Anime cliche that you hate, with a good reason

[Witched]

The 'big muscle man' getting easily defeated by not-so-obviously well-trained individuals, particularly girls who really don't look like their age or they don't seem fit enough for it... I mean, outside of their age, having a small appearance yet being much more powerful (without a good reason) than the buff guys just doesn't go well at times, y'know?

[Dominic Night]

Cliché that I hate is something of those double standards thing -

Spoiler for Long rant:

The antagonist(s) that usually have the a goal that could save the world, bring peace or prevent anymore type of tragedies from unfolding. You know those characters that may have the same thing in mind as the MC but a different means of achieving it, they have reasons and possibly really good ones (like entire families/villages being killed off, maybe even their entire race was hunted down until a handful remain. and they don't want others to suffer the same fate.). Its one of the things where the ends justify the means;

You are given a choice;
Save 1,000 lives today, however tomorrow 12 trillion will die.
or
Let the 1,000 die, but the 12 trillions live
-----
Cast the entire planet into a merged conscious to save all those lives.
or
Fight against an unstoppable force with little to no chance of winning, with the possibility of losing most if not all of those lives your trying to protect.

But given how they are going against the MC,
-the painful past that they carry amount to nothing. (Side-character who worship the MC have their past over-exaggerated; "ONE PARENT WAS NEVER THERE IN MY LIFE, YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND THE PAIN!!!!" to the antagonist; "My entire village was attacked, I watched as all my friends and family were killed by the army and than nearly killed myself which I have the scar to prove." At this point people would ***** at the character that they don't understand the MC or the side character at all.)
-All that hard-work they did over the years, going through life and death situations, building the tools needed to carry out their plans are nothing as the MC comes up with a 'perfect plan' in a matter of minutes.

-And at the end of the whole climax, its either they go to prison and forgotten for all eternity with everything they worked for, the lost of their families will be engraved in their minds as they sit in a darkroom forever.
-they allow everything to be in vain and the suffering of the past will still be there, but in turn they must become cardboard-copies of other side-characters that sole purpose is to worship how awesome the MC is.
-Or its death and being forgotten for the rest of the story.

But here comes the double-standard part

We have a side-character who is a total a********, nothing going for them. Treats everyone like trash, belittles the MC. Mostly the spoiled got everything handed to them type of person. However they side with the MC through the series and won't turn against them.


What happens to them? Nothing, simple slap-on-the-wrist and 'oh he doesn't mean it so I'll forgive them.' To put it that this character has nothing going for them and they'll live throughout the show while.

Simply put I hate the double-standard of how characters are treated given their relationship with the MC is.

[Wandering Soul]

@Dominic Night It sounds like you are trying to say you hate tv tropes calls protagonist centered morality. I agree that it is really annoying when the Protagonist gets to declare someone else a villain regardless of their motives or situation. It is especially annoying when the supposed goods guys act no better than the person we are supposed to see as a villain.

[Joyce_Steele]

This time my rants aren't on the cliche itself but rather how most shoujo anime and manga are borrowing cliches from popular fairy tales and even worse, make them look more awful than its original form. The worst offenders are those which stole from Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast.

First those which stole from Cinderella are about a high school girl(who else) who had unhappy life with her family, not always abused by them hoping the find someone who can change her life forever, usually a very handsome high school boy.

Worse of all Beauty and the Beast copycats which usually about a girl and sometimes young woman who let her boyfriend/lover/brother(?) so that his true feeling will appear, regardless how bad she was treated. While her devotion is a good thing but letting yourself become the victim of her own romance isn't.

[GreyZone]

Originally Posted by Dominic Night

Cast the entire planet into a merged conscious to save all those lives.
or
Fight against an unstoppable force with little to no chance of winning, with the possibility of losing most if not all of those lives your trying to protect.

I'd rather chose the latter one. I think many would prefer dying over losing their individuality (for many that would be a "fate worse than death"). Maybe the question should rather be:

lose 100% of those you want to protect with certainty (as they stop being themselves), while stripping everyone else on the planet (both those involved and those not involved in the conflict) of their free will and their individuality as well
or
lose 90%-100% of those you want to protect with a small chance to save most, or possibly even all.



But aside from this one point I do agree with you. Though in some cases there are also arguments about "short term vs long term", where you often cannot say who is right and who is wrong, but as you say, most anime/manga make the antagonist look bad and the protagonist good, so it mostly amounts to the same thing.

Though what I despise most is, if, in the end, the method of the protagonist actually costs more people their lives, than the antagonist's method would. Of it is a different matter, if the antagonists method had bad side-effects, that would justify the extra sacrifices of the protagonist's method.

[Lyocol]

Whenever a very beautiful girl shows up, the boys blushed at her and can't stop talking to each other how beautiful and cute she was. Same goes with very handsome boy and girls around him goes screaming and can't stop talking to each other on how handsome he was, just like their dream prince. I have nothing with this cliche and it also pretty natural to real-life Japanese boys and girls but I just think it was overplayed. I can even guess what happen next.

I hate to go against the thread's rule but one cliche I want to see more of it is an attractive and most likely straight(sexuality) girl groping and/or molesting other attractive and straight girl. While it is pretty common in ecchi fanservice shows like Queen's Blade and Freezing but I just want to see more of it outside that genre and of course I'm a guy and you have to deal with it.

[all_flying]

What is it?: Understanding each other as a conclusive ending

Worst offenders: Gundam 00 The Movie

Notable exceptions: Gargantia (a bit acceptable, but still meh)

Variants: Human - human; human - non human (interracial); non human - non human

What makes it popular: Dunno, maybe the writer needs a reasonable ending without resort to violence.

Reason that I hated it: Just because he listen, doesn't mean he'll understand, just because he understand, doesn't mean he'll agree, even if he agree, doesn't mean he'll forgive.

Does the hate really worth it?: Yes. This is extremely cheesy, really. Especially in inter-nation conflict. Do they honestly thinks, a warfare could be solved by signing an MoU without one of them being a winner/loser?

[4Tran]

Originally Posted by all_flying

What is it?: Understanding each other as a conclusive ending

Worst offenders: Gundam 00 The Movie

Notable exceptions: Gargantia (a bit acceptable, but still meh)

Variants: Human - human; human - non human (interracial); non human - non human

What makes it popular: Dunno, maybe the writer needs a reasonable ending without resort to violence.

Reason that I hated it: Just because he listen, doesn't mean he'll understand, just because he understand, doesn't mean he'll agree, even if he agree, doesn't mean he'll forgive.

Does the hate really worth it?: Yes. This is extremely cheesy, really. Especially in inter-nation conflict. Do they honestly thinks, a warfare could be solved by signing an MoU without one of them being a winner/loser?

It allows for a sudden and climatic resolution to the central conflict. I've never liked it because conflicts have complex causes and so they deserve a nuanced resolution. It's grating to the point of insult if the show tries to draw parallels with either current or historical conflicts.

SDF Macross and Do You Remember Love play with a similar idea, but there's still plenty of shooting to be done after the two forces come to an understanding. And so the understanding becomes less of a resolution and more of a spur to further conflicts.

[all_flying]

Originally Posted by 4Tran

It allows for a sudden and climatic resolution to the central conflict. I've never liked it because conflicts have complex causes and so they deserve a nuanced resolution. It's grating to the point of insult if the show tries to draw parallels with either current or historical conflicts.

SDF Macross and Do You Remember Love play with a similar idea, but there's still plenty of shooting to be done after the two forces come to an understanding. And so the understanding becomes less of a resolution and more of a spur to further conflicts.

Well, but the funny thing is. Japan is well known for their long history of sengoku warfare, and their involvement in Pacific Warfare, not to mention their suffering in the post-war era. Considering their long history, this particular trope almost sounds like come out of thin air
_____________________________________________
What is it?: Basically, a harem romance with set up like this: 1) Girl from the sky, Ideal type female by author, dream girl, the fated encounter, we could say his 'Femme fatale', his idol and the 'belle' of the show; 2) His childhood friend as the second of the author type where he is most comfortable in working with. Well, not necessarily his osanajimi, but a girl who has more emotional attachment towards protag, but he was just having more complex towards the 1) girl.

Worst offenders: Toradora (This is not even funny. Yeah I know the show was called "tora-dora" for a reason. But it still didn't stop me from raging)

Notable exceptions: Ichigo 100%, True Tears (They do know how to play with human's heart)

Variants: Protag(s) care about both, only care about one of them, or just being dense.

What makes it popular: The booming of harem genre itself

Reason that I hated it: The strange thing is, usually (not always) the 2) girl is getting more development than the 1) girl. Because, the 1) girl will just ends up like a put-on-display, or being 'just there', or just getting some unrealistic melancholy/drama just because of "belle" status, or just because the author don't favor her to 'change'.

Does the hate really worth it?: Well, no. Because, its a harem anyway. But its worth it when I watch the show like Mashiroiro Symphony, Kokoro Connect, Macross F Movie...
....
Well, maybe I'm just being a sucker for the second-type character

[Yuli Ban]

The bang of hair over the front of your face. Seriously, try pushing a bang in front of your nose, down the middle of your face. It doesn't look right.
Just choose an endless number of anime.

[Triple_R]

One anime cliche I've grown to dislike, because I find it increasingly hard to suspend disbelief for it, is...

Anime characters holding out unrequited love flames for several years after they last met the object their affection.


I like Nagi no Asukara, but I'm finding it very guilty of this, and it has become a bit hard for me to swallow (Nagi no Asukara certainly isn't alone here though). I just don't think most people (and certainly not most kids) would swear off romances/sexual relationships with other people for years and years because they're holding out a love flame for someone they haven't seen in years. I know its supposed to be romantic and all, but in most instances it has become hard for me to swallow.

[Lord of Fire]

Add one more to my list: The Girly Run

The link says it all: it's that weird, exaggerated run you see a lot of girls in anime do, especially the ones who are somewhat insecure and delicate. I found it funny at first, but I find myself growing more and more irritated by it as times goes by, especially since it's so incredibly prevalent. Now, I've heard that a lot of Japanese girls actually run like this, so methinks someone needs to teach them to run properly if so.

Why does it annoy me so? Because (IMO) it makes the girl look stupid, and it's even worse if I have to take her seriously.

[Pocari_Sweat]

Originally Posted by Lord of Fire

Add one more to my list: The Girly Run

The link says it all: it's that weird, exaggerated run you see a lot of girls in anime do, especially the ones who are somewhat insecure and delicate. I found it funny at first, but I find myself growing more and more irritated by it as times goes by, especially since it's so incredibly prevalent. Now, I've heard that a lot of Japanese girls actually run like this, so methinks someone needs to teach them to run properly if so.

Why does it annoy me so? Because (IMO) it makes the girl look stupid, and it's even worse if I have to take her seriously.

How about a girlyrun with a toast in your mouth.

[SuitUp]

Originally Posted by Pocari_Sweat

How about a girlyrun with a toast in your mouth.

Then the girl in question crashes with a handsome guy while turning around the corner.
Man, it's so easy to write anime

[Dop]

I sometimes wonder just where the whole 'girl runs to school with a slice of toast in her mouth' thing originates. The oldest thing I remember seeing it used in was the fantasy school sequence towards the end of NGE, but does it predate that?

Anyway, much worse than the plain girlyrun or the girlyrun with toast just HAS to be when a girl can't run more than two paces without falling flat on her face.

[Lord of Fire]

Originally Posted by Pocari_Sweat

How about a girlyrun with a toast in your mouth.

How is that supposed to make any difference, especially when the toast is in my mouth?

Even if you mean her mouth, I frankly don't really see the appeal in the 'girl runs with toast in mouth' cliché as it is, either. Not enough to make it annoying, but I certainly think it's overrated.

[Akito Kinomoto]

Originally Posted by Lord of Fire

Even if you mean her mouth, I frankly don't really see the appeal in the 'girl runs with toast in mouth' cliché as it is, either. Not enough to make it annoying, but I certainly think it's overrated.

There's a certain technique to bite down square bread hard enough to keep it between your teeth without biting off a chunk and letting the rest of it fall to the ground, combined with the slight up and down motion of running and your jaws would have to readjust the bite pressure with every step. That, I think, isn't an appeal of cuteness; it's an appeal of oral skill.

/overanalysis.

[Lord of Fire]

Originally Posted by Akito Kinomoto

There's a certain technique to bite down square bread hard enough to keep it between your teeth without biting off a chunk and letting the rest of it fall to the ground, combined with the slight up and down motion of running and your jaws would have to readjust the bite pressure with every step. That, I think, isn't an appeal of cuteness; it's an appeal of oral skill.

/overanalysis.

That explanation sits better with me than "it's cute, dammit!".

[Traece]

The problem I have with holding bread with my mouth is that no matter how little pinching you do the moistness makes it fall apart eventually. That's typically where things fail for me.

It's like a mecha transformation. It's super sugoi, but you can only do it for 60 seconds!

[NoemiChan]

Originally Posted by Traece

The problem I have with holding bread with my mouth is that no matter how little pinching you do the moistness makes it fall apart eventually. That's typically where things fail for me.

What's amazing with this cliche is that after that long run, the character didn't even managed to finish that ONE slice of bread.