Occultic Images in Anime

Does anyone know why there are so many images of the occult in anime? Most anime seems to usually have some kind of magic, but a lot of them have actual witchcraft-style rituals. Some examples would be Shamanic Princess and X 1999.

I was just watching some AMVs, and realized that it was pretty dominant. So does anyone know why they are so often used?

Yeah I mean there are usually some added magic to the plot just to juice it up, I know what you mean. Right now I can't really think of an anime that doesn't involve anything witchy crafty...

Ah!

Any Gundam Series - doesn't really involve unrealistic stuff, it includes politicals issues and stuff but no realy magic type things.

😆 So they've always got either magic or giant robots 😛

I think a lot of shoujo anime don't have supernatural elements. Aquarium, to pick the first name that comes to mind. Banana Fish, to pick another.

Originally posted by sum1butno1
😆 So they've always got either magic or giant robots 😛

Well they don't have magic!

Geez, they concentrate on political stuff.

They also always got Demons in them to, Inuyasha for cryin out loud... magic is deep rooted in japanese and asian tradition so since most of thir anime are related to old folk tales one can assume they couldn't tell the story without it...

So the magical stuff has always been there? I wasn't sure how long they've been putting them in their anime, but that makes a lot of sense.

Alot of their beliefs are in more or less magic and spiritual things.

Yeah, I've also noticed there's usually some kind of fighting or war in the anime, along with an embodiment of the ideals of friendship and honour and all that jazz.

Which is good. 🙂

but u have to have all of that to make the perfect anime! i mean i wouldnt be an anime with out fantasy type stuff!lol!

I hate repeating myself, but there's a lot of anime that doesn't have any "fantasy type stuff." There are a lot of romantic animes that don't usually get brought over to America. Not to mention shows like Detective Conan, which has some sci fi but is basically set in the "real world."

And anyway, what are some of the most popular shows in America? Buffy, Angel, X-Files, Star Trek, Andromeda ... it's not like this is just some Japanese thing. How many comics (the equivilant of manga) have absolutely no magic or science fiction? Bloody few, I'd say.

That's true. But it still seems that a lot more anime have magic and the occult than comic books, which focus a lot on cheap sci-fi and have a much weaker moral code(with the exception of comics like Witchblade, of course, which also has a bunch of magic and shtuff).

But I wouldn't necessarily say that comic books are the American equivalent of manga. Sure, they're cool, but I still think manga is more intellectual(though I'm going out on a bit of a limb). It just seems a lot more sophisticated and less juvenile than comic books. And a lot less nerdy. 😛

Lol but I thought that's what made manga so nerdy ^_^ It's usually aimed at more mature audiences, true, but there's manga for everyone.

Anime/manga has to have some kind of theme-- there are few series about just plain real-life stuff... like, the life of some random generic girl in junior high probably won't sell as much as the life of some random generic girl in junior high who suddenly finds out she's telekinetic or something. Anime/manga is all about fantasy... there has to be some kind of giant mecha or magical girl or weird spirits or it'll just be boring. ^_^