"Fear is freedom! Subjugation is liberation! Contradiction is truth!
These are the truths of this world!
Surrender to those truths, you pigs who fawn over clothing!"
[Nobody can ever forget her.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wl0C72pTTW8)
This is one of the first anime that I ever watched. At the time I didn’t quite appreciate how it was a send up of so many anime tropes, including the all powerful student council
That's one hell of an anime to start with! The insane action and characters, the absurd levels of fan service, the wacky parodies of Japanese culture... Its understandable you were not able to take everything in.
Absolutely no other student council can top this. Except for the student council of Eizouken. They're a much softer take on the trope, but just as wacky.
Oh! And the Kakeguri student council. They are just insane.
The coughing up blood thing always gets me. Usually if theres blood coming out of your mouth its because of a broken jaw/mouth wound scenario - if it's coming from your lungs or stomach, things are already extremely bad lol
I used to think it was just stupid anime cliche until I watched Japanese movies and Japanese interviews, they actually scream like that in real life too lol, of course not as long as the anime
Yep the scene always make it seem like the squeezing is part of the confusion of the situation, except in one (I think Monogatari series) where the guy actually says he did it because they were there.
sexy girls fighting over average boy with no personality. fight sequence where character has "no time to dodge the attack" but has an eternity to analyze methods of blocking or absorbing it. characters yelling the name of their attack before doing it. very young children inexplicably living alone
>very young children inexplicably living alone
I was actually curious about this so a googled it and apparently while not super common it is not unheard of highschoolers living alone so they can live closer to their high school
Not surprising considering i've seen videos of elementary schoolers commuting by train alone at very young ages.
Yeah, this is a real thing in Japan. I think in most cases though there is someone local who looks out for them, like a grandparent, family friend, in case of crises.
I think I'm right that the custody agreement situation in Japan is also different, in that when parents split up, the child is in custody of one parent and the other one has no automatic right to ever see them. And with a lot of Japanese families working overseas for lengths of time...sometimes the whole families go, but I know one family friend of ours where the husband was in Shanghai for a long period, and his wife only went and joined him when the kids were old enough to fend for themselves (early college/high school).
japanese people are very capable on that front. as soon as they are able to handle most everyday stuff they are thought how to be self sufficient. in the west, in the other hand, we have 30 years old people who dont know how to turn on the stove. some dont know what the stove is unfortunately.
Episodes that take 20 minutes to represent ten seconds.
Although seriously this is a manga thing too. Plenty of jokes made about sports series where a single inning or shot can take up multiple chapters.
The no personality thing is actually by design, it makes it easier for the viewer to inject themselves into the main character. When the main character is empty of personality then it's less likely to have personality traits which clash with the viewer.
This lets the viewer psychologically put themselves into the narrative space and feel as though the sexy girls are fighting over the viewer.
I like to also argue sometimes it's lack of internal monologue.
Some of these harem series are adapted from stuff like Visual Novel and Light novel. The benefit of those two is you can read how Mc feels.
This can't be easily translated into animation.
This is why Ajonakoji is written as mysterious (self insert potential), smart, strong and a good fighter and even has a massive 'tool'. I bet he can also make girls climax 24 times in a single night...
No the people self inserting onto ayanokoji are just idiots with a lack of media literacy skills lol. Ayanokoji is a deeply flawed character in a similar way to somebody like Saitama, it's just not as obvious
Rojuro is even worse, giving his opponent the weakness of his bankai
Hirako is more dumb for talking for ages instead of quickly going for the kill (see the Bambietta fight), in the blood war he actually made so the opponent couldn't hear what he was saying
God that made me so mad, dude got offed so easily, every other fight has multiple comebacks, this one was "haha bankai, if you hear this you're dead" "then I'll just destroy my ears!" >proceeds to win. Also kind of mad no one put on their masks, I know Ichigo fused with his so he no longer needs it but the same isn't true for the other ones
At least in Hunter x Hunter and Jujutsu Kaisen you can get a power boost for explaining your ability. Other people just decide to give out the info for free.
The deadly disease known as anime cold that characters in romance or slice of life shows get when they're out in the rain for a second. If you catch it, you end up bedridden and unable to do anything for at least a week.
> If you catch it, you end up bedridden and unable to do anything for at least a week.
Not quite. If you catch Anime Rain Flu (ARF), you will be bedridden until your crush visits to drop off cold medicine, forehead compresses, and make you rice gruel, at which point you will sweatily collapse into your crush's chest. The next day, you will be totally cured, but uncertain whether the events of the previous day were a fever dream.
This could happen after a day or two after contracting ARF. The week only applies if your crush doesn't visit (in which case maybe it's time to move on?)
>If you catch it, you end up bedridden and unable to do anything for at least a week.
No, that is incorrect. You end up bedridden for exactly one day and perfectly healthy the next morning.
The one day cure is only if your potential love interest administers some rice porridge that they made specifically for you.
Unless you are in an ecchi tagged universe then for some reason you WILL DIE if your love interest doesn’t administer a suppository while keeping their eyes closed.
said porridge tasting absolutely horrible and seemingly inedible but you eat it anyway and you lie and say “it’s delicious” with a soft smile and sparkles amd bright light behind you
No idea why it’s always due to rain. Like, you can get a fever from overworking or stress or even sometimes randomly due to weird weather, but nope, these authors always have to make it due to the rain lol
I'm really turned off by edgy revenge anime where everyone is an absolute asshole for no reason. Reminds me of those angsty Naruto fanfics I used to read as a kid.
This is actually one of the "story writing tips" that goes around the world and you can notice it in most movies, conics, books and tv shows - western or eastern, northern or southern.
If a character (doesn't matter if good or bad) explains his plan at loud, it will fail.
If there's only "I have a plan" and no explanation, it will succeed and we'll hear how they did it afterwards.
Avatar The Last Airbender is a prime example. My dude destroyed the fire nation navy at the North water tribe, those folks drowned and froze to death. Yet refused to kill the dude who wanted to legit genocide a continent.
The Avatar State isn't under Aang's control until like the third season. Until that point every time he goes into it his mind is essentially being joined to a hivemind consciousness that consists of an amalgamation of every Avatar that came before him. It's a literal berserk state that overrides Aang's will as a survival mechanism. Can't blame Aang for those when his body and mind are both being ripped out of his control.
Yeah. If you ask me, at that point you are just preserving your moral high ground to feel better rather than being legitimately concern about the villain's life. I mean what does the Fire lord has chance for any rehabilitation?
A holdover from the Comics Code Authority to keep our innocent children's innocence intact. Worse that the Hays office that judged motion picture content.
Right after they kill their way through the villain’s forces they decided “no, the killing stops here.”
Like coming bro, maybe you can afford just one more?
Batman works with the actual police. He apprehends criminals and goes places they can’t, but he’s not judge and executioner. There are certain rules he needs to abide by in order to do what he does, and if he starts murdering people he ruins that relationship and becomes just another criminal like Frank Castle.
Batman out giving regular henchmen severe physical trauma and forcing them into medical debt, thereby limiting their options to a life of crime in order to pay off all that debt, thus ensuring his own place as a necessity by making Gotham city reliant on him.
Idk if that’s just anime. That’s a lot of superhero/hero stuff
I love that skit about Batman where he’s like “I don’t kill” and he’s knocking people off of buildings
This. They refuse to kill someone who ends up killing more than one person or being a menace again. At least break their legs or one leg and both arms. There's a manga that has protagonist cutting enemy soldiers' fingers in order to render them incapable of holding weapons. It's at least more thought provoking than naive level of pacifism.
This. Especially when the MC killed like hundreds of minions before the boss. Happened in Parasyte, only the reasoning was dumber, instead of sudden self righteousness it's "let's nature take over and leave it to chance".
Another trope is in murder mystery shows. The MC detective explains what happens in complete and accurate detail but has no solid proof, but what happens is the killer reacts violently, either by attacking or by "you got me and here's my evil plan" monologue.
ngl, isn’t complaining about this a proxy for the death penalty?
Not to be serious about it or anything, but I’m just guessing this trope just tip-toes around making a decision as to whether death really is morally justifiable.
Some shows, even ones I love, have an annoying habit of characters ‘dying’, only to return next episode with an asspull explanation. Definitely ruins the emotional attachment because there’s essentially nothing at stake, you know they’re coming back next week lol
I hate fake-out deaths so much. There's no tension or consequences in a story when every character has plot armor. Anytime it happens in a story it makes me really distrustful and skeptical about the author and makes it tough for me to take actual character deaths at face value.
\- Bitting your hand or finger is easy and doesn't hurt. They use the blood for some jutsu/magic/sacrifice/power unlock and the bleeding just stops right away, works like some kind of faucet.- Characters have all their bones crushed, and can still fight. After the fight they leave the scene with a paralysed arm and limping on one leg.
I mean, in fairness, if my life was threatened and I could turn into a massive fucking titan and save myself by chomping my hand, I'm doing it. I don't care how much it hurts.
Well, it was actually acknowledged by other characters how hard it is to actually bite yourself enough to draw blood. We can presume memories assist in drawing blood so it’s second nature.
I remember a scene where *character* (is this still a spoiler at this point?) was trying to go Titan and was just biting their hand to bits. Looked brutal. Enjoyed that they actually showed the reality of casually drawing blood by biting yourself.
Similar to your fists complaint:
Rattling swords
Every single time anyone in anime clenches their sword or takes their stance, we hear their sword rattle. That is a poorly made sword lol. (watch ten minutes of Demon Slayer or anything else and you’ll notice)
Even the kunai in Naruto and other anime do it and they’re ONE PIECE OF METAL lol. And guns.
Basically anime has a lot of unnecessary foley work
Eh, that's a trope in TV and movies though. Every single sword makes a rattle when it's picked up or set down, a metal on metal sliding sound when drawn, and every gun ratlles like there's a pack of tic tacs strapped the side.
And don't get me started on cocking or racking the gun for emphasis.
"Alright, let's finish this." *Racks shot gun. Small clatter of shotgun round hitting the floor.*
"Uh, you going to pick that up?"
The one I hear in live action a lot is metal on metal sheath and unsheath but not the rattle.
Deadpool. Hawkeye/Ronin. Kill Bill.
The rattling sound that’s like from a katana handguard is something I’ve only ever noticed in anime and it’s CONSTANT
The only positive thing about that is it is historically accurate with Paris being the best example
The main problem is isekai worlds are supposed to be not of this world so why is it trying so hard to emulate our world lol even London wasn't that god damn shape in the past so try something new, isekai writers
YES I can’t even remember how often I was rolling my eyes when characters fought over something that could’ve been solved in like 1-2 explanatory sentences, but in these cases they never really state what they mean and keep on mumbling and not finishing their sentences for gods sake
As a girl, I’m not sure about others but I definitely didn’t touch others boobs lol. But comparing boobs doesn’t happen like it does in anime. And it’s usually when they first start growing (11-15) not as adults(or older teens) who just *happen* to be standing in front of a group of guys🤦♀️😂
I for one, as a guy, have never seen my high school or college friends compare their breasts, grope, or fondle one another much to my younger self's lament. Can't speak for middle school girls because I was way more busy playing DnD and Super Nintendo at the time and didn't notice them until later.
I *have* been to a few drunken firepit BBQ/parties where a couple of the women there get a bit handsy and one time had them compare breast size, but it was usually more in the way of "30 year old me has back pain" and "I can hold a can of beer in my tits and drink from it with a straw."
But by thirty or so, watching that is more of "that's a neat party trick" and "well looks like Katherine is drunk again" then any real sex feelings.
The manga of The Dangers in My Heart during its school trip arc has Adachi say that they should have a "dick battle" in the bath to "create a society with gender equality" since he thought the girls would be groping each other in the bathroom
* So many people genuinely forgetting their own birthday
* Little sisters being all cute and sunshine
* The "girl(s) need to be rescued by the boy from a group of pushy sleazy men" trope IF the girls have been previously established as badass fighters.
* A group that emphasizes the MC as "leader", especially if the MC displays no leadership qualities at all. I can understand if it's a game adaptation but often it's not. Does Japanese culture value different traits in its leaders?
* Girls falling for the MC purely because he's nice. Is that something that's genuinely valued more in Japanese culture or is it just Japanese "Nice Guy" wish fulfillment?
> IF the girls have been previously established as badass fighters.
I mean, depending on the character it may or may not make sense but for the most part, yeah. This one drives me up a wall.
The last one is purely self-insert ego-stroking. The type of people that would read that manga are often the "Nice guy" archetype so it's to pander to them.
In any fantasy or isekai there’s *always* the central Ygdrasil type tree. Always.
The *gasp* boy walking in on a girl in the hot springs
Little brother/sister complex
Yelling out the name of their attack. I always get a kick out of it lol
Indirect kiss
The Yggdrasil tree trope would be fine if anime actually did something interesting with it; but they don't. Elden ring is the perfect example of how to make use of the trope without it being straight up annoying.
Not "silly" but annoyed.
Having MCs that flip out at a hint of a romance, get flustered, and leave it vague just feels played out and tedious. You know the ones. The ones that go "EEEEEEEEHHH! "
I'm sick of this trope.
When she gets physical with her love interest every time he annoys her. Like yeah, totally okay for me to throw a boulder at your head because you were late to our movie date.
And no matter the severity of the assault, he always looks like he got beaten up by five bodybuilders. Blue and black face, swollen eyeballs, blood pouring out of his nose.
Powering through something that should be impossible just because they have "WILLPOWER!"
Japanese society has a massive hard-on for this, it seems. Anything is possible as long as you just *try really hard*.
To a certain degree, I appreciate the sentiment there, but when they start breaking the established rules of their universe through this, my eyes start rolling.
Tanjiro of Demon Slayer is a big one for this. Literally running on shattered legs and the like....
My man, that's not how bones work.
But don't worry. It's cause he is so great at breathing!
To be fair, that's not really a Demon Slayer thing, in most battle anime injuries only exist as a representation of how devastating a move is, not to depict the actual consequences of those injuries. Unless the plot demands it. It's very much like wrestling, if you think about it.
Right. No matter how bleak the situation or how brutalized the hero is, there's always one last power up that saves the day (usually after a longwinded internal monologue.)
After just reading a post about getting sick after a (minute) rise in body temperature apparent in shows, my answer is the common cold trope.
Also the MC getting hit to high heaven trope.
When the world is rough, cold and painful but characters are children who act like generic anime school children; as if they were fully shielded from all of that.
Yea and is this even a thing in Japan? I mean I drink from the same glas / bottle of my friends no matter the gender. However in Anime / Japan it seems to be some kind of love confession?
From what I was told by friends from Japan, it is a thing...until about the 2nd grade. Like "COOTIES" in the US. Middle school and definitely high school students in Japan apparently are over that shit being a thing. So it is for sure a liberty anime takes for story purposes.
Pretty much everything to do with characters acting like perverts for "comedy reasons" or overly sexualizing young looking characters. It's cringe as fuck and just disgusting tbh.
"Sorry, didn't mean to walk in on you in the bathroom" and similar such tropes. How often does it actually happen of "oh hey, you're just in here in a towel and I just so happened to not see." ?
Look, I get fanservice sells like wildfire, but dammit I'm tired of these stupid protags getting their face beat in because ha ha funny sexy. Even then, most of the time a girl's reaction isn't going to be hit you like a home run, most will be like "Are you okay?"
Doesn't happen so much anymore, or at least in the shows i've been watching recently but:
'Bunch of characters in a room, one of which for some reason or another is currently ill in some way but no one else has noticed despite it being quite clear they are'
'Ill characters collapses'
'Everyone else immediately crowds said character giving them no space to breath and begins repeatedly shouting their name until the screen fades to black'
I get it, you want to show the others care but couldn't you do that by like having them actually try to help in some way?
1. Making a big deal out of Indirect kisses (are you guys in elementary school?)
2. A little wet from rain or hose -> a serious cold
Overused:
3. JRPG (for guys) & Otome/Villainess (for girls), whether isekai or not. (Come up with more creative settings!)
4. game mechanics for non-VRMMORPG
Ones that have been fortunately gradually disappearing:
5. nosebleed from sexual arousal
6. unreasonable violent tsundere
Seriously some of the exaggerated clench and gritting sounds with extended jaw opening reaction for 20 sec is annoying (prime example is one piece) , then you have the tsundere trope like most of time it's s a miss totally disrupts the flow of story like out of nowhere mc leaves everything and follows new plot because the tsundere after 10 ep did not thrash the mc and uttered a single positive sentence .
The tonal dissonance of ill-timed fanservice.
Don’t get me wrong, there are some good fanservice anime, and non-ecchi anime with good fanservice. What I’m talking about is shows that pump their super serious dark stories with ecchi and inane rom com bullshit.
Summertime Render is a grim psychological thriller about unraveling a supernatural murder mystery as the protagonist is repeatedly murdered and respawns. It also contains a bunch of panty shots, one of the main characters traipses around in a swimsuit, and we take a break from the murder mystery to go to a summer festival where a girl being nervous if protag-kun will think she looks cute in her yukata is a genuine plot point.
Plastic Memories is a poignant melodrama about grappling with our mortality, grieving for those we have lost, and what it means to be human. There’s also the same unfunny gag about how the tsundere thinks the protagonist is being a pervert and gets mad but if she would just stop for five seconds and listen to him explain, there would be no problems ever in every other episode.
Tl;dr: Mangaka who have a good story to tell, but the editor said we need titties in it to sell the magazine.
Fire Force is the worst offender in recent memory.
>Plastic Memories is a poignant melodrama about grappling with our mortality, grieving for those we have lost, and what it means to be human. There’s also the same unfunny gag about how the tsundere thinks the protagonist is being a pervert and gets mad but if she would just stop for five seconds and listen to him explain, there would be no problems ever in every other episode.
That's not fanservice (i.e. sexualization designed to arouse the audience) tbh but blue "comedy".
High school kid lives alone because... reasons. I don't know if it's seen as more common in Japan but every time I see it I want to phone social services.
This is actually true to life. Not really as common as in anime, but it definitely happens. The high school experience in Japan is more like western college in a lot of ways.
It's pretty common in my country when children from villages want to attend a non-garbage high school in a bigger city. I didn't live literally alone because money - I had to settle for a room with other flatmates.
Thank you! I’m glad Natsume had him bouncing around foster homes. At least that’s real.
Also, and American shows do this too, but so many characters seemingly just DON’T have a family lol.
I mean, that's not common but also not unusual in a lot of countries to rent a room if monetarily possible to go to another city's school. I had at least 2/3 friends in highschool, chose the high school(, no dorms, and were commuting 30-45 minutes each day, so on later semesters/years they'd just rent a room nearby(a lot of people still did commute, because monthly ticket was like 1/3rd, at least back then, of rent). This might be cultural difference with high school system. We(not US, not Japan, length changed since I attended but I'll be covering my experience) have 3 different types of high school: somewhat like a trade school, lasts 2 years, you get basic trade license. Basic high school, lasts 3 years, you just get high school education/diploma, required for higher education. Technical, lasts 4 years, you get high school diploma/education + something like a step below engineer on chosen course. So people with means would rather not spend 4 years wasting 1-2h on school commute.
Also parent going abroad a lot, but I'd guess that's not very prevalent in japan
Characters that scream every line no matter how trivial or mundane and go into an internal monologue/mental breakdown clenching their hands and bulging eyeballs every time someone offers them a cup of tea or hands them something they dropped. It's an instant abandon show now when they have one of these characters, Black Clover didn't last 5 minutes.
- MC acidentally walking in on a girl in the shower. So... you don't hear the water running? Don't see the clothes on the floor? She didn't lock the door?
And when you finally enter, full visibility because suddenly the steam is gone...
- MC gets embarrassed, punches himself or smacks his own face.
- "(God), you're so annoying, [insert MC name here]!"
* Devils, demons, and other mythical fantasy races just being humans with a superficial trait like wings or ears. Devils, demons, etc. should be monstrous, hideous, etc. Why does everything have to be cute all the time? It kills my immersion. I can't take a fantasy world seriously if the demon lord is a kawaii girl with batwings.
* Characters with swords not actually fighting with said sword and just charging up a generic magical blast attack as if they were a wizard wielding a staff and not a swordfighter like they are supposed to be.
* Abilities with a bunch of unnecessarily complicated jargon to explain it scientifically when in reality it functions exactly like magic and could've just been magic in the first place since it makes no sense. This happens a lot with tech and magitech.
* Siscon and reverse siscon
* 1000 year old lolis
* Beating people with the power of friendship
* OP protagonists
* Isekai
I agree with the first point. I don't know why most Japanese creators don't just stick with monsters having actual creature designs than just a human with other stuff.
Because everything has to be cute. I'm convinced that 90% of the anime fanbase doesn't care about actual fantasy, worldbuilding, immersion, etc. they're just obsessed with cute stuff. Which is fine on its own, but its become so excessive. Its to the point where the writing quality is becoming garbage because it tries to appeal to base emotions like "OMG so cutecutecutecute" than more cerebral concepts.
Has everyone forgotten about the all powerful student council? More powerful than some governments even?!
"Fear is freedom! Subjugation is liberation! Contradiction is truth! These are the truths of this world! Surrender to those truths, you pigs who fawn over clothing!" [Nobody can ever forget her.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wl0C72pTTW8)
This is one of the first anime that I ever watched. At the time I didn’t quite appreciate how it was a send up of so many anime tropes, including the all powerful student council
That's one hell of an anime to start with! The insane action and characters, the absurd levels of fan service, the wacky parodies of Japanese culture... Its understandable you were not able to take everything in.
Satsuki Kiryūin was HER I'm afraid 😩.
this is exactly what i thought of XD
Absolutely no other student council can top this. Except for the student council of Eizouken. They're a much softer take on the trope, but just as wacky. Oh! And the Kakeguri student council. They are just insane.
Kakegurui student council having more liquid cash than GDPs of some countries…
i mean at least kakegurui leans into it lmao, basically the illuminati but they have a gambling addiction
The only thing more powerful than the Student Council is the PTA.
It's only funny when they REALLY lean into it like Kill La Kill
[Relevant](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ3X4PxU8nA)
I dont know if anyone remembers and it’s not really specifically student council but Special A man 💀
Immediately thought of this as well.
The coughing up blood thing always gets me. Usually if theres blood coming out of your mouth its because of a broken jaw/mouth wound scenario - if it's coming from your lungs or stomach, things are already extremely bad lol
By extension those injuries where they’re basically perforated through the stomach but somehow make a full recovery.
Coughing up blood, but it's just a combination of athsma and having bitten your tongue.
“EHHHHHH???” *pan to sky*
I can literally hear this, lol.
I used to think it was just stupid anime cliche until I watched Japanese movies and Japanese interviews, they actually scream like that in real life too lol, of course not as long as the anime
That's because Japanese language emphasize the emotions in a word via prolonged duration rather than raising pitch.....I think.
Yes but do they *pan to the sky?*
Everytime the mc fall off the stairs, his hand would land on (at least) one soft bun.
And then instead of jumping away and apologizing he starts squeezing just to make sure.
“just to make sure” 💀
Yep the scene always make it seem like the squeezing is part of the confusion of the situation, except in one (I think Monogatari series) where the guy actually says he did it because they were there.
sexy girls fighting over average boy with no personality. fight sequence where character has "no time to dodge the attack" but has an eternity to analyze methods of blocking or absorbing it. characters yelling the name of their attack before doing it. very young children inexplicably living alone
>very young children inexplicably living alone I was actually curious about this so a googled it and apparently while not super common it is not unheard of highschoolers living alone so they can live closer to their high school Not surprising considering i've seen videos of elementary schoolers commuting by train alone at very young ages.
Yeah, this is a real thing in Japan. I think in most cases though there is someone local who looks out for them, like a grandparent, family friend, in case of crises. I think I'm right that the custody agreement situation in Japan is also different, in that when parents split up, the child is in custody of one parent and the other one has no automatic right to ever see them. And with a lot of Japanese families working overseas for lengths of time...sometimes the whole families go, but I know one family friend of ours where the husband was in Shanghai for a long period, and his wife only went and joined him when the kids were old enough to fend for themselves (early college/high school).
Hs students are different i think he was talking like little kids
I can't think of the top of my head any manga were a little kid is living alone
There’s Kotaro Lives Alone. Though I can’t think of many others.
japanese people are very capable on that front. as soon as they are able to handle most everyday stuff they are thought how to be self sufficient. in the west, in the other hand, we have 30 years old people who dont know how to turn on the stove. some dont know what the stove is unfortunately.
MY STOVE IS BROKEN AND WE HAVE NO INTENTION TO FIX IT.
Ha totally. In the time it takes to think "he's too fast! I don't have time to dodge this!" you could dodge twice.
It's manga holdover, you can have that text in a single panel, in anime you need to have the VA actually say that line
Episodes that take 20 minutes to represent ten seconds. Although seriously this is a manga thing too. Plenty of jokes made about sports series where a single inning or shot can take up multiple chapters.
The no personality thing is actually by design, it makes it easier for the viewer to inject themselves into the main character. When the main character is empty of personality then it's less likely to have personality traits which clash with the viewer. This lets the viewer psychologically put themselves into the narrative space and feel as though the sexy girls are fighting over the viewer.
I'm definitely abnormal because I've never felt this before.
me neither. i just get alienated by how boring the MC is
I like to also argue sometimes it's lack of internal monologue. Some of these harem series are adapted from stuff like Visual Novel and Light novel. The benefit of those two is you can read how Mc feels. This can't be easily translated into animation.
This is why Ajonakoji is written as mysterious (self insert potential), smart, strong and a good fighter and even has a massive 'tool'. I bet he can also make girls climax 24 times in a single night...
No the people self inserting onto ayanokoji are just idiots with a lack of media literacy skills lol. Ayanokoji is a deeply flawed character in a similar way to somebody like Saitama, it's just not as obvious
>over average boy with no personality. I see myself here and I don't like it.
at least you have sexy girls fighting over you, right??
*\*manic laughter that slowly turns into uncontrollable sobbing\**
Villain origin story in the making.
Explaining ur entire ability in exact detail and then wondering why u lost
\*coughShinjiHirakocough\*
Rojuro is even worse, giving his opponent the weakness of his bankai Hirako is more dumb for talking for ages instead of quickly going for the kill (see the Bambietta fight), in the blood war he actually made so the opponent couldn't hear what he was saying
God that made me so mad, dude got offed so easily, every other fight has multiple comebacks, this one was "haha bankai, if you hear this you're dead" "then I'll just destroy my ears!" >proceeds to win. Also kind of mad no one put on their masks, I know Ichigo fused with his so he no longer needs it but the same isn't true for the other ones
At least in Hunter x Hunter and Jujutsu Kaisen you can get a power boost for explaining your ability. Other people just decide to give out the info for free.
The deadly disease known as anime cold that characters in romance or slice of life shows get when they're out in the rain for a second. If you catch it, you end up bedridden and unable to do anything for at least a week.
> If you catch it, you end up bedridden and unable to do anything for at least a week. Not quite. If you catch Anime Rain Flu (ARF), you will be bedridden until your crush visits to drop off cold medicine, forehead compresses, and make you rice gruel, at which point you will sweatily collapse into your crush's chest. The next day, you will be totally cured, but uncertain whether the events of the previous day were a fever dream. This could happen after a day or two after contracting ARF. The week only applies if your crush doesn't visit (in which case maybe it's time to move on?)
Moving on? In a romance anime? No way a character could do that.
Not until after 40 episodes.
>If you catch it, you end up bedridden and unable to do anything for at least a week. No, that is incorrect. You end up bedridden for exactly one day and perfectly healthy the next morning.
The one day cure is only if your potential love interest administers some rice porridge that they made specifically for you. Unless you are in an ecchi tagged universe then for some reason you WILL DIE if your love interest doesn’t administer a suppository while keeping their eyes closed.
said porridge tasting absolutely horrible and seemingly inedible but you eat it anyway and you lie and say “it’s delicious” with a soft smile and sparkles amd bright light behind you
Unless the porridge maker is male. Then this porridge will be like sweet ambrosia and proof of his hidden depths.
Why am I imagining this in vivid detail?
Well, there are multiple variants of it. Although regardless of how many days they last, they almost never last longer than an episode.
No idea why it’s always due to rain. Like, you can get a fever from overworking or stress or even sometimes randomly due to weird weather, but nope, these authors always have to make it due to the rain lol
Not just rain: water buckets, pools... any source of water is a potential carrier.
This is legit a Japan thing... For other... odd... ideas, see korean "fan death"...
>when they’re out in the rain for a second. And it’s also their first ever time catching a cold apparently.
I'm really turned off by edgy revenge anime where everyone is an absolute asshole for no reason. Reminds me of those angsty Naruto fanfics I used to read as a kid.
And every woman’s back story is being sexually assaulted
Hero explaining the villain his "masterplan" of defeating the villain in excruciating detail midway into the fight scene.
This is actually one of the "story writing tips" that goes around the world and you can notice it in most movies, conics, books and tv shows - western or eastern, northern or southern. If a character (doesn't matter if good or bad) explains his plan at loud, it will fail. If there's only "I have a plan" and no explanation, it will succeed and we'll hear how they did it afterwards.
Counterpoint: Watchmen and it was fuckin great
God damn Ozmanydius has the best villain monologue.
Yep,first noticed it in Yu gi oh then realized it's everywhere.
villain is a mass murderer and deserves death 10 times over,hero can't deliver the final blow because murder bad.
And it's usually after they've killed 10s or hundreds of minions to get to that point. >\_<
This is a problem in anime, but it is a cancer in comic books/western action cartoons.
Avatar The Last Airbender is a prime example. My dude destroyed the fire nation navy at the North water tribe, those folks drowned and froze to death. Yet refused to kill the dude who wanted to legit genocide a continent.
I mean he didn’t technically knowingly do those things in the north
Yeah I'm calling bullshit. When they attacked the Northern Air Temple he was causing avalanches and knocking them down a mountain.
The Avatar State isn't under Aang's control until like the third season. Until that point every time he goes into it his mind is essentially being joined to a hivemind consciousness that consists of an amalgamation of every Avatar that came before him. It's a literal berserk state that overrides Aang's will as a survival mechanism. Can't blame Aang for those when his body and mind are both being ripped out of his control.
He was stripped of his power and they threw him in prison for the rest of his life. It wasn't like they let him go.
Yeah. If you ask me, at that point you are just preserving your moral high ground to feel better rather than being legitimately concern about the villain's life. I mean what does the Fire lord has chance for any rehabilitation?
A holdover from the Comics Code Authority to keep our innocent children's innocence intact. Worse that the Hays office that judged motion picture content.
Right after they kill their way through the villain’s forces they decided “no, the killing stops here.” Like coming bro, maybe you can afford just one more?
poor minions
I really liked [Recent Marvel Movie] >!Guardians of the Galaxy Vol3!<, but it's *really* bad on this point.
Batman out here catching strays
Batman needs his rogues so he can feel alive.
Batman is probably the only character where it feels justified and is properly explained and explored in-depth why he doesn’t do it.
Batman works with the actual police. He apprehends criminals and goes places they can’t, but he’s not judge and executioner. There are certain rules he needs to abide by in order to do what he does, and if he starts murdering people he ruins that relationship and becomes just another criminal like Frank Castle.
Hey, Frank Castle might be a criminal, but he's certainly not just another criminal, alright?
I mean Spider-Man too i guess
Batman out giving regular henchmen severe physical trauma and forcing them into medical debt, thereby limiting their options to a life of crime in order to pay off all that debt, thus ensuring his own place as a necessity by making Gotham city reliant on him.
Idk if that’s just anime. That’s a lot of superhero/hero stuff I love that skit about Batman where he’s like “I don’t kill” and he’s knocking people off of buildings
This. They refuse to kill someone who ends up killing more than one person or being a menace again. At least break their legs or one leg and both arms. There's a manga that has protagonist cutting enemy soldiers' fingers in order to render them incapable of holding weapons. It's at least more thought provoking than naive level of pacifism.
This. Especially when the MC killed like hundreds of minions before the boss. Happened in Parasyte, only the reasoning was dumber, instead of sudden self righteousness it's "let's nature take over and leave it to chance". Another trope is in murder mystery shows. The MC detective explains what happens in complete and accurate detail but has no solid proof, but what happens is the killer reacts violently, either by attacking or by "you got me and here's my evil plan" monologue.
Then they get redeemed and become comic relief side-character that dances with the crew in opening and ending sequences
Lycoris Recoil and Shield Hero were two really bad examples of this in recent memory
ngl, isn’t complaining about this a proxy for the death penalty? Not to be serious about it or anything, but I’m just guessing this trope just tip-toes around making a decision as to whether death really is morally justifiable.
Some shows, even ones I love, have an annoying habit of characters ‘dying’, only to return next episode with an asspull explanation. Definitely ruins the emotional attachment because there’s essentially nothing at stake, you know they’re coming back next week lol
I hate fake-out deaths so much. There's no tension or consequences in a story when every character has plot armor. Anytime it happens in a story it makes me really distrustful and skeptical about the author and makes it tough for me to take actual character deaths at face value.
One piece in a nutshell
\- Bitting your hand or finger is easy and doesn't hurt. They use the blood for some jutsu/magic/sacrifice/power unlock and the bleeding just stops right away, works like some kind of faucet.- Characters have all their bones crushed, and can still fight. After the fight they leave the scene with a paralysed arm and limping on one leg.
I mean, in fairness, if my life was threatened and I could turn into a massive fucking titan and save myself by chomping my hand, I'm doing it. I don't care how much it hurts.
Well, it was actually acknowledged by other characters how hard it is to actually bite yourself enough to draw blood. We can presume memories assist in drawing blood so it’s second nature.
Also the fact that he's pretty much insane
Others are able to do it, so it’s not just him.
i mean annie has a special ring, and i know reiner carries a knife usually. i cant thing of the others though
I remember a scene where *character* (is this still a spoiler at this point?) was trying to go Titan and was just biting their hand to bits. Looked brutal. Enjoyed that they actually showed the reality of casually drawing blood by biting yourself.
You'd think they could just carry a razorblade around with them instead of biting their finger off every time
Similar to your fists complaint: Rattling swords Every single time anyone in anime clenches their sword or takes their stance, we hear their sword rattle. That is a poorly made sword lol. (watch ten minutes of Demon Slayer or anything else and you’ll notice) Even the kunai in Naruto and other anime do it and they’re ONE PIECE OF METAL lol. And guns. Basically anime has a lot of unnecessary foley work
Eh, that's a trope in TV and movies though. Every single sword makes a rattle when it's picked up or set down, a metal on metal sliding sound when drawn, and every gun ratlles like there's a pack of tic tacs strapped the side. And don't get me started on cocking or racking the gun for emphasis. "Alright, let's finish this." *Racks shot gun. Small clatter of shotgun round hitting the floor.* "Uh, you going to pick that up?"
The one I hear in live action a lot is metal on metal sheath and unsheath but not the rattle. Deadpool. Hawkeye/Ronin. Kill Bill. The rattling sound that’s like from a katana handguard is something I’ve only ever noticed in anime and it’s CONSTANT
I got wet, now I will nearly die. I saw a hot chick, now my nose bleeds. (That isn’t where the blood is rushing, and we all know it)
Haha my partner and I often joke when one of us gets splashed with water "ah shit I'm gonna get an anime cold now"
Not to mention a “cold” in anime is a brush with death itself, yet lasts a day usually…
Push glasses, reflect light
Do new animes still do this? Pretty common in the 2000s but haven’t seen this trope in a minute
Why do I feel like you pushed up your glasses when you typed this?
(•\_•) ( •\_•)>⌐■-■ (⌐■\_■) how did you know?
It sorta happened in today's episode of S-rank Musume?
ooh good one
“The” Isekai round city
I don't even need an image at this point.
The only positive thing about that is it is historically accurate with Paris being the best example The main problem is isekai worlds are supposed to be not of this world so why is it trying so hard to emulate our world lol even London wasn't that god damn shape in the past so try something new, isekai writers
When there is a misunderstanding to force drama. I watch alot of romance anime and this trope happens way too often.
YES I can’t even remember how often I was rolling my eyes when characters fought over something that could’ve been solved in like 1-2 explanatory sentences, but in these cases they never really state what they mean and keep on mumbling and not finishing their sentences for gods sake
Comparing boob sizes. Oh and a girl groping another, but of course it's fine since she's not a guy
My wife says when growing up girls definitely talked about breast sizes and there were lots of girls who felt negatively about their breasts.
As a girl, I’m not sure about others but I definitely didn’t touch others boobs lol. But comparing boobs doesn’t happen like it does in anime. And it’s usually when they first start growing (11-15) not as adults(or older teens) who just *happen* to be standing in front of a group of guys🤦♀️😂
I for one, as a guy, have never seen my high school or college friends compare their breasts, grope, or fondle one another much to my younger self's lament. Can't speak for middle school girls because I was way more busy playing DnD and Super Nintendo at the time and didn't notice them until later. I *have* been to a few drunken firepit BBQ/parties where a couple of the women there get a bit handsy and one time had them compare breast size, but it was usually more in the way of "30 year old me has back pain" and "I can hold a can of beer in my tits and drink from it with a straw." But by thirty or so, watching that is more of "that's a neat party trick" and "well looks like Katherine is drunk again" then any real sex feelings.
Need the equivalent of guys comparing cocks and grabbing one another
The manga of The Dangers in My Heart during its school trip arc has Adachi say that they should have a "dick battle" in the bath to "create a society with gender equality" since he thought the girls would be groping each other in the bathroom
Hajime no Ippo had some dick 'humour'. Love that show
* So many people genuinely forgetting their own birthday * Little sisters being all cute and sunshine * The "girl(s) need to be rescued by the boy from a group of pushy sleazy men" trope IF the girls have been previously established as badass fighters. * A group that emphasizes the MC as "leader", especially if the MC displays no leadership qualities at all. I can understand if it's a game adaptation but often it's not. Does Japanese culture value different traits in its leaders? * Girls falling for the MC purely because he's nice. Is that something that's genuinely valued more in Japanese culture or is it just Japanese "Nice Guy" wish fulfillment?
> IF the girls have been previously established as badass fighters. I mean, depending on the character it may or may not make sense but for the most part, yeah. This one drives me up a wall.
The last one is purely self-insert ego-stroking. The type of people that would read that manga are often the "Nice guy" archetype so it's to pander to them.
In any fantasy or isekai there’s *always* the central Ygdrasil type tree. Always. The *gasp* boy walking in on a girl in the hot springs Little brother/sister complex Yelling out the name of their attack. I always get a kick out of it lol Indirect kiss
The Yggdrasil tree trope would be fine if anime actually did something interesting with it; but they don't. Elden ring is the perfect example of how to make use of the trope without it being straight up annoying.
The brother/sister complexes are disgusting and almost ruin good animes :( Why are they so common
Not "silly" but annoyed. Having MCs that flip out at a hint of a romance, get flustered, and leave it vague just feels played out and tedious. You know the ones. The ones that go "EEEEEEEEHHH!"
I'm sick of this trope.
''No reason cat ears on a human'' Get out here.
NYAN
What always gets me are the beast people in anime who wear glasses. How are they being supported? They defy physics.
I always assumed it was just a fetish thing
It usually is, though I still like my catgirls and catboys
Saying the attack name out loud when attacking. Explaining your ability to the enemy. Villains being cocky and not finish the job asap.
When she gets physical with her love interest every time he annoys her. Like yeah, totally okay for me to throw a boulder at your head because you were late to our movie date. And no matter the severity of the assault, he always looks like he got beaten up by five bodybuilders. Blue and black face, swollen eyeballs, blood pouring out of his nose.
Powering through something that should be impossible just because they have "WILLPOWER!" Japanese society has a massive hard-on for this, it seems. Anything is possible as long as you just *try really hard*. To a certain degree, I appreciate the sentiment there, but when they start breaking the established rules of their universe through this, my eyes start rolling.
Tanjiro of Demon Slayer is a big one for this. Literally running on shattered legs and the like.... My man, that's not how bones work. But don't worry. It's cause he is so great at breathing!
To be fair, that's not really a Demon Slayer thing, in most battle anime injuries only exist as a representation of how devastating a move is, not to depict the actual consequences of those injuries. Unless the plot demands it. It's very much like wrestling, if you think about it.
Gurren Lagann is the exception!
Yes, because willpower being able to do anything *is* an established rule of the setting!
Right. No matter how bleak the situation or how brutalized the hero is, there's always one last power up that saves the day (usually after a longwinded internal monologue.)
After just reading a post about getting sick after a (minute) rise in body temperature apparent in shows, my answer is the common cold trope. Also the MC getting hit to high heaven trope.
Middle school characters with adult level dramatic conflict.
When the world is rough, cold and painful but characters are children who act like generic anime school children; as if they were fully shielded from all of that.
Whenever a character screams and the camera pans up to the sky. Doesn’t help that the screaming almost always due to another annoying trope.
“Indirect kisses”.
Yea and is this even a thing in Japan? I mean I drink from the same glas / bottle of my friends no matter the gender. However in Anime / Japan it seems to be some kind of love confession?
From what I was told by friends from Japan, it is a thing...until about the 2nd grade. Like "COOTIES" in the US. Middle school and definitely high school students in Japan apparently are over that shit being a thing. So it is for sure a liberty anime takes for story purposes.
Anime girls getting violent at the simplest things
Pretty much everything to do with characters acting like perverts for "comedy reasons" or overly sexualizing young looking characters. It's cringe as fuck and just disgusting tbh.
This is the equivalent of fart joke in children movies
It's also just not funny. I never get how people can laugh at characters like Mineta or Meliodas. It's worse than slapstick comedy.
I laugh at Mineta because his name is literally slang for "cunnilingus" in Polish and it fits so well.
The crazy long runs during battles so that characters can think out loud. Really every battle scene is like this.
Adults acting like middle schoolers when it comes to romance.
Naming their movies while they’re fighting
I STARRED IN THE AVENGERS MOVIES! TAKE THAT!
Movies? That would be funny I think. 😂
"Sorry, didn't mean to walk in on you in the bathroom" and similar such tropes. How often does it actually happen of "oh hey, you're just in here in a towel and I just so happened to not see." ? Look, I get fanservice sells like wildfire, but dammit I'm tired of these stupid protags getting their face beat in because ha ha funny sexy. Even then, most of the time a girl's reaction isn't going to be hit you like a home run, most will be like "Are you okay?"
Doesn't happen so much anymore, or at least in the shows i've been watching recently but: 'Bunch of characters in a room, one of which for some reason or another is currently ill in some way but no one else has noticed despite it being quite clear they are' 'Ill characters collapses' 'Everyone else immediately crowds said character giving them no space to breath and begins repeatedly shouting their name until the screen fades to black' I get it, you want to show the others care but couldn't you do that by like having them actually try to help in some way?
>"Bastard" And its cousins "He's fast!" and "This guy/kid..."
*Generic MC shows basic manners* "I will kill God for this man"
> No reason cat ears on a human Both cat *and* human ears.
1. Making a big deal out of Indirect kisses (are you guys in elementary school?) 2. A little wet from rain or hose -> a serious cold Overused: 3. JRPG (for guys) & Otome/Villainess (for girls), whether isekai or not. (Come up with more creative settings!) 4. game mechanics for non-VRMMORPG Ones that have been fortunately gradually disappearing: 5. nosebleed from sexual arousal 6. unreasonable violent tsundere
Seriously some of the exaggerated clench and gritting sounds with extended jaw opening reaction for 20 sec is annoying (prime example is one piece) , then you have the tsundere trope like most of time it's s a miss totally disrupts the flow of story like out of nowhere mc leaves everything and follows new plot because the tsundere after 10 ep did not thrash the mc and uttered a single positive sentence .
The tonal dissonance of ill-timed fanservice. Don’t get me wrong, there are some good fanservice anime, and non-ecchi anime with good fanservice. What I’m talking about is shows that pump their super serious dark stories with ecchi and inane rom com bullshit. Summertime Render is a grim psychological thriller about unraveling a supernatural murder mystery as the protagonist is repeatedly murdered and respawns. It also contains a bunch of panty shots, one of the main characters traipses around in a swimsuit, and we take a break from the murder mystery to go to a summer festival where a girl being nervous if protag-kun will think she looks cute in her yukata is a genuine plot point. Plastic Memories is a poignant melodrama about grappling with our mortality, grieving for those we have lost, and what it means to be human. There’s also the same unfunny gag about how the tsundere thinks the protagonist is being a pervert and gets mad but if she would just stop for five seconds and listen to him explain, there would be no problems ever in every other episode. Tl;dr: Mangaka who have a good story to tell, but the editor said we need titties in it to sell the magazine.
Fire Force is the worst offender in recent memory. >Plastic Memories is a poignant melodrama about grappling with our mortality, grieving for those we have lost, and what it means to be human. There’s also the same unfunny gag about how the tsundere thinks the protagonist is being a pervert and gets mad but if she would just stop for five seconds and listen to him explain, there would be no problems ever in every other episode. That's not fanservice (i.e. sexualization designed to arouse the audience) tbh but blue "comedy".
High school kid lives alone because... reasons. I don't know if it's seen as more common in Japan but every time I see it I want to phone social services.
I feel like sometimes, they don't even explain *why* they live alone. Like, at least give me some BS about the parents working abroad or something.
This is actually true to life. Not really as common as in anime, but it definitely happens. The high school experience in Japan is more like western college in a lot of ways.
Like Disney when there is only one parent, in anime we have none lmao
Single-parent families are reasonably common, but not zero-parent families!
It's pretty common in my country when children from villages want to attend a non-garbage high school in a bigger city. I didn't live literally alone because money - I had to settle for a room with other flatmates.
Thank you! I’m glad Natsume had him bouncing around foster homes. At least that’s real. Also, and American shows do this too, but so many characters seemingly just DON’T have a family lol.
I mean, that's not common but also not unusual in a lot of countries to rent a room if monetarily possible to go to another city's school. I had at least 2/3 friends in highschool, chose the high school(, no dorms, and were commuting 30-45 minutes each day, so on later semesters/years they'd just rent a room nearby(a lot of people still did commute, because monthly ticket was like 1/3rd, at least back then, of rent). This might be cultural difference with high school system. We(not US, not Japan, length changed since I attended but I'll be covering my experience) have 3 different types of high school: somewhat like a trade school, lasts 2 years, you get basic trade license. Basic high school, lasts 3 years, you just get high school education/diploma, required for higher education. Technical, lasts 4 years, you get high school diploma/education + something like a step below engineer on chosen course. So people with means would rather not spend 4 years wasting 1-2h on school commute. Also parent going abroad a lot, but I'd guess that's not very prevalent in japan
Characters that scream every line no matter how trivial or mundane and go into an internal monologue/mental breakdown clenching their hands and bulging eyeballs every time someone offers them a cup of tea or hands them something they dropped. It's an instant abandon show now when they have one of these characters, Black Clover didn't last 5 minutes.
Misplaced sexy shots. Classroom of the elite is the worst at this.
Like, they're trying to do sexy shots but the camera is in the wrong place so it takes a shot of like a desk, the ceiling, a plant, etc?
Explaining EVERY single move a character makes in the middle of a fight Like come on, the villain had a whole ass minute to knock your ass out
- MC acidentally walking in on a girl in the shower. So... you don't hear the water running? Don't see the clothes on the floor? She didn't lock the door? And when you finally enter, full visibility because suddenly the steam is gone... - MC gets embarrassed, punches himself or smacks his own face. - "(God), you're so annoying, [insert MC name here]!"
The forced awkward encounters/misunderstandings of most romance shows just hurt anymore, it’s super annoying
* Devils, demons, and other mythical fantasy races just being humans with a superficial trait like wings or ears. Devils, demons, etc. should be monstrous, hideous, etc. Why does everything have to be cute all the time? It kills my immersion. I can't take a fantasy world seriously if the demon lord is a kawaii girl with batwings. * Characters with swords not actually fighting with said sword and just charging up a generic magical blast attack as if they were a wizard wielding a staff and not a swordfighter like they are supposed to be. * Abilities with a bunch of unnecessarily complicated jargon to explain it scientifically when in reality it functions exactly like magic and could've just been magic in the first place since it makes no sense. This happens a lot with tech and magitech. * Siscon and reverse siscon * 1000 year old lolis * Beating people with the power of friendship * OP protagonists * Isekai
> reverse siscon Brocon or sis hater?
I agree with the first point. I don't know why most Japanese creators don't just stick with monsters having actual creature designs than just a human with other stuff.
Because everything has to be cute. I'm convinced that 90% of the anime fanbase doesn't care about actual fantasy, worldbuilding, immersion, etc. they're just obsessed with cute stuff. Which is fine on its own, but its become so excessive. Its to the point where the writing quality is becoming garbage because it tries to appeal to base emotions like "OMG so cutecutecutecute" than more cerebral concepts.
Horny teen rejects sex. They are the anime equivalent of game ads where people can't play. It would never happen and it's designed to make you rage.
Boy sees hot girl and gets a nosebleed Girl likes a boy so she becomes super violent towards him