When people say they like an anime or a manga, usually it was because it appealed to them... Some people liked Naruto because they think Ninjas are cool...
why do they think Ninjas are cool, many reasons, but the most common is appeal... somewhere in their heart they wished, even for a minute moment, that they could be a ninja, or that the ninjas from Naruto were real...
I'm sure everyone has at least day dreamed or wished for a second that they could spend a day with their favorite anime character or something similar to that... when I was a kid I wished the world was more like a Zelda game, adventure at ever corner, and NO SCHOOL!
... even as we get older we still have those thoughts sometimes, when I watch School Rumble, often I wish real school was like that... School Rumble has appealed to me....
but now as a writer, my writings and stories must appeal to other people too... Which is a pretty hard thing...
so how can I get my writings to appeal to other people?
Well (keep in mind these things are simply my own theories...) the first thing to do is to see who your target is... do you want adults to like your stories or do you want anime fans?
Most popular anime like Naruto, Bleach and One Piece, are called "Main Stream" ...
Mainstream is something that appeals to the majority... you wouldn't call a screamo gothic emo anime, main stream, because a happy go lucky girl probably wouldn't want to watch it, it probably wouldn't appeal to her...
however Naruto is considered mainstream because in this time period Ninjas are considered "cool"... lots of people like Ninjas... so it makes sense that this appeals to people...
Twilight is mainstream because vampires are the "big thing" today... that doesn't mean everybody likes it, it just means the majority of people will...
The down side to mainstream is it has to be dumbed down for the majority of people to enjoy, it has to cling on to a gimmick, such as ninjas and vampires, and usually a "mainstream" anime or novel will never be that great, on a critical point of view, mainstream things just aren't that great...
Death Note obviously isn't mainstream, because there a millions of people who hate it... Death isn't appealing to happy happy smile all the time kids... if you look at the Death Note fan base, the majority is made up of emo, goth teenagers... I'm sure the creators would have wanted it to appeal to as many people as possible, but when you write on such "extreme" subjects, you're bound to have haters.... but I personally think Death Note is 10X better than Naruto or Bleach...
Anyways when I was writing Green Success (that title embarrasses me) I definately wanted it to appeal to everyone passable... but now I realize I want to add some edge to it, make it a little more epic and maybe even make it a more serious story... as well, I also wanted it to be considered a "Christian" story, as leading people to Christ is my main goal... so right off the bat, there goes a LOT of appeal... I would be very surprised if my novel ever went mainstream... Well honestly, I'd be surprised if I even sold over 100 copies.... I have to understand who I'm trying to appeal if I want it to appeal...
...When you write a story about blood and vampires, expect it to appeal to vampire fans... expect it to be hated by everyone else...
So I could go on and on about this, but I'll keep this short by using a specific example... Green Success, the story I know the best...
Some of the main "gimmicks" of Green Success I used to try to get some appeal:
Rich People
Huge Mansion
Money
Marijuana
Gangs
Teens who are treated equally to adults
houses made of cardboard
No Parental influence, (parents don't care what the kids do) <--- I like that one!
Characters with high respect by the entire town
Cute Girl who loves you no matter what
Dreams of becoming a Manga artist
Death
Poor Run down Church, but a strong fellowship
Gun violence
Family (Family of people who aren't actually related but still stick together and call themselves a family)
I hope at least one of these things appealed to you... but in order to get someone to fall in love with Green Success, I think it would take more than just one thing to appeal...
So I say, think about your stories, what "gimmicks" have you used and who you want it to appeal to...
I say Gimmick, because in all honesty I purposely chose those things because I knew they would be interesting and appealing things for people to read about...
I guess I could have added Vampires to Green Success. but I wouldn't stoop that low... :P
So think about your stories when you write, if it doesn't even appeal to you, then it probably won't appeal to others...
Just remember these are just my personal theories and ideas... I may be wrong...
..I put little fireballs in my posts because I want it to appeal to lots of people... because most people cant stand looking at a huge blob of words... They like pictures! So do I!
Interesting post. I think Death Note is (9.99 x 10^30)X better than the mainstream anime you mentioned. Even FMA is better than those titles. I don't think a book will bring people over to Christ. In our line of work, books are mainly for entertainment, and can only hope that it has worthwhile lessons for the reader. The only way to bring people to Christ is through service towards your fellow man and let your beliefs shine through that work. After all, books can be misinterpreted and many people, certainly not all, just try to persuade somebody that there thoughts on god is correct by only reading certain verses or parts of verses. One thing I do know is that there is not one book out there that has the complete truth, especially since John Chapter 10 speaks of "other sheep". That was in the middle east, but I think the other sheep were else where and not gentiles. On the other hand, I believe that multiple books used in conjunction with each other does contain the complete truth.
ReplyDeletehmmm, well it's worth a try... it's not like the entire story revolves around Christianity, only a small part does...
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