Tropes you are most sick of in anime

[John Cribati]

Oh, I've seen most of it,actually. The last episode us there waiting for me to watch it every time I open Crunchyroll. I just can't bring myself to do it.

It's not just that one case, though. Everything is given some weird sexual context. We get tight, intimate shots of Punch Stuff Girl (I... can't remember anyone's name) feeling herself up to switch elements. Even Kirby Girl's healing powers(?) are introduced with her showing Main Character what that mouth do.

[Kantaki]

Tokyo Ghoul, as much as I like it, does this and fails miserably, because the only good ghouls are a very very small minority

Aren’t there almost no good people in general in that show?
I can't recall the human cast being much better than the ghouls.

[8BitNinja]

Sometimes they manage to stay standing, although stooped, but their lower jaws unhinge and hit the floor instead. Kinda creepy to learn that there are snake men hiding in my anime.

All anime is Illuminati CONFIRMED

Re: Creepy Stuff In Anime

Dear Guys Who Make Anime

And another thing: someone being in romantic or sexual attraction to her (and it's always her, have you noticed that?) sibling is creepy even when one of them is adopted. Stop it. Or at least stop defining entire characters and romantic subplots around it if you're not going to get into the psychiatry behind it. It's creepy and usually creates an incredibly shallow female character.

Thanks,
Nerdo

A good one for you would be OniAi then.

Just in case you didn't get the sarcasm, do not watch an anime named OniAi. It's one of those things where it's kind of like a testament of mental strength to watch among my friends. Kind of like how people say things like "I watched all of Boku no Pico and only puked 4 times."

On a side note, if anyone wants anime to use as a challenge, I got you covered. Just contact me in any way. I'll even accept Morse Code and smoke signals.

[Psyren]

Anime directors,

Please stop having your male leads 1) sexually molest people by accident and then 2) get violently punished for it as though it was intentional. Both halves of this are gross individually and put together they speak to a sexual fantasy of guilt-free harassment that I don't really want to think about.

Thank you,
Nerdo

Agreed.

And it can even be much worse, they could simply not be punished at all because the woman in question is a complete doormat/object. See Chobits, 7 Deadly Sins etc.

Re: Creepy Stuff In Anime

Dear Guys Who Make Anime

And another thing: someone being in romantic or sexual attraction to her (and it's always her, have you noticed that?) sibling is creepy even when one of them is adopted. Stop it. Or at least stop defining entire characters and romantic subplots around it if you're not going to get into the psychiatry behind it. It's creepy and usually creates an incredibly shallow female character.

Thanks,
Nerdo

Fully agreed here too, this is a massive turnoff. It's what made alarm bells start flashing in my head for SAO before I even got to the horrible rapey bits and banished it from my queue forevermore.

[danzibr]

Someone brought up Phantom world?

Because oh my Flying Spaghetti Monster is that a perfect example of something on the wrong end of my Tiddy Threshold.

Look, asexual as I am, I understand that people who are attracted to women generally like looking at them in sexual situations, or scenarios that can imply or allude such. Hell, I can appreciate various qualities of the human body from anow artistic standpoint.

But there's at time and a place for such things. And if you want to consistently write such times and places into your story, there's a GENRE for it.

I was genuinely interested in the world they'd set up, in the characters and their abilities (though I did find the long incantations kind of silly; if I had some sort of ability but it required me to recite a bunch of lines in iambic dodehecameter or whatever, it's basically useless), but I can only stand so many attempts at distracting me with boobs- the same set of boobs at that, they didn't even try to keep it interesting- before I get more than a little offended.

I'm the one who brought up Phantom World, and I know exactly what you're talking about. I almost didn't watch the show because I was so turned off by that, and I'm a heterosexual male! Fortunately, the frequency with which they needlessly emphasized her boobs decreased as the show went on, and I liked most of the rest of everything in the show, so I watched the whole thing.

Sounds like Game of Thrones (or maybe I just got used to it).

[Hunter Noventa]

Something that's always bothered me a little bit is 'First Girl Wins'. It happens outside of anime too. You'll see the male protagonist arriving somewhere new, and meet several people...but he always ends up with the first girl he meets as the story is depicted, even if he met others first before that point, sometimes detailed in flashbacks. Asuna is the first girl we see Kirito meet. Akane is the first girl we see Ranma meet (though its debatable they end up together since that's one of those manga that never ended properly). Misa is the first girl Hikaru meets in Macross (and arguably better, but I digress). Even Harry Potter ends up with Ginny, technically the first girl in the Wizarding World he meets.

The vast majority of the time, if there's more than one romantic interest for a male character, he'll end up with the first one he met, even if it's not a harem-type story. It bothers me.

[Knaight]

And it can even be much worse, they could simply not be punished at all because the woman in question is a complete doormat/object. See Chobits, 7 Deadly Sins etc.

7 Deadly Sins doesn't fit this at all (I can't comment on Chobits). The original reference was to the male lead accidentally molesting people through contrived scenarios. There's nothing accidental in 7 Deadly Sins, the lead is just a horrible person we're supposed to root for because the show is an unmitigated pile of garbage.

[John Cribati]

Sounds like Game of Thrones (or maybe I just got used to it).

The plot of Game of Thrones is kick-started because the Lannister siblings are doing each other. Since its such an integral concept, I don't mind it as much.

Take High School DxD as another example. The main character's girlfriend reveals herself as a fallen angel, summons a spear of light, and stabs him through the chest, and his final thought is "damn. I wish I'd gotten to grab her boobs."

So when High School DxD cuts away from window dressing like the 3-way war between angels, demons, and fallen angels, the political intrigue of the demon clans, the seven shards of the holy sword Excalibur, and so on, to throw some T&A at me, I just kind of shrug and move on because it did a good job establishing itself first and foremost as an ecchi series, but enough effort was put into the world building that I can live with it.

Phantom World was the opposite. Started off putting a lot of thought into the world, then pulled the rug from under me and went "oh sorry, this is about boobies now!"

[Rodin]

7 Deadly Sins doesn't fit this at all (I can't comment on Chobits). The original reference was to the male lead accidentally molesting people through contrived scenarios. There's nothing accidental in 7 Deadly Sins, the lead is just a horrible person we're supposed to root for because the show is an unmitigated pile of garbage.

7 Deadly Sins really demonstrates why the Pervert Revenge Mode is a trope. I can put up with somewhat pervy major characters in other shows because the guy gets uppity and then gets curbstomped for it. Elizabeth was so innocent/shy/naive/doormat that any potential humor was sucked right out by her lack of understanding how badly she was getting molested.

In fact, while I prefer that nobody is a perv (at least no more so than every day life), I actually think I prefer the deliberate ones more - as long as the girl gives as good as she gets . Accidental just seems ridiculously contrived, particularly if it's overused, and it makes the women seem overly violent. With an established pervy character and a woman that knows he's going to try, you get a sort of war that can be highly amusing.

[Psyren]

7 Deadly Sins doesn't fit this at all (I can't comment on Chobits). The original reference was to the male lead accidentally molesting people through contrived scenarios. There's nothing accidental in 7 Deadly Sins, the lead is just a horrible person we're supposed to root for because the show is an unmitigated pile of garbage.

Preaching to the choir mate. I can't understand how it got so popular. I guess a halfway decent fight scene can excuse all kinds of disgusting behavior.

[8BitNinja]

5 episodes of flashbacks before a fight.

I'm looking at you, Naruto.

[Tsuzurao]

5 episodes of flashbacks before a fight.

I'm looking at you, Naruto.

Keep in mind that you're talking about an anime adaptation of a manga that was still running while the anime aired. Many an anime in that situation have to keep the pacing fairly slow to keep from overshooting their source material. It's one of several reasons why I try to follow Japanese series by their source medium if possible, or if that doesn't work, at least search about to find out which adaptation the original work the most justice.

Also, five episodes? I'm hoping this is exaggeration, or that it's a one-off incident.
... Could also be filler? I know the Naruto anime has issues regarding its anime-original filler material.

[Emmerlaus]

The oblivious hero in a harem setting, unaware of all the other characters feelings for him. Im so sick of this trope.

[8BitNinja]

Keep in mind that you're talking about an anime adaptation of a manga that was still running while the anime aired. Many an anime in that situation have to keep the pacing fairly slow to keep from overshooting their source material. It's one of several reasons why I try to follow Japanese series by their source medium if possible, or if that doesn't work, at least search about to find out which adaptation the original work the most justice.

Also, five episodes? I'm hoping this is exaggeration, or that it's a one-off incident.
... Could also be filler? I know the Naruto anime has issues regarding its anime-original filler material.

It was just one situation, but it might've been 3 episodes. It was Naruto's fight with Gaara during or after the Chunin exams (I can't remember, I'm on episode 140 of Shippuden now, and I have a hard time remembering every detail)

[John Cribati]

Also, five episodes? I'm hoping this is exaggeration, or that it's a one-off incident.

There was a full-episode flashback in the middle of the first big Natuto/Sasuke fight. That innit self is worth a sin or twelve.

[Traab]

There was a full-episode flashback in the middle of the first big Natuto/Sasuke fight. That innit self is worth a sin or twelve.

Plus there were a LOT of flashbacks during the big final war. Just so... so many flashbacks. I mean in dbz its a full episode of screaming before they unleash an attack. In naruto its, "Lets see the entire life story of narutos opponent so we understand his motivation. then lets have naruto flash back as well to show he understands this back story and relates to it. Then lets have them talk while they fight until therapy no jutsu is complete and naruto has redeemed another bad guy/princess watching the fight." Dont get me wrong, I enjoyed naruto, but yeah, there was a lot of flashbacks.

[Fiery Diamond]

Preaching to the choir mate. I can't understand how it got so popular. I guess a halfway decent fight scene can excuse all kinds of disgusting behavior.

Believe it or not, the show has plenty of female fans. Plus, well, people can get really good at just tuning out certain aspects from works that they like all the other aspects of. I mean, if you remove "Meliodas likes to grope Elizabeth" from the series, there really isn't anything truly offensive about it and it's quite good if you like the sort of tropes it uses. There are a few inappropriate one-off villains, but that happens in... if not a majority, a plurality of fighting anime.

TBH, there are plenty of shows and movies (Japanese and American) that have aspects that are pretty reprehensible that the majority of people just shrug and go, "Eh, it's not a big deal. Just ignore that part." Nanatsu no Taizai isn't even a particularly bad offender when it comes to this. I mean, yeah, it's terrible to grope people, I don't think anyone would argue on that point, but if you actually read/watched enough of the show to learn the backstory, you learn that even when she's meeting him at the beginning of the story, he already thinks of her as his soulmate - because she kind of is. He's been in romantic relationships with her in multiple of her reincarnations. If they were a married couple and it happened only behind closed doors, it would be a kink, not molestation, seeing as she really doesn't seem to be opposed to it. So... weak justification, but at least there IS a justification. Many series are far, far worse about unacceptable behavior.

[golentan]

Plus there were a LOT of flashbacks during the big final war. Just so... so many flashbacks. I mean in dbz its a full episode of screaming before they unleash an attack. In naruto its, "Lets see the entire life story of narutos opponent so we understand his motivation. then lets have naruto flash back as well to show he understands this back story and relates to it. Then lets have them talk while they fight until therapy no jutsu is complete and naruto has redeemed another bad guy/princess watching the fight." Dont get me wrong, I enjoyed naruto, but yeah, there was a lot of flashbacks.

Alternately, as I recall it was basically "This anonymous ninja's life story and name will be revealed in flashback form just in time for them to be killed off. No, really, we will spend 10 minutes screen time giving this character an actual character so that you can feel bad about their actual on screen death."

It was one of the Chuunin Exam sound ninjas who they did that to that I recall. The guy who fought Shino.

(When losing the fight, activating his super powerup) -> "I cannot give up, I owe my village everything from saving me as an orphan, I must power through on behalf of my master and my friends" Flashback Sequence ->(Defeated/Betrayed/Used as Ritual Human Sacrifice by his teacher)

[cobaltstarfire]

Yeah 7 Deadly Sins is reeeaaallly bad about groppings, and panties.... I'm kind of intrigued by the story otherwise, but the non-stop molesting being treated like a joke/no big deal is really gross. It sounds like it doesn't get toned down, which is too bad. :\

[Traab]

Alternately, as I recall it was basically "This anonymous ninja's life story and name will be revealed in flashback form just in time for them to be killed off. No, really, we will spend 10 minutes screen time giving this character an actual character so that you can feel bad about their actual on screen death."

It was one of the Chuunin Exam sound ninjas who they did that to that I recall. The guy who fought Shino.

(When losing the fight, activating his super powerup) -> "I cannot give up, I owe my village everything from saving me as an orphan, I must power through on behalf of my master and my friends" Flashback Sequence ->(Defeated/Betrayed/Used as Ritual Human Sacrifice by his teacher)

Yeah that too. So... SO many flashbacks. /hangs head

[Knaight]

TBH, there are plenty of shows and movies (Japanese and American) that have aspects that are pretty reprehensible that the majority of people just shrug and go, "Eh, it's not a big deal. Just ignore that part." Nanatsu no Taizai isn't even a particularly bad offender when it comes to this. I mean, yeah, it's terrible to grope people, I don't think anyone would argue on that point, but if you actually read/watched enough of the show to learn the backstory, you learn that even when she's meeting him at the beginning of the story, he already thinks of her as his soulmate - because she kind of is. He's been in romantic relationships with her in multiple of her reincarnations. If they were a married couple and it happened only behind closed doors, it would be a kink, not molestation, seeing as she really doesn't seem to be opposed to it. So... weak justification, but at least there IS a justification. Many series are far, far worse about unacceptable behavior.

She doesn't come across as opposed to it, but she also can't. She needs these people, she can't accomplish her goal without these people, and that puts her in a position where she essentially has to put up with their crap. For Melodious, said crap involves essentially endless sexual harassment, with not infrequent sexual assault thrown in for good measure. It's unusually bad.

[Lemmy]

She doesn't come across as opposed to it, but she also can't. She needs these people, she can't accomplish her goal without these people, and that puts her in a position where she essentially has to put up with their crap. For Melodious, said crap involves essentially endless sexual harassment, with not infrequent sexual assault thrown in for good measure. It's unusually bad.

I'd agree with this... But she doesn't seem to be bothered by it at all. At least to me, it didn't seem like she didn't like she doesn't like it but is "putting up with their crap", it honestly looks like she doesn't mind, as if the groping was just a normal part of their relationship.

Well... At least the few episodes I saw. I dropped the show little after the giant girl joined. It just couldn't keep my interest.

Anyway.... Another trope I dislike is a trademark of anime, but c'est la vie: Giant robots.

I don't know why, but seeing people fighting in giant robots just isn't as exciting to me as people fighting with their own bodies (and whatever superpowers they have). There are some shows about giant mechas that I like, but they are few and far between... And usually, the robots aren't the main focus of the show (or at least, they are the part I care the least about).

[JeenLeen]

She doesn't come across as opposed to it, but she also can't. She needs these people, she can't accomplish her goal without these people, and that puts her in a position where she essentially has to put up with their crap. For Melodious, said crap involves essentially endless sexual harassment, with not infrequent sexual assault thrown in for good measure. It's unusually bad.

A few new episodes of 7 Deadly Sins came out on Netflix recently, and, well, I'll spoiler this for anyone who hasn't seen the show, but it has very few details:

Spoiler

Show

Since the plot of season 1 is resolved, she doesn't have any reason, beyond her own wishes, to hang out with them. She still chooses to hang out with Melodious and endure the groping. I did notice she asks to be put down a couple time he's holding her, and seems unhappy during one really over-the-top and long groping, but in general she just seems mildly embarrassed by it.

I got a bit side-tracked, but point is: she doesn't need them for anything currently.

[Lethologica]

Put it this way: any show where there's enough groping going on to elicit both extensive backstory justification and analysis of the target's response to different groping incidents including phrases like "really over-the-top and long" is a show I'm happy to miss.

[Psyren]

Believe it or not, the show has plenty of female fans. Plus, well, people can get really good at just tuning out certain aspects from works that they like all the other aspects of. I mean, if you remove "Meliodas likes to grope Elizabeth" from the series, there really isn't anything truly offensive about it and it's quite good if you like the sort of tropes it uses.

This is like saying "if you ignore all the molestation that guy routinely does, there's really no reason to take offense to him."

Wait, scratch that - that's exactly what this is saying.

No thanks.

I'd agree with this... But she doesn't seem to be bothered by it at all. At least to me, it didn't seem like she didn't like she doesn't like it but is "putting up with their crap", it honestly looks like she doesn't mind, as if the groping was just a normal part of their relationship.

Thing is, the fact that her writers (who, not unrelatedly, are themselves male) choose to write her in a way that is accepting of this behavior or at least passive towards it, doesn't make the situation any better. It's still childish at best and downright harmful at worst.

The oblivious hero in a harem setting, unaware of all the other characters feelings for him. Im so sick of this trope.

Harems in general just need to die. Love triangles or even quadrangles can exist for a time, but if you're going to establish that some or all of the protagonists are actually interested in finding love, for god's sake find it for all of them rather than having multiple characters waste their lives pining for one individual (of any gender.)

[Anonymouswizard]

Anyway.... Another trope I dislike is a trademark of anime, but c'est la vie: Giant robots.

I don't know why, but seeing people fighting in giant robots just isn't as exciting to me as people fighting with their own bodies (and whatever superpowers they have). There are some shows about giant mechas that I like, but they are few and far between... And usually, the robots aren't the main focus of the show (or at least, they are the part I care the least about).

You see I love giant robots. They're about as unrealistic as a free lunch, but I find something inherently awesome about the idea of someone having solved all the engineering problems.

[Knaight]

Thing is, the fact that her writers (who, not unrelatedly, are themselves male) choose to write her in a way that is accepting of this behavior or at least passive towards it, doesn't make the situation any better. It's still childish at best and downright harmful at worst.

Also, even if you ignore the meta details of it being a work that was written you're still left with the harrassment and assault coming from a character who knows the target can't really respond for the entire first season, and apparently (I haven't seen the second season, so I'm going off of the description of the show's defenders) once the second season rolls around they do object occasionally. It basically boils down to "Melodious was being a terrible person, but that's okay, because it turns out the target was on board with that and even though he had no way of knowing that it still retroactively makes things better. Also the big about the target being on board with that is fuzzy anyways."

God, but I hate that show.

[Lemmy]

You see I love giant robots. They're about as unrealistic as a free lunch, but I find something inherently awesome about the idea of someone having solved all the engineering problems.

I have no problem with unrealistic things in anime (or any other media). I'm just not a fan of giant robots in general, save for a few exceptions...

[Amaril]

Thing is, the fact that her writers (who, not unrelatedly, are themselves male) choose to write her in a way that is accepting of this behavior or at least passive towards it, doesn't make the situation any better. It's still childish at best and downright harmful at worst.

Now, I'm not familiar with the show in question, but looking at this more generally, doesn't this premise have some inherent problems? I mean, people who would just passively accept that kind of harassment do exist in real life. In this particular case, it may be that the show seems to endorse that as the correct response, or at least a non-problematic one, which is definitely bad if true. However, I have a problem with the contention that certain writers--in this case, male ones--should be criticized for writing certain kinds of characters--here, women who put up with sexual harassment--when those characters are reflections of personalities that exist in real people. To put it another way, I don't think it's necessarily a problem that the male writers of this show wrote a female character who would put up with sexual harassment; rather, I think the problem is more likely with the show as a whole condoning the harassment as acceptable, or not worthy of criticism. Granted, the fact that the male writers chose to write the character that way probably is just them inserting their harassment fantasies into the work, but as a general rule, I think it's our responsibility in cases like this to give the writer the benefit of the doubt and trust that they're making the choice with artistic integrity--otherwise, we get a situation where certain kinds of writers aren't allowed to portray certain things that do exist in reality, which I don't think is the right way to approach art. Just because a writer chooses to portray something doesn't mean they think it's good.

Hope I've managed to be clear. And again, I'm not defending this show in particular--I don't know anything about it.

[Knaight]

Now, I'm not familiar with the show in question, but looking at this more generally, doesn't this premise have some inherent problems? I mean, people who would just passively accept that kind of harassment do exist in real life. In this particular case, it may be that the show seems to endorse that as the correct response, or at least a non-problematic one, which is definitely bad if true. However, I have a problem with the contention that certain writers--in this case, male ones--should be criticized for writing certain kinds of characters--here, women who put up with sexual harassment--when those characters are reflections of personalities that exist in real people.

It's not that they wrote the character that way at all. It's that they wrote the character in that way because it lets their hero character be a jackass while the work still positions them as a wonderful hero, because hey, clearly they aren't doing any harm amirite? Take the situation out, and replace it with a situation where a character that's not positioned as a hero is doing this to someone because they known they won't respond, and where said action is presented as a bad thing, and the problem goes away.