Why are there so few fantasy anime where the settings feel unique? It feels like we get maybe one every 3-5 years.
So many of them are just D&D/Tolkien/Dragon Quest-inspired and lack the feelings of wonder and imagination.
The architechture, magic systems, clothing, cultures, etc in most of these stories always look and function in really generic ways.
But surprisingly I don't see this issue as much in sci-fi anime though, usually those settings are much more distinct visually and conceptually.
Why is there such a difference?
Why are there so few fantasy anime where the settings feel unique? It feels like we get maybe one every 3-5 years
Colton Sanders
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Bentley Wright
The anime industry is in its third bubble. Weather at 11.
Picrel did fantasy well in my opinion, I'm not sure what to call it but it had sort of "inexplicable magic," there was no power system and cool fantastical stuff just kind of happens. Like the king who gets superhumanly fat superhumanly quickly to burn it all off in battle. And there are clerics of some church but they don't seem to actually have any power. Not to say that anything else about this was very inspired, the worldbuilding was terrible, but at least the magical stuff was handled well.
Juan Murphy
Asians are copycats and lack creativity.
Colton Price
Japs dont give a shit as long as it an isekai. Why waste effort being creative when lonely adult virgin can just reincarnate in a basic tabletop setting.
Nathaniel Reyes
The same reason there are so few unique non-anime fantasies, creating original content is difficult
youtube.com
Logan Johnson
The current trend is isekai. If you wanna write something that pays the rent, you just write an isekai and throw in romance, harem and sex because that stuff is the lowest common denominator of mankind.
There's so few unique, interesting settings because most isekai writers don't have a passion for writing in the first place, so they won't have the passion of creating good settings either. They just copypaste what sells and that's that.
Eli Flores
God I fucking miss Ivalice
Michael Walker
Because "unique" isn't the point of the modern fantasy genre, and hasn't been for decades. This is not peculiar to anime/manga/LNs.
Nathaniel Bennett
Western fantasy setting are foreign and unique since the Japanese dont have a long history and writings of similar settings. It's like you not being familiar with Japanese, Chinese, Indian, South Eash Asian story archetypes.
Jose Howard
Most do have passion but they just suck at writing.
Carson Sanders
A typical anime fantasy setting is neither Western nor in any way unfamiliar to an audience that grew up playing Dragon Quest.
Colton Richardson
The novelty of that should be worn out by now, they've been using the same type of setting in their own media for around 40 years.
Their familiarity is even to the point where they even parody these works, there has to be a strong familiarity with the setting for that to happen.
Isaac Sanders
> Houseki no Kuni
> Hakumei to Mikochi
> Made in Abyss
> Kemurikusa
> Konohana Kitan
> Urara Meirochou
Haven't there been at least this many fantasy animes with somewhat unusual settings for the past five years?
Caleb Bailey
Good worldbuilding in a fantasy story requires time to figure out and work, and time isn't what a lot of the authors of the light novels these anime are adapted from are given. So it's easier to ripoff dungeon crawlers or tabletop games and get to actually writing the story rather than waste precious time arsing around with worldbuilding.
Brandon Hill
Theres a new made in abyss trailer
youtu.be
And stfu about the uoohhh, other than the naked hanging everything else feels natural.
Owen Murphy
Unusual Setting =/= Worldbuilding. Your examples are great shows but their settings aren't really "worlds" with detailed histories, culture, nations, that you could visit, they're more of a ontological mysteries that appeal to explorers as opposed to travelers.
Settings like Ivalice, Tamriel, or 40k derive their interest more from the geopolitical machinations and conflicts that arise rival nations, with the individuals situated between them.
Nolan Robinson
I don't think you can put something like GoT in the miniscule time that is 12 anime episodes.
Matthew Murphy
Nigga, you want to add the budget of a AAA game-company product on top of a tv animation one? And you wonder why therent arent more animes like that?
Matthew Ramirez
What exactly is a fantasy anime/manga? Can Naruto, Bleach or HxH be considered fantasy?
Ryder Cook
I think it's more that most of the people who are interested in pic related are going to be going into video game industry or writing as opposed to the anime industry. The world-building elements after all, is most manifest in the virtual worlds of video games, and we can see that with the stuff alot of the fantasy settings that are pumped out there.
Don't forget, sci-fi is more of an exploration of some interesting ideas, whereas fantasy like you described is almost always sprawling epics with very complex plotlines and a multitude of characters, justifying something like that for an adaptation is going to be difficult given it's costs and risky execution with likely at least 24 episodes. And the same applies to anime to be honest, there's not actually that many sci-fi epics being tried out. It's much easier to realize these settings in video games or books than in anime.
If you want some worldbuilding OP, desu I suggest u just go read western fantasy, or some standout LNs like Horizon.
Hunter Powell
Yes.
Though I would consider Bleach and HxH urban fantasy.
I have other issues with Naruto too because of how incoherent it is at times.
Like Naruto randomly having things like laptops and other inconsistent technologies pop up in its world.
James Wilson
not really lol