At this point, anime has become a huge part of worldwide pop culture, so naturally it has started influencing the way many people imagine stories, characters, action, emotions, and even worldbuilding.
So how much has anime affected your own work?
For me, I can clearly see influences from multiple anime and manga storytelling traditions mixed together with Western dark fantasy.
Anime and manga have become a huge part of modern storytelling culture, so I’m curious how much they’ve influenced other writers.
For me, I can definitely see influences from multiple anime/manga storytelling styles mixed with Western dark fantasy in my own work.
Do you think anime has affected your writing, character creation, pacing, action scenes, or worldbuilding?
I mean, as writers, we all imagine what our characters (mainly villains) do in their free time 😅
For example, one of my favorite antagonists, Salamander, absolutely loves playing with kids. Honestly, he loves doing many wholesome things. As a vampire, he has a lot of free time and loves talking to people. He has inspired hope in many people during the lowest moments of their lives, or sometimes even during the final moments of their lives.
So what’s a funny, wholesome, or unexpected moment involving your villain?
I mean, as writers, we all imagine what our characters (mainly villains) do in their free time 😅
For example, one of my favorite antagonists, Salamander, absolutely loves playing with kids. Honestly, he loves doing many wholesome things. As a vampire, he has a lot of free time and loves talking to people. He has inspired hope in many people during the lowest moments of their lives, or sometimes even during the final moments of their lives.
So what’s a funny, wholesome, or unexpected moment involving your villain?
There’s so much writing advice online that sometimes it feels like preparing for the SAT 😅
For me, one of the worst pieces of advice is when people treat “show, don’t tell” like an absolute rule. Sometimes telling is faster, cleaner, and honestly better for pacing.
I’ve also seen advice like:
So what’s the worst writing advice you’ve personally heard?
I mean literally there’s so much writing advice online that sometimes it feels like preparing for SAT 😅
So what’s the worst writing advice you’ve personally heard?
I mean literally there’s so much writing advice online that sometimes it feels like preparing for SAT 😅
So what’s the worst writing advice you’ve personally heard?
I mean, cannons literally existed in medieval times! Yet most fantasy settings act like they don’t. They could make wars and sieges way more interesting.
Sure, dragons and giant monsters would become slightly less overwhelming as threats, but you could just make dragons stronger or more resistant. Imagine massive cannons firing at dragons during castle sieges that sounds insanely fascinating to me.
So why do most fantasy creators avoid them?
Most writers try to fix a weak villain by adding more backstory or trauma. But the scariest villains often have almost no backstory at all.
Jason Voorhees. Michael Myers. Judge Holden. None of them are complex in the traditional sense. Yet they're unforgettable.
Why? Because they're built on three structural pillars:
1. Perception — Before your villain appears, your reader should already fear them. This happens through rumors, fragmented glimpses, survivor testimony, and off-screen consequences. The myth arrives before the villain does.
2. Power — Not just physical strength. Power means your villain can meaningfully destabilize the story. But here's the key — they must have limits. A villain with no limits is not terrifying, they're just boring.
3. Presence — This is what happens to the room when they arrive. Dialogue tightens. Silence gets heavy. The reader braces. Hannibal Lecter barely moves yet every scene he's in becomes psychologically volatile.
The mistake most writers make is leading with spectacle. Big entrance, big power reveal, big speech. But that kills tension.
The correct sequence is: Rumor → Glimpse → Confirmation → Escalation.
Happy to answer questions about applying this to your own villain in the comments.