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[Trojita]

A lot of the content is based on comic books with internal monologue. Also a lot of shows (to save animation time) explain things to the viewer or recap something by internal monologue.

Also you have some of those shows where the character is supposed to be a messiah so all their internal monologue is supposed to make them look smart.

 

[Aselith]

Uguu means internal screaming

 

[hey_it's_that_dog]

This made Attack on Titan unwatchable for me. Literally every time something mildly significant happen, a character would break out into an internal monologue. It was obnoxious as all hell.

Yes. I really liked the first few episodes and then it just started to bog down with constant stream of consciousness monologues and I was like oh right this is anime. Too bad.

 

[Oersted]

I take it, OP never watched a Malick movie.

 

[RockTurtle]

If I'm reading this right, isn't this exactly what JD does all the time in Scrubs?

.

 

[ss_lemonade]

A lot of comics do this too.

One thing I can't stand though are anime where the main character (usually a female) barely talks and just makes grunts and other noises when being spoken to. My wife has been watching Amnesia these past few days and I swear that made up 90% of the dialogue of the female lead there.

 

[cerulily]

Budget has a lot to do with it, and directing issues.

Take something like Breaking Bad. You can SEE the emotions going on, and through that character's mannerisms and actions, you can interpret a lot about their internal monologue. Also, the longer you spend with characters, the more you empathize with and understand how they think and may react. The internal monologue is intuitive because of this.

In anime, a) they don't have the budget to do the extra animation that may be required to emote properly. b) they usually only run for single seasons, and often times, you don't spend enough time with single characters for the same intuitive process to happen.

 

[Nickle]

It also saves money on animation, they can just have the character be completely still while he/she thinks.

 

[Savitar]

We need to know their inner torment and pain.

THE DRAMA.

 

[Kangi]

"Show, don't tell" has never really been a thing in anime.

Man jumps through window. "He's jumping through the window! Is he trying to escape?! If he escapes, I won't be able to catch him! If I don't catch him, that is a bad thing!"

 

[Dennis]

How much do you know about Japanese culture?

 

[Gonzalez]

"IT CAN'T BE!?!"

 

[John Kowalski]

It's a bad practice, but much like everywhere else in the world there are a lot of writers in Japan that aren't the best at their jobs.

 

[jtb]

Have you ever read a novel?

 

[ghostjoke]

I just remembered one of the best/worse internal-monologuing: Ippo, where a boxing round could last an entire episode.

 

[EulaCapra]

I always assumed it helped ease animation. There's less to draw if they're monologuing!

 

[tbm24]

You should watch some Novelas when you get a chance. The internal monologue is fierce.

 

[chaobreaker]

The internal monologues were some of the best parts of JoJo.

Only because it reaches absurd levels of monolouging half the time.

 

[Kyzer]

because its the best alternative to "random ghost narrator" there is, imo

books explain things easily because youre omnisciently inside all the characters heads

explaining things in movies and games is harder because you have to -show- it. internal monologue is older than shakespeare bro

 

[Sumio Mondo]

Have you ever read a novel?

I was going to say...this is pretty standard practice for fiction in general, really.

 

[VanillaCakeIsBurning]

Death Note is about two geniuses trying to outsmart each other, right? When a story is heavily mechanistic, it makes more sense that they'd need to rely on that sort of exposition.

Internal monologuing is a lot of things, it can save on budget, present very specific information/thoughts, has historical use in stage plays/comics which can cross over into animation and live action works.

Like I said before, with everything it can be used well to create a particular effect(s) and it can also be used poorly.

I think most people who have watched anime have probably seen a filler episode of Naruto or something where there was a fight where those involved would attack each other once or twice then go into internal monologues. On one hand you can explain a lot of strategy and thought processes here, on the other hand it isn't as fun to watch unfold. And you'll see in the episodes that clearly have a higher budget allocated you can see that the monologues typically become shorter and are paced with better animation/longer sequences of movement.

In shows like Death Note, or dramas and other shows like that the introspective internal monologues are important and critical to watching events unfold with the received information in mind. Am I defending shows where they drag the pace down to a halt for multiple episodes? No. And even then, that's merely using internal monologues to pad the length, and is not representative of what I'm talking about. Like with every technique, you can either use it well, or you can use it poorly.

 

[Shadoken]

The Show/Dont tell doesnt really work well in comics. And Anime is basically animated manga , they dont really change dialogues or do much.

 

[Ganzlinger]

That happens a lot in comic books and novel books. It's a pretty interesting feature.

Real people do internal monologue often so I don't see what's the deal. Never saw that as a "Japanese" thing.

 

[Shouta]

Pretty much covered in the budget/medium answers. It also helps to clarify information directly, as interpreting physical or emotional cues that happened can go wrong sometimes if the signals aren't clearly laid out and understood.

There are other reasons they use it too but it's getting into the realm of speculation beyond the practical stuff.

 

[openrob]

A lot of Japanese anime/drama violate the "show, don't tell" rule pretty blatantly.

Have to accept it.


A character telling the audience precisely how he/she feels lends nothing to the imagination of the viewer. It comes off as a bit clumsy.

It's also why I find a lot of anime immature (i still loke it, but it's akward trying to convince people something is worth watched by an adult when the show has to so explain everything in such detail.. No subtlety)

 

[PSqueak]

Because it creates spaces for the audience to be told information that otherwise have no logical reason to be relayed as dialogue.

In a way it's a bad writing crutch, in the sence that writers should be thinking better ways to deliver exposition.

Some animes break the fourth wall and have either the author/creator (Slam Dunk for example did this) or random "non characters" (Princess Jellyfish had a cartoon version of Tsukimi's pet jellyfish delivering exposition, while Ghost Sweeper Mikami had the weird doll she used as a detector to do it) explain stuff in a cute or funny manner to avoid that sort of weird inner monologue moments.

 

[Sou Da]

For some reason mangaka don't seem trust their visual storytelling at all.

 

[CorvoSol]

Man the fuck was Shakespeare on about with that Hamlet monologue, guys. Show don't tell must not be very big on that weird ass island country he's from

 

[Tomat]

Only because it reaches absurd levels of monolouging half the time.

Exactly!

 

[SuperStiltzkin]

(It can't be! That technique....I've only seen one other gaffer post like that before. There's no way he could possibly have mastered that style in a matter of days...unless he's a troll...or...no he's the the one the legend spoke of? IMPOSSIBLE BAKANA!)

 

[wmlk]

A character telling the audience precisely how he/she feels lends nothing to the imagination of the viewer. It comes off as a bit clumsy.

This has been done forever in storytelling. It's not clumsy at all.

 

[Dark Ninja]

Everything in Anime can be narrowed down to for budget reasons

 

[Twilight Gap]

probably because it's cheaper than animating body language.

and "thought bubbles" are common in comics (not sure about manga). that's a lot of exposition that would be loss in an adaptation otherwise.

sometimes it works and it's interesting to see what a main character is thinking. a lot of shows overuse it however.

 

[Black-Wind]

Fair enough. What about Elliot in Mr Robot ?

This is normally used to allow the viewer to see inside the main character's mind so that we better understand how they're processing stuff. You never hear anyone else inner dialog in the scenes he's in or even the ones he's not in cause he's the main character. Sometimes it's done in other shows or movies when there's more than one MC I guess though I can't think of any off the top of my head...

In Anime it's common to see it used for every character. Both cheaper and easier than animating shit to show it.

 

[Haly]

Yes, very clumsy...

Harron should go back to Creative Writing 101.

 

[Saucycarpdog]

I'm trying to imagine Death Note without all the internal monologues and I think it would have been a worse product without them.

I can't agree with the hardcore proponents of "show, don't tell" when they completely ignore context and created effect.

I can't agree with people who try to pretend anime should be some sort of exception to basic storytelling. It's hand holding the viewer through the story because you don't trust the viewer.

Shakespeare put them in his plays because the majority of people who watched his plays were the less educated bottom class of society. It's also why many scenes in his plays are incredibly dramatized. What's anime's exscuse?

 

[Ratrat]

I can't agree with people who try to pretend anime should be some sort of exception to basic storytelling. It's hand holding the viewer through the story because you don't trust the viewer.

Shakespeare put them in his plays because the majority of people who watched his plays were the less educated bottom class of society. It's also why many scenes in his plays are incredibly dramatized. What's anime's exscuse?

Its for kids, it's cheaper and the voice actors do a fantastic job. Matter of fact, the voice acting itself has to carry a lot of scenes in most anime because there's so little animation to begin with.
I'm thinking of stuff like Gintama.

 

[BlackGoku03]

It can be aggravating at times. They over use it in certain series. Sometimes they explain shit so much, it breaks up the flow of the action.

A cool action scene happens with ninjas.
Char A explains every little minute detail of what we just watched.
Sometimes they explain it twice and include chibi characters.
All the while, the people fighting patiently wait for them to finish explaining.

It's a tired trope. It can be used correctly and has been in anime and manga, but a lot of them take it too far. American comics don't generally explain every detail all the time.

Internal monologues are okay. But showing everyone's reaction after every move is tiring after a while. Hajime no ippo is guilty of this.

 

[Saucycarpdog]

Its for kids, it's cheaper and the voice actors do a fantastic job. Matter of fact, the voice acting itself has to carry a lot of scenes in most anime because there's so little animation to begin with.

If its for kids, then why does it appear in Attack on titan, Death Note, and so many other anime that targets older audiences?

And I don't get the "its cheaper" argument. Plenty of western animation don't abuse internal monolgue and yet still manage to make good stories on a modust budget. For example Adventure Time. And that's a kids show too.

 

[Verger]

If its for kids, then why does it appear in Attack on titan, Death Note, and so many other anime that targets older audiences?

And I don't get the "its cheaper" argument. Plenty of western animation don't abuse internal monolgue and yet still manage to make good stories on a modust budget. For example Adventure Time. And that's a kids show too.

Yeah, I don't have anything against all internal monologues per se, and do feel that when used well they are extremely effective at storytelling.

The problem again comes in Anime and JRPG storytelling (I can excuse manga for being short on panel spaces like comics) when you have it used almost all the time with every character chiming in on the most mundane and tedious thoughts that drag things on and on and on until you're bored out of your mind.

Of course, I also admit that budgetary reasons are clearly a big part about that, especially in Anime TV shows, like Naruto, which fill and pad their episodes with the most mundane internal dialogs while the characters stare at each other forever. Because Anime TV shows are particularly terrible at budgeting since they have to keep airing shows every week (like Naruto which has to air new episodes every week or else lose their coveted prime time TV slot) and it is much cheaper to just animate stare-downs instead of enhancing and expanding upon the Action segments.

 

[zeopower6]

Lots of modern Western animation is a bad example for this. While they don't overuse it, very often the shows like Adventure Time are pretty nonsensical in general and not much really happens in them. For the most part, I think it tends to be a side-effect of having most anime adaptations come from manga or light novels where internal monologues are pretty normal. I don't usually see this in games, tbh.

 

[Narag]

If its for kids, then why does it appear in Attack on titan, Death Note, and so many other anime that targets older audiences?

Not to say it isn't true but those are bad examples since both are based on shonen manga whose target demo is young kids.

 

[Vigilant Walrus]

violation of the "show, don't tell rule" is one of the biggest sins you can commit in scriptwriting according to the Robert McKey.

The man also thinks flashbacks and voice overs are the hallmark of a shitty script (no exceptions!).
Not that McKey is the authority on these things but he is a bit of a guru in hollywood circles.



And obviously he is wrong. There has been plenty of good films that use internal monologues, voice overs, flashbacks and so on effectively. But he is right that it gets misused in a lot of instances.


I don't know why, but I've always been very excusive of it in Anime. Maybe it's because Anime in many other ways is derived from making it easier for the creators?

The story I heard about the rise of Astroboy and anime is that, post WW2 countless US soldiers where stationed in Japan and as such they imported a shit ton of american media. When the Japanese got their hands of comic books and disney cartoons, they wanted to take a stab at it, but not being trained in the medium they struggled.

Supposedly the big mouths and eyes that is the signature of anime was just so it was easier for the audience to visualize what the hell the character was feeling. That really tells you something!
And the crazy colored hairstyles came about because they where not great at differentiating their characters as they ended up looking the same. The fact that the "manga/anime" style came about as something pragmatic, really is fascinating to me, and I think that really could also have influenced the way they tell stories?

is it possible that just with the way japanese people are socially that it would be unrealistic, out of character to not be constantly aware-of-what-goes-on-in-your-head as well as analytical?

Sometimes we do see interesting takes on it. In Naruto, Sakura has this inner monologue of a good and bad side in her brain that fights, and nauro himself talks to himself (his demon-fox) by being transported into this deep underground demon prison. I actually always liked that.
Sometimes you don't see the physical naruto character submerging down there, sometimes you do, sometimes the camera doesn't cut but stays in the real world. It gives the director plenty of tools to communicate, and in the later episodes, it's actually used pretty well.
Of course that character has a shitton of flashbacks and monologues that is just him and nothing else.

 

[Pappasman]

I feel like, in comics and manga, some things are just hard to convey with panels. Inner monologue and characters describing what is happening in front of them are an easy way to convey that info to the reader and allows them to fill in the blanks in their head.

 

[Haly]

Okay, let me drop some numbers.

According to the latest survey by JAniCA (Japan Animation Creators Association), which was conducted by the request of the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs, the average annual income of a Japanese animator is about 1.1 million yen (about 9,200 US dollars). They received answers from 759 workers, whose average working hours is 11 hours per day.

I'm not sure if this counts the outsourced work, I can't find numbers on those and they're likely lower. Point is, a high schooler working his first job in retail/fast food at minimum wage will make more in a year.

This is the state of animation, as an industry, in Japan. Actually, from what I hear, it's not much better in America. If you wonder why most of our output is "Flash" animated, this is why. It's a dying entertainment industry everywhere, although I'm not sure what it's like in Europe.

So like, really, budget. It's always, always, always, budget. Are there talentless hacks of directors in anime? Yeah, sure. Like there are everywhere. But even the good or genius directors/key-animators are cutting corners like mad, and pouring not only theirs, but their entire team's dedication and energy into maybe a 8-10 second cut out of 20 minutes.

Manga authors make more, but as people have mentioned, it's a static visual medium, and that carries a bucketload of limitations on what it can do, on top of the frantic pace that characterizes work in the manga industry as well.

Also, if you only consume the mainstream stuff that's usually targeted towards kids who expect a certain kind of storytelling, you're going to run into it a lot. Seinen can be better about this, but sometimes even worse because they also tend to be more verbose (verbosity being a "sign" of "maturity"). If you want to be challenged, as with literature or film or any other storytelling form, you need to look outside of the mainstream.

For example, Ashizuri Aquarium.

(It's magic realism/slice-of-life, and also thinly veiled commentary on the place of children in an increasingly confusing, detached, superficially modernized society. Sounds boring right? Yeah. That's why this stuff never gets made into anime except once in a blue moon.)

If its for kids, then why does it appear in Attack on titan, Death Note, and so many other anime that targets older audiences?

Different cultural standards. Going by American standards, Attack and Titan and Death Note contain too much killing and violence for kids, but that's just business as usual in the world of manga. I don't think they're nearly as prudish as us in this particular area.

 

[zeopower6]

Not to say it isn't true but those are bad examples since both are based on shonen manga whose target demo is young kids.

A lot of what people think of as for older demographics in the West are actually for tweens and stuff in Japan. The seinen stuff out there is generally not as big.

 

[umop_3pisdn]

I wouldn't necessarily say that it's clumsy if the character still has a distinctive voice or their thoughts have the same qualities that make dialogue seem believable. I do think it's kind of an inelegant solution to a problem, though.

 

[Twilight Gap]

I wouldn't necessarily say that it's clumsy if the character still has a distinctive voice or their thoughts have the same qualities that make dialogue seem believable. I do think it's kind of an inelegant solution to a problem, though.

Kyon's monologues made Haruhi worth watching.

 

[umop_3pisdn]

Kyon's monologues made Haruhi worth watching.

If you say so.

 

[Twilight Gap]

If you say so.

I was agreeing with you i thought. His inner commentary on all the weird shit going on is the main source of comic relief in the show.

I think it works when it's intrinsic.