4. Anime Culture

In this article of the Anime Analysis Blog; I will be talking about how anime has come to affect the ways certain human beings live. Anime has a huge influential hold on many people in our community, in different ways
There are all sorts of different people who watch anime. These people all like anime in different degrees. There are people who like anime to lesser extent, (like myself) who take simple joy in just watching anime on television or on their computers, however, there are those people who take their admiration of anime to an entirely different level compared to the small amount of people who don't.
A very large part of the Anime fan base is quite literally obsessive with what they like in the anime universe. Much like "star wars" and "star trek;" many different anime conventions are held all over the world every year. People will go to these conventions dressed up as their favorite anime characters to show their support for whatever anime they are dressing up for. In a way; Anime can be considered its own religion.
Anime does not just come in the form of the cartoons on television. Anime doesn't actually start out as the animation itself. It starts out as a series of illustrated books called manga.
Manga are the first stage of what could become an anime. A manga is an illustrated comic book the author/creator of the manga will usually not have the funds to create an anime, and must build popularity through the manga itself, or by different means. There are many manga that never actually become anime, or become anime for a short time and end in a different way than the manga intended. There are many anime that start off with the same story-line as the manga, however, later in the anime the story begins to veer off from the original manga's plot. This is because the anime's story has caught up with the story of the manga. In order to keep the show going, the creator and his crew must create new story lines so that the show will continue to make money. This is not the only tactic used when this problem occurs.
In the anime world, there are three anime that are the most well known throughout the anime industry. The names of these anime are Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece. These anime have developed a strategy where when the creators feel the anime's story is approaching too close to the manga's story. The creators will make a "filler arc." In anime slang; arcs diversify smaller events that happen in the anime. For example; in the beginning of One Piece, during the "Romance Dawn" arc; the main character: Monkey D Luffy, goes from being trapped in a barrel on the sea, to defeating the marine captain; Morgan. The Romance Dawn arc covers the first three episodes of One Piece. Arcs don't have a set number of episodes, and can be as long as forty episodes if that part of the story goes on that long.
A filler arc (as I mentioned earlier) is an arc in the anime that has no relevance to the actual plot of the series. Fillers are created to give the manga time to get further ahead of the anime story-wise. The manga never has filler, and is constantly updating the story. There are a handful of anime that use this "filler" technique, although, a lot of anime come to an "eternal filler" point, so to speak. As I mentioned earlier, some anime veer off from the manga, and end before the manga has finished.
From my time being in the anime "industry;" I have found that people are much happier watching the anime version of the manga's story-line, than watching filler. Which is why the big three anime always return to the story-line after the filler has ended.

There is more that I could cover in "Anime Culture," but I believe that is enough for now. Hopefully, I have taught you a bit on what strategies anime creators use to keep the populace interested. Even more hopefully, I hope that I've kept your interest.

Until Next Time!

The Anime Analyzer

(This blog post has been edited: as of February 21st, 2013)