Why I Love Anime

I’ve never been a big fan of anime series and I can count on my fingers how many of them I’ve watched in my whole life so far. (Haha, being an Asian has led me not to be interested in Asian stuff.)

However, I have to say, I really really admire anime.

On the rare occasions that I do watch one, I go completely crazy over it.

And the reason this happens is that anime producers/writers/whatever are simply the greatest storytellers that ever existed.

Indeed, this is a writing-related post (hihi what could you expect from me) and the answer to the ‘why I love Anime’ is simply because of its storytelling.

There is something about these anime writers (thus those who wrote the manga before it turned out as an anime I guess) that I believe I and many other writers are lacking, and there are only 3 words that can describe that special thing:

They. Dare. To.

Those Japanese writers dare to put on paper whatever crazy ideas cross their mind. While we stick to down-to-earth. logical but still touching stories (sincerely, check the US bestsellers’ list), they create gods of death who love apples (Death Note), good demons versus evil angels and awesome eye contact lenses (Black Butler, although the second element can apply to many others) Transformers’ robots with Arthurian names (Code Geass), people with awesome hair who can’t stop quoting Shakespeare and have to fight a tree to save the world (Zetsuen no Tempest), and what not!

Oh and do you know Winx? That part when their clothes magically changes into superpower clothes with pretty music and effects? Well, Sailor Moon came first! And Magical DoReMi 😀 This was my childhood, guys!!!

Basically, every time I watch an anime, I have that strong impression that the story has been made up by a five-year-old. And this is not criticism. I sincerely admired anime for its boldness about putting the craziest concepts out there. Magic, sci-fi, fantasy… all mixed up together! And I find it genius.

I have always thought that too much supernatural elements in a story are deemed to be absurd and childish… but apparently, I was wrong. At least, from this side of the world, it’s considered awesome.

The most recent anime I’ve watched is Zetsuen no Tempest and after I was done with it, I felt like I wanted to write… a lot. I now have this urge to put down every crazy idea I’ve ever had in my life onto paper and see how it goes. I’m therefore more into short stories for the time being, but I’m writing, and sometimes, that’s all that counts. I remember I used to have so many crazy magical stories in my head when I was younger but I never dared to take them seriously. I noted them down and that was all.

I will definitely change that.

Anime taught me, as a writer, that no idea is unworthy of becoming a story. Even if it sounds crazy, like really really crazy, it’s okay. Just put it out there, on paper, in the real world, and who knows. It might be your Japanese lucky day 😉

Keep on writing, guys.

An Evil Nymph.

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