Ask John: How Much Does Anime Mirror Real Life?

Question:
Are students in Japan really allowed on school rooftops? What is with the presence of oolong tea and sake? What is the significance of rock, paper, scissors?

Answer:
Like all forms of storytelling, anime relies on the literary convention known as “suspension of disbelief.” In order for a viewer to accept and be immersed into the setting an anime tries to create, the story must be familiar enough or logical enough, whether it be “real world” logic or so-called “dream logic” be seem believable and natural and familiar to the viewer. Anime achieves this but maintaining conventional human behavior patterns, personalities, real world physics, and believable circumstances. One of the most effective ways for anime to establish suspension of disbelief is to utilize everyday events and circumstances that viewers are familiar with. These things may seem unusual, unbelievable or foreign to American viewers because they are foreign to American viewers. Remember that anime is not made for Americans. It’s made for Japanese viewers, to whom many things in anime are second nature that may seem odd to Americans.

Common characteristics seen in anime appear so frequently because they are a reflection of everyday Japanese life. Chopsticks, school uniforms, arranged marriages, sidewalk noodle vendor carts, karaoke parlors, “UFO catcher” arcade crane games, trains and walking to school, open school roofs, tea, sake and ramune soda, school culture festivals and field trips, “Jan Ken” (Rock-Scissors-Paper), kimono, streets crowded with pedestrians, Shinto temples, and many other characteristics of anime are used often because they make anime seem natural, familiar and believable to Japanese viewers.

Often times though, anime is stylized and exaggerated for dramatic impact. Subways and trains are rarely quite as jam-packed as depicted in anime, although peak hour trains are, in reality, often quite crowded. Japanese teens don’t use Rock-Scissors-Paper to solve every decision. And while young anime characters like Yuusuke of Tenshi ni Narumon, Tasuke of Mamotte Shugogetten and Usada of Di-Gi-Charat live alone while their parents are overseas, in real life self-supporting teens are as uncommon in Japan as they are in America. But these events are close enough to reality to be familiar and believable to Japanese viewers. These things help establish the setting and atmosphere of anime and help make the anime immersive instead of distracting and illogical. It simply makes sense for anime set in contemporary Japan to include details and examples of contemporary life in Japan. Always bear in mind that what may seem strange to you because it is included, may seem strange to a Japanese viewer if it’s left out.