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Forum - View topicThere should be old age anime characters lead roles
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MasterRoshiX
 Posts: 32 Location: Florida |
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Don't get me wrong, I love certain anime such as Grave of the Fireflies, Berserk, Comic Party.. ect.. that casted young to middle aged anime characters, which had heart wrenching addicting stories that kept you wanting for more
 We've seen teen girls n boys in romances in many animes, young adults with giant swords fighting and clashing, kids jumping into giant robots saving the world.. this is all good and fine, age doesn't make much a difference, but I'd love to see a different variety once in a while. Take Master Roshi from Dragonballl for example, he was old, bony, perverted and bold. But, uhh SPOLILER AHEAD: Even though he had those qualities he had heart, knowledge, mastery of the martial arts, and was willing to die in the face of evil to try to save the world, even though he knew his chances were dim.. Even though Goku was the star of the series, at those moments of his death to King Piccolo he felt like the true star of the show. My anger then arrives to dbz - dbgt where his role amounts to nothing but tiny scenes occasionally of him being perverted. Too many main characters in anime are too young nowadays, It'd be nice to have some anime envolving the experienced aged ones being in lead roles, there are endless possibilites as always in anime. I think I've blabbed too much.. Any thoughts?
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 9903 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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Can you be more specific to the definition of "old?" If you restrict the "old" to be >60 years old, then I'd say it would be quite difficult to write a story both realistic and reasonable enough AND attractive to potential audience/customer. After all, most anime/manga audience are consisted of younger generation (teenager to young adults), and the life of an elderly person has less surprises since s/he has endured much and should know how to deal with them. Furthermore, the behavioral patterns of an elderly person are usually less likely to be changed drastically since they have been forming for decades. Thus, this character has little room for development along the series, and this would make the job of script writing very difficult.
However, if you loosen your definition to, say, >30 years old, then there's endless possibilities. Porco from Porco Rosso, who is in his 30s (but I'd say his weathered heart has aged him at least 10 years mentally), is one of my favorite character, and the movie was intended to be watched by adults. By the way, "Ro(u)shi (老師)" IS "teacher" or "master," so "Master Roshi" is an oxymoron. 
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Maclam
 Posts: 104 |
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I just think it would be hard to develop an anime if the main is old... you get an example like
Millenium Actress The main char is old, but the whole story is a flashback from her youth |
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 9903 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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With the exception of her early teenage years as a starlet, the entire movie consists no teenager, yet it is a tremendously successful masterpiece. I'd say it is perfectly right to spend two nostalgic hours, but it would be very difficult to write a TV series based on nostalgia; you need character development, and it's much easier to design younger characters for this job. Even live-action TV series do not focus on a person at his/her age of retirement very often. |
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Perfectsword
 Posts: 527 Location: Somewhere in NY |
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>60 years old would be hard and very unrealistic. but...in a sense how old is inuyasha? is he not.....at least 66 years old? '
16-pinned to the tree 66-freed also there is hellsing, although he is a vampire, alucard has to be ancient. but, once again he is at least 50. |
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 9903 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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Eh, don't you know there's a rule that all elf / vampire / zombie / angel / daemon / snow woman / catgirl / ghost has to divide their age with 30? And don't forget the effect of event horizon.
Seriously though; you simply can't compare non-human or semi-human creatures with human aging. An old human character would be difficult to "develop." |
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one3rd
 Posts: 1820 Location: アメリカ |
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An oxymoron would mean something contradictory, like "Hot Ice" Hilda. What we have here is redundancy. |
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Toboe
 Posts: 138 Location: Rakuen |
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Hey, let's not forget Great Detectives Poirot & Marple; the show's main character is a rotund 40-year old with a handlebar moustache! Is that old enough for you?
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 9903 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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Oops, silly me. Thanks for the correction. |
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Golgo13
 Posts: 148 |
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Try Master Keaton. The main character is around 35 years old and the friends he meet on his adventures are all older than he is.
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jfrog
 Posts: 925 Location: Seattle |
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Look forward to Howl's Moving Castle. The main character is actually a young girl, but she's in the body of an old lady.
Porco Rosso is another great one. Technically he's somewhere between 30-40, but he has the head of a pig, so you can have him be whatever age you want. He's got the attitude of an old guy, that's all that matters. Paranoia Agent and the Patlabor films (the OVAs concentrate on the twentysomething recruits) both star characters on the older side of middle age. And even if that's not what you're looking for, they're both excellent and deserve to be seen more. And Tokyo Godfathers! There's one teenage girl, but the other two characters are an old guy (one that actually isn't a pervert!) and an aging transvestite! |
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Osaka
 Posts: 127 Location: A-stray-ya |
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I guess that it would be interesting to have aged old characters in the lead roles, it would give more variety in the anime world nowadays. Maybe there are a lot of stereotypes present such as beautiful female leads who are always skinny or as mentioned the leads always being young. They shouldn't be afraid to explore new mediums!
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Golgo13
Posts: 148 |
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He could still be a pervert. In the beginning of the film, he groped the teenage girl. |
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jfrog
Posts: 925 Location: Seattle |
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I actually don't remember that...guess I should watch it again sometime soon.
But even if he is a pervert, unlike every other old guy in anime, sex isn't his main priority. |
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Ohoni
Posts: 3421 |
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Old characters do not make good leads. It's hard to wright a story about old people that is interesting, and even harder to watch them. Old people are much better in supporting roles, as mentors and advisors, such as Genkai, Hokage, Netero, Biscuit, Koku, etc. They did the interesting things in their life when they were young, an now that they're old they pass the knowledge they gained from that only the young people who still have interesting lives ahead of them.
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