonna try his best to achieve his goals.

4) Getting tested with some incredibly difficult test that is revealed in the end to have some sort of trick catch to it.

Good Call, Silverwind, on that Dragonballish theme. I never realized it but a lot of animes do do that.

Fushigi Yuugi (Suzaku Seven)
Cardcaptor Sakura (Clow Cards)
Dragonball DB/Z/GT (Dragonballs)
Inuyasha (Jewel fragments)
Sailor Moon (Heart Crystals, Star Seeds, Raibow Crystals)
Digimon (Crests)
Yu-Gi-Oh (Millenium Items, God Cards)

heh, I could go on . . .

[Falco53]

Hmm. Common themes:

Bad guys switching sides and gradually becoming anti-heroes. Typically they fight with the protagonist of the anime and lose despite their great, sometimes superior, strength. They end up switching sides, but their morals still don't quite coincide with that of the protagonist. This is found in Zoids CC/GF, the Dragonball series, Yugi-Oh, and Yu Yu Hakusho. (There are probably a lot of others) In Zoids, Raven, a bad guy through most of the series, ends up helping Van to save the world. In Dragonball, hoo boy, there are a lot! Krillin, Piccolo, Vegeta, and probably some others I don't remember. In Yugi-Oh it would be Kaiba. In Yu Yu Hakusho it would be Hiei.

Another theme: Former allies becoming evil (usually childhood friends). It doesn't usually happen right in the middle of the series, rather it is usually a childhood friend of the main character. Then they fight and the former ally says: "I used to hold on to your ideals, but I found out that the only absolute is POWER!!!!"

Another one: The hero and the villain having many similarities. Often the villain will try to win the protagonist to his side by saying, "You and I are alike. We are above all this. Let's join forces and take over the world."

I'll probably have more later.

Inuyasha (Jewel fragments)

And you just know that once all of them are together they will get stolen by the bad guy who uses it to become ultra uber and go on a killing spree. Thats a theme in itself.

^That's pretty much what's expected for the new episodes of Inuyasha.

Transexuality, Pedophilia, and Giant Robots

Anime theme: Pure ****. That's pretty much what Hamtaro, Pokemon, SD Gundam, and Duel Masters are.

Amnesiac or clueless person who holds a key to some important artifact, preferably relationg to the transformation of the human or equivalent race, and must discover it while being hunted by villains.

The hero always wins in the en when playing a game.

Somehow the most inane game becomes nore important than anything because the fate of the world lies upon who wins.....****ing tops. COME ON! Who the hell gets excited over tops? Damn kids these days piss me off to no end.

Games. There are a lot of Anime which are centered around some sort of game which may-or-may-not-exist:

Pokemon
Yu-gi-oh
Angelic Layer
Hikaru no Go
Card Captor Sakura
Digimon

[ March 30, 2004, 09:02 AM: Message edited by: UserGoogol ]

Pokemon, Digimon, and CCS aren't really games in their world. Heck, Digimon and CCS weren't even based on games.

Digimon wasn't? I though it was. Those tiny pet things. You could battle em.

Are you sure it's not the other way around--that the pets were based on the anime?

Originally posted by UserGoogol:
Games. There are a lot of Anime which are centered around some sort of game which may-or-may-not-exist:

Digimon

Only season 3, and .hack//SIGN is another example.

[ March 30, 2004, 09:00 PM: Message edited by: Douglas.EXE ]

The anime is based on the keychain things.