Your most hated anime cliche

[Azure-Supernova]

The way I see it is that a lot of these 'clichés' are simply differences in culture that a Western audience don't understand. I'm not calling the 'you're too stupid to understand the deepness of anime' card, because there are some things in anime which really do grate on me.

Let me use an out of anime example. Snake and Raiden. Snake would be what you'd call a typical Western hero, right? Raiden would be a typical anime hero, right? Aren't they kind of... opposites? Snake's a macho, flirtatious, grizzles, hairy, boot to the head kinda guy, he gets things done and he's not too hesitant when it comes to using force. Raiden on the other hand is a lean, clean shaven, awkward (around Rose), lovesick, almost puppy dog like character. Look at the hate he garnered from a Western audience.

I watch a fair bit of anime myself and I can say that a lot of characters do fit Raiden's mould. But it's obviously a popular popular character for the Anime/Manga demographic. How many DC or Marvel superheroes can you think of, that might fit Snake's mould?

I think it's less of these things actually being 'cliché' and more of them being aspects of a culture we're unfamiliar with. Big eyes is part of the art style, awkward moments and sexual tension is part of the humour. If you can't see it yourself, don't be surprised, it's from an entirely different culture. As for the 'good guy always being victorious' and the power of friendship, maybe the people citing this as a cliché need to watch some of the darker, more serious anime. Hell, you only need to go a few shades below peppy to FMA, and by no stretch does friendship conquer all.

On the note of the art style:

Spoiler: Medabots

http://www.slusham.com/img2/medabots.jpg

Spoiler: Full Metal Alchemist

http://www.otakuhq.com/images/anime/fullmetal-alchemist.jpg

Spoiler: Dragon Ball Z

http://images.starpulse.com/Photos/Previews/DragonBall-Z-cn02.jpg

Spoiler: Ghost In The Shell: 2nd Gig

http://s3.amazonaws.com/designrelated_inspiration_book_entry_file_item/3bcee548b1171ed95376005c773e36f346e61668

Spoiler: Yu-Yu-Hakusho

http://teens.icpl.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/yu-yu-hakusho.jpg

There are subtle differences in some and drastic differences in others. You can't claim they the art styles are 'all the same' when they clearly vary according to the artist.

HOWEVER I do hold an issue with the huge breast. Maybe it's overcompensating for something?

 

[SajuukKhar]

Basically im going to talk about alot of naime cliches and why they make sence

1. Big Eyes: have you ever seen a anime character that had realistic eye size? No you haven't because if their eyes were drawn to size they would have way to much dead space on their face and it would look creepy ive seen several pictures of anime characters with normal eyes and it isn't worth it.

2. Big Boobs: Japanese people have always drawn things to be as beautiful as they can(unless there supposed to be ugly for some reason)and in the modern day big boobs are considered hot. They will stop making characters with big boobs once people stop liking boobs but that isn't going to happen soon.

3. Fan Service: see above. its the same with boobs they will stop putting it in once people stop liking looking under girls skirts and crap.

4. Filler: Filler in a necessary evil. if shows had no filler then we would either have to wait for months while the manga catches up to a point that they can start making more episodes or they would have to wait till the manga was done but if they wait for the manga to finish a lot less people would watch the show because they know everything before it happens.

5. Crazy hair color/styles: Have you ever though about how many hair colors humans have naturally amongst all races. There's not many and most races only have blond and black hair, blond, and red is at the base genetic level only in white people. If you combined this lack of hair colors with the lack of a lot of hairstyles and that most hairstyles look the same once you animeise them it would mean a lot of characters in the show would be walking around with what looks like THE EXACT SAME HAIR. Do you really want that?

6. Religious(especially christian)Symbolism: The Japanese know that Christianity is the biggest religion in the world representing 1/4 to 1/3 of the worlds populous, and they know that their anime is going to be shown around the world so they have to use religious themes most people understand or recognize. If they didn't use Christianity and instead used some other religion most people wouldn't get it without some long and boring explanation of everything.

7. Anime Characters look white: as posted in a video in some post before me they dont look white its that they lack any form of stereotypical face features and look like no one race and when that happens our brains automatically categorize them as whatever race we are. so its not that they are white its that there not stereotypically asian.

8. Nose bleeds, and Sneezing when someone talks about you: The sneezing thing is a old time Japanese myth. The Nose bleed as has been said before is due to blood pressure rising when you see something erotic, it looks funny, and it would seem more out of place if some burly dude blushed all the time.

9. Relationships: a lot of anime characters dont have what we would call a good ability to talk to the opposite gender and that's just fine. If they could solver their relationship problems easily you would seriously cut out like half of the dam show. Also a lot of the time this happens the characters are teens or just out of their teens and its a long held stereotype that people in this age group act this way and also how many relationships have you had that you had a 100% ability to just walk up to some girl say you liked her and she just agreed and your relationship was perfect for all time.

I know these arnt all of them but i got many of the common ones down so yeah.

Also to make it clear i hate just about all these cliches im just pointing out why they are there.

 

[mr_rubino]

Basically im going to talk about alot of naime cliches and why they make sence

1. Big Eyes: have you ever seen a anime character that had realistic eye size? No you haven't because if their eyes were drawn to size they would have way to much dead space on their face and it would look creepy ive seen several pictures of anime characters with normal eyes and it isn't worth it.

2. Big Boobs: Japanese people have always drawn things to be as beautiful as they can(unless there supposed to be ugly for some reason)and in the modern day big boobs are considered hot. They will stop making characters with big boobs once people stop liking boobs but that isn't going to happen soon.

3. Fan Service: see above. its the same with boobs they will stop putting it in once people stop liking looking under girls skirts and crap.

4. Filler: Filler in a necessary evil. if shows had no filler then we would either have to wait for months while the manga catches up to a point that they can start making more episodes or they would have to wait till the manga was done but if they wait for the manga to finish a lot less people would watch the show because they know everything before it happens.

5. Crazy hair color/styles: Have you ever though about how many hair colors humans have naturally amongst all races. There's not many and most races only have blond and black hair, blond, and red is at the base genetic level only in white people. If you combined this lack of hair colors with the lack of a lot of hairstyles and that most hairstyles look the same once you animeise them it would mean a lot of characters in the show would be walking around with what looks like THE EXACT SAME HAIR. Do you really want that?

6. Religious(especially christian)Symbolism: The Japanese know that Christianity is the biggest religion in the world representing 1/4 to 1/3 of the worlds populous, and they know that their anime is going to be shown around the world so they have to use religious themes most people understand or recognize. If they didn't use Christianity and instead used some other religion most people wouldn't get it without some long and boring explanation of everything.

7. Anime Characters look white: as posted in a video in some post before me they dont look white its that they lack any form of stereotypical face features and look like no one race and when that happens our brains automatically categorize them as whatever race we are. so its not that they are white its that there not stereotypically asian.

8. Nose bleeds, and Sneezing when someone talks about you: The sneezing thing is a old time Japanese myth. The Nose bleed as has been said before is due to blood pressure rising when you see something erotic, it looks funny, and it would seem more out of place if some burly dude blushed all the time.

I know these arnt all of them but i got many of the common ones down so yeah.

We already know these are there because the Japanese are sexually-repressed fruitcakes who use weird ideas about bodily fluids to represent the human emotions they never mastered. This is a topic asking about which cliche we dislike most.

 

[Azure-Supernova]

6. Religious(especially christian)Symbolism: The Japanese know that Christianity is the biggest religion in the world representing 1/4 to 1/3 of the worlds populous, and they know that their anime is going to be shown around the world so they have to use religious themes most people understand or recognize. If they didn't use Christianity and instead used some other religion most people wouldn't get it without some long and boring explanation of everything.

7. Anime Characters look white: as posted in a video in some post before me they dont look white its that they lack any form of stereotypical face features and look like no one race and when that happens our brains automatically categorize them as whatever race we are. so its not that they are white its that there not stereotypically asian.

Add to this, the fact that not all anime is set IN Japan or even Asia. Many have their own fictional universes (take FMA, DBZ, Black Cat) and others reside in different parts of the real world. This means that religion, skin colour, race, accents etc. are all dependant on the story the manga/anime is trying to tell.

Usually; because it's hard to get across race in anime, the artist will use accents or clothing to try and indicate their ethnicity. In Shaman King, Jun Tao wears a cheongsam (sp?) in a nod to her roots in China.

 

[Rafe]

It's mostly DBZ and Bleach, but it annoys me when the good guy does a really powerful attack against the bad guy, then there's loads of smoke. Then, when the smoke clears the enemy is unscathed and laughing!

It happens far too much and it's far too predictable.

EDIT: Oh and badly animated fight scenes where the persons involved pause every 30 seconds to describe how they just did a particular move.

 

[SajuukKhar]

Number 7 was a in general thing yes they do use ways to make anime characters look like certain races but i was talking in the general sense not the every single anime character of all time sense. And all those cliches i posted i do dislike i just pointing out why they exist.

 

[eggy32]

That thing where something big happens or some big secret is revealed and the screen splits to about 5 different pictures of each character making a silly face and gasping. Fucking hate that shit.

 

[Quaidis]

Amnesia. It is the cheapest cliche over any genre, but I especially hate it in anime and videogames (that pretend to be like anime, what with their anime cut-scenes). Good anime doesn't go that route. I think the only reason it's a card at all is to show that the people thinking up the plot in the background aren't paid enough.

Uh, big guy buffs up to fight bigger guy. Why? Um... He doesn't remember! That's it! He's fighting the bigger guy because he doesn't remember and, um.. Well.. We'll run with it! Oh, and that alien chick with the huge tits we introduced out of nowhere? She doesn't remember why she's there as well! Genius!

 

[Austichar]

"FRIENDSHIP! I'll defeat you to protect my friends! I'm nothign without my friends! Raawwwrrr.!"


Oh god I abolutely HATE the friendship themes the most. Fairy Tail is especially guilty of this one. The main character gets his ass whooped by the bad guy and then something happens to his firne dand the he suddenly gets a huge ass power boost and wins! Happens in almost every single major fight, it's annoying.

Oh god and don't get me started on the crying.

 

[Feralcentaur]

Women who for some reason wear cat ears and have gigantic physics defying breasts because apparently Cat + Unrealisticly gigantic breasts = Attractive?

 

[Tom Phoenix]

- Useless (female) characters. By that I mean characters that don't seem to have any useful purpose and spend the entirety of the show either acting as cheerleaders or getting in trouble and giving the protagonist a reason to fight. The reason why I single out females in particular is beacuse it is often female character that fulfill this role; Winry Rockbell from the original Fullmetal Alchemist anime and Anzu Mazaki/Tea Gardner from Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters being examples. However, this is by no means limited to female characters (Honda Hiroto/Tristan Taylor, also from Yu-Gi-Oh! is arguably even more useless).

I understand that not every character in a certain show can have a certain role, gift or ability, but that doesn't mean they should be relegated entirely to the sidelines or be made completely unimportant. Riza Hawkeye from Fullmetal Alchemist and Mirai Yashima from Mobile Suit Gundam are good examples of characters who don't fulfill any primary role, but still maintain a very good degree of relevancy to the overall plot. Basically, if you are going to include someone in the main cast, you should make their presence justified.

- The-not-so-useless-but-still-useless characters. Unlike completely useless characters, these actually are actually capable to a certain degree and are relevant to the plot....but that is not saying much. While they are capable enough to be a part of the main cast, they are incompetent enough to always get in the way and be a source of trouble. These characters are arguably even worse than the useless ones, since those are at least smart enough to be aware of their uselessness and usually keep themselves out of harm's way. Fa Yuiry from Mobile Suit (Double) Zeta Gundam is an example.

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying characters should never get in trouble and require help. But when this occurs so many times that they are practically a liability, you start questioning why the rest of the cast doesn't have the common sense to force them to safety or at least scold them for being a burden.

- Comic relief characters. To be fair, I despise comic relief characters in all mediums, but anime is by no means an exception. To have such a character is to admit that you are incapable of integrating humour in your show in a natural, more subtle way and need to condemn an entire character to uselessness in order to devote them to easing drama and tension. To me, comic relief characters are a sign of amateurish work and I cannot express how much disdain I have towards them.

There are plenty examples of this (Boss from Mazinger Z comes to mind), but I am going to mention Master Roshi from Dragonball Z as a particularly tragic example. While Master Roshi was very often a source of humour even in the original Dragonball, he was actually fairly important due to being a mentor for Goku and Krilin. After that, however, he is entirely relegated to being a source of humour. A particulary eery example is the Broly movie, where his practically entire contribution to it was a strange outburst he makes that causes Goku to look at him bizarrely for a moment before continuing his fight with Broly. Oh, how the mighty have fallen...

- Annoying fanservice. Unlike most people, I will be the first to admit that a bit of fanservice doesn't necessarilly hurt a show. But when it is done frequently and/or in a "in your face" manner, it starts to get annoying even when you are the intended audience....especially when you are the intended audience. I can't recall her name, but there is a female character in Bleach who's breasts are so enormous that you literally have trouble paying attention to the show.

While we are on the subject, Gainaxing is a particularly atrocious example of fan service. To clarify, I do allow for the fact that it might fit in certain situations for certain female characters; it particularly fits the devil-may-care types, since it goes along with their free-spirited nature (although it's still weird). But I find it double facepalm worty when a show has a female character that we are supposed to take seriously, only to see that she doesn't have the sensibility to wear a bra.

- Awfully impractical clothing. I won't even bother explaining this one, since chances are you have seen it plenty of times. Wearing high heels in extreme situations, clothes which reveal certain parts in spite of potential dangers etc. etc.

- Teenagers as protagonists. I don't mind the fact that teenagers are frequently protagonists...but do they really have to be all the time? There is nothing wrong with an adult or even an elderly perspective.

 

[Eijarel]

i can tolerate almost all but
the LOVE fking triangle crap

guy likes girl A,
girl A is mean to guy

a new girl B loves guy (girl B is always cuter and more devoted to guy)
guy is completely oblivious
Girl A is still mean to boy but refuses to accept her feelings

eventually boy ends up with girl A
RAGE
girl B was better

 

[mythgraven]

The most beautiful girl for miles around is single, intelligent, and level-headed enough to see thr diamond in your rough. (Also, she is patient enough to extract it.)

Whiskey Echo!!

Mythgraven

 

[newfoundsky]

"So I had this idea about giant ro--"
"Its been done."
"But in spa--"
"Its been done."
"About an epic wa--"
"Done."
"Between freed--"
"Done."
"But the protagonist is a cocker spaniel.
". . . Fucking brilliant."

 

[The_Graff]

That god forsaken look EVERY female character must do where she closes her eyes tilts her head and they giggle and smirk. THE PROCESS FILLS ME WITH RAGE!!

surely it is meant to fill you with horney instead?

 

[Fwee]

Recycling the last five minutes of the previous episode into the beginning of the current episode.