Amusing or annoying anime clichés

[Izanagi009_v1legacy]

Hmm, stories that go on for too long piss me off. If your show has a point, a big bad, something like that. Faffing about for 120 episodes is not acceptable(pretty much anything Shounen Jump has ever come out with). I understand you like money, but a shorter, more self contained story ends up a hell of a lot more manageable for someone not getting in at the beginning. I'm not going to wade through 300 episodes, a lot of which is irrelevant to the central plot, in order to be up to date.

Counterpoints to this are shows like Code Geass, NGE, Death Note(a bit on the long end, but nowhere near the 300-400 some shows hit).

Even if you're going to have a less directed show, like most of the slice of life genre, you can only milk so much out of the characters you've got before you run out of good ideas.

Amusing... parodies and subversions of major genres. I like to have my expectations shattered on the rocks like a fleet of sailboats in a hurricane. I don't get these nearly often enough.

One thought, based on your argument, would it be correct to assume that you dislike light novel adaptations such as Toaru Majutsu no Index? The stories are self contained in the anime seasons themselves but the abundance of backstory, side material, and what not makes me think you might not like them

 

[Canadamus Prime]

One that really gets on my nerves is the Accidental Pervert [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AccidentalPervert] or what Casual Shinji called that comical boob grab. This is esp. annoying when the guy in question catches the girl when she trips, but accidentally grabs her boob and ends up with a smack for his troubles.

 

[Izanagi009_v1legacy]

I love fanservice the more the better just something about it that makes me smile,however this is only works for shows that are not trying to be serious or grand, fanservice in a silly show is fine but put it in something else and it becomes distracting .

Spoiler: NSFW fanservice funny vid!

I regretted even opening that spoiler tag; the image itself was already about to give me a nosebleed.

I would make a small counter argument to the whole "Fanservice should be only in silly shows"; if you keep making an anime with unrelenting brutality of tone and story, some people may be too depressed to go on. Fanservice in VERY small amounts might help break the awkward tension and provide a high so that the depressing parts hit harder. The one show that comes to mind is Code Geass; the show has multiple segments in Ashford Academy that are lighthearted and full of some fanservice and there are the famous Kallen fanservice scenes that are placed between tense moments or after a big story moment.

 

[WouldYouKindly]

Hmm, stories that go on for too long piss me off. If your show has a point, a big bad, something like that. Faffing about for 120 episodes is not acceptable(pretty much anything Shounen Jump has ever come out with). I understand you like money, but a shorter, more self contained story ends up a hell of a lot more manageable for someone not getting in at the beginning. I'm not going to wade through 300 episodes, a lot of which is irrelevant to the central plot, in order to be up to date.

Counterpoints to this are shows like Code Geass, NGE, Death Note(a bit on the long end, but nowhere near the 300-400 some shows hit).

Even if you're going to have a less directed show, like most of the slice of life genre, you can only milk so much out of the characters you've got before you run out of good ideas.

Amusing... parodies and subversions of major genres. I like to have my expectations shattered on the rocks like a fleet of sailboats in a hurricane. I don't get these nearly often enough.

One thought, based on your argument, would it be correct to assume that you dislike light novel adaptations such as Toaru Majutsu no Index? The stories are self contained in the anime seasons themselves but the abundance of backstory, side material, and what not makes me think you might not like them

It's a matter of relevance. Most of what I was against was padding and filler arcs. Stretching out a fight scene with lots of talking and explaining things the viewers already understand. Taking a quick look at it, just going on the number of episodes, there's essentially no reason I wouldn't like it based on that. 24 episodes is like my magic number for anime series. If you mean they dedicate whole episodes to back story, yes, that would be a bit much. But the thing is an episode or two isn't a whole season detour away from the main plot. If it's not a show with a main plot and finds itself as more of a slice of life type of show, these kinds of distractions are perfectly acceptable since the characters are the main draw and anything you can do to flesh them out is generally acceptable.

As for light novel adaptations, I quite liked The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, excluding endless 8, which was either shameless padding or a brave artistic choice.

 

[knight steel]

I love fanservice the more the better just something about it that makes me smile,however this is only works for shows that are not trying to be serious or grand, fanservice in a silly show is fine but put it in something else and it becomes distracting .

Spoiler: NSFW fanservice funny vid!

I regretted even opening that spoiler tag; the image itself was already about to give me a nosebleed.

I would make a small counter argument to the whole "Fanservice should be only in silly shows"; if you keep making an anime with unrelenting brutality of tone and story, some people may be too depressed to go on. Fanservice in VERY small amounts might help break the awkward tension and provide a high so that the depressing parts hit harder. The one show that comes to mind is Code Geass; the show has multiple segments in Ashford Academy that are lighthearted and full of some fanservice and there are the famous Kallen fanservice scenes that are placed between tense moments or after a big story moment.

Glad the video made you happy
Hmm good point ok new rule:

1.Silly shows can have lots of fanservice.
2.Normal shows can have a medium amount
3.Serious shows a small bit.

 

[Izanagi009_v1legacy]

Hmm, stories that go on for too long piss me off. If your show has a point, a big bad, something like that. Faffing about for 120 episodes is not acceptable(pretty much anything Shounen Jump has ever come out with). I understand you like money, but a shorter, more self contained story ends up a hell of a lot more manageable for someone not getting in at the beginning. I'm not going to wade through 300 episodes, a lot of which is irrelevant to the central plot, in order to be up to date.

Counterpoints to this are shows like Code Geass, NGE, Death Note(a bit on the long end, but nowhere near the 300-400 some shows hit).

Even if you're going to have a less directed show, like most of the slice of life genre, you can only milk so much out of the characters you've got before you run out of good ideas.

Amusing... parodies and subversions of major genres. I like to have my expectations shattered on the rocks like a fleet of sailboats in a hurricane. I don't get these nearly often enough.

One thought, based on your argument, would it be correct to assume that you dislike light novel adaptations such as Toaru Majutsu no Index? The stories are self contained in the anime seasons themselves but the abundance of backstory, side material, and what not makes me think you might not like them

It's a matter of relevance. Most of what I was against was padding and filler arcs. Stretching out a fight scene with lots of talking and explaining things the viewers already understand. Taking a quick look at it, just going on the number of episodes, there's essentially no reason I wouldn't like it based on that. 24 episodes is like my magic number for anime series. If you mean they dedicate whole episodes to back story, yes, that would be a bit much. But the thing is an episode or two isn't a whole season detour away from the main plot. If it's not a show with a main plot and finds itself as more of a slice of life type of show, these kinds of distractions are perfectly acceptable since the characters are the main draw and anything you can do to flesh them out is generally acceptable.

As for light novel adaptations, I quite liked The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, excluding endless 8, which was either shameless padding or a brave artistic choice.

It's not so much that they dedicate entire episodes to back story, it's that the show has a tendency to introduce characters and concepts that are covered in the side material. Hell, a whole arc in Index is actually preceded by an entire half of Toaru Kagaku no Railgun S (still ongoing). What i'm saying is that you would have a lot of fun with just the anime but the anime actually only covers 13.5 volumes out of 24 whole volumes with a sequel series ongoing. A lot of stuff would be left out or hanging because of the nature of adapting this series.

 

[Username Redacted]

I'm going to continue beating the anti-fanservice drum. If I want to watch porn then by god I'm going to watch porn. If I'm going to watch anime then I'm probably not looking for porn at that particular moment. The good news is at this point I'm pretty good at picking out the series that prioritize fanservice over story with 'Highschool of the Dead' being the only series to slip the net of late (fuck that show).

However what I've found more annoying of late is when a show that previously had no fanservice suddenly dropping an episode or two on me that's basically nothing but. The most common way of doing this is for all the main characters to take a trip to a water park so that the animators can show off all of the female characters in bikinis. Future Diary had some of this as did Shakugan no Shana. Neither series was improved by the fanservice.

 

[triggrhappy94]

I tend to try to stay away from anything with too much of the "anime" feel.
Not sure what best describes that.
EDIT: Talking up EVERYONE. It really turned me off Naruto. Every kid was the most/best/biggest/strongest X ever--or at least since they introduced the last character. They did that for every kid too.


What I like
1:

Spoiler: Whatever this is

2: Squid Girl.

I try to watch the stuff that is really hard to explain.
Things like Squid Girl and Midori No Hibi.

 

[The_Great_Galendo]

]
And two that confuse me:

- The hot, lonely, middle-aged teacher with a shitty love life. I just... don't get it. Are love deprived teachers really a common occurrence in Japan?

- Characters who speak in third person. I don't know if it's the translator's fault or not, but it just sounds too childish. Hell, children don't even talk like that. It just sounds barbaric, like cavemen talk.

There's probably some others that I can't think of right now.

I'll take a stab at explaining these.

To understand the lonely, middle-aged teacher thing, you have to remember that Japan has issues with a declining/aging population. Many people put off having families in favor of careers, and those careers often require long hours, which doesn't necessarily leave a bunch of time for romance and stuff. This results in many lonely, middle-aged people, some of whom happen to be teachers. (They're hot, of course, because it's anime.)

As far as the speaking in third person thing, you have to understand that doing so is more acceptable in Japanese than it would be in English. It's still considered somewhat childish, as near as I can tell, but less so than the same thing would be in English. So this is more an issue of characters acting "cute" combined with translators who are translating just a little too literally.

 

[CrimsonBlaze]

We all know the cliches we like and many of them have been mentioned, so instead, I'll go after the one's I hate (in no particular order):

Spoiler: Here we go...

1.) Fillers - I am not one to turn a blind eye to their obvious purpose in the anime world, but I just can't stand filler, especially when they are nonsensical ones. Oh, lets take a bunch of supporting characters that no one really remembers and make them do something silly or against the whole premise of this series; genius. I would rather have reruns as I could watch more of the episodes that I enjoy and maybe catch a thing or two that I missed on their initial release.

2.) Generic setting/plot - You all know this little song and dance: the story starts with a hopeless main character (usually a male), attending school, and living an unfulfilled existence. Then, out of nowhere, somethings changes his luck completely and then he's falling into handfuls of underage, overdeveloped breasts and panties, a harem of girls seemingly finding the main character attractive or appealing just because, and having some other strange occurrences happening that were miles away from the main character's life. The twist? The main characters is actually a female alien that can change genders depending on the time of the year and is hiding it form everyone!

I get that slice of life, ecchi, harem, romances are a sure way to get readers, regardless of how bland, uninteresting, or uninspired the actually story is. Just have a protagonist that is infinitely worse than any real individual, throw some scantly dressed jail bait around and you're good to go for at least a few seasons. I just don't like it and I'd appreciate a little more creativity.

3.) Showing & Telling Everything - The first part of this is simple enough; rather than going through only the important/necessary moments in an story, the animators need to include any little mundane task the characters are doing. From changing in the looker room to taking a bath, these little 'pauses' in story, as they might like to label them, just demean the series into sneaking in a bit of eye candy that is nether meaningful or necessary.

The latter is a bit more involved; every time it seems like a particular story arc or the series in its entirety is about to end, the writers believe that this is the right time to include a ton of back story on characters or events that no one asked for or even cared. They essentially fill every plot hole that everyone overlooked, give an origin story to every minor character, and fill in gaps in the timeline, just so that they can keep their series/arc going for another few months until it inevitably ends.

Call me crazy, but I like a little mystery; Something that you can take away from a show or series and that you can ponder and discuss with your friends or peers, without having a definite right answer or reasoning. Explaining everything leaves the series devoid of anything to come back to, and thus, the series will be completely over.

 

[Mister K]

If you don't mind, I'll start with tropes that I dislike. Now, from the most annoying to the least annoying:

1. Oversexualization and unneccesary fanservice. I do not dislike when, for example, one guy imagines the girl in bikini for a second or two. What I do dislike is, well, unnatural breast physics and size, stuff like that. And those damn panty shots! I hate this stuff.

2. Guys being voiced by women. It's fine when Goku speaks with female voice in DB, But thirty-something Goku speaking with the same voice is quite annoying.

3.Lack of characters that are older than sixteen.

4.Girls with those "cute" high-pitched voices. Makes my ears bleed.

5. People with unnatural hair, and somehow blond mail leads are most disliked.


Now, for the better part: The amazing stuff. In no particular order:

1. Gar. There is something about guys (especially 20+ years old) that are brave, musculine and have a backbone (unlike many of males in animu). The effect is strengthened if character is elderly and has a beard. Case in point: Edward "Whitebeard" Newgate!

2. Nicely done power or technic reveal. Example: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:

3. Calm girl and tomboy girl stereotypes (Nico robin from One piece and Naoto from Persona 4, for example).

4. Classy or simply elegant characters, like Alucard and Walter from Hellsing.

Probably some other ones, but I don't remember now, sorry.

 

[sanquin]

These I either dislike or annoy me greatly:
-Power up progression. As in, the hero and the villain start the fight. Hero seems to win, but oh no! Villain powers up. Villain is winning now. But hah, the hero is suddenly used to the enemy's movements and boom he's winning again. But oh no there was even more hidden power for the villain! And then the hero gets a second wind. And then the villain uses his final trump card. And then the hero puts all of his effort into winning with a second-second wind! Ugh, this got so old so fast...

-Ecchi scenes for the sole reason of fan service. HSDK has been particularly bad with this lately, where for no reason we get almost-but-not-quite-nude-close-ups from the female characters for no reason whatsoever in every chapter.

-Supposedly ugly and geeky female lead (whom would actually be a super model had she been real) gets the interest of the supposedly super hot and super popular male lead, at which she either plays hard to get or becomes incredibly insecure about them being together.

-As said before, guy accidentally sees a girl naked/in underwear/changing/ or accidentally touches her boobs or it might even totally be the girl's fault. And even though it was CLEARLY an accident, the girl decides to turn street fighter on the guy and becomes angry and kicks his ass.

-I will protect you because you're a girl and I'm a guy and it's my job to protect you. Doesn't matter if you're more than capable of fighting yourself or even stronger than I am, because sexism!

-This is one that I see mostly in chinese/korean ones: Female lead is supposedly very strong and can kick any guy's ass. But oh no, a guy is now holding her hand behind her back and she can't move any more! Or oh no, even though she had years of martial arts training, she suddenly is incapable of using any of it efficiently and is even weaker than your average schoolgirl during the story!

These I kinda like or like a lot:
-Guy doesn't win with talent or secretly being the chosen one. Instead he wins his fights because of hard work and determination. (mostly the hard work.)

-The lead character is a goofball, but knows when to get serious and manages to make friends because of his loyalty and determination. It's incredibly cliché, but I still like it. (Luffy, Shioon and Kenichi I'm looking at you!)

-Manga where the 'battles' are done though some weird/quirky activity. Like cooking, or acting. It's not a great plot device, but it's hilarious to read imo.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

3.) Showing & Telling Everything - The first part of this is simple enough; rather than going through only the important/necessary moments in an story, the animators need to include any little mundane task the characters are doing. From changing in the looker room to taking a bath, these little 'pauses' in story, as they might like to label them, just demean the series into sneaking in a bit of eye candy that is nether meaningful or necessary.

The latter is a bit more involved; every time it seems like a particular story arc or the series in its entirety is about to end, the writers believe that this is the right time to include a ton of back story on characters or events that no one asked for or even cared. They essentially fill every plot hole that everyone overlooked, give an origin story to every minor character, and fill in gaps in the timeline, just so that they can keep their series/arc going for another few months until it inevitably ends.

Call me crazy, but I like a little mystery; Something that you can take away from a show or series and that you can ponder and discuss with your friends or peers, without having a definite right answer or reasoning. Explaining everything leaves the series devoid of anything to come back to, and thus, the series will be completely over.

That one is not exclusive to anime and is annoying in all of them.

 

[rasputin0009]

I find these two hilarious especially when I attribute them to Western entertainment:

Friendship Solves Everything. The main character defeats the villain because he has friends and the villain doesn't. Even if the friends didn't actually do anything (like cheering, crying on the sidelines, existing, etc.), the main character still wins.
Hilarious Western example: Harry Potter. Harry survives against Voldemort multiple times because he has friends and family who love him and love is the greatest magic in the world.

Amnesia. Everybody apparently has amnesia. Cheapest way to move the plot, ever. And it's so stupid it's funny.
Hilarious Western example: Fast and Furious 6. Letty or whatever her name is has amnesia. Just because. (I'm not counting that as a spoiler because it's in the trailer, the movie series has terrible stories anyways, it's not an important part of the movie, and I don't know how to do the spoiler tag thingies.)

 

[balladbird]

- Characters who speak in third person. I don't know if it's the translator's fault or not, but it just sounds too childish. Hell, children don't even talk like that. It just sounds barbaric, like cavemen talk.

Childish is exactly the point. in japanese it's common for children to refer to themselves in third person, so having a female character (and yeah, it's almost always a female) speak in third person is a way of making her come across as faux-loli and what have you.


as for cliches I hate...

The thing where the girls are in a public bath/ hot spring/ other fanservice-y place, and instantly start talking about each other's boobs and groping each other. I guess it falls under the fanservice umbrella most have been complaining about, except it's not really the fanservice about it I hate, it's the poor characterization. No matter who the girls are, or what their personalities are, every time there's a scene at one of the places I mentioned things play out the same way. Do you honestly think girls are distracted by the sexy when they see each other naked? all that proves to me is that you're incapable of writing from any perspective other than a horny boy.

 

[FalloutJack]

You know what I hate? RECAP EPISODES!!

I've been watching this series with a fair amount of attention. I don't need to be filled in on the story so far because I WATCHED IT! What is this for? The small fraction of late-comers who happen to tune in NOW to pick up what's been going on and are too lazy to just backtrack and watch the show from the beginning?


Waste of time, money, and effort, and there are a number of shows that I LIKE that are guilty of this.

 

[Ganado_Headshot]

You know what grinds my gears? The fabled giant drip of water on the back of characters heads when they're nervous or puzzled. Are your brains juices leaking out the back of your skull? This issue needs to be addressed.

 

[RADIALTHRONE1]

Not so much an anime cliche as it is a japanese cliche, but hair color. Any color there is is applicable to be a natural hair color. I can understand maybe 1 person having an odd color (genetical diversity and all that), but 5?

Take Bleach for example: Ichigo has orange hair, which everybody thinks is dyed, but nobody bats an eye at the other 2 orange, 4 white, 2 red, 2 purple, 2 pink, 1 green, or 1 blue haired people/person.

And don't even get me started on the Fire Emblem series.

I learned about this culture class. We make the joke that all Asian people look the same but it is something Asian people are aware of. Japan has their very serious community driven culture so standing out is sometimes seen as a bad thing. Schools usually require underclassmen to have straight black hair and upperclassmen can dye their hair. So having fancy colored hair is like a sign of status. Sonic the Hedgehog was created on this idea (spikey blue hair)

Never knew that. Learn something new every day.

 

[Trooper924]

The Idiot Hero trope. The world's in danger and the only one who can save us is the guy who can't count past four and regularly binges eats?
We're screwed.