Forum - View topicAction Versus Romance
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DemonDragonJ
 Posts: 116 Location: Somewhere in the United States |
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In all the anime series that I have watched, there has never been a strong blend of action and romance. Most anime is either all action, as in Dragon Ball, Bleach, or Yu-Gi-Oh!, or all romance, as in Onegai Teacher, Onegai Twins, or Peach Girl, never both.
The only exceptions to this rule that I have seen are Cardcaptor Sakura and Sailor Moon. Those series blended action and romance most thoroughly, but sadly seem to have lost popularity recently. Now, I have two questions to ask everyone here. 1. Why does it seem that almost any given anime series does not possess a strong, equal combination of action and romance? 2. Are there any anime series, other than the two that I have mentioned above, that contain both action and romance? If anyone can assist me here, I would greatly appreciate it. |
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marie-antoinette
 Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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This may be a result of the shounen/shoujo division in anime. Shounen anime tend to focus more on action, while shoujo is more dedicated the characters and their development (especially within a romancee)
There are actually a lot of these around. My interests lie predominantly in shoujo anime/manga, and many of those serieses do have action sequences within them, such as anything magical girl (which covers Sailor Moon and CCS as well). Watase Yuu's fantasy manga (Ceres, Fushigi Yuugi, Alice 19th) have a fair amount of action in them as well. So definitely there are a lot out there, but at the same time there are always ones that will focus on one or the other. |
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sindwendler
Posts: 22 Location: Rhode Island |
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Hmmm... hard one. Well, I guess I'll take a stab at it.
Q1) Anime usually is marketed towards a specific demographic (e.g. males are to shounen anime as females are to shoujo anime.) In each demographic there are certain... assumptions (if you call it that.) If it is a shounen anime, elements making it more marketable to males will be inserted more often. This usually pertains to the the lean towards action over romance. Q2) It is all dependant on the person (in my opinion.) What would one consider an equal amount of action and romance? I've watched Tsukuyomi Moon Phase lately and I thought it was balanced rather nicely. |
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CyberViper
Posts: 218 Location: Matsumoto, Nagano Japan |
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I can think of a few that can probably fit well into both action and romance.
The first one I'd like to offer is Furi Kuri. If you have not seen it I highly recommend it. It's short for one thing, but there is enough packed into it that it will seem like a full 26 episode series. There is enough action, with amazing music, to make it one of the most entertaining series you've ever watched. There is also the love story between several of the characters. It's also very philosophical and has a much deeper meaning than many people think. It is defintely something not to miss. Loveless has it's share of action and I suppose you can consider is romance. I defintely did, althought it isn't quite your ordinary romance. Either way, I defintely enjoyed it and it wasn't defintely worth watching. Mai Hime had it's romantic moments, althought I wouldn't say it was based on romance. It was more like 'love-quarrells' throughout most of the series. It wraped up well though, and actually did have progression in my opinion. I also found it to have a good deal of action, and it's defintely one of those series I enjoyed a lot. Gantz could be romance depending on your definition. There is a guy who wants a girl and will do anything to get here. Again, it's sort of like a love-quarrels situation. But Gantz has plenty of action and I enjoyed it immensely, although there are also people who really didn't like it. Ayashi no Ceres has about evenly matched romance and action. It's not action like Bleach, but there is still enough to make it enjoyable. It doesn't really go heavy on either romance or action, but probably both in moderation. However, both the romance and action build up a lot towards the end and it gets very good at that point. Chrno Crusade is one that I highly recommend. There is a great story, characters, romance, and action. Everything about it was pretty much perfect. It is also one of the saddest anime series i've ever seen, as well as one of the most entertaining and unforgettable. Rurouni Kenshin has tons of great action and amazing fight scenes. Every fight really got my adrenaline flowing. There are a lot of interesting characters and the things they go through will keep you entertained. It also has it's comedic moments, which is always a nice relief. There is defintely a love story, although it takes a while to develop. However, later on the story is based around the love between two characters and the duty one of the characters feels he is bound by. |
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Zalis116
Moderator
 Posts: 6900 Location: Kazune City |
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No offense, but I get the impression that you haven't seen a whole lot of anime, at least not enough to make a judgement about "most" anime. I too like to find balance in series between action and romance, so I've seen a fair amount that has both. Escaflowne: One of the best examples--the longings and love triangles of a high school girl in a different world + fantasy mecha, magic and swordplay. Elfen Lied: Has several romantic threads running to complement all the gore and killing. I don't want to spoil any more. DN Angel: Daring art thefts and magic battles + cute junior high romance between the main character, his alter-ego, and twin girls. Pretear: Much like CCS and Sailor Moon, Pretear is a Magical Girl show that features the love and betrayal between various characters along with transformations and battles with monsters leading up to a showdown with the main villain. Full Metal Panic Series--combine sci-fi/mecha action with a smoldering "like-hate" relationship between Kaname and Sousuke. Mai Hime: Lots of magic/action/fighting, much of it centered around protecting loved ones (including straight relationships, shoujo-ai, and non-romantic love). Love rivalries play a big part in some of the later fights. Mai Otome: Somewhat of a Mai Hime sequel, focuses on the difficult choice between love and one's role as a warrior, but just like Mai Hime, has plenty of fighting, transformation, explosions, and so forth. |
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Sir_Brass
 Posts: 476 Location: Prescott, AZ |
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in addition to the anime already mentioned, Noein also is blending the action well with the romance (as well as with the drama).
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daristar
Posts: 49 |
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Good blends (some already mentioned I know):
Full Metal Panic. More action then romance, but the romance develops slowly over time. When you get to TSR just damn on both aspects IMO. DNAngel. Magical duels, daring the cops to catch the thief (they send warning letters saying I'm going to steal such and such, at this time on this night), but the whole thing centers around finding the one you love and who loves you. Fate Stay/night: So far it's mostly action/magical. But they're setting up romance/love triangles as well IMO. Only watched the first 6 episodes so far though so I could end up being wrong. Mai-Hime: More action then romance but still a decent mix. Mai-Otome: This may end up being better then Mai-Hime, I originally didn't like it as much but the story is getting better. Basically exploring how important love is to people, and what they're willing to give up for love, or if duty is more important. Oh yeah and love triangle. Magical mechs, battles and political intrigue/war. Girls Bravo: ok the action is really centered around one of the girls who pretty much body slams people. there are some explosions as well. Oh and said girl has some sweet fight scenes, especially towards the end. Beyond that it's largely a harem type. Kage Kara Mamoru: Comedy harem/ninja. Guy is continuing the family tradition of protecting their neighbors in secret. Neighbor is a ditz and gets into all sorts of situations where she needs saving (apparently a family trait). |
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P€|\||§_|\/|ast@
 Posts: 3498 Location: IN your nightmares |
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Personally, I'd say that about half of my most favorite anime series (which all at least have both action and romance) have a particular aspect to their action side; and that is martial arts. The two series that represent this quality the most are also my 2 most favorite series: Fushigi Yuugi and Angelic Layer. Fushigi Yuugi has been mentioned earlier so I'll focus on Angelic Layer (which hasn't been mentioned in this thread yet), also I'll take any excuse to plug it since I love it so much.
Angelic Layer, while classified as a shounen anime has a good deal of romance and portrays not just, one but TWO love triangles. It is almost stretching it to call this strictly shounen especially since the main character, Misaki Suzuhara, is a girl. What makes the action so great are the intense fighting scenes in just about every episode. No there are no aliens, mecha battles (unless you count doll battles), but unless you are looking for strictly martial arts anime, it's hard to find a romantic series that has so much fighting in it. The quality of animation in the action scenes is very clean and bright. I think anyone interested in both a good romance story and a fighting action show should definitely check out Angelic Layer (plus the manga was written by CLAMP  ).
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DemonEyesLeo
 Posts: 844 Location: Japan |
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Ranma 1/2 has both. It's got more action/comedy elements but there's a fair amount of romance in it as well, though most of it's done on a subtle level. |
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Kouji
 Posts: 978 |
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Shounen anime focuses more on action because they're targeted at boys and boys are stereotyped to like action more than romance. Likewise, shoujo anime focuses more on romance because they're targeted at girls and girls are stereotyped to like romance more than action, but there are plenty of anime series that offer both romance and action in them. Most of the recommendations so far have been of the shoujo genre, so I'll mention something from the shounen genre. Inuyasha is an action-oriented shounen series but it also has plenty of romance. The story deals alot with Inuyasha's love life and his feelings for Kagome but it also has plenty of action and battles with demons, things of that nature, so it has a pretty good balance. It also has a fair share of comedy in it if you like romantic comedies, but just be ready for a long ride should you choose to watch Inuyasha.
Another series I'd recommend is the original Macross. It's an older mecha anime from the '80s, so don't expect the flashiest animation ever, but while a big focus of it is on war and mecha battles, a large theme of the Macross universe is love and culture. There's a complex love triangle that exists between the key characters Hikaru, Misa, and Minmay, and you find yourself just as engaged in their feelings as you do the mecha battles, if not more so. Being a sci-fi series, you can also expect plenty of action as there's lots of mechas blowing things up and all that fun stuff, too. If you're unsure of watching Macross because of the outdated animation, you should try Macross Plus as well. Although it's a Macross anime, Macross Plus works well enough as a standalone story that you don't need to see any of Macross previously to enjoy it and it has all the important themes of love, music, and culture that the original possesed but with more smoother animation, fluid action scenes, and an outstanding musical score composed by no other than legendary Kanno Yoko-san. Another good series is Tenchi Muyo. It's a harem anime but it has a perfect blend of sci-fi action, romantic love triangles, and frantic comedy. It's a hilarious series but it also has plenty of exiciting and dramatic touching moments along the way. The characters are funny and unique and Tenchi Muyo just continues to remain probably one of the best harem anime out there. |
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DemonDragonJ
Posts: 116 Location: Somewhere in the United States |
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No, I do not take offense, but I will have you know that in my eighteen, soon to be nineteen, years of life, I have seen so much Japanese animation, of many different genres, that I cannot remember every series that I have seen. If I were to attempt to list every ainime that I have ever seen, it would be quite a long list indeed. 
Last edited by DemonDragonJ on Wed Mar 01, 2006 4:45 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Digital Dreamer
 Posts: 287 Location: Sydney, Australia |
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Ranma 1/2 - The Girls and Guys in ranma either want to fight Ranma or love Ranma. Macross - When Hikaru is not fighting the Zentrati, he's stuck in a middle of a love triangle between Misa and MinMay. Plus there is a few other couples in that show. And in the end, you have a very strong theme of "Love Conqueres All" |
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Stupidman007
 Posts: 394 |
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Most popular action animes include enough romance in them. It's hard to find one that isn't and be good. People need romance and comedy in their lives to lighten up the stress. Having all action is nice and all, but almost in every story, not just anime, with action also comes romance and comedy.
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Sir_Brass
Posts: 476 Location: Prescott, AZ |
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I have forgotten if this was already mentioned, but Last Exile is a good blend. Not too much romance, but it still plays a significant part in the story, and the action is simply awesome.
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Azathrael
 Posts: 745 |
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How could one forget Full Metal Panic? Granted that the "romance" part makes a rather late appearance but the anime is far from over and the next season will be even better. I'm currently rewatching Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid and I'm liking it just as much as I did when I first watched it.
Banner of the Stars also has plenty of action and romance. Personally, I rate it higher than Full Metal Panic in both action and romance (but not comedy). |
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