GURPS Anime...what should be in it?

[Mark Skarr]

Originally Posted by Mgellis

With tentacles.

All right, this thread has gone on long enough without me showing up. You invoke "tentacles" enough times and you know I've got to show up.

As a Pastafarian watching tentacle "anime" is a form of worship. I'm just not sure I want to be touched by those noodly appendages.

I'm pretty much of the opinion that a GURPS Anime book would be redundant. GURPS is Anime. It can be serious or goofy or down right ridiculous. It can be light-hearted or somber and depressing. You can have giant robots and catgirls made with the same set of rules and they can interact wherever you want them to. And, honestly, what most people think of when they think “anime” differs. I think of a style of animation, not any specific thing.

Just like you could have a story about Mecha and have it be a thousand different things anime is a means to an end, not the message being conveyed. Compare Robotech to BattleTech to Heavy Gear to Gurren Lagann, they’re all mecha stories, but have little in common. Heck, compare Macross to Macross Plus to Macross Frontier they’re the same freaking series and they have little in common (other than transformable planes, music and CMoA).

I don’t know that someone could effectively encapsulate the various forms of what people think when the word “anime” is used and put it into a book. GURPS does its best by just giving you the framework and letting you build the feel.