Ask John: Is There a Lot of Borrowing Between Titles in Anime?

Question:
I know that there are a lot of copycat movies in the US movie industry, but is there a lot of borrowing between titles in anime, and how is that viewed in Japan? I was looking at the description of the new Tide-Line Blue anime, and how similar it sounds to Blue Sub 6. There’s even a blue sub in the title graphic. And Coyote Ragtime, from the few episodes I’ve seen, seems like Outlaw Star crossbred with Cowboy Bebop. Do anime production houses bristle or complain when this happens, or is it just accepted?

Answer:
Especially for creative artists, influence and inspiration is inevitable and unavoidable. There’s probably no film industry anywhere in the world that hasn’t produced films with similarities to other films. The anime industry is definitely no exception. Tide-Line Blue may share some similarities with Blue Sub No. 6 because both stories were written by author Satoru Ozawa. Coyote Ragtime show is definitely a bastard child of Cowboy Bebop and Outlaw Star, with influence from “moe” anime series like Hanaukyo Maid Tai and Kore ga Watashi no Goshujin-sama mixed in. After all, if Cowboy Bebop and Outlaw Star were popular, and contemporary Japanese anime viewers like seeing girls in maid outfits, naturally a show combining all of those elements could be also very popular. Examples like this are rife within the anime industry. GUNxSWORD feels like a combination of Cowboy Bebop and Trigun, with mecha. Yoroiden Samurai Troopers and Shurato are recycled versions of St. Seiya that replace Greek mythology with samurai and Hindu themes, respectively. Sailor Moon introduced a five magical girl team with a planetary theme. Wedding Peach recycled the pattern with a wedding theme. Tokyo Mew Mew recycled the concept with an animal theme. CLAMP’s Angelic Layer is a remake of the earlier anime series Plawres Sanshiro, simply changing the protagonist from a boy into a girl. Naruto borrows heavily from the early 80s anime series Sasuga no Sarutobi. Magical Nyan Nyan Taruto borrows heavily from the 1984 anime film Wata no Kuni Hoshi. When summarized in a single sentence, there’s no difference between Mobile Fighter G-Gundam and the current Gigantic Formula, or between the 1982 television series The Kabocha Wine and the current TV series Lovely Complex. The Sensei no Ojikan, Paniponi Dash, and Negima series all share the concept of a diminutive teacher. What’s more, anime production studio Shaft even animated the Paniponi Dash and Negima!? Anime – both shows about teachers who are younger and smaller than their students. In fact, there are probably very few anime that can be said to have absolutely no similarities to anything else.

Film making is a business, so when something is successful, it’s natural for others to jump on the bandwagon. In the American film industry, we’ve seen seasons of disaster movies, giant insect movies, underwater adventure movies, teen slasher movies, and so on. There’s rarely any accusation of plagiarism or malicious borrowing because creators and audiences expect and excuse creative borrowing. Japan’s comic industry is even more liberal about influences and creative borrowing than America’s film industry. Parody anime such as Miami Guns, School Rumble, Paniponi Dash, and Excel Saga include liberal direct references to other anime. Their content is excused and accepted specifically because it’s parody. Yet many other anime also borrow from each other, taking either references, or concepts. This sort of imitation and borrowing is widely overlooked because it’s widely considered part of the natural structure and character of anime.

Originality is admirable, but the main goal of anime is to be appealing to viewers. So, enjoyable or popular themes, concepts, and structure are more valuable and desirable in anime than originality. Japanese animators rarely object to influence and similarity between anime productions because similarity and influence are accepted as a natural aspect of creativity. Accusations of plagiarism arise infrequently, and usually only in cases of art or ideas being directly, shamelessly copied without acknowledgment or respect for the original artist or source. American film makers including George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola publicly encourage borrowing from their films because they themselves were influenced by, and borrowed from the work of their predecessors. I think that Japan’s anime community has a similar attitude. Borrowing and recycling of ideas is inevitable. In the case of popular trends, it’s even desirable and encouraged. Entertainment value, and personal expression are more important to the anime industry and Japanese anime fans than originality. There may be dozens of harem anime, but they continue to be made because each one has unique characteristics that make it individual; thus fans get to enjoy a familiar concept with multiple variations, and anime producers get to profit from multiple successful titles.