Anime Laws of Physics

Laws of Japanese Animation

Version 5.1

Compiled and edited by

Ran Shellito

Darrin Bright

Seth Indermill

#1-Law of Metaphysical Irregularity

• The normal laws of physics do not apply.

#2- Law of Differentiated Gravitation

• Whenever someone or something is rendered airborne, gravity is reduced by a factor of 4.

#3- Law of Sonic Amplification: First Law of Anime Acoustics

• In space, loud sounds, like explosions, are even louder because there is no air to get in the way.

#4- Law of Constant Thrust: First Law of Anime Motion

• In space, constant thrust equals constant velocity.

#5- Law of Mechanical Mobility: Second law of Anime Motion

• The larger a mechanical device is, the faster it moves. Armored Mecha are the fastest objects known to human science.

#6- Law of Temporal Variability

• Time is not a constant. Time stops for the hero whenever he does something 'cool' or 'impressive'. Time slow down when friends and lovers are being killed and speeds up whenever there is a fight

#7- First Law of Temporal Mortality

• 'Good Guys' and 'Bad guys' both die in one of two ways. Either so quick they don't even see it coming, OR it's a long drawn out affair where the character gains much insight to the workings of society, human existence, or why the toast always lands butter side down.

#8- Second Law of Temporal Mortality

• It takes some time for bad guys to die... regardless of physical damage. Even when the 'Bad Guys' are killed so quickly they didn't even see it coming, it takes them a while to realize they are dead. This is attributed to the belief that being evil damages the Reality Lobe of the brain.

#9 - Law of Dramatic Emphasis

• Scenes involving extreme amounts of action are depicted with either still-frames or black screens with a slash of bright color (usually red or white).

#10 - Law of Dramatic Multiplicity

• Scenes that only happen once, for instance, a 'Good Guy' kicks the 'Bad Guy' in the face, are seen at least 3 times form 3 different angles.

#11 - Law of Inherent Combustibility

• Everything Explodes. Everything.
  First Corollary-
  • Anything that explodes bulges first.

  Second Corollary-

  • Large cities are the most explosive substances known to human science. Tokyo in particular seems to be the most unstable of these cities, sometimes referred to as "The Matchstick City".

# 12- Law of Phlogistatic Emission

• Nearly all things emit light from fatal wounds.

#13- Law of Energetic Emission

• There is always an energy build up (commonly referred to as an energy "bulge") before Mecha or space craft weapons fire. Because of the explosive qualities of weapons, it is believed that this is related to the Law of Inherent Combustibility.

#14- Law of Inverse Lethal Magnitude

• The destructive potential of a weapon is inversely proportional to its size.

#15- Law of Inexhaustibility

• No one *EVER* runs out of ammunition. That is of course unless they are cornered, out-numbered, out-classed, and unconscious.

#16- Law of Inverse Accuracy

• The accuracy of a 'Good Guy' when operating any form of firearm increases as the difficulty of the shot increases. The accuracy of the 'Bad Guys' when operating firearms decreases when the difficulty of the shot decreases. (Also known as the Stormtrooper Effect) Example: A Good Guy in a drunken stupor being held upside down from a moving vehicle will always hit, and several battalions of 'Bad Guys' firing on a Good Guy standing alone in the middle of an open field will always miss.

  First Corollary

  • The more 'Bad Guys there are, the less likely they will hit anyone or do any real damage.

  Second Corollary

  • Whenever a Good guy is faced with insurmountable odds, the 'Bad Guys' line up in neat rows, allowing the hero to take them all out with a single burst of automatic fire and then escape.

  Third Corollary

  • Whenever a 'Good Guy' is actually hit by enemy fire, it is in a designated 'Good Guy Area', usually a flesh wound in the shoulder or arm, which restricts the 'Good Guy' form doing anything more strenuous than driving, firing weaponry, using melee weapons, operating heavy machinery, or doing complex martial arts maneuvers.

#17- Law of Transient Romantic Unreliability

• Minmei is a bimbo. (* Note: The minority Opposition in Ohio disagrees and thinks all men who like this stuff need to get out more. *)

#18- Law of Hemoglobin Capacity

• The human body contains over 12 gallons of blood, sometimes more, under high pressure.

#19- Law of Demonic Consistency

• Demons and other supernatural creatures have at least three eyes, loads of fangs, tend to be yellow, green or brown, but black is not unknown, and can only be hurt by bladed weapons.

#20- Law of Militaristic Unreliability

• Huge galaxy wide armadas, entire armies, and large war-machines full of cruel, heartless, bloodthirsty warriors can be stopped and defeated with single insignificant example of a caring /loving emotion or a song.

#21- Law of Tactical Unreliability

• Tactical geniuses aren't...

#22- Law of Inconsequential Undetectability

• People never notice the little things... Like missing body parts, or wounds the size of Seattle.

#23- Law of Juvenile Intellectuality

• Children are smarter than adults. And almost always twice as annoying.

#24- Law of Antagonistic Americanthropomorphism

• The really nasty 'Bad Guys are always skinny Americans.

#25- Law of Americanthropomorphistic Intellectual Inferiority

• The stupid 'Good Guys' are always big Americans.

  First Corollary

  • The only people who are more stupid than the big dumb Americans are the American translators. (Sometimes referred to as the Green Line Effect)

  Second Corollary

  • The only people who are more stupid than the American translators are the American editors and censors.

#26- Law of Mandibular Proportionality (from a_hicks@lvc.edu and utmwilliams@msuvx1.memphis.edu)

• The size of a person's mouth is directly proportionally to the volume at which they are speaking.

#27- Law of Feline Mutation (from a_hicks@lvc.edu)

• An half-cat/half-human mutation will invariably; 1) be female 2) will possess ears and sometimes a tail as a genetic mutation 3) wear as little clothing as possible, if any

#28- Law of Conservation of Firepower

• Any powerful weapons capable of destroying/defeating an opponent in a single shot will invariably be reserved and used only as a last resort.

#29- Law of Technological User-Benevolence

• The formal training required to operate a spaceship or mecha is inversely proportional to its complexity.

#30- Law of Melee Luminescence

• Any being displaying an extremely high level of martial arts prowess and/or violent emotions emits light in the form of a glowing aura. This aura is usually blue for 'good guys' and red for 'bad guys'. This is attributed to Good being higher in the electromagnetic spectrum than Evil.

#31- Law of Non-anthropomorphic Antagonism

• All ugly, non-humanoid, alien races are hostile and usually hell-bent on destroying humanity; for some obscure reason.

#32- Law of Follicular Chroma Variability

• Any color in the visible spectrum is considered a natural hair color. This color can change without warning or explanation.

#33- Law of Topological Aerodynamics, First Law of Anime Aerodynamics

• *ANY* shape, no matter how convoluted or odd-looking, is automatically aerodynamic.

#34- Law of Probable Attire

• Clothing in anime follows certain predictable guidelines.

  Female characters wear as little clothing as possible, regardless of whether it's socially or meteorologically appropriate.

  Any female with an excessive amount of clothing will invariably have her clothes ripped to shreds or torn off somehow.

  Whenever there is a head wind, a Male character will generally wear a long cloak which doesn't hamper movement and billows out dramatically behind him.

  First Corollary (Cryo-Adaptability)

  • All anime characters are resistant to extremely cold temperatures, and do not need to wear heavy or warm clothing in snow.

  Second Corollary (Indecent Invulnerability)

  • Bikinis render the wearer invulnerable to any form of damage.

#35- Law of Musical Omnipotence

• Any character capable of musical talent (singing, playing an instrument, etc.) is automatically capable of doing much more "simple" things, like piloting mecha, fighting crime, stopping an intergalactic war, and so on... especially if they have never attempted these things before.

#36- Law of Variant Temporal Dimensionality (from Seth Indermill [drizzt@ou.edu])

• Anime characters can pull practically any simple object into the real world from a mysterious dimension called Malletspace or Hammerspace.

#37- Law of Chrono Compression (from Seth Indermill[drizzt@ou.edu]

• A year in anime contains no less than 1500 days, 40 months, and 12 seasons.

• Any robot or other mecha can produce an infinite amount of metal in the form of tentacles instantaneously, from thin air.

#39- Law of Inverse Clothed Romanticism (from Ted Wang[tsw1@juno.com])

• When one character unintentionally sees another character of opposite sex lacking clothing, said character will inevitably fall in love with character of opposite sex.
  First Corollary (Hentaiic Exclusionism)-
  • This does not pertain to hentais.

  Second Corallary (Conservation of Pain)-

  • The said character will always get clobbered first by character of opposite sex.

#40- Law of Violent Dimensional weakening (from Tim Sorrells[orgy@ou.edu])

• Extremely forceful acts may cause a character to temporarily enter another dimension which appears to us as a bunch of streaked lines behind the character. This is possibly related to the Law of Variant Temporal Dimensionality.

Ryan Shellito

Seth Indermill

If you want to add anything to this list or if you want to be on the update list please write to me at drizzt@ou.edu with your ideas. I probably want to see them also.