Look, I care about some weird things. Some really weird things. I know that. But we all have some odd little anime fetishes, it’s o.k., that what makes it fun!
When I started to share my love of anime more with others, I also started to realize that there are elements that no one but me cares about at all (or at least it seems that way). So today, I wanted to share these 5 general anime anime elements that I really enjoy and pay attention to but I sometimes feel like I’m the only one:
5) Colours
O.k., I know I’m not the only one that cares about colours in anime. I have seen other people talk about it and I always love these posts. Please write more! However, I mention colours in just about every review because to me the palette is just as important as the designs which can be as important as the narrative.
From my experience, this isn’t a particularly popular mindset. Even people who like colours don’t like them that much. Sheesh, they’re just colours. I regularly pick up anime because the colour palette in the thumbnail or promo pics was interesting. This has had mixed results…
4) Background character behaviour
I actually really noticed this recently because of Blood Blockade Battlefield and now I cannot unsee it. When an anime is populated with a lot of active and different characters in the background, it really makes it seem full of life and lush.
However, when those characters are all going about their own lives, acting and moving according to their own circumstances, it brings everything to a whole new level. The added realism brought by this detail will help me suspend my disbelief through just about anything. It also creates a sense of scale, the world seems so much bigger when it’s populated and heightens the stakes without the need for drama by automatically creating tangible innocent bystanders.
3) Irrelevant character ticks
We all have these little quirks and ticks. We run our fingers through our hair, scratch the back of our neck, fiddle with our zippers, I play with my earrings a lot. We all do these things because we have physical bodies. You know who doesn’t? Anime characters.
I’m always impressed when I pick up on subtle irrelevant character behaviour. It takes a lot of foresight to animate that. I’m not talking about physical ticks that are frequent and obvious enough to be part of the character’s traits. Rather little things we don’t necessarily pick up on consciously but that give a sense of presence to a character.
For example, there’s a scene in ACCA 13 where a secondary character sweeps his hair away from his face in the middle of a scene. It’s a small gesture that has nothing to do with what’s going on. But it’s the sort of thing people do all the time when they get annoyed by having hair in their face. Seeing an anime character do this fills me with wonder!
2) Voice cast attitude
This one may need some explanation. What do I mean by voice cast attitude? Well I don’t mean performance rather something close to chemistry but that’s not really right either. Sometimes, even in bad anime, you can sort of hear that the cast is having fun! Or maybe it’s all in my head. That’s not impossible…
Let’s assume it’s just me, it still works for this list. When I get the impression that an actor is really psyched to be there and they are enjoying their job, I immediately enjoy the entire show more through some weird happiness osmosis. You may think this can’t work for a serious or dramatic anime but you can still hear it sometimes. Ok…ok… I can.
Sadly, the flip-side of this notion also exists. Occasionally, I can hear actors that seem to be wondering what the heck they’re even doing there. Like they were forced to take the project by their managers or something. This is a huge downer for me. I’m not sure anyone else even notices these things. Heck, I’m not 100% sure they actually exist…
1) Clothes
I know that people care about clothes. Fashion is a HUGE industry. There are tons of people that care about clothes. But very few of them seem to care about clothes in anime. Not only do I care about what anime clothes look like, how they are designed and how functional they are. I went on about this for way too long in my Shin Sekai Yori review…. But I also care about how they “behave”. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone attach importance to fabric physics.
Of all the complex and convoluted layers of Yuri on Ice fandom, I have yet to find anyone that wants to talk to me about how great the clothes are in the show. Not so much the performance costumes, those are fine and occasionally amusing. I like that they are all well thought out for skating. But it’s the training clothes that are amazing. Since they are looser sweatpants and shirts, they fold and stretch with the movements of the character models. It was mesmerizing. One of my favourite parts of the series.
Yup, it’s a weird thing to care about. I do…a lot!
There you go, five obscure things I arguably attach way too much importance to. But hey, there’s no right way to enjoy anime!
So if there are random little things in anime that make you happy, share them with me! We can be happy together! Weird is the new cool after all!
