1. What is the historical context for blue hair? Why does no one notice the brightly colored hair that everyone in anime seems to have? How do they get their hair to be all pointy?
There’s a cultural purpose for people with strangely colored and strangely shaped hair. And there’s also a lazy artistic reason.
First, the lazy artistic reason. It’s easier to distinguish characters with different hair colors and styles. I mean, who can’t recognize Goku with his hair going all woo and wee in all sorts of different directions? And who doesn’t remember that Botan from YuYu Hakusho has blue hair?
The cultural reason: People in Japan generally only have black hair, unless they’re part Japanese, part something else. As such, it’s extremely rare to find someone in Japan that doesn’t have black or brown hair. In fact, in some of the more strict schools in Japan, you can’t have your hair colored anything but black (it may have changed since I got that information though).
So the people of Japan want to stick out. On the weekends, they’ll dye their hair some different color and then change it for school on Monday. To stick out. The Japanese, I think, inherently want to be different, to look different, amongst themselves. So they give their characters these strange colored hair colors to compensate for their own inability to do so.
At least that’s my theory.
2. What is the most common theme in anime?
This will vary greatly depending on who you ask. There are three very well-known genres within anime: 1. Shonen (though it’s not known as that), 2. Magical girl, and 3. Hentai. Of course the only theme you’re going to find in hentai is trying to get pervy Japanese kids off. The shonen and magical girl genres have a little more.
I’d say that the most common theme in anime would just be shonen in general. I mean, that’s what was always on TV when us 20-somethings were kids. Dragonball Z, Pokémon, Digimon, YuYu Hakusho, all those I would consider shonen.
Then the most common thing in shonen is overcoming some “unbeatable” enemy. Piccolo, Raditz, Vegeta, Frieza, Cell, Buu, Gary, Rando, The Four Saint Beasts, Toguro, Sensui, Yomi, and more recently, Sasuke, Aizen, Aokiji, Akainu, Kizaru, Zeref, the Oracion Seis, Grimoire Heart, and every other antagonist ever (it’s gone past the point where I’m just trying to show off my memory of names).
So the answer really is that there is no answer. It’s like asking what’s the most common theme in movies or what’s the most common theme in TV shows. There’s such a variety of movies, TV shows, and anime that it’s nigh on impossible to define one theme.
3. Why do the stores that sell anime decide to jack up the price?
This is an easy question. Right Stuf and Amazon, they don’t have to pay for a brick and mortars store. Borders, Barns and Noble, Best Buy, and everyone else, they have to pay for the store and the employees to interact with you and upkeep on anything inside it. For Right Stuf, they have to pay for a warehouse, some tech support, and the PR people since they also license things and go to conventions.
So because of that, Right Stuf and Amazon can afford to sell for much less than the MSRP compared to Best Buy and Barns and Noble. I mean, even when Borders was liquidating and had everything on sale, I could STILL find better deals on Right Stuf and Amazon for most of their stuff. I just bought a few things at Borders because I wouldn’t have to wait.
The way that a store that sells anime, or any store that doesn’t sell food or isn’t a franchise, has to do is they have to know their customers and they have to focus on selling things other than DVDs, blu-rays, and manga. I know if there was an anime shop near me, like really near me, I’d be a regular there. I probably still wouldn’t buy DVDs, blu-rays, and manga there, but I’d go there regularly because I like anime and I like talking about anime. I’d also pick up some general anime merchandise here and there. A figure or a plushie or basically anything that has the name K-ON! on it…
4. What happened to the series I like and why do they keep getting discontinued?
It’s a sad story with these. The reason is because they don’t sell. As much as you, or I, like them, not enough people do. It’s especially bad if they were licensed by a certain company named Tokyopop. Series like Fruits Basket are going to be picked up by someone else. I mean, ADV manga had Gunslinger Girl and Yotsuba& and both of those got picked up because they’re popular. But for the less popular things, the luck is running thin.
It’s a notorious thing to happen with DVD prints, back when they released a 26 episode series in a 6 DVD set. They’d print say 100,000 copies of the first volume. But it only sold 75,000. So the second volume will print 75,000. But that only sold 60,000. So the third volume will print 60,000. And so on until you get to the sixth volume, which only printed 25,000 compared to the original 100,000 copies of the first volume. I have this problem with Darker Than Black. I have volumes 1-3 and 5. I need 4 and 6 and I can’t find 4 for less than $25 and I can’t even find 6.
So the answer is that it isn’t popular enough, so it’s not going to keep getting printed. Do you want Viz or Seven Seas to continue printing your favorite series? Them buy more! Tell your friends to buy three copies (one for yourself, one to loan, and one for the vault). It’s sadly the only way we get the word to the publishers that we like it. They look at sales, not visits on scanlation sites.
5. How many anime have video games? And how many video games were inspired by anime? (reverse?)
This is a tough question. There aren’t many video games that get turned into anime (like, say, Resident Evil and some other mediocre to bad video game movies here in the States). The exception is visual novels.
There are tons and tons of visual novels that get anime adaptations (and they don’t really deserve it unless they were made by Key). And even if they were made by Key, it’s still not a great reason to make it. Clannad is the exception to the rule, really. But all the anime that I’ve watched that are based off of visual novels aren’t that great. [I take that back, Amagami SS is great. Another exception.]
But there are lots of anime that get turned into video games. Or at least all the popular shonen anime get a fighting video game adaptation. Dragonball Z, Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, and I’m pretty sure Fairy Tail have all gotten a video game adaptation. This excludes PSP and Japan exclusive games, though. Because there are tons of those that I don’t even know about.
6. Why do I always feel that an anime scene I'm watching is weirdly sexual?
Why do American’s have sex scenes in their movies? Why are people having sex on Game of Thrones? Why is that really awkward scene in Watchman? BECAUSE PEOPLE WANT TO WATCH IT! I have no idea why (probably because they’re horny, prepubescent teenagers), but they want to watch it in the middle of something good, or at least mediocre.
Despite yours or anyone’s hatred toward the style of doing things, it sells. People watch it, they eat it up, and they love it. Hell, the only extras on any Spice and Wolf DVD was the “Stretching with Holo” and “Learning from Holo” on Spice and Wolf II release. Why? PEOPLE WANT TO WATCH HOLO BE CUTE. As much as you find it weird or sexual, other people love it and other people find it cute.
Take K-ON! as an example. It’s a very cute show with a lot of “sexual” things going on. They aren’t actually sexual, but it’s just a fun story about four girls who want to make a band, be successful, and most importantly…have FUN. The author wanted to make something cute that boys could enjoy as much as girls. It worked, I think. If you don’t like how they do it, then stop watching it. Behind Spice and Wolf’s sexy parts, there’s a good story. Behind the Major’s sexual getup, there’s an amazing story.
Moving on to Hellsing. The easy answer is that Kouta Hirano is a perv (which he really, really is). I mean, a lot (a lot) of the characters in Hellsing were based off of former characters Hirano had created. In hentai manga. If that’s not enough for you, then because guess what? IT STILL SELLS. People still want to watch Seras be “boobylicious.” Or is it boobielicious? In any case, they still want to see that.
Besides, if you want to see freakishly huge boobs, watch One Piece. Because dear god, some of those characters. So Seras is normal when I think about it like that. Then I move on to ignoring it. Because there’s something else going on. He’s called Alucard and he’s amazing.
In the end, it’s all to sell more. And it’s working. K-ON! and Oreimo sells more than Wandering Son because it has cute things to sell, even though Wandering Son is one of the greatest shows out there.
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