If you’ve ever watched anime before, then you know there’s a bunch of weird stuff that happens.
Nosebleeds when seeing an attractive woman, massive hammers casually pulled out of interdimensional space, and of course, running to school with bread in your mouth because you’re late.
But what can we learn from all of this insanity, and how can we apply it to our own storytelling?
During the last stream, the viewers voted that we go over “What we can learn from the weird $#*& that happens in anime”
You can see our full discussion here,
or scroll down for the highlights.
A lot of crazy stuff happens in anime: things that make us laugh, confused, or question our lives that led us up to this point where we’re now watching this happen.
This scene of a tennis shot killing all the dinosaurs is a good example.
BUT! Anime is super popular. So there has to be something of value there, something that people are emotionally responding to, so they’re worth a closer look to see what we can use in our own stories.
Chat voted that we discuss these two scenes:
#1. Food Wars (The food tastes so good it makes people’s clothes explode off, NSFW video)
What can we learn from this scene for our own storytelling? (Abridged comments by viewers)
- LaceyLN: Writing an entire story about normal things (ie: eating food) can be difficult, and exaggerations can spice things up.
- cozyrogers: Sometimes over-exaggeration is a good things. Taking a muted, more realistic approach can be tempting, but usually it’s boring.
- If you want to show off someone being very good at something (ie: cooking), then don’t be afraid to go full ham on how incredible they are.
6. Death Note (Potato chip scene)
What can we learn from this scene for our own storytelling? (Abridged comments by viewers)
- jason2242001: The potato chip is symbolic for the people he is killing, he kills as easily as he eats a chip.
- cozyrogers: Another over-exaggeration. I think we’re chiseling out a theme here with everyone’s favorite scenes.
- The beauty and brilliance in the simple (Light hides the TV in a potato chip bag, and simply writes in the Death Note while writing his homework too, so no one suspects anything, rather than some sort of other convoluted plan)
Overall, the number one thing we can learn from the weird $#!& that happens in anime: don’t be afraid to go crazy and have fun in your writing! Most people’s favorite stories have similar, crazy stuff in them:
- Harry Potter: Quidditch makes no sense but it’s awesome, the challenges to get to the Sorcerer’s Stone make no sense but are awesome.
- Game of Thrones: Main characters getting killed, blood magic, resurrection, dragons, ice dragons… it’s basically medieval anime!
Readers will remember the crazy/fun things and they will fall in love with your work BECAUSE of them, not DESPITE them.
After that, chat voted that we write a prompt about this image using the over-exaggeration we learned from the exercise: (Click here to see the image.)
Here’s what we came up with:
“Go to hell, pervert!”
Ari thrust out her palm, blasting a erupting crater of fire and flame in the middle of the street. The man who thought he’d been secretly following her cried in agony as he was tossed into the sizzling air, his sword and skin alike dripping to the asphalt below. He collapsed with a fleshy thud, shivering and groaning as the inferno in the middle of the road inched ever closer to finish him off.
Meanwhile, Ari brushed her hands off on her school uniform and shook back her long red hair.
“That’s what you get for peeping,” she said. She wasn’t sure if the man heard her over the roaring flames, but she didn’t really care.
A howl came from within the fire, warping the orange and crimson tendrils into a spinning tornado. Shadow demons poured forth from within, their horrifying forms clicking claws, chattering teeth, and cackling wings as they spread out through the city.
Ari grumbled and rolled her eyes. “Ugh, not again. I gotta plug up this hole to hell, quick!”
Not having any time to spare, Ari looked around for whatever she could use to fix this mess. The cat silently watching on was useless. The crowds of terrified people even more so. Even the skyscrapers wouldn’t be enough to cover the hole in time; the hellfires would just melt right through them.
Then Ari looked up, and the answer was right there. In the sky.
“Moon!” Ari called, holding up her hand to the giant white ball in the sky. “Time to turn the tides!”
As soon as she bent her fingers, the moon bent to her will. It grew and grew in size, its whiteness filling all the blue in the sky, eclipsing the sun and shrouding the world in darkness.
The crowds of people cried and ran, but Ari crouched down and then leaped up with the speed of a rocket. Searing through the air, she flew toward the moon, breaking through the atmosphere, then into space, and colliding right with the moon, fingers-first. She dug her hands into the moon dirt and gripped it as hard as she could.
“Ugh,” she grumbled to herself. “Now I’m gonna have to redo my nails before tonight.”
Just thinking about the smell of nail-polish remover was enough to get Ari’s heart pounding with anger as she swung the moon around and around, then let loose with it right at the hole to Hell.
The moon smacked into the Earth like a dumpling into a bowl of soup. Bits of the planet splashed everywhere out into space and magmatic ripples pulsed through every ocean and continent.
Ari waited for the sizzling to stop, then flew back down to where the moon had lodged itself into the planet, like a massive white pimple waiting to be popped.
Thankfully, the hole to Hell was now sealed. Ari stood atop the moon that was lodged into the Earth, successfully plunging the demons away. All around her, what had once been a city was now little more than embers, soot, and the occasional crooked skyscraper lying on its side.
“Oh no!” Ari cried, realizing something horrible. She couldn’t believe what she’d done. She’d made a horrible mistake!
Up in the sky, there was no more moon. That meant she wasn’t going to have a moonlit date with Brad tonight!
Unable to stand for such romantic injustice, Ari thrust out both her arms to the side, twisting her palms face-up. The world around her trembled as the corpses of skyscrapers, cars, trains, and more were lifted out from under the moon soil, hovering in the air by the thousands.
Ari threw her hands up above her head, and the skyscrapers and scrap metal followed her command. They flew up into space from all over the world, and when she brought her hands together and wrapped her fingers around each other, the buildings collided and melded together from the sheer heat of her passion.
Her work complete, Ari looked up at the sky. Now, where the moon had once been, was a massive metallic mishmash shimmering in the reflection of the sun. It wasn’t perfect, but it would do.
“I’ve got to get home quick!” Ari said. “I need time to redo my nails before Brad comes.”
She quickly dashed off, her shoes clacking against the rocky surface of the Earth-Moon.
If you want to join us and help write a story by trolling in chat, or share your own writing for feedback, then we’d love to have you. We stream on Twitch every Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday at 6:30pm-10:30pm (U.S. Eastern Standard Time).
And you missed the stream, you can still watch them on the YouTube channel or watch the full stream reruns.
Hope to see you next time, friend!
Scott Wilson is the author of the novel Metl: The ANGEL Weapon,
forthcoming March 2019.
Featured image: YouTube/JeremiPL