First off, Lady Shiki reminds you of Impz? Wouldn’t Wriggle fit more into the role… (shuts up before she gets killed)

As for the topic, I don’t think it’s a matter of a lack of originality among animation studios (and the source material they use), but the fact that the same tired formulas we bemoan, well, *work*. It’s important to remember that, at their core, animation studios and manga publishers are still businesses.

There is an early mover advantage to originality. As a medium gets popular, the things that worked initially overshadow the things that had lesser potential. As the medium matures, there is a move towards specialization and niches in order to extract greater value by being more original in the niche than anyone else. This is as true of anime and manga as it is for classical music or computer algorithms.

Also, general storytelling hasn’t changed that much when it comes to human relationships. Most of the originality today is nothing more than small variations on themes that have been around thousands, perhaps millions, of years.

Anime and manga’s biggest successes for originality have come from embracing many of the sci-fi and fantasy concepts. By doing so they can explore philosophical points that cannot be explored by sticking to the “here and now” of gritty reality.

The real death of originality comes much from the fact that people are happier and more comfortable when they have a frame of reference that matches their own. The most popular shows almost always tend to have situations and settings that parallel ones that are common today. This is particularly true for romance and social interactions, which are often the glue that allows a truly “out there” sci-fi or fantasy to connect with the audience.

I don’t think originality is dead so much as hidden behind the limitations of the medium and social mores. I think it will take either a major technological advance or a major change in our social structure before we see anything we consider “original” again - even though a historian may not find it that original.

Impz reminds you of Sikieiki? The mind, it boggles.

Errr… … …

Psychonauts. Totally awesome game. Lousy sales until it was up on Steam.

Similarities? Go draw them yourself.

Mmmmmm he’s saying it reminds him of Impz because Impz loves green haired lolis, not that Impz looks like that.

As for originality, it’s a pretty subjective standard. The vast majority of media today contains large parts of things that have been done in the past, whether you notice it or not. This is especially true in comedy where familiarity is what makes a lot of it funny. The fact is that true originality requires a genius, and only a miniscule fraction of the population is capable of something like that. Couple that with the fact that the anime industry doesn’t pay much and is risk averse, and you find shows that are similar in nature. The point is that it’s not something that’s new, it’s always been like that.

People have been saying originality is dead for as long as there has been media. In today’s anime world the people that say originality is dead are those that don’t like the predominant genres out there. If you don’t like moe or harem shows you will probably say they are all crappy copies. However, fans of the genre can tell the differences and appreciate all of the shows. You can categorize True Tears and Kimiaru as moe harem shows, but they are completely and utterly different. The fact that there are pretty girls and one male lead does not mean it is not different and entertaining.

If one doesn’t like mecha they can say that wow every show is a clone of Eva or Gundam First-they are unoriginal and crappy. So be careful before you make broad statements that originality is dead especially when you cite Naruto of all things as something that should be looked upon as a good example.

Man, you people write a lot haha.

@Myssa: Yeah, I hadn’t thought about business being a factor as to why nothing new seems to be coming out recently. Reminds me of my previous post on Anime Merchandise and how much more guy-oriented merchandise there is than girls. It’s still kind of depressing though, on how money and society basically run our lives, regardless of how much we struggle against them.

@SBWizard: I don’t necessarily believe that Originality is dead. I feel that there are still some gems there such as Death Note that can be considered to be honestly original. However, I think that most new manga/anime that is being produced just plays to the masses because it’s what we like. If you’ve been eating a delicious cheeseburger for everyday of your life and all of a sudden you’re presented with an Avocado Burger, wouldn’t you stick with the cheeseburger? Of course, if you’re a vegetarian, I am very sorry for using this example, but I kind of think that it may not be the problem of Mangakas not trying to be original but the problem of the media feeding off of accepted ideas. I agree with your cliche idea though. So many storylines nowadays are so repetitive that I can call the plot premise before the anime even starts.

@kdp: Yeah, I know what you mean by the expansion of sci-fi and fantasy concepts. Although there’s so many different types of fantastical animes, basically in the end they’re all similar in one way or other. But could you argue the point that right from the first romance anime or the first comedy anime etc. that future shows to come wouldn’t be able to call themselves original? Because of the limited nature of the human language, regardless of how hard we try, we tend to fall into a cycle of utilised words, motifs, etc. Can we even call the small variations on story originality?

@Shippo: Yeah, I also enjoy anime that isn’t necessarily groundbreaking. The character originality concept interests me though. Since each character in an anime is different from any other character, would that mean that one could argue that all anime’s can be considered original? I don’t think so, but it would be intriguing to see someone argue this point.

@Drm: I didn’t even know the loli’s name haha. I just found it on Danbooru ;D. Psychonauts kind of reminds me of Jak and Daxter mixed in with Sly Cooper from the description. Of course, I’ve never played so I may be completely wrong. Also, similarities between what? Green Loli and Raz 0_0?

@BigN: Haha, because of Impzie’s fascination with green loli’s, I always imagine him as a King Loli sitting on his throne that rules over all us underlings. I think that what you feel to be original is basically the generalized thinking amongst most anime viewers. However, how much of a spin do you think an anime needs to be original. Can it be just a simple switch of gender roles such as in Lovely Complex, or does it take something more?

Arrgh Calawain. Your post is so long haha. I’ll post again later but I’ve already spent like an hour thinking about the previous responses X_X.

*REPENT!*

Definitely having a hard time visualizing Impz as the officious and sermon-giving yama. Lady Shiki Eiki is not a force to be trifled with, especially with her grave-marker danmaku!

Back on topic however, what I also forgotten to add about the anime production industry (and indeed, any business these days) is that, while they are probably more than capable of producing or supporting series that are original (or are based on source material that is original), there’s a very large amount of risk involved. It might pay off, but then it might fail terribly, so it’s no wonder that they use themes that they KNOW will work.

I might wonder where originality was if I wasn’t working my way through a series where cute aliens are invading Japan to steal its national treasures. I might wonder where originality was if the military defense forces weren’t powerless to stop the cute aliens for fear it might make them look like bullies in the eyes of Japan’s public. I might wonder where originality went if military leaders weren’t enlisting their cute eight year old granddaughters into the ground, air, and sea defenses, to defend Japan against these cute aliens. Of course, this series is from 2002, so maybe there was more originality back then?

Igunis, the anime is Ground Defense Force! Mao-chan (Wikipedia link). As I understand it, it originates from the mind of Ken Akamatsu (Love Hina), which you’ll no doubt notice when military officer Kagome Mihara walks onto the screen, and you say “That’s Naru Narusegawa!” (Actually, Naru doesn’t show up until a much later episode. No, that’s not a spoiler. Mao-chan is the type of show that doesn’t really have “spoilers” to it.) If the idea of three cute eight years with high voices and repeatative mannerisms (nicely done in both Japanese and English, I must say) doesn’t scare you off, then I recommend buying the series on DVD. It’s four DVDs, and if you can get them during any manner of sale, they can be considerably cheap to buy.