Hey guys!
I started writing this article to tell you guys the kinds of animes I like, give some examples and some points and thoughts I had on them and their competition in the genre. But it ended up becoming a little bigger than I thought it would be and decided to split it into 3 parts. The first being mostly about Digimon, the 2nd part being about World Trigger and the 3rd, Red Garden and Magical Girl Madoka. I might even add in a fourth, Sentai, about animes that comprises of a team of people (most of the time high school students) fighting monsters or aliens with unique powers.
Now, I'm not a huge fan of the 'cute girls doing cute things' genre or harem or ecchi because I don't find any of these genre's relatable. This statement is not to discredit the genre or people who like them, but most probably there won't be a 'High School of the Dead' review on this blog written by me. I like animes that defy stereotypes and provide me an experience I can't get from other more stereotypical animes in the same genre. Even better if it defies all the rules and provide an absolutely unique experience.
Digimon pushed what a children's show made for selling toys could do. They were episodic but had an over-arching storyline that pays off in a big way at the end. The characters were never just paper cut out with quirks and goals/missions in place of personality. Each character had a defining trait that is pre-dominant, but they also have fears, anxieties, likes and dislikes.
What I mean by this is, sometimes characters (and this is not exclusive to the children's anime genre)
are written only to serve the plot/episode, and I don't just mean side characters or characters that only come in for an episode, this also applied to main characters and major supporting characters. But in order to flesh these characters out a little, they give them quirks instead of a personality. In these cases, these characters are more quirks and traits rather than an actual person. Just because a character loves to eat, or loves to eat a certain food, it does not equal a personality. An example of this is Pokemon, I'll discuss Ash, Misty and Brock.
Outside of trying to be the very best (and failing) Ash has no defining trait outside of Pokemon, he has no other interest than failing to become a Pokemon Master. He does not age, he does not participate in anything not related to Pokemon. He is not a person rather he is Pokemon.The same goes for Misty and Brock. For multiple seasons Misty followed Ash around because he destroyed her bicycle, nothing else. Also she likes water pokemon I guess. Brock likes girls. Of course they have semblance of a personality, maybe Misty is motherly and Ash is passionate about Pokemon, but they never feel like real people. Can you imagine having a friend that only talks about one thing everytime you guys spoke and reacts the same way or everything?
(From the left: Tai, Matt, Sora, Izzy, Joe, Mimi, T.K, Kari)
Let's compare them to Digimon, I don't even need to talk about all 8 fleshed out characters in Digimon, I'll pinpoint three and talk about them, The three being Tai and Izzy and Kari.
Tai loves football, He's brave and a natural leader. He is headstrong. He's also very stubborn. He's a good big brother and loves his partner Agumon. He's brash and loud but grows more level headed as the anime progresses and even more so in the next two seasons. He has parents who love and support him and while not perfect, tries his best in every situation.
Izzy is a child prodigy. He's smart and kind. He's also aloof and sometimes gets so lost in learning something that he loses the plot. He was adopted from birth and has trouble expressing himself to the people he loves. As the series progresses, he finally comes to term with his situation and becomes more well rounded in later series.
Kari is my favourite character, introduced more than half way through the series. She joins the team much later but even then her character is given room to grow via her partner Gatomon. She starts off caring, soft spoken and sickly and turns into the voice of reason in 02.
My point here is that I know the characters, I know how they react to things and I know them as people rather than quirks and traits. I've seen their growth and development and these are just 3 of the 8 characters in the series. 16 if you count in their Digimon partners whom on their own, aren't very strong personality wise but coupled with their partners add a whole lot of dimension to their characters and help enhance their partner's.
With that ends Part 1, Please do join me in Part 2 where I discuss World Trigger and the difference it has with its shonen counterparts.
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