Member-only story
Watch anime to become a better designer?
I got into anime pretty late in life. I was 29 when my younger brother and sister both pushed me to watch Naruto. I was skeptical. “I’m an adult. Why would I watch cartoons about a bratty kid in an orange jumpsuit?”
Finally, I gave in — and 700 episodes later — I can admit they’ve won. I’ve gone on to watch a few other anime series.
In my journey through animated Japanese (and some Korean) shows — I’ve taken away some interesting lessons that I’ve been able to apply to my design life.
Don’t forget the central theme
Anime can go on for a LONG time. Despite the years and 100s (if not 1000s) of episodes, there is no question what the central plot is.
In Naruto, this kid wants to be the Hokage (like the village ninja leader).
In Jujutsu Kaisen, our main dude needs to eat a bunch of fingers to kill the bad guy.
In Akane-banashi our main character is going to avenge her father by becoming awesome at Rakugo (a traditional form of Japanese storytelling).
Regardless, despite the many characters developing independently — and the many side quests, etc. — you are never left confused about the main plot.
Design takeaway
It’s very easy to lose the plot when iterating on designs. The project starts as a problem, “users need to be able to change their phone number” and ends with “what if we redesign the entire navigation.” This is also a product problem — many startups launch with a really smart product and quickly devolve into adding features no one asked for.
