Ask John: Why Do Most Anime Always “Tell” and not “Show”?

Question:
Why do most anime always “tell and not show”? In western film school, we’re told to show the viewer the story, not tell them, but most anime I’ve seen, the characters are always either talking out loud or in their head about what they have to do to stop a bad guy.

Answer:
Anime News Network’s “Answerman” addressed this question since it was obviously sent to him and myself. Zac’s explanation was that extended exposition in place of animation was a cost-saving measure. I have to agree with that response. Studio 4°C’s ambitious but under-funded Mahou Shoujo Tai Arusu television series, for example, goes to distractingly obvious lengths to keep speaking characters off-screen or obscure the mouths of speaking characters to minimize the amount of motion that needed to be animated. However, I disagree with the sentiment that anime, as a general rule, avoids illustrating action. I believe that the content and style of typical Japanese animation simply requires a balance of exposition and illustration, and I think that the impression that anime “tells” instead of “shows” may be influenced by Western perception and expectations about cinematic storytelling.

Anime is an outgrowth of manga. In fact, a large percentage of existing anime is literally adapted from manga. While individual manga artists have differing degrees of ability and responsibility to the philosophy of storytelling through illustration, the manga art form has traditionally been characterized by its policy of storytelling with imagery. Manga has a tradition of using panel lay-out, multiple illustrations, and even sound effects to convey action. Examples of highly cinematic manga like Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball, for example, don’t even need dialogue in order to convey the basic “what’s happening” story to readers because the art alone carefully details every scene, action, and character reaction or decision.

Likewise, countless anime fans that don’t understand Japanese language are still able to watch and enjoy untranslated anime because anime typically does “show” enough to enable viewers to comprehend basic story progress, conflict, and resolution. Anime does frequently have a tendency to prolong confrontations with extensive dialogue, but I firmly believe that these protracted monologues and discussions compliment and enhance the visual action on screen rather than substitute for visual depiction.

Furthermore, animation is a different medium than live action cinema. Viewers are instinctively able to decipher minute changes in expression from other humans and even animals, but depicting and recognizing such subtle cues in animation is more difficult. In order to compensate for the fact that animation isn’t physically able to recreate the minute, natural nuances of reality, animation has to rely on internal monologues and dialogue. Viewers may be able to guess what an actor or character is thinking by judging the actor’s body language. Since that’s far more difficult to do with animation, characters need to clearly express what they’re thinking through dialogue. In effect, if anime was entirely “show” without “tell” it wouldn’t have the humanistic, emotional, moral, cultural, or philosophical depth that it frequently does.

Finally, Western viewers expecting anime to “show” its plot developments and express its narrative through visuals may actually overlook the fact that anime actually does this because anime does it slower and more methodically than Western viewers may expect. Anyone familiar with typical Japanese film may know that Japanese film frequently takes a more deliberate, leisurely pace than typical American film. American film makers and viewers expect cinema to move at a brisk pace from plot point to point, building toward a satisfying climax. Japanese cinema respects these same principles, but doesn’t seem to feel as compelled to go about them as rapidly. Pacing that seems natural to Japanese films often seems tedious or boring to Americans used to more brisk storytelling. So it’s possible that anime does indeed convey its narrative through illustration and visuals, but since it does so slower than Americans are used to seeing, average Americans may think that anime is simply not developing or progressing its narrative effectively.

I can’t deny that I’m biased toward giving anime the benefit of doubt, so my defense of anime’s cinematic storytelling may be somewhat overzealous. I can’t deny that one can find many examples of anime that employ dialogue and narration as a crutch to compensate for lacking animation. I won’t argue that the cinematic rule of “show, don’t tell” is inapplicable to anime, but I do think that it applies in different degree to live action and animation. Furthermore, I think that the degree to which Japanese animation balances illustration with exposition is a unique stylistic characteristic that distinguishes Japanese animation from all other types of cinema.