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_We've all seen it_. When the main character is put in a bind, he/she always
has some "emotional" flashback, some of which are flashbacks of things we
never saw happen in the series.

The existence of time itself seems to vanish during a character's flashback,
and more often than not these aren't necessary (well, to me at least). This is
especially common in _Naruto_.

So why do anime characters tend to randomly have "emotional" flashbacks? What
does this even accomplish?


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tropes
Why do most anime tend to have "emotional" flashbacks before a big moment?


Flashbacks are pretty common [literary devices](https://literary-
devices.com/content/flashback/) that can accomplish several things:

  * Provide context into the mindset of the character as they encounter a situation
  * Provide often-valuable [character development](https://literary-devices.com/content/characterization/)
  * Explain in context why a character would have an unconventional (insofar as what the audience has seen) reaction to a big event

Depending on the work, the purpose and the scope of the flashback depends with
what the author wanted to convey.

  * In _Bleach_ , there were [negatively-numbered chapters](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Bleach_volumes) to indicate events that happened in the older Soul Society. This would often be invoked by a flashback or be used as way of explaining what happened in the past to catch the reader/watcher up with current events (e.g. the Visored + Fake Karakura Town arc).
  * In _Naruto_ , flashbacks were used to explain the events of the past, and color in details about the entire world of Naruto, from the last great Shinobi war, to interpersonal details about each character (some event coloring their past), and as a means to explain the story (e.g. the eternal cycle of Indra and Asuka's chakra being reborn and their rivalry playing out over and over again).

Something to note is that these aren't _meant_ to be random, but their
placement during the pacing of a story can make it _seem_ random.


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