[DonQuigleone]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

1. Have a clear goal or drive in your life that others might find interesting or appealing. (ex. Love Hina!, Sakurasou, Ano Natsu, Koi to Senkyo to Chocolate).

This can be quite hard actually. And I don't know if it makes much difference anyway. I've found all the girls I've met are fairly nonplussed about the things I'm enthusiastic about.

5. Everybody has issues, and your romantic interest will be no exception. Here is where the careful listening of No. 4 comes in. When the moment is right, take decisive (and informed!) action to help out your romantic interest. Be a hero with the mind of Batman and the heart of Superman. Make sure your intentions appear as pure as the driven snow (in accordance with 3, and to help accentuate 1 and 2). (ex. every Key property ever turned into an anime)

When I was younger I had fantasies about this. Doesn't ever happen though, and it creates the bizarre situation where you hoping bad things happen to your crush. But you know what, if a bad thing happened, she probably won't go to you...

7. Join a club. Any club. The key is to expand your social circle. You're likely to find your love interest in some small, but well-organized, social circle. (Kokoro Connect, Haruhi Suzumiya, Hyouka, Tari Tari, and... way too many more to list )

From my experience this doesn't work. Most of the clubs I joined were heavily male though. As for the ones with girls, even though I spent substantial amounts of time with them, I was never able to form anything more then superficial connections. Most of the people at my college didn't join any clubs though, instead they went drinking (though, that's pretty much what the people at the clubs did too...)

9. It helps a lot if you and your love interest have similar entertainment/life interests (Haruhi Suzumiya, Chuunibyou, Hyouka, Ore no Imouto)

Likely true, but that can be hard if your interests are very niche. I think it's better to not focus on interests too much, and instead try to find people of a similar personality to yourself, and then get interested in their interests (and vice-versa, hopefully), even so, I think there are a fair number of succesful relationships out there where both had fairly little in common(interests-wise).

So those are the romantic lessons I've seen conveyed by anime. How true to life do people here think they are? This might make a fun thought experiment, lol.

If you're taking romantic advice from Anime, you've got bigger problems then finding a date .

Originally Posted by Ledgem

Generalizing the process of friend-zoning is difficult, because there's a lot to it. The impression that I get is a bit different, though.

I can't comment from experience about friend-zoning, but I have had long fruitless crushes. I think it's better for all involved that if you're interested you go straight into a dating process, and deal with rejection. I think friend-zoning and long pointless crushes both stem from not being suitably open about your feelings. She's a woman, you're a man, if you're interested, just politely ask her out for lunch. If that goes well, keep things going, if it doesn't move on.

That's how things were done in our parent's days, I think it's more sensible then just sorta hanging around and hoping you fall into something, because to be honest I don't think that will ever happen. You just have to take the plunge.

I agree with you about desperation. I think that confidence can mask desperation, though. Someone who is trying to get what they want without confidence comes off as desperate and creepy; someone who is trying to get what they want with confidence comes off as driven, perhaps forceful. It's all in how you carry yourself and present yourself.

Absolutely, it's not so different from if you were making a friends with a guy. If a guy seemed needy or desperate, would you want to be friends with him?

The mistake some make is thinking that being confidently assertive is the same as being a jerk. It isn't. It's just taking the initiative. So if you just ask her out, you're not infringing on her personal space, and likewise, there's a difference between asking her out politely, and asking her out rudely (sometimes people just from on extreme to another...). Of course, I used to think I'd be imposing/rude if I came out and asked a girl out, which was nonsense, she'd probably be mildly flattered (wouldn't you be if a nice girl asked to meet up with you?).

On a side note, maybe Stephen Colbert was friend-zoned at some point.