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

submitted 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by pglpm@lemmy.ca to c/anime@ani.social

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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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[–] nyan@lemmy.cafe 2 points 4 days ago

As someone's already said, the concept of magical circles/diagrams goes way, way back. But the earliest example I can think of in anime is The Slayers (the first season, which would have aired in the mid-1990s). The interesting bit there is that only a few spells (I think Burst Rondo was one) create patterns there, and when they do show up, they're on the ground, not in front of the caster.

The earliest example I can think of of a magic circle in a JRPG is in the SNES version of Chrono Trigger, where one appears—on the ground again—in a scene where one character is attempting to summon the Big Bad. It's part of the background graphic. Putting something like that in the combat system would have been taxing for the consoles of the era, so if there are any older examples, they're probably also handled as background graphics.

(This is possibly the geekiest post I've made in, um, at least a week?)