Ask John: Why is Bloody Violence in Anime So Unrealistic?

Question:
Why in anime violence is so intense and disturbing? In samurai anime shows, when a swordsman cut off one of his enemies’ arms, the blood burst out rapidly. That seems pretty unrealistic. Even the movie Kill Bill shows a good example like that.

Answer:
On the contrary, you may be surprised to learn that the bloody splatter depicted in violent anime is not always as unrealistic as you may think. According to Elaine N. Marieb’s medical textbook “Human Anatomy and Physiology, third edition” published in 1995, an adult human body contains roughly 60,000 miles of blood vessels. The human heart has to pump fairly hard to move blood through that much pipeline. And since blood is constantly circulating through the body, there is never a time when any part of the body has significantly less blood than normal. The results of an online search turn up varying reports that blood will spurt from a severed artery anywhere from two feet up to ten feet with each heartbeat. While the precise distance that a spurt or geyser of blood will spray varies in different claims, and will certainly depend upon the severity of an injury, all reports agree that a severe injury such as a dismemberment or deep cut to a major artery does result in blood gushing several feet from the body. So the seemingly excessive, shocking splatter depicted in occasional anime and live action films, in fact, may not be unrealistic at all. On the contrary, it may be the bloodless or tactful “clean” depictions of violence which are actually the unrealistic ones. The adage that violence isn’t pretty isn’t just figurative speech.