Best/Worst Cliches/Tropes in Anime

[matt0044]

Best
Tsunderes and Kuuderes done right

How would you do them right? Just curious.

 

[QuietDragon]

I love well-written tsundere characters too! Victorique de Blois from GOSICK is pretty great. She's overbearing at the start, but gets better as the show goes on, without ever changing her core personality to anything weak or submissive. She's still sarcastic and snippy, but she also learns how important others are to her and expresses it and it's lovely.

Now for something new: I'm a sucker for the motivational speeches you hear/read every so often in so many shounen anime/manga. I just love them. Call it sappy, but I find them great confidence boosters!

... poorly written tsundere characters bother me though, especially when there's so little reason for the other character to put up with them. Even worse is when the other character just. Puts up with it all without complaint. I'm just like is the other character supposed to be some kind of SAINT? This isn't good, this isn't healthy! Oi, oi...

Poorly written characters in general, really: especially those who are supposed to be focal characters but are nothing more than unfleshed-out archetypes with nothing at all to make them unique aside from their design. Flat, one-dimensional, predictable in a really unappealing way (no growth or change in behaviour whatsoever from start to finish).

 

[Kiyomaro]

I love heroes that are complete asses but they somehow end up being the main protagonist of the series. (Not like a rival character or anything, but as the actual main hero.) Especially when it comes with a character arc of them improving themselves and learning the hard way just how much of a jerk they really are. (Ruby from Pokespe is a very good example of this because a big part of the RS arc is him coming to terms with him realizing he's an ass that's cowardly. It's the reason why he's my favorite Pokemon character from any continuity by far.)

As cheesy as it is, I'm also a sucker for having the main character learn about the ~*~magic of friendship~*~.

 

[CrystaI]

I dislike many Moe School Romantic Anime produced by Kadokawa Shoten, where the characterization had a noticeable trend, or I should said noticeable "set", which had been used over and over and over for the same sort of anime. Some I ALWAYS saw in those anime will be: (sorry I don't know the exact title for these tropes)

1. Childhood female friend that hidden a secret crush on the male protagonist before the actual plot.
2. A Tsuderes female that always charge towards the male protagonist.
3. The idol of the whole school confess by many males build interest in the protagonist, making the protagonist being antagonize by all the males in the school.
4. An energetic girl (sometimes OVER-energetic) that is noisy and spoffish that is always there for comedic purpose.
5. A silent girl out-of-the-group that is always somewhere nearby watching the male protagonist from aside. She join the group only when the protagonist approaches her.
6. A feeble-looking female (usually short in size and small breast like a primary school kid) that makes the protagonist wanted to protect her for no reason.
7. Hentai male friend(s) of the protagonist always talks about hentai/ecchi topics.

I do not understand what makes such Romantic anime interesting to watch about. The only thing I'm impress is only the illustration quality of those works, but that's all. Though, my older brother love to watch such Moe animes, he even collects all sorts of merchandise related to it. Hence, I always called him "Hentai" whenever I saw his goods.


Other than romantic stuffs, I also dislike flat villains that is there merely "to be the Bad because we the the Bads". Hence, the villains that are there only to give the protagonist (or one should called the heroes in many Actions and Adventure animes) hindrance and challenges, their purpose of existence is to disturb/give trouble/beat the protagonist, and thus they serves no purpose if the protagonist didn't exist. The TRio of Pokemon Anime; Devimon, Etemon, Vademon in the Digimon Adventure; Even Dr.Eggman Robotnik from the Sonic series all counted as such poor-developed villains.


I personally do not have a trope I like, but I do have tropes I preferred for certain genres of animes which I personally think it will make the animes to be better. Such as, for Adventures, I like the protagonist to be a wise and hardworking person which grows as the story grows. For an overly stupid Idiot Hero like Ash Ketchum? No thankyou. For Sci-Fi, I prefer the protagonist to be wisely strategic.
Well, I don't know does this even called trope, but I personally preferred protagonist with Heroic traits.

 

[GuitarHero]

I always thought it was funny how the main character is almost always never as interesting as the secondary character(s) in most anime. There are exceptions of course, and I use Cowboy Bebop for a lot of examples but I think it works in this one again.
^_^

 

[matt0044]

Swirly Eyes when the characters are befuddled, out cold or whatnot.

 

[megaevolvedmushroom]

^Are you listing that as best or worst?

 

[matt0044]

^Are you listing that as best or worst?

I'd say it's a bit of both. Sometimes it could, other times it gets old.

 

[Goodbye Blue Monday]

So much of what is described here:

The Stereotypical High School Shoujo Manga Plot: The How to Guide | The Scholarly Otaku

 

[Typhlosionisafirebadger]

as a boxing manga fan, I think the whole "guts" thing, esp in HNI and the way stuff drags on or how mechanics get tossed out the window after being important early on in the story. There's a specific fight, scratch j vs ippo where he tries something like a running straight right, and it just irks me

 

[Naoto]

I'm a sucker for Tragic Hero's but not the one's who try really hard to be bad a**, but the one's who are trying to beat the odds and never give up.

I can't stand the Mo'e archetype, (The cutesy character who's only there because of their cute looks, and to fan service...)

 

[matt0044]

I'm a sucker for Tragic Hero's but not the one's who try really hard to be bad a**, but the one's who are trying to beat the odds and never give up.

I can't stand the Mo'e archetype, (The cutesy character who's only there because of their cute looks, and to fan service...)

It'd be cool if the main character was a Tragic Moe hero. If done right (as in she's not there for mere cheesecake)...

 

[Baby Seals]

I hate the overuse of catty, obnoxious girls in shonen anime (and yaoi if it features girls at all). Naruto and Pokemon are big offenders. There are some exceptions, like Yu Yu Hakusho - Keiko and Botan, the main girls, are both very sweet. I don't mind a catty girl if she's supposed to be a villain or at least an anti-hero, but the girls I'm talking about are usually straight-up heroes. This makes girls not want to watch the show. At least Pokemon has lots of non-bitchy girls (Nurse Joy, Officer Jenny, Cynthia, the majority of female Gym Leaders). But almost every girl on Naruto is a bitch - regardless if she's a hero or a villain.

I also hate when Japanese shows portray all Americans (or worse, all whites PERIOD) as blond. I'm white and I am most definitely not blond. Hetalia is the biggest offender, as every European character is blond, with practically no brunettes or redheads. In some European countries, there are actually very few blonds. Go almost anywhere in Spain or Greece and like 90 percent of the people will be dark-haired. Heck, even some Middle Eastern countries have higher rates of blond hair than those. Italy I can kinda understand since the Axis Italian government was dominated by Northern Italians (in fact, Italy was usually dominated by Northern Italians since unification. Not surprising since in Mussolini's time, Northern Italy was modern and relatively high-tech while Southern Italy was pretty rustic.), who are more likely to be blond than Southern Italians. But still, blonds in Italy are rarely more than 10 percent of the population. And despite what Japanese and American media both potray, most white Californians are NOT blond. I guess they're judging by our celebrities. But very few American male actors are blond (and the blond ones usually play villains). I think anime creators should watch real American TV, not Baywatch or The OC, if they want inspiration. (Still, there are even more blond anime characters who are clearly Japanese. No one would call Sailor Moon or Naruto Americans!) But then again, maybe it serves us right for depicting Japanese people with buck teeth, all Japanese women being geisha, and all Japanese men being either martial artists or businessmen.

There are some other cliches that are overdone, but many of these are prevalent in non-Japanese media too.

 

[Goodbye Blue Monday]

"I just want to be loved" as the modus operandi behind an Anti-Villain as a "worst trope."

I wish more writers knew how to make villains sympathetic and rounded without necessarily making them nice.

@Feanor; Well, if they have Americans/Europeans in a cast with Japanese or other Asian characters, how else are they going to make the white people identifiably white? It's not like East Asian characters in anime usually have what we would consider stereotypical East Asian features.

I guess if Western media weren't just as if not more stereotypical whenever they show people of color, I would be more bothered by stereotypical portrayals of Americans and Europeans in anime. Right now I have trouble caring, though. It's similar to when they mess up important details about Christianity, like nuns not being the same thing as mikos. Western media always screws up Eastern religions, usually even worse, so it evens out.

 

[Tsurugi]

The whole "friendship is everything" nonsense that most shonen anime feel the need to shove down the throats of the audience is pretty obnoxious. Most of the damn shows that do this don't even show me why in the hell their main characters are even friends.

The formula for these shonen anime that gets churned out these always same thing. Obnoxious super nice guy meets with a bunch of jackasses who hate him because the writers said so, then the nice guy says some cliched dialogue about how friends help each other, and then everyone else is suddenly all buddy-buddy even though they have absolutely no reason to be. And then they're back to being jackasses the next episode because the writers didn't think of an actual personality for them beside the one scene where they become friends.

It wouldn't be a problem if most of the writers out there made an actual effort to show and develop why the characters they shoved together are even friends in the first place. Most anime writers just slap a bunch of people with zero chemistry together and expect the audience to deal with it. There's no point in having random people constantly sperg about how friendship is great if those people have no reason to be "friends" in the first place.

The token moe and/or tsundere archetype is also rather annoying, but at least an actual personality, even if it's one that oversaturates the industry to an intolerable extent. The entire anime industry has gotten stale with the same old cliches being repeated, honestly. If it's cliched, then it's already bad.

 

[matt0044]

The whole "friendship is everything" nonsense that most shonen anime feel the need to shove down the throats of the audience is pretty obnoxious. Most of the damn shows that do this don't even show me why in the hell their main characters are even friends.

The formula for these shonen anime that gets churned out these always same thing. Obnoxious super nice guy meets with a bunch of jackasses who hate him because the writers said so, then the nice guy says some cliched dialogue about how friends help each other, and then everyone else is suddenly all buddy-buddy even though they have absolutely no reason to be. And then they're back to being jackasses the next episode because the writers didn't think of an actual personality for them beside the one scene where they become friends.

It wouldn't be a problem if most of the writers out there made an actual effort to show and develop why the characters they shoved together are even friends in the first place. Most anime writers just slap a bunch of people with zero chemistry together and expect the audience to deal with it. There's no point in having random people constantly sperg about how friendship is great if those people have no reason to be "friends" in the first place.

I agree but there are shows that do it better than you'd expect (less bad at least). At least, Yugi and Kaiba didn't become instant BFFs (and that show's really full on friendship).

 

[Goodbye Blue Monday]

Most anime writers just slap a bunch of people with zero chemistry together and expect the audience to deal with it.

I don't know if "chemistry" is a thing when it comes to animated characters. That's more of an issue with live-action actors, people who just look unnatural together. But if animated characters have "no chemistry" that's the fault of the writers and the animators for making them awkward together, it's not like it's a casting screw-up. You can still miscast people in anime, of course, but if people are just lending their voices I don't know how much "chemistry" is a factor.

 

[Zexy]

Well, all shonen anime overestimate friendship, Heart of the Cards, or anything like that. Plus, the adults are useless because the kids are the heroes of the show. Of course, another evident trope is the Anime Hair. Come on, it's ANIME Hair. It is natural. Initially, it's fun. After a while, it's just indifferent. Definitely not negative. Bitchy women are out there because they aren't lots of different personalities shonen writers can use, basically because adults aren't an important part, and most kids have similar traits. AKA, some people should get something different.

Let's accept the anime for what it is. No need to rant that long about it.

 

[Tsurugi]

But if animated characters have "no chemistry" that's the fault of the writers and the animators for making them awkward together, it's not like it's a casting screw-up.

Yeah. That's what I was trying to say there. Bunch of characters who aren't written or animated like they would interact on a day to day basis.

 

[Goodbye Blue Monday]

But if animated characters have "no chemistry" that's the fault of the writers and the animators for making them awkward together, it's not like it's a casting screw-up.

Yeah. That's what I was trying to say there. Bunch of characters who aren't written or animated like they would interact on a day to day basis.

I still think it's weird to call that "chemistry" though. Chemistry implies something on the part of the actors.

Like where they look so unnatural together, it doesn't matter how good the writing is, they just won't work.

That doesn't really make sense in anime, though, since actors are only using their voices and at least 90% of chemistry is body language. So you can easily have animators work around that if two voice actors don't have good "chemistry" together.