It has been awhile since I wrote an “original” entry here but in lieu of the recent article about A.A.A. Anime Addicts Anonymous, I thought it would be very good to write an article that links their specialty of their podcast with the specialty of this website. Pretty much, this is an article about the symbiotic relationship between anime and video games. Also, when it comes to symbiosis, there are many different kinds of relationships such as mutualism,  commensualism, and parasitism. However, with anime and video games, it can be either one depending on the anime and the video game relationship. This is best utilized when it comes to the origin of the video game or the origin of anime to the source.

A good example of a mutual relationship between anime and video games is one where both are intriguing and help with the story and flow of an anime compared to the gameplay of a video game. The best examples I can think of that have a mutual relationship when both benefit are easily games by Arc System Works or should I say the fighters from Arc System Works. The Guilty Gear Series and the BlazBlue Series are both series that are one and the same a video game and an anime. The anime is mostly accessible through the video game but it is there along with the video game even though it comes off a lot like a “bonus”. Nevertheless, no one aspect of the video game or anime takes precedence over they other for both are equally used in the game. Usually, anime is used during the story line while the video game aspect is used well for the gameplay. Pretty much, games and anime made in coalition with each other usually fall in this category and not many games and anime are made in coalition with each other.

A commensual relationship is when one benefits but the other neither receives benefit or harm. Many video games are like this when it comes to a video game to anime or anime to video game adaption. However, the best examples are mostly from the popular games turned into animes and the popular animes turned into games. The Dragonball Series and the Pokemon Series are examples of two series that are extremely popular but when turned into video games really didn’t boost the popularity or even harm it when made. In all respects, the video games themselves became seperate icons to some extent and thus are mostly stand-alone and are true games that are based off an anime. A good example of this relationship from video games to anime is easily going to be the Devil May Cry Series where the anime is mostly known by those who play the video game but once again stood on its own. The anime had no ill bearing on the video game nor did it benefit it. Most popular anime or popular games in general fall in this category.

The final relationship is that of a parasite where either a video game or anime will feed off the popularity of its source and actually harm the source. This is mostly imminent with animes and video games inspired from an anime or video game source with a hardcore cult following. The best examples come easily from anime to video game adaptions of a cult following since they seem to have more examples. There are two animes that have video games that weren’t up to par. The first game is easily the one based off of Afro Samurai. The anime has a very strong cult following but when the game came out, it was terrible thus getting many negative reviews. The same goes with the anime series Gungrave. Now this also goes the other way as well when it comes to animes being made from cult video games. So far, most of the bad animes from awesome video games are from fighters. Battle Arena Toshinden, the Tekken Series, and of course the Street Fighter Series recieved anime series that were not up to par. Now for Street Fighter Series, I am not talking about the movie but the anime series titled Street Fighter II V.

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