What's with the huge supernova-like explosions in anime?


Why do they tend to occur so often in anime?

I'm not really a fan nor knowledgeable, but just curious is there any
background behind this.

Here are some examples of what I mean:

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3swylpHp8gs>

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9N-BuufhyU>




**Why explosions in general are popular:**

It's not much of a mystery & it mostly comes down to two things:

  * Budget - it's cheaper to animate an explosion of a building than destroy a set in a movie.

  * Genres - The most popular anime are usually shounen & action based. Predictably, explosions are something that that audience likes. You won't find many explosions in the romance genres. Western action film love explosions too.

* * *

**The blinding light of large explosions:**

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/nGlli.gif)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/nGlli.gif)
[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Wahej.gif)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Wahej.gif)

I would say it's a safe guess that this is inspired by a nuclear explosion.
The gif below is captured with a good camera, but many clips of nuclear
explosion have intensely bright light that the camera cannot record properly -
resulting in an almost whiter-than-white colour.

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/GGerf.gif)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/GGerf.gif)

> Time comes, and this tremendous flash out there is so bright that I duck,
> and I see this purple splotch on the floor of the truck. I said, "That's not
> it. That's an after-image." So I look back up, and I see this white light
> changing into yellow and then into orange. Clouds form and disappear again--
> from the compression and expansion of the shock wave.
>
> Finally, a big ball of orange, the center that was so bright, becomes a ball
> of orange that starts to rise and billow a little bit and get a little black
> around the edges, and then you see it's a big ball of smoke with flashes on
> the inside, with the heat of the fire going outwards.
>
> All this took about one minute. It was a series from bright to dark, and I
> had seen it. I am about the only guy who actually looked at the damn thing--
> the first Trinity test. Everybody else had dark glasses, and the people at
> six miles couldn't see it because they were all told to lie on the floor.
> I'm probably the only guy who saw it with the human eye.
>
> Finally, after about a minute and a half, there's suddenly a tremendous
> noise--BANG, and then a rumble, like thunder-- and that's what convinced me.
> Nobody had said a word during this whole thing. We were all just watching
> quietly. But this sound released everybody--released me particularly because
> the solidity of the sound at that distance meant that it had really worked.
>
> The man standing next to me said, "What's that?" I said, "That was the
> Bomb."

_Extract from Richard Feynman, American physicist's biography_

Obviously Japan has been influenced a lot from nuclear weaponry after the
bombings of [Nagasaki & Hiroshima in
WW2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki).
Because of this it finds itself in a lot of Japanese works. In fact, one of
the first manga to be translated to english was [Barefoot
Gen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barefoot_Gen) \- a survivor's tale from the
Hiroshima bombings.

Nuclear energy's intense devastation is also immense power and it's one of the
most powerful representations an artist could use to show the strength of an
explosion/character.

Many successful works have used this technique, including Dragonball Z, Akira,
etc and because of this, their usage has grown even further.

**'Star' Explosions**

Attempt 3 at trying to understand what your question means - this time I
presume you mean the star-like explosions that are in your videos.

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/R669Om.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/R669Om.png)

Studio Gainax has these effects as a sort of signature, originally appearing
in the very successful Neon Genesis Evangellion. Evangellion has many
religious references - including their cross-shaped explosions.

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/vGn8Mm.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/vGn8Mm.png)

Since then, the studio's work has used these often as explosions. Studio
Trigger, which was founded by gainax ex-employees also use the feature a lot -
see Kill la Kill for example.

Gainax is responsible for modern usage from their own usage of the explosion
type - However, [Space
Opera](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_space_opera_media#Anime) was a
popular genre in the 80s, causing many shows to be set in space - and also be
action-packed, leading to many explosions - some of which being supernova-
like. Gundam for instance is one particular show of note from this period.

**Further reading**

  * There are countless resources on the WW2 bombings
  * I recommend looking at the [TVTropes Page on Fade to White](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FadeToWhite) \- which is often how the trope is used.
  * [Space Opera genre on TVTropes](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SpaceOpera)

