Why Is Anime Obsessed With Power Lines? (atlasobscura.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: Why are there so many shots of power lines in Japanese anime cartoons? The Tumblr Power Lines in Anime is dedicated to appreciating the truly lovely and surprisingly ubiquitous depictions of mundane power lines that appear in a large number of Japanese animation series. The blog is run by Tumblr user whitequark, who first started to notice the trend while watching a romantic comedy anime. Anime series can cover any number of genres, including sports, high fantasy, office life, and, of course, science fiction, but no matter what it's about, it seems that if the story is set on modern-day Earth, it will contain some amazingly detailed images of power lines, telephone poles, and other wired infrastructure. While a number of anime series (and cartoons in general), opt for a style of hyper-detailed backgrounds before which relatively simpler characters can interact, power lines stand out for the detail and complexity required to illustrate them.

Comments

Nope.

[TechyImmigrant]

In more modern animations, wind power turbines win out over power lines. https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Because of how background art is made

[XSportSeeker]

I know this is supposed to be kinda tongue in cheek, but most animes have specific background artists that will be asked to portray some scenery as faithfully as possible, including stuff like worn down buildings, crusty old signs, overgrown lawns, faded out street signaling, corroded paintjobs... and yes, power lines.
There are lots of titles that are specifically tied to a city, or even a specific neighborhoods... well, much like several TV series and movies.

But picking half a dozen titles stretched over 2 decades or more that have power lines in them and saying it's an "obsession" has to be a joke right? Do people even realize hundreds of titles are released every year?

In any case, it's not an obsession by any means... apart from Lain because it's thematic (it symbolizes how everything is connected), for the vast majority of titles it is just a staple of urban environments. It's part of the scenery. From another perspective, obsessive behaviour would be trying to hide them when they are quite obviously there.

Re:Because...

[Anonymous Coward]

Mod up (I don't have points today). I lived in Japan for ~ 4 years and all the utilities are on poles. Powerlines are a way of life and just everywhere. They are the backdrop for where these artists come from. I always put it down to it being earthquake protection.

Re:Has anyone looked at real pictures of urban Jap

[Altus]

Exactly... I used to wonder why there were so many images of vending machines in Anime, they are everywhere... it is not unusual to see scenes entirely lit by vending machines even in residential (non big city) scenes there would be vending machines everywhere... is it some kind of symbolism? I don't have vending machines on my suburban street.

Then I went to japan and realized that vending machines were actually everywhere, even in small towns and residential neighborhoods.... its just part of every day life there.