The following post first appeared on my old blog: Chibi no Nothing

“I simply liked this character. She was fun straight forward and easy to grasp.”
–about Makoto of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

“Still, Noda is the character that I liked. She was simple. There wasn’t any pretense with her.”
–about Noda of Nodame Cantabile

It occurred to me shortly after posting my thoughts on The Girl Who Leapt Through Time that there was a somewhat consistent theme when it came to characters that I liked. I seem to prefer “simple” characters.

It is not that I only like characters that are not “deep.” There are many characters that I have found intriguing that could not be described as simple. For instance, Misaki from Welcome to NHK incited a wealth of emotions, in particular empathy. Hagu, of Honey & Clover, would seem to be an underdeveloped character but for the intricacies of her motivations.

One of the reasons that so many anime archetypes are rehashed repeatedly is because we know what to expect from the character when they are presented for the first time. The character’s actions and responses lead us into forming a first impression; if that character type has been exhaustively defined in other genre and stories then we know what to expect from that character. This initial impression is better as a marketing device that attracts viewers than it is in progression of the story and development of the characters.

That initial impression is only a starting point. Usually, the characters will evolve throughout the story. They may reach a final point to their development, and usually that is around the end of the story or that character’s part in that story. It isn’t unusual because when one examines the typical story, once the characters have no more to learn then there is less left for us to experience.

Notice that I attribute qualities to these characters based on personal perception. That is the key for me when introduced to new characters within a story. I make a conscience effort to relate to characters when possible, but that isn’t always possible. Not every character lends itself to self introspection. Oddly, when a character can be described as “simple” we get chances to evaluate ourselves that do not necessarily appear with characters whose motivations are more elaborately defined. Arguably, many anime characters are not very complex, but that hasn’t seemed to limit their impact on the story.

When we speak of character development we unusually mean it in the form of behavioral and emotional attributes. This is the necessary information we need to understand and guess about how the character would react given a situation or event. When a character lacks these qualities, what are we to do? No matter what, we will use our own personality and experiences to enhance the story and characters. This specific quality of people is unavoidable. In those instances that we are presented less substance to work with in personally developing a profile for a character, we use ourselves as a model. In order to understand others we have to at least be able to imagine “walking in their shoes.”

Empathy is probably the best example of this type of behavior in people. If someone cannot imagine the circumstances of another person then empathy is simply impossible. One can extend that simple observation whether it be love, hate, anger, sadness, happiness, sorrow, or any other emotions.

That is what a story is anyway, isn’t it? It’s a blending of emotions. They are words meant to incite feeling. I keep saying that emotion is the universal language simply because we can all understand these feelings instinctively. To the degree and complexity that we can experience something like empathy for the events in a story is due solely to the extent that we have experienced being human.

It really is that simple.

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BTW, Ayanami Rei > Asuka . . . I’ll just say it, Rei > *