There are countless sources of design inspiration to be found everywhere. Even for ones directly unrelated to visual and web design. Music, films, video games, architecture. Well, one more item you can add to that list is watching anime – Japanese animation. In fact, there are 8 ways watching anime can improve your designs.
For those unfamiliar with or who have unfavorable first impressions of anime, it’s more than robots, school girls, and tentacles – although it’s that too (just how “guns, cash, hoes” is a part of hip-hop). From psychologically-probing action titles like Neon Genesis Evangelion, to sci-fi western noir like Cowboy Bebop, to fantastic magical adventure like Fullmetal Alchemist, to breathtaking film masterpieces like Spirited Away, anime is Japan’s preferred format for imaginative storytelling.
Whereas in the Western world animation is delegated to children’s entertainment, for Japan, animation is simply a standard format to tell a story and entertain. As a result, there’s something for everyone, and anime series and films reach a world-class level. Think Pixar in the West, except there are many world-class Japanese studios creating works for all ages and niches. For example: the Hayao Miyazaki anime film Princess Mononoke was the highest-grossing film in Japan until James Cameron’s Titanic beat it – and then Miyazaki’s followup anime film Spirited Away beat that.