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Tom Pinchuk’s a writer and personality with a large number of comics, videos and features like this to his credit. Visit his website - - tompinchuk.com - - and follow his Twitter: @tompinchuk
Sam Weller is a writer and actor who's scribed for shows like FIRST EDITION, GEEK THERAPY, and most recently BATGIRL: SPOILED. He also really likes anime. To know what is going to happen next, follow@cravesam
I hate the Panty Fighter Trope. It just seems soooooooooo juvenile. I am tired of seeing a chicks underwear in anime. I mean if people out there like it that is cool. But, it just really gets a little boring, tiring, and stupid.
Random power up
Anime Tropes I dislike
1) Panties
2) Highlighting flat chested and well endowed women
3) Child characters adventuring the world without anyone asking about parents
4) Series that play out like a basic JRPG in terms of structure (as Tom pointed out)
5) Characters that get separated and have to battle separately (almost every action shonen show)
6) When there are overpowered characters that rarely do anything or always get tied up before battle (Goku, Ichigo, Captain Commander, Luffy)
7) Excessive battle exposition.
8) Powering up in the middle of battle
9) Coming out of nowhere and saving someone at the last second during battle
10) THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP
11) Amnesiac assassins that are very skilled (this is lazy writing to me)
There are more that can go here but I think 11 is enough.
EDIT: Okay, 11 is not enough. I thought about this one after posting
12) Females having exaggerated reactions while socializing and assaulting people. (although exaggerated reactions alone are bad enough).
I can't think of many, but one I truly hate is Unnecessary T&A. It completely takes me out of the moment when characters I wasn't expecting to be sexualized are suddenly given close-ups on their breasts and asses. There are other more successful ways to keep the audience's attention.
Another one would be Overexagurated Yelling (e.g. "TETSUO!!!" KANEDA!!!). It's just too much for me, that's all.
Sam was really giggly in this episode
Also one trope that I hate to my core that I have yet to see implemented in any kind of entertaining fashion (and this expands to all mediums, not just anime) is the body-swapping and/or gender-swap plot. I just think that it's a tired plot device that isn't really funny.
Really to be honest I dont hate tropes because I feel like their for someone even if its not me. I hate stuff simply being subpar within its style. I dont tend to watch harems or such, but they can be preformed to excellence within the genre, but often not. That is what I hate.
I really like Railgun for the characters over the concept of the show. Most bad tropes can be overlooked if you just watch for something you like in the show. Also I didn't find Railgun to be a way to have young girls in them.
I actually enjoy a lot of tropes. When there is a problem, it's not so much the trope which can be annoying but how it is presented. I like hot springs episodes and school festivals where the class is either a horror house or a maid cafe. Teenage or even pre-teen soldiers are part-and-parcel for the whole medium these days, but I get a kick out of the utter nonsense of it all. Why is it always some angsty high school boy who can pilot a futuristic death machine? Why are emotionally confused middle school girls always super powered demon hunters? It's laughable but I accept it because I know the storytellers are using the children to explore innocence and personal growth while setting them in a world normally inhabited solely by adults. I know some people find this troubling or even exploitive, but I see it as just a plot device. An adult wouldn't be believable reacting the same way as a teenager would, the way the story demands, so they make them kids and it's more acceptable. Perhaps because it's so far removed from reality the fantasy of it is easier to reconcile. For me, this includes the amnesiac child assassins as well as moody giant robot pilots who scream about how much they hate fighting while mowing down scores of enemy fodder.
If I had to name one, it would be one that I'm not even sure is a trope. Basically it's when characters don't finish their own sentences. This is usually done to create mystery or inject a facade of complexity. It does none of these things for me and it just pisses me off. This is probably more of a complaint than a trope.
Oh and I liked Railgun and Index. Hearing that there's an Index movie out next year makes me happy.
2. Ridiculously-sized boobs used for excessive fan service (looking at you, Eiken and Manyuu Hikenchou).
3. Deus ex machina in life-threatening situations. (random powerups that come from nowhere or characters conveniently coming in the neck of time to save the hide of a character about to be killed.)
4. Deus ex machina with characters coming back from the dead. (Shounen anime loves milking this)
5. Characters whose only existence in an anime are to be perverts trying to sneak in a peek and/ or molest members of the opposite sex.
Also series that have too many ''anime freak out moments' that they use for comedic effect.
Personally I hate the sexy cat-girl trope or Neko, Haineko being the exception with the big boobs and big butt lol ;)
I think tropes are fine. This is very duh logic but I think it needs to be said:
My only issue with tropes and everything else is when the content surrounding them is poorly put together and they are lazily executed. I don't have any problem with a trope that's in a show that's interesting and well executed. For me, the execution and content surrounding the trope is far more important than the fact that a trope exists. To be honest, are there any stories in any medium that don't have a trope? Probably not, but what separates good from drivel is the execution of the story at large.
@Elfenlied1012 said:
Would a wussy / abused male lead character in harems count as a trope?
@Marshal Victory said:
Well, wussy and abused are two different things really, sometimes a character is abused that does not make them a wuss, especially in some anime with darker themes like child abuse. If you meant male characters that whine about everything and have that common annoying high pitched (usually voiced by a woman) voice, yes that is an anime trope.
This is one of my pet peeves as well. As well as the over board lecher.
Most tropes don't bother me, but some of them actually either piss me off or bore me.
@EganTheVile1 said:
thats fair. I mean as the male lead in a harem anime.Many a time i see them being abused by the um harem!
@Sonata said:
You know i have seen it so much i wonder/worry about males in anime.I reject the tv reflects a society line.But i see this so much it makes me wonder if its a gag their or a popular joke.Variation on hen pecked maybe?
@cynically_happy said:
He might've had some "Gatorade" prior to the shoot....
Here is your justification for the amnesiac assassin character (no child in this justification): Faye Valentine.
The bottom line here is this: the amnesiac character type does not have to be an emotionless wretch. That's not how amnesia work. You lose your memory, but you don't lose the reflexive responses that is inherent to a human being. Further, even if an amnesiac was truly an empty container, that container does not, should not, stay empty. Socialization happens no matter what, and a personality is going to develop no matter what. Shows that do not allow that to happen to a character is just doing a real shitty job.
Back to Faye. For those that haven't, watch My Funny Valentine and get back to me. Faye is an amnesiac. She wakes from cold sleep in a Don Quixote state hundreds of years in the future. What does the show do with her character? Immediately saddle her with a burden: a whole shit ton of debt. That is her drive to grow as a character established early (early within the chronology of the in universe timeline), and it does wonders for her character. So I say bring on the horrible amnesiac characters that I can wave off and ignore until we get another Faye, at which point I am all on that.