by Dave Turner ({REL[89][articleGame]kPfALVxvREL} Editorials)
Whether you're aware of it or not, the Japanese animation industry known as anime has an undeniable presence in Kindred of the East. Anime has a unique style, rhythm, and mythology that can be detected in some of the core concepts of Kindred of the East. Unfortunately, anime has such an overwhelming formula and flavor that it is quite easy for a Kindred of the East chronicle to become dominated by this style of play. I am not an huge fan of anime and as a result I've had to come up with ways of downplaying its presence in Kindred of the East chronicles. Let me show you what I mean.Due to my lukewarm approach to anime, I haven't performed an exhaustive study of the material. I have seen enough anime, however, to form a general opinion of the most significant conventions of the genre. After each one, I'll fit it into a Kindred of the East context.
The heroes are always masters of martial arts and whatever other skills are important to the plot. Obviously, this convention isn't too likely to occur in an role-playing game. Most STs should be able to adapt to this convention, since I'd suspect that most PCs aren't necessarily masters of too many skills, combat or otherwise. That's not to say that martial arts shouldn't play a role in a Kindred of the East chronicle. If you find that all your PCs have Martial Arts at 4+, you might find yourself in this kind of territory. As long as the other anime conventions are avoided, having a wu full of kung-fu masters isn't so bad. This is a game set in Asia, after all, and part of the "fun" is characters with martial arts.
When given the choice, most anime characters prefer to fly through the air rather than walk. Heroes perform outrageously long jumps punctuated by a battle cry. Like the first convention, this one is pretty easy to get around in a role-playing game. Naturally, if most of your PCs are heavily into Jade Shintai, you might find yourself straying into this area. If this is the case, there isn't too much you can do, aside from asking the players to tone down the aerobatics a bit. Hong Kong action movies also tend to feature heroes who sail through the air with two guns blazing. If your chronicle is based on action movies, then this might not be a problem for you. I'm assuming that as an ST you're trying to downplay the potential outlandishness of excessive use of these leaps.
Melodrama runs rampant, as characters face tremendous extremes of situation and emotion. Anime shares some common ground with soap operas. Anime characters are usually placed in highly exotic situations and seem to switch emotions at the drop of a hat. The exotic situations and locales isn't what you should be concerned about. Anime characters rush to the extremes of the emotion they are feeling, alternately swearing undying vengeance, declaring ardent love, or showing bottomless surprise. Their reactions are cartoonish. Keep in mind that regardless of what you think of the depth of the story or the quality of the imagination, anime is still, in essence, a cartoon. I don't mean that Akira and Bugs Bunny are first cousins. But both styles of animation use broad strokes to paint their particular views. Make sure that the PCs create characters with some depth, not simply anime action heroes.
Supernatural threats are overwhelming and epic. The consequences of the heroes' failure are catastrophic. This ties into the melodramatic nature of anime. The heroes might have to battle Master Devils, Demon Lords, or Black Sorcerers. They might plow through thick ranks of goblins and minor demons en route to the climax. If the heroes fail to close the Dancing Turtle Gate, a flood of demons will ransack the Earth. This is the most insidious anime convention that a Kindred of the East ST will face. The concept of fighting demonic overlords is central to Kindred of the East, as demonstrated by the Kuei-jin relationship to Yomi and their ancestral duties as Wan Xian. This concept provides STs with an easy source of stories and plots, as they pit the wu against a limitless source of Evil Bakemono. The stories that revolve around fighting the Yama Kings can slip into the realm of anime in the blink of an eye. This is the hardest convention to overcome, but it can be done with a simple shift in focus and scale.
The keys to defusing this particular "anime bomb" are remembering which World of Darkness game you're playing, focusing Yomi on "horror" instead of "gore", and reevaluating the importance of Yomi.
The first thing to establish is that Kindred of the East isn't a supplement for Werewolf: the Apocalypse. Kindred of the East uses Vampire as a template for its basic mood and feel. Anime, with its gory battles and hordes of bakemono, typically packages stories in such a way that a physical or violent solution is the best (or only) solution. This is a much more common theme in Werewolf than in Vampire. Vampire is more suited for intrigue and mystery, which are an excellent basis for a Kindred of the East chronicle.
The second step is emphasizing the Horror of Yomi, rather than the Gore. By Horror, I mean the kind of primal dread and blinding fear that Hell can evoke. Horror comes from having almost all the facts about a situation or subject. Demons and goblins in anime are usually shown with such exotic features as tentacles, mouths on their hands, or jaw-like rib cages. There's nothing wrong with incoporating these ideas into your own bakemono, but don't allow them to get out of hand. Resist the urge to festoon every bakemono with five different demonic features. Let's say that the wu is on the trail of a rampaging bakemono. If I wanted to emphasize the Gore of Yomi, I could have the PCs find some grisly evidence of the demon's passage, such as dismembered bodies, trails of putrid ooze, or holes in walls where the creature made a hasty exit. If I wanted to emphasize the Horror of Yomi, I might mention details such as a man curled up in a corner beating his head with his hands, a roomful of dead birds in undisturbed cages, or an alleyway criss-crossed with blood splatters that apparently lead nowhere. In the later examples, the PCs know that something bad happened, but they might not know exactly what, or exactly how. Shift the focus from physical to psychological fear.
The last step is reinterpreting the importance of the Yomi World to the average wu of Kuei-jin. Sure, bakemono are Bad Things and all upstanding Kuei-jin should do their best to eradicate them if they find them. But can the PCs find them? A fledgling wu has a very full plate when it comes to surviving their first few years as Kuei-jin. They have to worry about their social standing in Court, dealing with the remnants of their mortal lives, pursuing Dharma, learning and improving Disciplines, forming Scarlet Screens, and fighting the urges of the P'o (among other things). All Kuei-jin know that the Yomi World and the Yama Kings are very real threats to the Middle Kingdom, but they might not always have the time and resources available to battle the demons. By de-emphasizing the immediate presence of Yomi, you have taken the largest step towards steering your chronicle away from anime. Rather than directly confronting the characters with the handiwork of the Yama Kings, present them with rumors and whispers of foul events that have transpired somewhere in the city. This gives the Yama Kings a notable profile, but avoids having to pour slavering demons all over the characters as proof that Yomi exists.
The last point also hides a deeper "truth" about Kindred of the East, which many casual observers overlook in the rush of Shintai, Yama Kings, Chi, and Jade. Underneath all the Asian trappings, Kindred of the East is still a game about vampires. Take a look at the list of potential problems I gave for a fledgling wu. Change a few references and terms and it's the same list of challenges that face a coterie of neonate Cainites. Let me emphasize right now that the themes, moods, and settings of the two Vampire games are as far apart as they can be. But the underlying conflicts at the foundation of each group of vampires are quite similar. Kuei-jin Elders are just as suspicious of young Kuei-jin as Cainites can be. The mandarins of Kuei-jin Courts are just as baffled by the sudden technological changes of the 20th Century as the Elder Cainites are. With a little translation, virtually all of the chronicle and story concepts found in Vampire sourcebooks can be told in a Kindred of the East chronicle.
This is really the key to keeping an undesired anime mood out of your Kindred of the East chronicle. Think of the Kuei-jin as vampires, not as some kind of exotic strain of Risen wraith. Anime has had an undeniable influence on Kindred of the East and can contribute to the style and mood of a chronicle. By making sure that the characters that the players create don't drift into anime archetypes and downplaying the more overt elements of the Yomi World, you'll uncover a dark, exotic mood of Kindred of the East that more closely fits the World of Darkness.
