[roriconfan]

If you think about it a huge bulk of anime (and even western) stories implement the amnesia routine. When I was little, I though it was a thing only found in soap operas and b-grade dramas. But now, I see it's everywhere!

If it was a nice implemented trope, I wouldn't mind much. But besides the overuse of it in almost every story of modern fiction there is... isn't it bad? I mean why is it there if not to ruin the story? Something like a convenient reset button, an excuse to halt progress, a cheesy attempt at poor written drama, a pulling out of an ass plot twist. Sure, it all depends on how you use it but come on, when was the last time they used it without making an ass out of the otherwise interesting story?

Here are some famous anime where amnesia is used: Code Geass, Death Note, Elfen Lied, Eden of the East; heck, even Haruhi indirectly has it.

Think of how the story would be without the amnesia routine. Harder to pull off but at the same time far more mature. Yes, all these titles are damn successful and most would probably not even give a rat's ass about it but for the sake of discussion, would a series WITHOUT amnesia be overall more creditable than one similar in themes WITH amnesia?

I will be more honest here; amnesia is almost always like magic and it has no explanation. I can admit that it was very interesting to see it in Battle Angel Alita or even Gantz, dressed under the pretext of memory manipulation through technology. I still think that not using it would make any story overall better.