Possible consequences of self-insert in anime and the audience

[Dragonbums]

I think we've all done self inserting as a kid. Make the character a blank enough slate and you'd want to get absorbed into the world he/she is involved in.

I did it with Naruto and One Piece as a tween. And hey, it's hella fun, albeit embarrassing. Now like with all people, there are certain limits one has to how self inserty a character is. Eventually most people grow out of it and sift out anime that actually has a developed character.

 

[Lieju]

What is self-inserting? If it's what I think it is, is that even physically possible? Mind you, I suppose anime doesn't have to stick to the usual rules of whether something is physically possible.

Imagining yourself in the place of the main character.

This is generally why most Harem leads are so bland - your not supposed to care about him, but see yourself in his place... and why most harems will have at least five women, each falling into a neatly defined category, so, like, your not focusing on the idea of getting into hot group sex, but picking out which one is most your type, and the one you'd want to get with.

Yeah, and it makes for a bad story-telling.
In a dating sim I can get it, since you can actually infuence the events, but in a non-interactive story I want an actual story...

This isn't just for anime, this is why Bella Swan for example was such a blank of wood.

It's kinda a sliding scale though, because you can also want to put in an audience surrogate, often the normal guy that has a normal life (just like you!) and discovers he is the chosen one and gets swept into this magical world and has stuff explained to him.

So characters like Luke Skywalker or Harry Potter.