Anime Clichéd? Touché!: Part 3

Part 1 and Part 2, again only if you feel the need to read them. =) While battle sequences are plagued by the aforementioned incessant cliches, what about when the hero and his gang of mismatched stereotypes have to run away to fight another day? Another sickening cliche arises, and this one is where nobody in the fleeing party seems to get shot or wounded by oncoming fire. Better known as: v) The Stormtrooper Abberation - Yes, just like in Star Wars, anime characters can have an entire army shooting at them with bows/guns/blasters/any projectile weapon, and still escape unscathed. Some animes don't even bother to make it realistic, allowing EVERYONE to escape totally wound-free. Come on, somebody has to get hurt when a hundred people are shooting at you right? Apparently not, in the minds of Japanese animators. Can this be avoided? Well, they COULD do without these horribly idiotic scenes and just let the hero get away without all the fuss. And while we're talking about heroes, my biggest peeve of a cliche is when characters on the good side hardly ever die. Of course there are the very scant exceptions, but it's quite normal to watch an entire anime series (especially if it's aimed more at young teens), and not see any of the good guys kick the bucket. This is most apparent for the leading character of course. vi) The all-immortal protagonist - Yes, we have all seen this. If the hero dies, then there is no anime, is there? How do we avoid this tragedy? Why, by making him immortal of course! Injuries suffered by main characters always seem like epiphenomenons, caused by a brutal attack, but usually having no subsequent influence besides the hero being on the ground. Shirou's incredible gash across his chest in Fate/ Stay Night is one of the most recent examples. True, it may be hard in ANY sort of media to just kill off the main character. However, I do feel that sometimes, especially in these shounen/fighting animes, people should die more. Period. Maybe you can't have the hero die, but I refuse to believe that nobody gets fatally wounded in the midst of all the energy blasting and crashing into brick walls and stuff. It's really contrasting how the anime of today are quite clearly aiming for more realistic animation, and believable stories, while failing to address problems like these. That, in my opinion are the few cliches that stick out like a sore thumb in this particular genre. It just goes to show the tendency of Japanese culture to ruthlessly, and blatantly imitate the best. Any remotely successful anime will undoubtedly spawn exactly 100 clones and 3 sequels (okay not really, but still), all of which will use similar mechanics, humour and style to portray their version of the story. Both bizarre and very predictable, this is what makes anime so full of repetition and cliches Okay, moving on. Next on the agenda is another genre-hybrid which is honestly, in my opinion, starting to be crippled by it's 4 or 5 standout cliches. The harem/romance genre, initially just romance around 8 years back, spawns clones like no tomorrow. Long ago, anime guys used to have to actually chase girls, but slowly animators decided these guys should have girls living or working with them or just clamoring all over them all day. Go figure. Hence, the harem bit. Oh, sure they change a few bits and pieces...schoolgirls, elf girls, magical girls, space girls, goddesses (um, ok, make it, they change the girls and settings)...but essentially nothing much separates one anime in this genre from another. Remember Tenchi Muyo? Alien girls. Love Hina. Crazy dorm-girls. Negima! Girls with pedophilia, lol. Ichigo 100%, Hand Maid May, Shuffle!, Ah! My Goddess and many other outright harem anime and also a decent amount having elements of this. Shuffle! So overpowering are the stereotypes that this has resulted in near perfect genrification of the harem/romance theme. Again, I'll begin with the obligatory protagonist, or in this case, one hell of a lucky guy. i) I'm Keitaro! No, I Am! - These anime NEED at least ONE male character. This male lead/s somehow always possesses a few, if not a load of, loser attributes. Okay, they're not all total losers per se. However, it is deemed necessary that the male lead is usually the shy-type, unusually unlucky, a nerd, and has a really lame styless hairdo. He may also possess 'women skills' close to retard level, and is the butt of most jokes played in the show, either by other acquaintences, or the girls of interest themselves. This really gets on my nerves sometimes, because it isn't very realistic when all the totally sizzling hot (in anime world) females start going ga-ga over this undistinguished character. These guys are nearly ALWAYS in embarassing situations with the girls, resulting in either a piercing scream or a hard slap on the face. How droll. But, there is a very valid reason for this wimpy manifestation of a man, besides the animators being sexually depraved. Majority of anime-viewers = MALE. Gender with non-stop sexual urges = MALE. =D Making the somewhat lame male lead eventually score with one/many/all of these beautiful tsunderes/moés is every guy's dream come true. Again, the lead is made to be more rooted in reality (read: normal), so when he finds love, it feels good to the viewer. Pandering to the viewer's desires is a good way of stating it. The next important ingredient are obviously the girls or love interests for that lame dude. This is where things get a little stale sometimes. Having such a large number of girls (usually) means that good differentiation of personalities is absolutely vital. This is, of course, to make it more believable, and to keep things interesting. Before I get to their personalities though, let's talk about looks. ii) Stop the presses! I think we have enough girls! - Looks? Whaddaya mean looks? Aren't they all pretty, cute or sexy? Yes, they're all usually acceptably attractive, ie. big chests, flowing hair, cute face, long legs, but this is also the problem. Sometimes it feels like the artists just couldn't be bothered to come up with distinguishing, unique designs for these girls due to their large number or whatever. Look at the girls in Shuffle!. Man, they look like they drew the same freaking girl a few times, added pointy ears to some, and changed their hair colours. And if you lopped off the heads of every To Heart girl, they'd just all be dead schoolgirls with the same measurements, haha (sorry, I'm sadistic). Love Hina is an exception though, the girls all having their own personalities/desires/wants. Seiyuus are also important, and again I felt Love Hina did well with this. Every girl had distinct differences in clothes, features, voice and attitude. Although I'm not totally happy with the anime, I felt it excelled in these 2 departments. After all, the whole purpose of having this many girls, besides to showcase the loser's lucky break, is really so that the audience can identify with a girl more appealing to their particular tastes. I really hate it when 4 out of 5 girls have that high pitched, sugary, loli voice. Goodness. Attack of the Clones! iii) I hate you! POW! Oh, I think you look cute with your teeth punched in - Sound familiar? The term may be relatively new, but the concept has been used quite abit over the years. I'm talking about the all popular tsundere. Female characters in these sorts of anime are usually stereotyped into one of a few constant roles. The tsundere, the moé, the loving, motherly girl, the smart girl, and the girl that has no romantic interest in the guy. Tsunderes again pander to the male viewers. It's just that much more satisfying watching the protagonist somehow manage to make the violent, aloof and unfriendly girl fall for him. Wahaha! Super Conquest! Ahem. Hmm, I'm not sure whether this should be a paragraph on tsunderes or stereotypical roles. But, they're closely related, I guess. It's not puke-material just yet, but animators need to diversify the girls in these animes if they're thinking of milking this popular franchise for the next 10 years. Hey, I LOVE tsunderes, but too much of anything can never be good. Then, there's the stupid situation factor. Every anime in this genre has to have these scenes. They range from the guy falling into a girl's chest, to the constant interruptions during romantic sequences. I love you, you big loser you. iv) I love y...Aah! - Humorous sequences are meant to be just that. Compromising situations, usually forced upon our stereotypical male lead, often lead to funny sequences. Often. You see, an anime has to be able to carry a scene out professionally, although that might seem like a terrible choice of words. Scenes must be included in a way where a plot is not disrupted and the anime does not feel like it suddenly came to a halt. A few of these harem/romance anime overdo these funny bits, resulting in really UN-funny bits. Looking up the girl's skirt is only amusing THAT many times. And, I just dislike those interruptions when the guy and girl are going to kiss or are becoming more intimate. Once is okay, twice is acceptable, 3 times is bearable, but almost every episode is downright lame. I like romance. I'm the kind that would love to see 2 people end up together at the end of a series. I'm the kind that felt disappointed when Shirou and Saber didn't end up together (F$#% the game, make your own ending, for crying out loud!). So, I hate it when, for instance, Keitaro of Love Hina kept touching Naru 'somewhere' or gets cans hitting his head whenever he seems to be making headway. The manga was much better at this, providing comic relief and satisfaction at the same time. These two problems here can certainly be improved on. Don't throw jokes at us for no bloody reason, and make relationships more mature. I don't get a kick out of watching 2 young adults acting like children when it comes to love. Well, there are quite a few more cliches I could talk about. Like the ever-present hateable 'rival' in romance animes. But I won't. I'm beat, and you're probably way past the 5 second mark of internet surfers. So, that just about wraps it up for me. I've gone through the two genre-hybrids where I feel showcase anime's plague-like disease quite clearly. Perfect sub-genrification from perfect stereotyping. Another goddess just for me? Huzzah! While I do not expect any of this to change much in the near future, I do hope and expect animators to start cracking their minds to come up with better ideas. Anime has evolved into what it is today because somewhere along the way, they DID use their brains. After all, as much as we knock it, this harem trend came from somewhere didn't it? And it has been and still is entertaining. In a money-churning business like this, repetition is inevitable, but it still needs to keep evolving, instead of stopping to smell the flowers, so to speak. So, while we're waiting for that, it's cliches all around the table then. =) >>> Animania Tags: Animation, Anime, Japanese Animation, Manga, Anime Cliches, Anime Stereotypes, Tenjou