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Least favorite tropes/themes in anime?


StarryNightAllAlone

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StarryNightAllAlone

What are some of your least favorite tropes, themes, or elements from anime? The ones that bother me the most include:

 

- Ecchi or any perverted actions where the main "hero" gropes women without their consent, looks up their skirts, and otherwise sexually harasses them. (It's also bad if the pervert is a woman. The reason I used "hero" is because this character is usually a guy.) Also in some anime, the guy accidentally rips the girl's clothes off. WTF? Some anime seem to think this is funny or flirtatious. It's not. At least not to me.

 

- Oversexualized characters, typically females (I'm not against sexy characters, but I find it annoying when an anime exaggerates certain features and gives the character barely any personality).

 

- Some slapstick comedy where a character repeatedly gets slapped or beat up by another character(s). I know some people don't mind this trope, and I'm not talking about isolated incidents of slapping someone who deserves it or action scenes, but when the character gets beaten up every episode it starts to get annoying. Important to note that it's usually male characters who are subjected to this abuse. Examples: Love Hina & Zero no Tsukaima.

 

- Love triangles. This is just a personal preference. I've never been a fan of love triangles or harems. If I'm watching a romance anime, I prefer the focus to be on developing the relationship between two characters, not on who the protagonist is going to choose.

 

- When the main (usually female) love interest is portrayed as a dumb bimbo who can't think for herself. I hate this trope. I'm not talking about a character who is a little dense in certain situations.

 

- The a-hole love interest and romanticizing abuse. If you've watched any shoujo anime, you know this guy. Think Tsukasa from Hana Yori Dango, Irie from Itazura na Kiss, and Kyoya from Wolf Girl and Black Prince. These men treat their girlfriends like possessions. Tsukasa is a literal pyschopath. I wouldn't care if the point of these shows was to portray abusive relationships. The problem is these anime romanticize the male lead's abusive behavior. Even worse, when the female leads decide to enter into relationships with these jerks. I don't want this to come across as victim blaming. I wouldn't blame someone in an abusive relationship who was too afraid to leave, or had been brainwashed to believe they loved their abuser, or felt trapped in their situation. But these girls know their male leads treat them like trash before getting into relationships and they still decide to date these jerks. These guys don't need relationships. They need therapy. What excuse does the anime give for this? "They can't help who they love." That may be true, but we can control our actions. No one deserves to be treated like a piece of gum that got stuck to the bottom of their partner's shoe. You're better than that. I just want to tell these characters: RUN! CALL THE COPS! GET A RESTRAINING ORDER! These aren't love stories. They're horror stories.

 

Sorry for going off on the last one. I just hate that trope. I don't judge anyone who watches these kinds of anime. Everyone has guilty pleasures, but I hate when people romanticize these things.

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Obnoxious fanservice, especially the accidental groping or flashing. It's not even funny to me when it does it to make fun of another trope (like how DB keeps Roshi acting that way as a parody of the wise master trope). Also the always trying to peep in the girls (or boys sometimes) baths or restrooms or whatever. It's not like real people are that perverted.

 

My dislike of these is actually one of the reasons I really like Asta from Black Clover. His love/obsession with "Sister" keeps him immune to all the other characters' perverted desires. 

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StarryNightAllAlone
4 minutes ago, SithLord said:

Obnoxious fanservice, especially the accidental groping or flashing. It's not even funny to me when it does it to make fun of another trope (like how DB keeps Roshi acting that way as a parody of the wise master trope). Also the always trying to peep in the girls (or boys sometimes) baths or restrooms or whatever. It's not like real people are that perverted.

 

My dislike of these is actually one of the reasons I really like Asta from Black Clover. His love/obsession with "Sister" keeps him immune to all the other characters' perverted desires. 

Yes, all of the things you mention annoy me greatly. It distracts from the main story and it's not funny. It's gross.

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All of that.

 

And Born Young Again/the sheer commonality of ancient powerful being born as young girl. Well, the sheer commonality of young girls acting in the roles of adults (and more precisely, other characters treating them as adults). It is just uncomfortable.

 

Aside from the more common overt sexual/romantic tropes...

 

Power creep. I really tune out when the story stops being about the characters, and starts with everyone being a galaxy spanning god.

 

Shouting attack names. Just annoying. Side: Explaining fights as they happen.

 

Totally ridiculous comic relief who are impossible to like (and also usually perverts)

 

 

A personal one - it is extremely rare for an anime to have a main character over the age of 21. Media in general has an issue with focusing on young adults, but it seems like virtually all anime is teenagers saving the world/finding love/both.

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SpideyFan1644

When the characters who are sexualized are minors or people who can't consent. Someone who eventually became a convicted child molester used my body when I was 15 and saw me as an object. It was such a damaging and traumatic experience, taking that mindset into adulthood that my teenage body was used for something disgusting.

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StarryNightAllAlone
Just now, SpideyFan1644 said:

When the characters who are sexualized are minors or people who can't consent. Someone who eventually became a convicted child molester used my body when I was 15 and saw me as an object. It was such a damaging and traumatic experience, taking that mindset into adulthood that my teenage body was used for something disgusting.

That's horrific. I'm so sorry that happened to you. I think the sexualization of minors is disgusting and wrong.

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Speaking of minors, the "creepy old master of martial arts/magic who pervs on students and is told off but just allowed to keep doing it"

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Oh, and this is entirely a general fiction theme, not specific to anime, and an aro thing (though I understand allos are also annoyed by it) - fated true love unlocking the ultimate power/saving the universe/bringing the hero back from death/whatever.

 

It is frustrating how great it is when a character finds the power within themself to overcome an obstacle/enemy.

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Not the biggest anime consumer, but I earnestly dislike filler content for the sake of filler. I mean worldbuilding is important, character interaction is important, but when it just derails and pads the main arc(s), it's lame.

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How you can always tell (a) character(s) are going to die because of how badly drawn they are...

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StarryNightAllAlone
Just now, Calliers said:

How you can always tell (a) character(s) are going to die because of how badly drawn they are...

Lol.

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1 hour ago, Zagadka said:

Oh, and this is entirely a general fiction theme, not specific to anime, and an aro thing (though I understand allos are also annoyed by it) - fated true love unlocking the ultimate power/saving the universe/bringing the hero back from death/whatever.

 

It is frustrating how great it is when a character finds the power within themself to overcome an obstacle/enemy.

Yeah, I don't like ones where they're essentially incomplete or imperfect without "the one." It's rare for ones I watch but definitely weird.

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I've thought of another pretty niche one. I don't like in harem or reverse-harem anime where the protagonist only really likes one of them, but for some reason the show constantly pushes the appeal of the other girls/boys as if it were a competition or ever in doubt who they'd choose. Even in ones that aren't strictly harem anime but end up surrounding the protagonist with attractive members of the opposite (or same, in BL/GL) sex who are in love with them for pretty crap reasons, it's almost always obvious who the end romance will be with, but the show pushes the appeal of the others for fanservice.

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1 hour ago, E said:

Not the biggest anime consumer, but I earnestly dislike filler content for the sake of filler. I mean worldbuilding is important, character interaction is important, but when it just derails and pads the main arc(s), it's lame.

A major problem with anime as a genre is the adaptations from manga. Not only is it an attempt to stay loyal to source, but when they are waiting for manga to release, they just do constant filler episodes that do nothing and are almost always noncanonnical.

 

Really not going to keep up with 1000+ goddamn episodes. 60 is a lot to ask. If you need a guide to know which episodes you should just avoid, and it is hundreds long, just... find some better use of your time.

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1 hour ago, E said:

Not the biggest anime consumer, but I earnestly dislike filler content for the sake of filler. I mean worldbuilding is important, character interaction is important, but when it just derails and pads the main arc(s), it's lame.

Like clip/recap episodes when not enough time has passed where one would need the recap! 

 

I found myself actually enjoying one of these the other day. Because it had been a year or so and I was jumping into episode 60+ of the show, so I kinda needed the recap. But if I were watching it like normal, I would've been mad at basically having to wait another week for new material.

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Oh, recaps. Where 6 minutes of the start of an episode is a recap of the previous, and 6 minutes of the end is a preview of the next.

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1 minute ago, Zagadka said:

Oh, recaps. Where 6 minutes of the start of an episode is a recap of the previous, and 6 minutes of the end is a preview of the next.

 

I  only watch the recap, I never -ever-  watch the previews.

 

But then again, I wait for anime episodes to pile up so I can binge them.

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1 minute ago, Calliers said:

I  only watch the recap, I never -ever-  watch the previews.

 

But then again, I wait for anime episodes to pile up so I can binge them.

Every anime streaming service *needs* to offer options to select to skip recaps, previews, intro, and exit credits in binge mode.

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8 minutes ago, Zagadka said:

Every anime streaming service *needs* to offer options to select to skip recaps, previews, intro, and exit credits in binge mode.

 

I think they're too busy stuffing their pockets with our money to do that.

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All the things that you mentioned. And things like the strong female lead becoming a weakling and submissive as soon as a male love interest is in the picture. That is not limited to anime though.

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Lord Jade Cross
8 hours ago, Zagadka said:

A personal one - it is extremely rare for an anime to have a main character over the age of 21. Media in general has an issue with focusing on young adults, but it seems like virtually all anime is teenagers saving the world/finding love/both.

Actually, that part is a little less of the media and a little more of an implemented criticism towards Japanese culture.

 

Similar to how the younger, moe population rebelled against the older, more traditional, one by being more  childlike at older ages, many animes tend to focus more on younger characters doing all the adult things but in a cutesyer way because the view of a full grown adult in the culture is to be a copy of each other, unthinking, unable to be different, a work ant, etc. 

 

Wotakoi or "Love is hard to find fir an otaku, (I don't know if an anime adaptation has been made yet) actually portrays this (at least from what I read) in a humorous ways because the characters, full grown 20+ working adults, try to find balance between their image/responsibilities as adults, and  their love for anime, which is often kept among themselves and one of the characters is especially panicky about others finding out shes a fujoshi because it has caused potential love partners to dump her since anime is considered childish and unbefitting of a working member of society

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Perverts. Series generally become a hundred times worse the instant they are introduced. Ranma 1/2 is one example of this I can list off the top of my head. The instant that old panty-stealing man comes into the scene the series becomes worse for it. (even worse, he creeps on teenagers, and he never gets ultimately punished for his crimes because he is a super powerful master. That is so much yikes.)

 

Also, Seven Deadly Sins is straight-up unwatchable due to the random groping that the main character does. It is absolutely disgusting.

 

Also, there's Minato in MHA which I recall reading is the author's self insert. Um... That makes it far worse.

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9 hours ago, Zagadka said:

A major problem with anime as a genre is the adaptations from manga. Not only is it an attempt to stay loyal to source, but when they are waiting for manga to release, they just do constant filler episodes that do nothing and are almost always noncanonnical.

 

Really not going to keep up with 1000+ goddamn episodes. 60 is a lot to ask. If you need a guide to know which episodes you should just avoid, and it is hundreds long, just... find some better use of your time.

 

Ayy so season 8 of GoT was just filler while they wait for Georgie to finish the book.

 

I guess it's nice that some studios want to stay close to the source material, but can they not use their imaginations instead? I mean once in a blue moon I can read fanfics that feel like they're ripped straight out of the dev's mind. Surely studios can find people like that to work on their stuff instead of padding everything along?

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4 minutes ago, E said:

I guess it's nice that some studios want to stay close to the source material, but can they not use their imaginations instead? I mean once in a blue moon I can read fanfics that feel like they're ripped straight out of the dev's mind. Surely studios can find people like that to work on their stuff instead of padding everything along?

Well, they wouldn't want to actually have to pay writers and animators.

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Hard to say for me because even a lot of “annoying” themes in anime are sometimes funny to me. I will say sometimes tsunderes make me wanna go through the screen and tell the character “Dude you can solve your problems without hitting everyone in the head”, but then they’d probably just hit me in the head.

 

Also this hairstyle is forever ruined for me:

 

XOxHd7B1GwfwTpfSLdAh3_OLqYaozlIKCPeN-aFg

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15 minutes ago, Zagadka said:

Well, they wouldn't want to actually have to pay writers and animators.

Ah, so they pay animators half the price for half the animation quality on the filler episodes right?

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5 hours ago, E said:

Ah, so they pay animators half the price for half the animation quality on the filler episodes right?

They outsource the filler episodes (and less important bits of major episodes) to secondary studios in cheaper countries—used to be China and South Korea, and I think I've been getting hints lately that they're moving on to Vietnam and/or Thailand.  The discontinuity is less noticeable in recent stuff than it is in some shows from the 90s and earlier, thankfully—I haven't seen a badly off-model main character in a long time.

 

A lot of my pet peeves (ecchi garbage involving nonconsenting and/or underage women and girls, characters acting like morons, clips episodes in single-cours shows, harems that Make No Sense) have already been mentioned, but I'll add:  stereotypical shounen protagonists who believe the Power of Friendship can fix everything.  Glk.

 

(Clips episodes aren't unique to anime, alas—Star Trek:  The Next Generation had one.)

 

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36 minutes ago, ElloryJaye said:

They outsource the filler episodes (and less important bits of major episodes) to secondary studios in cheaper countries—used to be China and South Korea, and I think I've been getting hints lately that they're moving on to Vietnam and/or Thailand.  The discontinuity is less noticeable in recent stuff than it is in some shows from the 90s and earlier, thankfully—I haven't seen a badly off-model main character in a long time.

 

A lot of my pet peeves (ecchi garbage involving nonconsenting and/or underage women and girls, characters acting like morons, clips episodes in single-cours shows, harems that Make No Sense) have already been mentioned, but I'll add:  stereotypical shounen protagonists who believe the Power of Friendship can fix everything.  Glk.

 

(Clips episodes aren't unique to anime, alas—Star Trek:  The Next Generation had one.)

 

 

I learn new stuff everyday. Cataloging that so my brain can cite it as a fun fact in fifteen years.

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In all fairness, the degree of outsourcing, even for filler episodes, varies from studio to studio—some prefer to keep more control than others.  But if you pay attention to the credits, you'll often see a lot of names under "animation" that can't possibly be Japanese.  Many of them may only be doing tweening, but . . .

 

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