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Since quite a few years back, it's been quite commonplace in fantasy anime and manga to represent casting magic as some kinds of 2D circles or geometric figures with patterns, possibly multiple ones, as in the image on the right (Frieren). I see this idea used in almost all – if not all – anime and manga now.
It hasn't always been that way though. Older anime and manga used other and different kinds of representations, say from blinking stars (image on the left, Majokko Megu-chan) to smoke, or even just sound effects.
I'm just curious: does anyone have any info or links to share about how this "2D representation" came about and why it's become so popular? Cheers!
The first really big one that I remember doing that was Fullmetal Alchemist
Oh gods no, this shit goes back at least into the late 80s early 90s. Ah! My Goddess does it, Slayers does it, Silent Möbius does it too. At the time these effects would be used more for their historic value rather than cheap animation, but they're the tiny stones at the start of the landslide.
Good point, the increase in such a graphical device has been gradual. I've been feeling as a sudden transition, but probably that's just a wrong impression of mine. But now really all fantasy anime use it...
I'll stick with my landslide simile here and say this: This is not on you, people don't notice the beginning of landslides, when it's just two, four, a dozen stones moving. You really only notice that the landslide exists, once it reaches a certain threshold. Things like this grow exponentially, it can grow 10 years without you noticing anything but suddenly it doubles in 5 years, then in two and then again in 1 and suddenly it's everywhere.
And trends are only ever obvious in hindsight. The earlyiest occurences don't stick in your memory, because you haven't yet registered that it's a thing that's happening.