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Magic represented by 2D patterns in anime and manga (ani.social)

submitted 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) by pglpm@lemmy.ca to c/anime@ani.social

15 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/68868025

Since quite a few years back, it's been quite commonplace in fantasy anime and manga to represent casting magic as some kinds of 2D circles or geometric figures with patterns, possibly multiple ones, as in the image on the right (Frieren). I see this idea used in almost all – if not all – anime and manga now.

It hasn't always been that way though. Older anime and manga used other and different kinds of representations, say from blinking stars (image on the left, Majokko Megu-chan) to smoke, or even just sound effects.

I'm just curious: does anyone have any info or links to share about how this "2D representation" came about and why it's become so popular? Cheers!

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[–] Auster@thebrainbin.org 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Not directly related to anime but to representations of magic in general, but this reminds me of the speed up spell "haste" in Final Fantasy II (PSP) and Final Fantasy X. In FFII, iirc no glyph appears, and the character gets so fast that in the initial peak, he/she runs off to one side of the screen and come back at the other. In X, a glyph appears, but it is a spherical clockwork-like glyph instead.

In a more recent work, now back at anime, magic used by humans in Dragon Raja has audio and visual representations, the voice of the caster distorting, a mist coming out of the caster's moth iirc, and both this mist and the eyes of the caster glowing.

Dragon Raja, apparently making 2D animation in a 3D software, probably is what allows this non-glyph type of representation. By extension, FFX using a 3D engine probably is what allows and even facilitates this type of 3D glyph instead. And FFII, though 2D, is from before the glyph trend, thus preserving the old style.

And this makes me think, maybe the 2D glyphs are used in manga as a way to make easier to represent magic in a purely 2D and static medium, and this ends up causing a habit which evolves to a culture over time.

Curious Archive has a recent video on representation of magic btw, though iirc it's a Nebula exclusive. =/

[–] pglpm@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 days ago

I completely missed the connection with computer games (I'm not a gamer), thank you! Probably computer graphics pushed the device to both games and anime.