Details of some of the games derived from or inspired by anime (Japanese animation) and/or manga (Japanese comics) can be found on the following pages:
[ Role Playing Games ]
[ Boardgames / Card Games ]
[ Computer Games ]
[ Console Games ]
[ Miniatures / Table Top games ]
In Japan a manga (comic) that proves very popular will often lead directly to a related game and/or anime (video), or a popular computer game will be turned into a anime and/or manga, or a popular anime will lead to a computer game. As for anime/manga derived from or inspired by Western games. . . that is a bit harder to pin down. While fantasy anime can share several of the concepts found in role playing games like Dungeons & Dragons how much is due to the games and how much is due to the concepts in Western literature and myths that led to the games is hard to say. However it has been reported that the fantasy anime Record of Lodoss War was based on a long running fantasy campaign of one of Japan's pioneer groups of role players while the space epic anime Legend of the Galactic Heroes was based on campaigns using the Traveller role playing game. Moreover when in some anime the characters refer to things like hit points and experience levels one can assume the writers have at least a passing knowledge of role playing games - and expect their viewers to have also. The way some of these concepts taken from Western fantasy have been interpreted, developed and combined with their own traditions of story telling has given rise to some very interesting anime.
Of course we would be interested in hearing about any anime and/or manga inspired or related games that are not yet listed (and can be played by those who only understand English).
masweb@metva.com.au.
Note
: reference to a product name without its trademark status is not meant to suggest lack of trademark rights in that name. All images, character names and titles are copyrighted by their respective rights holders.
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