Anime and Storytelling Through Character Relationships

As I'm sure you can tell by my profile picture and my profile info, I am an avid watcher of anime.  I've watched a vast array of foreign films and shows, but something about Japanimation just intrigues me.  Maybe it has something to do with the colorful characters and the funky pop music.  What I think sets it apart from most other genres, though, is its ability to take those colorful characters and not just weave them into a plot, but to focus that plot almost entirely on those characters.

Unlike most American stories, which oftentimes rely on events to push the characters along, most anime series depend on the characters to push the story along with their interactions with other characters.  Take most of the Bond movies, for example.  In a typical "Bond" scenario, you'll have the bad guy do a whole bunch of bad stuff, and then Bond will have to go and stop that bad stuff from happening.  While I'm a huge fan of Bond movies, I'll be the first one to admit that most of the characters in the Bond movies are pretty one-dimensional.

On the other hand, most anime series, regardless of the type of story, puts the characters in charge of the plot.  Usually, there will be a small group of main characters, and their interactions with one another will determine the path the story will take.  Let's take a popular anime series such as Dragonball Z, for example.  While the characters just beat each other up most of the time, there's a great deal of character interaction going on between the action, and the outcome of those interactions usually determine who's going to be beating up who next.

The huge emphasis on character interaction also results in a great deal of character depth.  While the over-the-top action in Dragonball may seem totally unnecessary most of the time, the characters themselves all have their reasons for doing what they do.  They all have their backstories, rivalries, etc., and as they interact with the other characters in the series, their stories become deeper and deeper, ultimately resulting in such an intricate story that the Bond movies couldn't even hope to achieve.

I want to go a little more in-depth and take a look at some specific movies and series, but that will have to wait for another day. :)

Until then!
-Ben