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Best/Worst Cliches/Tropes in Anime

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Adyniz said:
Worst cliche - Orihime's breasts... Seriously, not every anime has to follow the "big boobs" trend. It's so annoying
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It's a stereotype of the male demographic where it's believed that "great action + Big Boobs = INSTANT HIT!"

But I agree. Besides, boobs are overrated. Where's the love for the ass?
 
How about talking/bantering during battle when they should be doing something? Yu Gi Oh has a hard-on for this, I swear.
 
One that makes me laugh are blond half-Japanese, half-white characters like Tamaki from Ouran. It's actually hilarious. Real half-Japanese people like Mike Shinoda, Asia Carrera, and Kaela Kimura don't look ANYTHING like Tamaki. Even people who are a quarter Japanese are generally brunette. If they are blond, they're never as blond as Tamaki. They tend to look more Japanese than European. Imagine if a black/white mixed girl looked like Jessica Simpson.

One of the few half-Japanese people I can think of who looks more European than Japanese is Pete Seeger's daughter Mika. But even then, her hair's medium brown, and it's graying now. (Pete's wife of 70 years, who died last month, was a Japanese woman named Toshi.)
 
Feanor said:
One that makes me laugh are blond half-Japanese, half-white characters like Tamaki from Ouran. It's actually hilarious. Real half-Japanese people like Mike Shinoda, Asia Carrera, and Kaela Kimura don't look ANYTHING like Tamaki. Even people who are a quarter Japanese are generally brunette. If they are blond, they're never as blond as Tamaki. They tend to look more Japanese than European. Imagine if a black/white mixed girl looked like Jessica Simpson.

One of the few half-Japanese people I can think of who looks more European than Japanese is Pete Seeger's daughter Mika. But even then, her hair's medium brown, and it's graying now. (Pete's wife of 70 years, who died last month, was a Japanese woman named Toshi.)
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I actually find this one funny, given the fact that we have series where characters are walking around with pink and blue hair. lol

That aside, yeah, I don't think I've ever seen a natural blonde Japanese either...light hair maybe if mixed, but not blonde unless it was dyed. There is one actress who comes to mind by the name of Becky. She's mixed, but doesn't really look it to me (but her hair isn't blonde either). Oh!!! My coworker! He's kind of a blonde-haired guy. His daughter has hair like him, so she's half Japanese with blondish hair. His oldest daughter, but I can't recall the youngest right off. The oldest is about 6 or so.
 
Badly written tsunades (sp?) are the worst. And also, I'm really not a fan of the Moe type charaters with little to no personality.
 
"Nuns are Mikos" is one that gives me a good laugh.

I mean, anime writers could just go to a Catholic country like Italy, Poland, Mexico, or Brazil and see real nuns (or an Eastern Orthodox county like Russia - they have nuns too). Or they could go to the Philippines (the closest Catholic country to Japan). But it's interesting how anime does it. It actually makes them active people. (I think it's due to confusion with Buddhist nuns, who have different roles than Christian ones. Christianity is rare in Japan, but Buddhism is very common there. Of course, nuns dress differently everywhere.) It's nice how anime shows usually make the nuns young and pretty - I'm used to geriatric nuns. My best friend has two great-aunts who are nuns and they're both ancient.
 
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"We have to show that the big bad is truly evil by having kill a family pet!" It's overdone and it bugs the crap outta me. Yes, we get it, Mr. Big Bad--you are evil. You are evil incarnate. But do you really have to show that off by ripping the head off a kitten or tearing out a dog's throat? I don't think so!
 
zakisrage said:
"Nuns are Mikos" is one that gives me a good laugh.

I mean, anime writers could just go to a Catholic country like Italy, Poland, Mexico, or Brazil and see real nuns (or an Eastern Orthodox county like Russia - they have nuns too). Or they could go to the Philippines (the closest Catholic country to Japan). But it's interesting how anime does it. It actually makes them active people. (I think it's due to confusion with Buddhist nuns, who have different roles than Christian ones. Christianity is rare in Japan, but Buddhism is very common there. Of course, nuns dress differently everywhere.) It's nice how anime shows usually make the nuns young and pretty - I'm used to geriatric nuns. My best friend has two great-aunts who are nuns and they're both ancient.
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I guess my feeling about this is that, given the usually abysmal way that Eastern religions are treated in Western media, the fact that the Japanese get similar amounts of things wrong about Christianity is expected and doesn't bother me.
 
I do like tsunderes when done right otherwise they can outright annoy me to no end. I always like that bad/unfair/devil's deal trope since its quite amusing.
 
As a person who views all tropes through somewhat neutral lens, and believing any of them could be good if done right, I do admit that particular ones can get tiring if they're done over and over again in the same fashion.

One trope I'm tired with in anime/manga - which is repeatedly done in visual novels as well - is portraying the "best friend" character as some loser butt-monkey misfit who gets punk'd around by the entire cast, while the main character is treated as some studly nice guy who gets all the girls. OK, I understand that being a stupid jerkass isn't going to get you any points from the ladies, but why portray the best friend in this role? What happened to best friends being role models who you can rely on, respect, and admire? "Best friends" should be written respectfully by the writers and treated respectfully by the characters. The term "best friend" should imply the "best nakama", so why write them in such a disgracing way? Comedy relief is fine, but bullying him and essentially writing him out to be some perverted perpetual virgin loser... ugh, it's really hard to watch.
 
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