Two of the anime I’ve watched recently made heavy use of stat screens like the on above as commercial bumpers. I really like when anime do something neat with commercial bumpers instead of just dropping out at odd moments or throwing the logo up so I was really digging the stat screens. I would totally have bought the My Hero Academia screens as trading cards. They’ve got nice head shots, and I really like the quirk explanations.
Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku makes use of similar screens. There are some really cool ones that read like video game stat screens, and they also use more basic trading card style screens with factoids about the characters.
The facts on these screens are pretty typical. They list things like birthdays, heights and weight, likes and dislikes, and so on. But then something caught my eye, and a long dormant factoid slipped out of a filing cabinet in the recesses of my memory.
The cards in My Hero Academia listing blood types is logical enough because this does come into play in the story. But Wotakoi includes the blood types for a much less plot-related reason.
In Asian cultures, especially Japan, blood type is often treated as an indicator of personality, almost like a horoscope. Type A is sensible but stubborn. Type B is passionate but irresponsible. Type AB is rational but aloof. Type O is confident but aggressive.
So of course it makes sense for a series where two nerdy twenty-somethings are trying to decide how they feel about one another to mention their blood types. But go check TV Tropes.
The sampling they’ve included under the “Anime and Manga” heading isn’t exhaustive, but there’s a good chance several of the shows there will be familiar from this blog. There are a ton of shows where characters’ blood types are a known thing. I didn’t realize until I started writing this that Cowboy Bebop‘s central characters all have a determined blood type.
Of course, as TV Tropes and Wikipedia attest, this belief that blood types determine personality has a dark history. The idea largely stems from research done in the early 20th century, and the studies that research produced aren’t terribly scientific. The studies were politically motivated and often attempted to justify stereotypes about different ethnic groups.
Nonetheless, the subject is still popular in Japan. Morning shows include blood type horoscopes, and the Japanese Wikipedia page’s for celebrities may include blood type. There are even video games where blood type is an option during character selection.
I’m going to keep this post short. There’s not much I can say on the subject that you couldn’t find at the two links above, and I’ve got to work ahead on tomorrow’s post. So until tomorrow.
chasetriesagain.com 