Note:This information was submitted by my wonderful co-GM and advisor, Rei-Chan.

Running an Anime Character.

First I suppose we might as well try to figure out what makes an Anime Character more interesting than say an ordinary character. That kind of goes to what makes Anime and Manga different than animation here in the U.S.

Anime and Manga is usually geared towards an older viewer or reader than its' U.S. counterparts. Thus the storylines are more elaborate and the characters evolve into three dimentional people rather than the flat persona's that we normally get fed in domestic animation.

In Anime and Manga, characters grow up, make hard choices, and quite often die. Even the villians usually could have been heroes except for a twist of fate. This is important to keep in mind when you run an anime character. He or She ends up being the product of the experiences that he has.

Your goal in running such a character is to make him as much like a real person as you possibly can. You will probably find it is best to create a character with flaws. During the game the flaws can be used as plot hooks to get him into interesting situations and it will also allow him to mature as he learns about his weaknesses and tries to come to terms with them and someday overcome them.

It's an amazing thing to look back at a game that has run a few years and you can think back to how innocent and weak your character was in the beginning, but now you can see what a hero he has become.

If you're a power gamer then there is no point in playing an anime game. If you start of as a mega-powerful being then what's the point? At the end of the game your character hasn't changed... he's the same as he was at the start. Fighting the villian of the week gets old really quick.... and even so even within Anime like Dragonball they will find ways for the characters to change and mature overtime.

So if I haven't beaten it to death here it is in a nutshell. Make your character as real and flawed as you are... let the character evolve over the course of the game. If your running a 14 year old, odds are he's not going be as spiritually centered as the Dalai Lama. So don't play him as if he is anything more than a teenage with typical and possibly atypical problems.

Now some tricks for running an Anime Character.

1. Describe your characters expression: If you've ever tried to read a Manga in original Japanese, odds are you didn't know the words, but as you looked at the pictures you saw how expressive the faces of the characters were... it is actually possible to get a basic understanding of the story just by the expressions. In an anime game describe it.

examples:

"Ryo, what are you doing with that gun?" Nanjo asked.

that is the wrong way to do it.... here is a better way

"Ryo, what are you doing with that gun?" A nervous Nanjo asked in a gulp, while he slowly stepped back towards the door.

2. This goes back to the first point but if the GM has sent you something describing the situation go ahead and add reaction shots into the post he sent you to give it more emotion.

example:

The GM sends you something like this:

The sexy girl walked over to Kenji.

An interesting response would be to do a slight rewrite to add Kenji's reaction before you even continue on.

Kenji tried to stop from drooling over the babe at the other end of the bar.

The sexy girl walked over to Kenji.

Kenji watched with desire at every sexy stride of her long legs. He was stunned when they stopped, and she was looking at him!

"Can I help you?" he squeaked. Quickly clearing his throat he tried again. "Can I help you?" That worked better but he didn't hear it because the blood was rushing in his ears as he couldn't believe that she had approached him!

3. This isn't specific to anime but stuff that isn't part of the post should be in some sort of brackets.... The GM will probably use these to give you advice on how far to take your response... going back to the previous example the GM might have written

The sexy girl walked over to Kenji

[Okay, just need reaction shots here... don't carry the conversation too far...just say hi or something, I'll take it from there.]

your reply back to the GM might include questions or details of what your planning to do next... so if the GM does go that route he can add your response and continue further with his reply bracket them.

[Kenji will be real nice to her and if he gets the chance he will ask her for her phone number.]

that sort of stuff lets the GM know what you're planning so he can add it in if it applies based on what the NPC does.

4. Not specific to anime but it is best to write things in third person past tense. This makes it easy to put it together like a story when the messages are compiled into a turn. Third person past tense looks like this

Kenji wanted to impress the girl so he pulled out a cigarette to show her how cool he was.

present tense would have been

Kenji tries to impress the the girl by pulling out a cigarette.

it works about the same but later on it doesn't work when you try to read it as a story and it seems like everything is happening right now.

5. Lastly, be very careful about writing stuff for other player characters and even for NPC's... don't be surprised if the GM rewrites stuff for you... that's not to say you can't write for NPC's if your pretty certain you know what they would say. For example Kenji could have carried on the above conversation if he knew something about the sexy girl.

Still it might not be a good idea to write about how she gave Kenji a tongue bath because the GM might end up sending back a response like this

[That's great Kenji... I loved the who tonsil's thing... minor problem here, she's not a nympho and even if she was she wouldn't be interested in Kenji because she's a lesbian.... sorry!]

That's about it.... so just have fun and try to write things that will be interesting to read!

Jya, ne!