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Answerman - Can Webcomic Artists Get Anime Made?

rizuchan wrote:

Servant x Service was about workers in a government office, if what you're looking for is a mundane setting. I get the feeling an anime about the stock exchange would be like Wolf of Wall Street without the drugs and hookers (wait, does that leave anything...?)

Hostesses.

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But now that I think about it, I can't think of many anime that take place in a professional job setting (i.e. not restaurant or retail) other than publishing companies.

Cops and the military get good representation. Shinto and Buddhist priests, too.

And of course right now we have Plastic Memories.

On the working class side of things we have:

Toradora: Ryuuji's mom is a hostess and they live in what's basically a slum apartment.

AnoHana: Jintan and Popo both work in construction during the series.

Most PA Works series: Lots of characters come from families that own small businesses, ranging from hotels, to cafes, to fishing boats.

Tsuritama: More fishing boat owners.

So many examples...I feel like Jose is either baiting, doesn't watch a lot of anime or just tunes out the subjects of his question.

Paiprince wrote:

So many examples...I feel like Jose is either baiting, doesn't watch a lot of anime or just tunes out the subjects of his question.

Perhaps, but I feel like the essence of his question is how a lot of anime plots (specially shonen) are about wanting to be the very best, like no one ever was.

Blue21 wrote:

Paiprince wrote: So many examples...I feel like Jose is either baiting, doesn't watch a lot of anime or just tunes out the subjects of his question. Perhaps, but I feel like the essence of his question is how a lot of anime plots (specially shonen) are about wanting to be the very best, like no one ever was.

Didn't sound like that to me. What he's asking boils down to, "what happens to the 99% of Japanese society?" which if he had done research and even applied a bit of common sense, he'd get his answer. He most likely based his question from watching anime with a lot of "privileged" characters like in Nisekoi or Seto no Hanayome.

We have more plots featuring losers like Kaiji and Akagi as main characters than the head honcho CEO that manages a zaibatsu. Like Justin said, it's just not that much room to work with as a storytelling concept.

Justin Sevakis wrote:

Japanese people that don't make the top schools and get into the top jobs are lined up in front of a firing squad and executed at age 23.

That's it, the secret for Japan's decreasing population has been revealed :P

So many examples...I feel like Jose is either baiting, doesn't watch a lot of anime or just tunes out the subjects of his question.

Perhaps, but I feel like the essence of his question is how a lot of anime plots (specially shonen) are about wanting to be the very best, like no one ever was.

Didn't sound like that to me. What he's asking boils down to, "what happens to the 99% of Japanese society?" which if he had done research and even applied a bit of common sense, he'd get his answer. He most likely based his question from watching anime with a lot of "privileged" characters like in Nisekoi or Seto no Hanayome.

We have more plots featuring losers like Kaiji and Akagi as main characters than the head honcho CEO that manages a zaibatsu. Like Justin said, it's just not that much room to work with as a storytelling concept.

To add on to the question about opening and ending theme songs is this: Why is it always J-Pop and J-Rock? Why not Jazz? Orchestra? Or, just something else? The only animes that I've watched that didn't have j-pop or j-rock were Serial Experiments Lain and Ergo Proxy.

Professionals and experts try to discourage "amateurs" with legalese, when the "pros" are little more than glorified amateurs themselves. and I guess this "professional" totally ignored yesterday's news of a webcomic getting an anime.

So many examples...I feel like Jose is either baiting, doesn't watch a lot of anime or just tunes out the subjects of his question.

Perhaps, but I feel like the essence of his question is how a lot of anime plots (specially shonen) are about wanting to be the very best, like no one ever was.

Didn't sound like that to me. What he's asking boils down to, "what happens to the 99% of Japanese society?" which if he had done research and even applied a bit of common sense, he'd get his answer. He most likely based his question from watching anime with a lot of "privileged" characters like in Nisekoi or Seto no Hanayome.

We have more plots featuring losers like Kaiji and Akagi as main characters than the head honcho CEO that manages a zaibatsu. Like Justin said, it's just not that much room to work with as a storytelling concept.

Actually, I based my question on examples you see anywhere you read about or consume Japanese culture (not just anime), though there are plenty of examples there too. Check out books like CultureShock! Japan by P Sean Bramble, Culture Smart! Japan, and A Geek in Japan by Héctor García. They all present examples of what it's like to work in Japan, yet they all focus on executive “top cut” jobs at high-level, stressful, business-oriented companies. We never get mention of what happens to most people that do not make that cut. Sure, they work other jobs, but how they feel about it? Do they have low self-esteem because of it or are they perfectly happy? Do they live lives as stressful as their executive counterparts (work all day, go to nomikai at night, go to sleep late, wake up early, repeat) or do they live less stressful lives? How do people who work outside of business (like in non-profit environments, for example) live? We never get these answers, especially not from anime.

As far as anime examples of this theme, almost any school anime fits the bill. Saying many anime focus on loser characters only proves my point that so much anime revolves around the idea of the top cut. Otherwise, the loser theme wouldn't even exist or at least not be relevant.

I'll give two concrete examples.

1. The Suzumiya Haruhi novel series repeatedly reinforces the idea that North High is a subpar school for subpar students like Kyon, and that it's very bizarre that a student of the caliber of Haruhi would even think about going to such a school when she could have gotten into much more prestigious schools. It also reinforces time and time again that Kyon has no idea what'll become of him after he graduates (being so low in the academic totem pole and all).

2. Otaku no Video focuses on two characters that, completely unable to fit into the “top cut” mold, deliberately abandon it all to make a living out of otaku hobbies.

Yet while anime touches on these themes, since so little anime go beyond school life, we really get no insight into what most adult people in Japan live like.

So precisely because I watch so much anime (and consume so much Japanese and East Asian culture) is that these questions have arisen. I've been an otaku since 2003, and been studying the Japanese language (難しい言語だな・・・) and culture since 2004. I've done my research but these questions are not easily answered.