I don’t have anything better to do right now (other than work on Innocence Seekers and related projects) but I would like to write this blog post regarding what I think about the stories people put out, as well as my preferences. The main reason I started Innocence Seekers in the first place is because there was nothing that fit completely within what I want to have in a story. These preferences have severely limited the amount of anime I watch, the amount of video games I play, and have put me off most stories written by Westerners (other than the ones in Western RPGs) altogether. While I have relaxed my restrictions slightly in recent months, I still find myself disinterested in most things that come out.
General:
- In general, I prefer to sympathise with the characters in a story, rather than empathise with them. This means that I want to see them pull through whatever they are going through, but it also means that it does not matter whether I can relate to them or not. As such, I dislike stories where the main character is an audience surrogate (i.e. someone who is supposed to be like the reader/viewer/player/whatever) with no actual personality.
- In general, I prefer my protagonists to be young and female. This means that I won’t watch/read/play most stuff that is released (unless the series in question was “grandfathered” by me having been a fan before my preferences were set in stone). In particular, I hate stories where most of the main cast is female yet the main character is male.
- I don’t like excessive sexual fanservice. In particular, I’m turned off by huge breasts. If I were given a choice between “cute” and “sexy”, I would always choose “cute”.
- In general, I tend not to like live-action, as I find the medium to be somewhat inflexible. In fact, I’ve always preferred animation, comics, video games, visual novels and purely written works over works involving actual acting.
- With regards to animation and comics, if I don’t like the artstyle, I won’t read/watch it. This is one of the reasons I prefer anime and manga over Western animation and Western comics. In fact, some of my favourite artstyles include those by manga authors Namori (author of YuruYuri), Yui Hara (author of Kiniro Mosaic and Wakaba*Girl) and Ume Aoki (author of Hidamari Sketch and character designer of Puella Magi Madoka Magica).
- I’m not fussy about whether the author is male or female.
Thoughts related to anime, manga, visual novels and light novels:
- Another reason I watch anime is because they more often have stories which I prefer. Unfortunately, that is still only the minority of anime.
- I believe that there are too many harem shows. Note that I hate harem anime, for the reason I listed in the above list.
- I also find that there are too many shows which seem to appeal to fujoshi. To me, one is too many. I tend to prefer yuri over yaoi.
- I don’t like shows which feature a young boy as the protagonist, largely because I tend to find them annoying in real life. In contrast, I see young girls as more “innocent” than “annoying”.
- On the other hand, I like moe anime. In fact, I’m a big fan of anime adapted from Manga Time Kirara manga.
- I also like magical girl anime, and indeed magical girl anime are the primary inspiration for Innocence Seekers.
- I have mixed feelings about the fact that most anime released are around twelve episodes long.
- I tend not to watch sports anime, unless if they feature a female main cast. Not only do I find that most sports anime also seem to cater to fujoshi, but if I did want to see a group of men battle it out on the court/field/pitch/whatever, I’d watch one of the real sporting events shown on TV, involving real teams and real players. I will give sports anime involving female players and all-female teams a chance, though.
- I’ve actually heard that the reason there are so many light novel harems is because the authors of these light novels are hiring hentai artists who cannot draw cool-looking men. Why they don’t go for an all-female cast is beyond me, but I’m more concerned with the “cannot draw cool-looking men” part.
Thoughts related to video games:
- I find many Western video games to be off-putting, namely because they tend to go for grimdark settings. They also often subscribe to “real is brown”.
- Conversely, many Japanese RPGs force me to play a male teen, which I don’t really like (I prefer to play as a female character).
- I prefer turn-based combat over real-time combat. This is because I belive I’m better with my brain than with reflexes.
- I often find that big-budget titles (from both America and Japan) do not interest me much; as such I often look to indie games, since they often experiment more.
The first version of the plot that would become Innocence Seekers was conceived in 2008, and several aspects of the setting were conceived as early as 2005. In that time, the plot has undergone countless revisions, to reflect my growing experience, but the core concept has not changed (namely, that a group of young girls goes and saves the galaxy from a threat with their powers). At the time the plot was first conceived, I was not watching any anime. However, in 2011, I started to watch anime, and became a fan of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, which formed the inspiration for the current magic system of Innocence Seekers. At the time, however, I couldn’t call myself someone who watched anime, as I was often fixated onto one series. It was only last year that I started to watch a variety of anime.
Over the years, I made several spinoffs and side stories to my original plot, often to reflect my new preferences. As such, the project has grown considerably; my current story, Innocence Seekers: Akari of the Light, is one of those side stories, and the original story is now Innocence Seekers: The Dark Angel Part 3 (yes, part 3). Also over the years, I have become fascinated with Japanese culture. Hence more Japanese characters were conceived (as of now, all but two of my characters, not all of whom are listed on the wiki, are either Westerners, Japanese, or not from Earth).
As for my preferences to stories in general, they have changed over the years. From about 2013 to June 2015, the only anime I was interested in was magical girl anime. It was in June of last year that I decided to start watching other anime, beginning with YuruYuri on Crunchyroll. The next month I began watching (legal) simulcasts, and it was School-Live! which got me to get a Crunchyroll premium account. Of course, starting late meant that I have a backlog to clear.
As of now, there isn’t that much I’m looking forward to in the next 12 months. Of course, some anime or anime adaptations have yet to be announced; the same with video games. One of the things I’m looking forward to the most is the anime adaptation of Shōtarō Tokunō’s New Game!, which will air in July.
P.S. I’d like to say “happy birthday” to the following Japanese voice actresses: Megumi Hayashibara (now 49), Ayako Kawasumi (now 40), Rikako Yamaguchi (now 28) and Mikoi Sasaki (now 25).
P.P.S. I have a big announcement to make (not) in two days. Look forward to it! (not)