Ask John: Why Are Transfer Students So Common in Anime?

Question:
It’s probably happened way too many times to catalog, but it is undoubtedly a common feature to be found in anime with a school setting – things are generally, quiet, peaceful and normal, until the fateful day which marks the arrival of … wait for it … a transfer student. At that moment, let the weirdness, wackiness, mystery, etc. begin. I’d be interested in your take on how this plot device came to be, and any noticeable exceptions to this rule.

Answer:
Over the past fifteen years the narrative trope of the transfer student has become so commonplace in anime that it’s literally established itself as a defining anime characteristic. The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi series, in fact, classifies transfer students as individuals that are just as representative of anime as aliens, time travelers, and psychics. Just within the current Japanese television broadcast season, at least five different anime have introduced a transfer student: Akaneiro ni Somaru Saku, Kannagi, Macademy Washoi, Kemeko DX, and Shikabane Hime. With the convention so firmly established and frequent, there must be some significance behind it.

I can’t say with any certainty that it’s the first instance of a transfer student scene in anime, but the earliest use of this concept that I’m aware of occurs in the first episode of the 1971 television series Sasurai no Taiyo. Other early, memorable transfer student scenes appear in the 1981 Urusei Yatsura television series, and in 1982’s The Kabocha Wine, and Dr. Slump. These early instances were mostly innocent – an efficient method of introducing a new character. That changed in 1991 with Gainax’s little known but highly influential OVA series Houno no Tenkousei (Blazing Transfer Student).

Inspired by the live action Japanese teen delinquent movies of the 1970s and school delinquent anime of the 1980s, the two episode Blazing Transfer Student anime series introduced the iconic imagery of a new student determined to assert himself in his new school, despite the opposition of other students that seek to maintain the established status quo. The passionate transfer student later evolved into director Hideaki Anno’s Anime Tencho character, and became parodied by the AyuMayu Gekijou and Akane Maniax video series. It’s almost certainly this 1991 OVA series that launched the iconography of the transfer student because nearly every significant example of an anime transfer student is more recent than 1991.

The popularity of the stereotype as a narrative device certainly has something to do with its convenience as a tool to introduce new characters or narrative threads. The trope also has a foundation in Japanese psychology.

Japanese society has a disposition toward the comfort of familiarity. America is a large country, but Americans routinely travel across the country without a second thought. Japan is a small nation with significant cultural differences between geographic locations, so moving around within Japan, even for short vacation trips, is considered a significant journey by typical Japanese citizens. Furthermore, because of Japan’s modern emphasis on company loyalty and the importance of linear sequence in education, moving between jobs or schools isn’t done lightly or frequently.

The conceptual transfer student represents narrative possibility. The student that transfers into a new school at an off time is someone that defies convention; someone that has acted outside of standard procedure. That uniqueness distinguishes the transfer student. For the rest of the classroom, the transfer student represents something and someone new and unusual. The potential that lies within a new introduction may be romance, conflict, adventure, or friendship. In effect, the transfer student has become a popular convention in anime because the concept is innately fascinating for Japanese people, and the transfer student character exists as a wealth of narrative potential.

Azumanga Daioh introduces “Osaka,” a transfer student who becomes a popular member of an ensemble cast. Denno Coil introduces a transfer student who has moved to another school, it’s hinted, to escape a troubled past. Sukeban Deka and Dream Hunter Rem II introduce transfer students who are actually undercover detectives. Itsuki Koizumi serves as the mysterious transfer student in The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi literally because the plot needs a transfer student. Supernatural transfer students including Nagi, Belldandy, Chocola & Vanilla from Sugar Sugar Rune, and Rukia Kuchiki use their enrollment in school to disguise their true nature. These examples illustrate just a sampling of the creative possibilities inherent within the role of the transfer student character.

Variations on the transfer student theme include the unexpected new teacher – evident in anime including Mahou Sensei Negima, Ultimate Teacher, Onegai Teacher, Gokusen, Kemeko DX, and Paniponi Dash; the new sports coach with a genius past but a troubled present – evident in Aim for the Ace, Wannabe’s, and Metal Fighter Miku, to name a few; and the sudden new sibling in series such as Hare Nochi Guu & Chocoto Sister.