AnimeZone

People don't usually realize this that much but even anime has its periodical trends that it follows. Trends which are dictated by popularity from the core audience.

This usually happens because a lot of anime produced nowadays is simply adaptations of other works from some other medium, like manga or light novels.

In fact, I'd argue that, in the past decade, for any length of time you take, more than 80% of all anime TV series produced in Japan is an adaptation of some other form of entertainment, be it manga, books, visual novels, radio dramas, you name it. Hell, even smartphone games in Japan are getting anime adaptations.

The anime industry is slowly turning into the world's largest and most expensive ad industry of all time, in which they promote the source material of whatever is being adapted. You're writing a light novel about a protagonist that gets reincarnated into another world? Well, if your book becomes popular enough, some animation studio might get in touch with you to secure the rights to adapt your work into an anime TV series. And if they do and they're lucky enough to purchase a lucrative time slot to air the new show (preferably during the daytime when there are people who can tune in to watch it on the TV) then your work will be propelled to even greater popularity because of the new exposure your work is getting.

But, as there are so many light novels out there to be adapted, there's only so many of them that can be adapted by the only a handful of studios in Japan. Obviously the studios themselves would only want to cherry-pick to adapt the stories which have the most potential of giving them as large of a return in investment. After all, it'd be a very bad business decision for you, as an animation studio, to adapt the work of a light novelist that has a pretty crap story, uninteresting characters and a mediocre setting that would barely attract a viewership for your show. If you do that, chances are you'll be burning millions of dollars to make an adaptation that nobody will wanna watch, people will stop watching from the first episode, nobody will be buying the merchandise for your show and you'll end up with the short end of the stick. In the end, animation is very expensive. And anime is the pinnacle of this. Creating an anime adaptation of anything is one of the most expensive endeavors there is. You have to pay scriptwriters, directors, story board artists, voice actors, managers, buy time slots on channels to air your show, invest in physical merchandise to earn back money and, most importantly of all, you have to pay animators. Animators which will be hard at work actually creating the frames that will end up making the animation itself.

Make no mistake, this is a very expensive process, especially at the standards that Japanese studios hold themselves up to.

So, naturally, animation studios only want to pick the best of the most popular light novels for any given period of time to adapt. If you're a new author that wrote his first novel and you're just barely starting out, chances are nobody will approach you to adapt your work unless it is exceptionally good and it gets nominated as best novel of the year. And even then, it's a gamble for a studio to approach you.

This is why you see a lot of anime adaptations which follow predictable trends, especially recently. Trends which reflect the popularity of light novels, as only the most popular light novels get chosen by animation studios to be adapted in the first place. And a saddening fact of that is that there's a lot of animes which are adapting isekai animes, particularly power fantasy animes.

Now, for the record, I have no issue with isekai by itself. A lot of good animes can spawn from an isekai origin and they can be of good quality.

One of my favorite, Re:Zero – Starting Life in Another World, is one of my favorite animes of the past decade. It's got an exceptional story, very good world building, interesting characters with varied backstories, engaging plot twists and credible and heart warming romances. It's great.

Or how about KonoSuba: God's Blessing on this Wonderful World!, a light novel adaptation that follows the sad and pathetic life of a NEET that got reincarnated into another world because he was almost hit by a truck. This show is also one of my favorites, with very funny developments and a cast of rich and amusing characters.

No, my problems isn't with isekai by itself. My problem is with power fantasies though.

Power fantasies are stories where the protagonist is a hero that is blessed by the gods with abnormally bountiful qualities and abilities, power beyond measure and he uses these as arsenal to easily defeat and win against anyone foolish enough to challenge them. Usually stories featuring such heroes show them as overly confident in themselves, sometimes with the protagonists even building a harem of love interests surrounding them, and whenever someone, anyone challenges them, they easily and without a second thought obliterate them in the most humiliating ways possible, usually without any challenge or worry from the hero's part.

Overpowered protagonists is a trope that I deeply dislike. I'm of the opinion that if you make your protagonist so powerful that the threats that he encounters in your story don't even register to him as threats, I simply lose interest.

Like, why should I be worried over your hero's well-being in the face of danger if the hero in question isn't worried at all? If the main character shows no emotion, why should I?

Examples of such shows include Overlord, How NOT to summon a Demon Lord, The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat, The Misfit of Demon King Academy and so many others.

It's become a trend in the past couple of years to have such stories floating around. The protagonist simply becomes a super-overpowered monster, in human form, capable of turning the world upside down with his magic at the snap of his fingers, he begins to excel at whatever he does and humiliates anyone that stands to confront him (usually a corrupt individual or simply a bully that needs to receive his come-up-ins). And all without even batting an eye.

This has been a very unpopular trope even before light novels in Japan started to make it mainstream in an entirely different fandom: that of fanfiction. A lot of fanfiction has self-insert heroes that end up having godlike powers in their world, obliterating anyone that stands in their way but while making sure to look cool in the process.

Yes, people like to read such power fantasies (usually teenagers that like to self-insert themselves into such positions).

And before anyone asks, no, this isn't a male thing either. As an example, another recent anime from the past year or so, In the Land of Leadale, had the exact same setup but with a female heroine too. So this isn't confined to males only.

Honestly, I'm sure there are many that like these shows the same way they like junk food. None of these shows are interesting because the conflicts the heroes face don't really pose a challenge to the overpowered deities that drive the story, so there's never a point of the conflicts at all, much like there's never significant nutritional value in junk food either. People just like junk food because its delicious, cheap and fast.

And I don't wanna blame anyone for liking what they want. You watch what you like and don't let anyone make fun of you for the things you enjoy! But I'm personally sick and tired of these premises so I know for a fact I'll be avoiding them in the future.

I was once someone that didn't mind the power fantasy elements, too, even. Back when Sword Art Online came out, I liked the idea of a power fantasy, and seeing the protagonist, Kirito, be invulnerable against his enemies' attacks was somewhat of an awesome scene, initially.

But it got boring really fast, really quickly, and I soon came to the conclusion that I have now: that if the hero doesn't care, neither do I.

Granted, Sword Art Online at least tried, at various points, to introduce bigger and bigger threats for Kirito to tackle so that he was at least coming up against greater challenges that even he couldn't single handedly defeat anymore.

And I appreciated that.

Other times, there are shows which try to add a twist to making their hero over-powered. One Punch Man relies on the comedy of the situation, having the protagonist be a laid-back Average Joe that just doesn't give a shit about the world ending calamities around him. The entire point of that story is throw larger and more insane enemies at him and showing off how he still, every time, humiliates them or obliterates them with one single punch all the time, in greater and even more incredible feats of power.

The point of One Punch Man isn't whether the protagonist is going to win a battle or not, it never is. Saitama just isn't in any danger ever and the show doesn't even try to fool you into thinking otherwise.

No, the purpose of the show is to have you wonder in what spectacular and eye watering way Saitama will defeat this new enemy. The show is all about showing off the protagonist's power, never whether he will win or not. Because he will win. Always.

And I like that twist. It's a pretty fun idea.

I guess some might argue that the entire point behind shows like The Misfit of Demon King Academy is very similar to One Punch Man, that it's never about whether the protagonist wins or not, but how he wins. But, even if that's indeed the case, these other shows never managed to impress me like the way One Punch Man did.

The reason One Punch Man works is because it pulls no stops. When it goes into battles, it goes all out. Explosions, fire, destruction of epic proportions, everything is there and in glorious, fluid animation. It's a spectacle for the eyes. The Misfit of Demon King Academy is more talk than interesting battles. There's constant talking that explains how the protagonist bested the opponent, how his ingenious strategy actually outsmarts him (even though it's not that impressive as it just relies of pulling out a new plot rule that magic of type A allows one to nullify magic of type B) and that's it. No explosions, no fire, no destruction, just boring talking. Why should I care?

How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord is in the same boat as all of the others except that, to its defense, I like it because it doesn't put all its eggs in one basket. Instead of having people be impressed by Diablo's overpowered nature, the show also has comedy, highlighting how Diablo is actually a nerdy NEET inside of the avatar he's playing as but how that always comes across as him appearing powerful and demonic to everyone around him.

Or how that show goes the extra mile to also be an ecchi harem anime that occasionally delivers on fan-service. Granted I've always argued that fan-service should be a weak reason to follow a show but, at least, I'd also argue it's still a better reason than just catering to power fantasy-hungry teenagers.

But I digress.

Needless to say, I wish this power-fantasy trend would just die already. I understand that many people like it and I can't fault anyone for liking the stuff that they do. But, with that said, I will be trying to avoid these types of stories from this point on.

If I see another show like these again, I'm definitely giving it a skip.

Hell, even the current season I'm writing this in, Crunchyroll is already streaming a new show called Engage Kiss which has some of the overpowered elements that the other shows, I already mentioned, have. But at least this one seems to tone the protagonist down, making him less likeable, giving him a pretty unpalatable personality and also nurfing his abilities, to some extent. Whenever this guy fights I don't feel as much like he's in control of everything as some of the other shows I already mentioned, do.

Hopefully Engage Kiss won't turn out as bad as the other ones I already discussed. Only time will tell, I guess.