motifs, not cliches

I wanted to work on some original stories of mine, using the same types of motifs as anime/manga and mythology, so I ran a search for anime/manga cliches and plot devices, to compare to my Joseph Campbell books.  Wrong choice of search keywords.  ~_~;  All the search results (with the exception of 1 or 2 websites) were primarily negative rants against anime/manga.  ~x~;

 So, perhaps it's time to clear up something about cliches:  They're repeated for a reason.

 Not just because the editors told the authors to, merely to ride the coattails of a popular trend, to assure the publishers a profit.  In fact, let's look at that statement I just wrote.  The publishers are recognizing a _popular trend_.  "Popular" means that some kind of motif is effecting and speaking-to a lot of people out there.  Popular doesn't always simply mean a formulaic factor, with no deeper meaning, meant merely to catch our current attentions and trap audiences for profit.  Sometimes, some part of it, can reflect the mindsets of the current culture, generation, or---if repeated throughout time long enough---some nature of the human mind in general.  Which is why the field of comparative mythology/folklore exists.  Someone once said that comic books, TV shows, movies, videogames, and other modern media, are our current folklore and mythology.  So, I'm not so eager to dismiss the repeated motifs in anime/manga, as merely hackneyed cliches.

 And even if formulaic plots are repeated and devices become cliche, it doesn't necessarily make such series meaningless.  There's so much pressure in movie critic culture to see an "original" story.  (Perhaps to accomodate the tough copyright laws.)  Yet, there really is no such thing as an "original" story.  Mythology and folklore have shown that humans appear to be telling the same few stories over and over again, but with some variations, to fit whatever new culture/generation is current.  But rather than "unoriginal" being "bad", it actually feels more like a unifying force to me.  If humans have been telling the same story (or few stories) throughout time, then we can all find common ground in our shared experience of psyche.  If variations appear for each new generation, then those essential themes from those repeated stories, can effectively reach the minds/hearts of each generation (as experiences, rather than just lectures), in their own "language", to be used for their own, current needs/purposes.

 Or as I told my cousin once, "Just because we already have Peter Pan, doesn't mean we don't need The Wizard of Oz."  They're both similar stories of regular protagonists, travelling to fantastical worlds.  But I would never call them the same, nor would I call the later one unneccessary, simply because it came after a precedent.  Each fulfills different needs, through their variation of aspects.  For example, in the mid 1990's, I gravitated to Sailormoon, because it was the only heroine-centric anime that I knew about at the time.  Sure, there were things I liked about the story, but there were also annoying aspects, which I wish could be trimmed off (like Usagi's whining girlishness).  Then I discovered Devil Hunter Yohko:  Same "schoolgirl transforming into a heroine" plot, but much more action, much less princess.  There's a variation for everybody!

 So I say, welcome the "copycats"!  A bigger pool to choose from, gives everyone the opportunity to find what speaks specifically to them.