Probably the most important thing in an anime series is the cast of characters. If the audience likes the characters, they’ll watch the anime. They’ll buy action figures, collectible cards, and talk about the characters all the time. Every anime fan has a favorite character. One thing that I noticed about the anime series that become hits is that their characters (often just the main character) improves his / her ability as the story progresses. And I believe this is the one ingredient that makes anime so addictive.

The same thing applies with RPGs (stands for Role Playing Games). A lot of gamers are so into RPGs and the increase in number of RPG titles today is evident. Again, one thing I noticed about RPGs is that your character reaches different skill level, gathers more weapons, as you go on playing. That is also the reason why I got stuck playing Nox for weeks until I finished it. This is character growth (or character development) and it is the essential part of anime series and RPGs.

The characters undergoing some “training” is almost always a part of action and sports anime series. A fighting tournament is common in martial arts action anime. The Dragon Ball series, Yuyu Hakusho, Naruto, Flame Of Recca, Hunter X Hunter, all of them have some kind of fighting tournament. The good thing about having a fighting tournament in your anime series is that in a tournament, a fight is scheduled and not a simultaneous encounter. The character then has time to train himself, learn new stuff and show off in the actual tournament. They’ve done it a lot but it never gets old because this is where character development plays a major role. The same is true with sports anime since sports like basketball (Slam Dunk), boxing (Hajime No Ippo), and others are tournaments in nature.

Although there are anime series that doesn’t show much growth in their characters (Detective Conan, Trigun), they’re not as addictive as those that have. So if you’re thinking about creating your own Anime or Manga, don’t forget about character growth for it’s the secret weapon (tried and tested) to getting the audience hooked.

Tags: No Tags

Category: Animation

We are a strong team!