Anime Clichés

[Evangelion Unit 01]

A night or so a go I came across the Prince of Tennis on Cartoon Network, and I believe it was the first episode. I am not into that series and seeing it I don't think I will ever be, but besides that I wanted to point out a few clichés I've been getting sick of lately in animes, and would like to open a discussion to anyone who is getting tired of the same thing in almost every anime or any other clichés they would like to comment on.

Clichés I saw in the Prince of Tennis (Which I see in every other anime)

Cliché 1: Prince: quiet guy who says nothing and kicks the other guy’s ass.
(There is always some one in an anime who says nothing, can do everything to the T, probably has some deep mysterious background, and has every girl wanting him while he decides to stay distant and cold to all of the girls but one.)

Cliché 2: Other guy is getting horribly beaten, but still says he will win and only gets angrier as the shot focuses on his face and the background looks like it is going really fast.
(All kick your ass and win by some miracle even though I am arrogant and suck!)

Cliché 3: Two guys on the side explaining the entire event.
(Just encase someone can't keep a thought in their head for two seconds about what just happened. I think I've seen that in DBZ about 5000 times.)

Cliché 4: Hot guy wins.
(Because he is hot.)

Cliché 5: The main male character is Yaoi like.
(And also 12 years old so shame on you girls who are 18 and getting all hot and bothered over him and guys in certain cases; NOT MINE. Just my moral opinion but no one should really be looking that hot until they are at least in the 9th grade or are 14-15 years old. I don't know what grade that main character is in.)

I am pretty sure I am forgetting something, but anyway please feel free to use this thread to talk about what anime clichés annoy you, what anime it annoyed you in the most, and recommend any other animes that make fun of clichés (like Excel Saga). Have fun and be angry

[Otohiko]

Cliché 1: Prince: quiet guy who says nothing and kicks the other guy’s ass.
(There is always some one in an anime who says nothing, can do everything to the T, probably has some deep mysterious background, and has every girl wanting him while he decides to stay distant and cold to all of the girls but one.)

I'd like to mention how this totally fails for getting girls interested in real life for some reason. Tried, tested, true. Hypocricy, ladies!

I have many to note, but I need to sleep - but there's one that I'll mention that's probably on anyone's mind: HAREM.

God damn it. How many anime can you count where there is a huge gender imbalance to one side (and this, by the way, goes BOTH ways - don't get cocky, ladies, PoT is an excellent example of a male harem), where every character is pigeonholed to hell.

It's not that I have anything against gender imbalances; I do, however, rather resent the whole "token [characteristic] guy/girl" - and normally each one will have one or two characteristics for an otherwise flat character. There are exceptions to that. But I honestly wish the writers would stop giving the requisite hotties a checklist of binary items and fleshed out some characters for a change.

[NelTu]

Magical girls?

[Rapture**]

Cliché 2: Other guy is getting horribly beaten, but still says he will win and only gets angrier as the shot focuses on his face and the background looks like it is going really fast.
(All kick your ass and win by some miracle even though I am arrogant and suck!)

i would like to say that this is like that in ever anime (at least Naruto,GetBackers,Bleach,DragonBall(Z,GT),and much much more). in that kind of series main characters are always weak,but have totally super power hidden inside of them,because for no reason (or particular reason may exist maybe) so they have that power,and little by little they learn how to use it. i want to add to that.

Cliché 1: Prince: quiet guy who says nothing and kicks the other guy’s ass.
(There is always some one in an anime who says nothing, can do everything to the T, probably has some deep mysterious background, and has every girl wanting him while he decides to stay distant and cold to all of the girls but one.)

i may say example which everybody knows - Naruto and Sasuke. Sasuke would take Cliché 1 and Naruto Cliché 2 . so Sasuke almost each time leaves Naruto in dust,then Naruto get mad,angry and stuff like that,which helps him to activate his hidden power (in this case Kyuubi(i hope i spelled it right)) so that Naruto can beat crap out of everybody. in that count,he will finally beat crap out of Sasuke , and then Sasuke will always wonder something like : "Why did he got so strong??" well and stuff like that. but everybody knows that.

I would like to add one thing to "Cliché 2", that kind of character is always generous,he wants peace,and helps every living being in trouble (i doubt about existence of that kind of people in real world) so he thinks that he can save the world,by doing some good deeds...

also i want to add one thing that i once wrote in my journal (i named it "Code Arnold!") - so here it goes.

Every main character must once face HIMSELF! That must happen only when character is lost in thoughs and seeking for answer for all his selfish questions (that is : Why this has to happen to ME?? Why am I here?? WHO THE HELL AM I???!!! well something like that.) and when he faces himself,he must fight and must endure a lot of hits,then main character (let's use something like " Arnold "(if there is Arnold on the org,then i'm not talking about you here,no offense) so then Arnold must hear from himself,that Arnold is fool,and that he has no friends,besides he always been alone,and everybody hates Arnold. Then,finally,Arnold starts to shout something like " NO! YOU'RE WRONG! I HAVE A LOT OF FRIENDS,AND I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN SUPPORTED BY THEM!!! (now he starts to list all long list of his friends,and while listing them,reminiscene of his past flashes by showing Arnold having fun moments with his friends) " and then,when he finally listed all of his friends,and shouted to himself that he was never alone and stuff like that... Then,finally,FINALLY . . . Arnold hits himself many times,and then Arnold's copy ("Himself" is really a copy of Arnold that doesn't have all power that Arnold possess(it's always like this)) drops down on ground,says something like " Impossible,how can you have this much power when you have nobody??! " and Arnold answering like this " You're mistaken.I always had friends,so you can't fool me anymore,now I believe in my friends.. (goddamn it Arnold really talks like some kind of Wiseman ...) " and then Arnold rushes to save the world (or at least save the one he loves).

if anybody noticed - that happens almost in every action anime.

maybe it's sounds like nonsense,but that's what i wanted to say.

that would be all.

[kikai_saigono]

I'd like to point out that in Yaoi animes, the uke (bottom) is usually a shy, quiet, and girly teenage boy. :/

[BasharOfTheAges]

Congrats, you discovered archetypes. Makes life seem less interesting, doesn't it?

[Cornwiggle]

I always hate the cliches of the villian "destroying the world". It makes it feel like I'm watching something with no imagination when that's the ultimate goal of the villian.

[older_gohan]

An anime that Destroys all of the Cliche's is Ghost in the Shell.

Cliche 1: Most of them aren't quiet and no matter what they kick ass because they are supposed to in the anime.

Cliche 2: Bato got horribly beaten and he stayed horribly beaten. (Fight between him and Kuze, Bato get's his ass handed to him and it stays that way.)

Cliche 3: Trust me if you've seen the anime they really don't take time to review, they keep going and going with or without you.

Cliche 4: The Hot Girl (The Major) was shot in the face in the first movie, never got her body back in the second, ended up being owned by a superior hacked in the 1 st series, and never beats Kuze in the 2nd series doesn't always win.

Cliche 5: Bato is someone I don't think many girl's are gaga over.

[Ari-chan]

Cliché 1: Prince: quiet guy who says nothing and kicks the other guy’s ass.
(There is always some one in an anime who says nothing, can do everything to the T, probably has some deep mysterious background, and has every girl wanting him while he decides to stay distant and cold to all of the girls but one.)

I'd like to mention how this totally fails for getting girls interested in real life for some reason. Tried, tested, true. Hypocricy, ladies!

To be fair, it ONLY works if the person being quiet is drop dead gorgeous, handsome, and sexy; like something out of a movie (not saying you aren't). In order to pull off being distant and at the same time, getting girls to like you, you have to look sort of spacy and daydreamy rather then angry or shy. That is how I saw it work in real life at my school, the girls went crazy for him.

as for cliches: I don't mind them, as I have grown tolerant towards them. But I'll thrown one out just because...

With the Magical Girl genre there is amlost always a cute maskot that knows everything about the situation, and nothing at the same time. They almost exist soley to look cute and merchandise the show. Is usually a sort of cat.

Anime: Where Aliens can always speak perfect Japanese.

Harem: The main male character's friends are always pervy and obnoxious goofballs. Third party member friend is also always a quiet guy who is actually successful in love and thus is not important.

Hentai: it must alway have sex....oh wait.

[Arigatomina]

Cliché 1: Prince: quiet guy who says nothing and kicks the other guy’s ass.

Cliché 4: Hot guy wins.

Stick with the series for a while. For every charactery you see who wins a match, you'll see that same person lose later down the line. That's like it's own cliche when it comes to sports anime - the good guys, no matter how superior they are as athletes, always have to lose enough matches to worry the viewer that they might not make it to regional/nationals/whatever-match they're aiming for.

Cliché 5: The main male character is Yaoi like.

No no no, you have the cliche wrong. It's supposed to be a "minor character who is clearly gay" and a "token girlfriend for the main character that he almost never spends time with since it's a sports anime with all-male teams". Ryoma's got Sakuno so he's the "token het" character, whether he knows what to do with her or not. PoT is so full of gay they needed a token het - and Ryoma got it. If it wasn't so gay, it would have a token gay, but that would be the Golden Pair. They touch way too much in public.

.
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I don't really get annoyed by anime cliches. I've come to expect them. It's like a recipe for success depending on the anime type.

Group anime character types
One Piece, Bleach, Naruto, YYH, DBZ, etc.
They all have the goodhearted (but not necessarily smart) main guy, the naive (but not necessarily strong) damsel or 'victim' character, the rivals (who really like each other no matter how often they beat on each other), the idiot extremist (often the main character or his best friend), the smart quiet one (who often doubles as the "victim" character), the cool killer (who's never as cold as he pretends to be), and on and on.
It's the plot that makes the difference, the combination of those "classic" character types to fit the world they're put into.

Sports anime
Prince of Tennis, Whistle, Eyeshield21, I'll/CKBC, etc.
They all have the token girl character (either a cheerleader, or the one worrying about how dangerous the sport is for the main guy), the strong older role model character (usually the captain, male or female), the rivals (what shounen anime doesn't have rivalry within the home team?), the buddy (who's friendly even with the antisocial ones), the animal idiot (a cat or a monkey or an ox, sports seems to equate the "clown" with some animal type), the voice of reason (if the team's big enough, this person seconds whatever the captain says), and then there's the rival team/s that have the same character types reproduced.

Magical girl groups
Red, blue, and green. If there's more than three of them, you'll get a few more colors, but there's always red blue and green - fire water earth.
Rayearth, Sailor Moon, Tokyo Mew Mew, Dangaizer3, etc.
They all have the token male character (usually a boyfriend who plays the victim to be rescued, the hero doing the rescuing, and the villain the girls don't want to fight against). The girls follow the same types as the guys in the "sports" and "boy groups" anime.

Harem anime
I don't consider "sports" anime in the same group as "harem". Harem anime always have a single main character surrounded by characters of the opposite sex, all of whom are in love with that perfect main character. Tenchi - all the "perfect" girls drown in their own drool for one clueless clumsy geek. Fushigi Yuugi - all the "perfect" guys fall over each other for one clueless garbage disposal. The token female in male sports anime is only there for show - none of the guys have time for her, including her supposed boyfriend.
I haven't seen enough girl sports anime to know if it works the same for them (probably not, girls are more likely to lose their games while they're fighting over the lone male character - that's an entirely different anime cliche).

It would be more fun to compare plot cliches to see how many anime follow the same storyline, since they all seem to feature the same characters.

Ex: They all spend forever building up to face the super villain, they're fighting equally, and then the super villain flips a switch and he's suddenly twice as strong - so the group goes either goes back to training, or the main character suddenly realizes he has a switch to flip, too, so he beats the supervillain like he was standing still. All the preparation for that showdown was a waste of time.