Izanagi009 said:
I know a lot of the archetypes and have found the ones that piss me off and the ones that delight me. Anything dark, gritty or deconstructive (Psycho-pass) or any really good mecha (Gundam Wing) makes me want to watch it immediately. Harem, slice-of-life, and comedy make me hurl. If i'm wrong on what you mean by archetypes, please elaborate.
The things you refer to are actually called "genres." When I say archetypes, I mean a certain kind of character. In western storytelling, you have archtypal characters like the "wise old wizard," the "hero," the "trickster," those kinds of things. For example, Obi Wan Kenobi would be a fairly standard interpretation of the wise old wizard, whereas Morpheus (from the Matrix) would be the same archetype with (literally) different clothing and demeanor.
It seems to me that Anime archetypes are a little more obvious, or hew more closely to a certain template, than other storytelling genres. For example, the standard Anime/Manga "magic girlfriend" archetype is, from my experience, largely obvious and unchanged as a character from story to story, whereas Morpheus is rather different from Obi Wan Kenobi, in both appearance and demeanor.
They also seem to often have a "perky, or quirky, sidekick" character, as well in my experience. Sazh, from Final Fantasy XIII is one example I can think of.
If you are interested in wanting to know more about archetypes, I'd heartily recommend Joseph Campbell's book, "Hero with a Thousand Faces." He goes into a lot of detail about it there.
"The Writer's Journey," by Christopher Vogler, is also good, and doesn't spend as much time as Campbell on comparative mythology, which can be a slog at times.