Ask John: Why is Transformation So Common in Anime?

Question:
I got a question about why Japanese people seem to love those transform stuff. Transform like in Salior Moon, Ultra Manic and etc. All the people I know hates the part where they “transform.” Why do they like it so much? Characters in like Yumeria transformed for like 2 episodes and stopped. Why can’t they do that? Why waste 25 seconds to see the same thing happen in every episode?

Answer:
To be quite honest, I probably don’t know enough about Japanese culture and literary heritage to be able to adequately address the Japanese fascination with transformation, but I can make some rough stabs at an explanation. Unlike Christian influenced Western culture, which views the world as basically immutable and humankind maturing and growing, but not necessarily evolving or transforming, the concept of transformation and change are an ancient characteristic of Japanese culture.

Two of the best, and most familiar representations of transformation in Japanese culture are the famous maneki neko (lucky, beckoning cat) and the Japanese fox family. By some accounts of the legend, the original beckoning cat was actually the Buddhist goddess of mercy Kannon in disguise. And according to Japanese folklore, the fox genus, including foxes and tanuki, have the ability to transform or magically disguise themselves. These important principles of Japanese lore have doubtlessly influenced Japanese consciousness.

Japanese society itself has also transformed more than once. In 1853, when Commodore Perry broke through Japan’s isolationism, the nation evolved almost overnight. Then again, in 1945 the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki forced Japan to re-examine its self image and recreate itself as a capitalist, industrial nation from an imperialistic, militaristic one.

So transformation is at the core of both Japanese philosophical and physical history and consciousness. We see this characteristic principle reflected in anime as cities and planets being destroyed and rebuilt; magical girls transforming into different outfits; giant robots combining or literally transforming; super villains seeking to surpass the limitations of humanity; popular series about alchemists such as Fullmetal Alchemist and the popular Atelier series video games including Atelier Marie, Atelier Iris, and Atelier Lilie; and collectable monsters that evolve into new forms. The idea of physical or spiritual transformation is as fundamental a concept to Japanese culture as royalty is to the British and the idea of absolute independence is to Americans. It’s a culturally defining component that Japanese natives are used to and familiar with.

Regarding why we literally see the same transformation sequence in repeated anime episodes, the answer is very simple. A transformation sequence used repeatedly only needs to be animated once, and using it in multiple episodes eliminates that much animation that would otherwise need to be created for future episodes. In simple terms, showing the same transformation animation sequence week after week saves money. It’s undeniably cliché and tends to get old very quickly, but the recycling of animation is just a compromise viewers willingly accept in order to get the quality and quantity of anime we demand.