Learning About Storytelling From Anime and Manga, Part Three: Proactive vs. Reactive Characters
Proactive characters are those who make decisions that drive the plot forward. Reactive characters are those who don’t make decisions and let the plot sweep them away.
Let’s take a look at an example of a proactive character:
In Code:Breaker, Sakura Sakurakouji sees a boy setting other people on fire in the park one night. The very next morning, a new student introduces himself in her class, and it’s the same boy she had seen in the park: Rei Oogami.
In the following chapters, we see Sakura constantly stalk and question him. She persistent attitude is what gets the story going. If it weren’t for her curiosity and her righteous personality, we would probably never know who and what Rei Oogami is.
Sakura is a proactive character because the plot is moved forward and things are revealed because of her choices. If she were a reactive character, the story wouldn’t even exist, because the secretive Oogami would never tell anyone who he is, and the plot would come to a standstill.
Now, here’s a character who is very different from Sakura Sakurakouji: Shinichi Izuma, the protagonist of Parasyte.
Parasyte is about worm-like creatures called parasites who take over the brains of human hosts, seizing control of their bodies and turning them into cannibalistic super humans. One parasite tries to reach Shinichi’s brain by burrowing through his right arm and fails, allowing the parasite (called Migi after the Japanese word for ‘right’) to control only Shinichi’s hand.
Throughout the first part of the story, Shinichi is scared and unwilling to take action, and it’s usually Migi who pushes him to do things.
This can be seen in the first episode, when Migi senses another parasite nearby. He urges a reluctant Shinichi to approach it, only to sense that the other parasite had intention to kill him, as Shinichi still had his human brain wholly intact. They begin a battle and Migi emerges as the victor.
Shinichi is a reactive character because everything that happens to him happens because the plot requires it, not because he makes choices that trigger story events. When story events are triggered, we see only his terrified reaction.
Proactive or reactive: Which is better?
There is no guide to the perfect character, and choosing to make them proactive or reactive won’t guarantgee your audience will immediately like them. Also, a character doesn't always have to be strictly proactive or reactive; they can start out one way and end up another, or they can even be both at the same time. It all boils down to what your audience likes, the type of character the story needs, and what information you want to give about your character.
When it comes to your audience, people usually tolerate a proactive character more than a reactive one. If it’s a side character who’s the reactive one, your audience will get mad and confused as to why you’re wasting their time with this crybaby when the proactive characters are out there doing awesome stuff. If it’s the protagonist who’s reactive, it can get a little frustrating when they’re supposed to guide us through the story, but they just stay put and wait for things to happen. People can and will come to dislike your character for this.
Don’t believe me? Look at this and tell me I’m wrong:
As for the type of protagonist your story needs, Sakura Sakurakouji is the perfect example of a story that wouldn’t even exist without her.
And as for the information you want to give your audience, let’s go back to Parasyte for this one.
In the second episode, Shinichi is bullied and beat up by a classmate. While he’s taking punches, he does nothing to retaliate and only hopes Migi doesn’t hurt him. However, when Migi quickly punches the bully and knocks him down, Shinichi asks Migi if he hit hard enough to injure him. The bully started this whole event and Migi ended it. All Shinichi did was react.
Later in the episode, Migi senses another parasite and doesn’t want to risk another fight, so he tells Shinichi to create some distance between themselves and the enemy. Instead, Shinichi decides to confront the parasite in an isolated place. Here it’s revealed that he refuses to stand by as other parasites attack and kill humans, especially because he wants to protect his crush, Satomi Murano. By choosing to stay and confront the enemy, Shinichi triggers a whole other event, one that Migi finishes anyway, but which would not have existed if Shinichi had run.
What can we learn about Shinichi in these two events where he was reactive and then proactive? We learned that he is empathetic towards other humans, even those that have hurt him, as well as what drives him and whom he wants to protect.
How to create a proactive character.
If you want to create a proactive character, you must do the following:
A) Give them a goal they actively want to achieve.
By giving them a goal, they will make choices that will help them obtain that goal.
B) Let them make decisions.
Good decisions, bad decisions, selfish decisions, sacrifices … it doesn’t matter as long as they’re making decisions.
C) Let them react and then make plans.
If you throw your character down a well, of course they’re going to react, but don’t let that be all there is. Have them freak out and then have them make a plan to escape.
D) Give them a role.
If your character’s role is to become the leader of a rebellion, don’t just have others lift her on their shoulders and call her a savior: show us why and how she’ll fulfill this role with the things she does. This is where the ‘act’ in ‘proactive’ comes from.
I have a reactive character and I don’t want to change that. How can I make it work?
If you’ve got a reactive character but you don’t know how to make it work, you can try this:
A) Get the help of supporting characters.
Like Migi, you can have a supporting character push the reactive character into situations they would not get themselves into otherwise.
But remember this: if it’s a supporting character that’s doing all the heavy lifting, maybe you should consider making them the main character.
B) Explain why your character is that way.
It’s one thing to have a useless character in your work for a reason; it’s another to have them for no reason at all. Give a little explanation to your audience as to why the reactive character is that way. Maybe then they can sympathize and/or tolerate them more.
C) Give them redeemable qualities.
Armin Arlert from Attack on Titan rarely does anything to trigger story events, but his intelligence usually gets him and his friends out of tough situations. When he’s not crying or nervous, he’s usually the one helping the proactive characters out of any mess they get into.
Long story short …
- A proactive character is one who makes choices that move the story along.
- A reactive character is one who sits and waits for the next event in the story without doing anything.
- Characters don’t solely have to be reactive or proactive. They can start off one way and end up another way as your story progresses. They can even be both at the same time.
- Readers usually tolerate proactive characters because they instigate the action and make things interesting.
- The most important thing to do when creating a proactive character is giving them a goal they can work for and letting them make their own choices.
The previous part of this series was all about making romance work. You can read it here. The next installment of this series will continue in May.
