Amnesia works better in smaller story arcs. It ends in an abruptness that works against the time spent developing the internal conflict caused by the amnesia.Īs a trope, amnesia can work if handled carefully, but it is difficult to build an entire series around it. This negates any sort of character development, and it usually happens when there isn’t enough time to show how the differing personalities combine. In anime, too often the character completely changes personality. Sudden recovery from amnesia won’t overwrite a personality. What of their frustration? Anger? Concern? What if the character had forgotten a momentous event? It would be more interesting to relegate the amnesia sufferer to the supporting cast and follow the effects on a non-sufferer. Most of the time, anime takes the perspective of the sufferer, but I find the concern and difficulties of the surrounding cast more interesting. However, amnesia can be interesting if handled well. Of course, writers can explore these themes without resorting to amnesia. Most afflicted characters live with anxiety about who they are and who they will become. Amnesia stories illustrate how a lack of history makes it difficult for the protagonist to look toward the future with confidence. Both explore how past decisions influence the future. Whereas these heroes look toward the future for the answers, amnesia stories look toward the past. Most hero stories center on these questions. Many people despair about who they truly are and what they are supposed to do. This follows the teen and young adult’s journey to craft their own sense of identity and find their place in the world. Amnesia usually involves the complete lost of identity and the journey to recover it. Most shonen and shojo anime focus on teen and young adult identity issues. Are the friends and supporting cast who they appear to be? What sort of past does the amnesiac character have? 3. This allows viewers to feel as if they are taking the journey with the character instead of learning about a character who knows themselves (which is interesting in its own right). The slow reveal can keep an audience guessing along with the amnesiac character. People want to learn about other interesting people. The viewer and the character learn about the character at the same time. They also can’t associate with those friends, who are more like strangers now. Their friends remember them in a certain way, and the character feels inadequate. Likewise, you also see the conflict they have with their friends (anime seriously needs more parents in teen stories). They don’t know who they were (based on anime’s faulty idea of amnesia) and fear a complete change in their identity. You often see anime characters worried that their current self will disappear when they regain their memories. If anime gets amnesia wrong, why do we see it so often? 1. In such cases that a person has a severe change in personality due to a head injury, they would likely end up in a long-term care facility and not function normally like most anime characters do. But you won’t see a complete personality rewrite like Kaede in Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai or in Golden Time. It doesn’t happen although false memories may impact the person’s behavior, such as developing a fear of something or someone. However, Mayo Clinic doesn’t discuss a sudden recovery of memory completely overwriting someone’s personality. Sometimes these lost memories can be replaced with false memories that are made up of invented memories or memories from different time periods. Most people with amnesia struggle with short-term memory loss, which anime doesn’t usually play around with. It comes in two flavors: anterograde (learning new stuff) and retrograde (anime’s favorite–difficulty remembering the past). It’s caused by damage to the memory centers of the brain and can be permanent. Mayo Clinic goes on to explain that people with amnesia usually know who they are, but they struggle to learn new information and make new memories. Though forgetting your identity is a common plot device in movies and television, that’s not generally the case in real-life amnesia.” Amnesia has become a fairly common plot device with many advantages and disadvantages (the main one: over use!) According to the Mayo Clinic, amnesia “refer to the loss of memories, such as facts, information and experiences. It seems as if every other anime character is getting clocked on the noggin’ and getting amnesia.
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