Your most hated anime cliche

[For.I.Am.Mad]

The grinning bad guy. They always have a huge smile on their face no matter what. Especially when dealing with his underage 'apprentice' of evil.

Boys are better than girls syndrome. If a woman is powerful, oh you better believe she gonna get depowered somehow. If she's the badguy she won't be anywhere near as powerful as the protagonist and will usually be taking orders from a higher male figure. If she's powerful and has big boobs she'll probably die for being a horrible mistake on nature.

Stupid violence does not a creative make. Just because you take something from western lore, say 'Counting Sheep' and make it loudly violent doesn't mean it's creative or original.

Evangelion syndrome. I don't like it when the director pretty much uses the anime to get on a soapbox and tell me his existential views. It's rather arrogant.

You know, anime is really just an extension of kabuki theater. Which explains a lot.

 

[Nihilism_Is_Bliss]

The grinning bad guy. They always have a huge smile on their face no matter what. Especially when dealing with his underage 'apprentice' of evil.

Boys are better than girls syndrome. If a woman is powerful, oh you better believe she gonna get depowered somehow. If she's the badguy she won't be anywhere near as powerful as the protagonist and will usually be taking orders from a higher male figure. If she's powerful and has big boobs she'll probably die for being a horrible mistake on nature.

Stupid violence does not a creative make. Just because you take something from western lore, say 'Counting Sheep' and make it loudly violent doesn't mean it's creative or original.

Evangelion syndrome. I don't like it when the director pretty much uses the anime to get on a soapbox and tell me his existential views. It's rather arrogant.

You know, anime is really just an extension of kabuki theater. Which explains a lot.

I wouldn't say that the evangelion mangaka was that arrogant, as he was apparently severely depressed while writing it.
Nevertheless, how is the writer putting forward his philosophies and thinkings through their work a bad thing? That's what makes art.
They're hardly going to voice someone else's existential views. Anime that make you think are the best!

 

[vanthebaron]

Harem anime, moe (FUCK MOE), training montages (if they are training take a page from OP and TIME SKIP!!!), massive tits (tits=ok, massive tits on a 15 year old school girl=WRONG), hyper expressiveness (chibi's, the wholes facial structure changing, shit like that), the insanely stupid character (noone can be that dumb).

 

[Canton]

snip

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Not to mention authors of other mediums do so as well.

 

[DSK-]

I dislike fillers that have real role in the over-arching story of an anime. It's one of the reasons I stopped watching Naruto Shippuden and Bleach (I need to catch up with that, but I just can't be assed).

 

[Haunted Herring]

The majority of these clichés surround the more well known animé, e.g Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, DBZ etc - shows which have decreased in quality in a bid to keep pumping out new episodes. I'd like to see some examples of clichés worming their way into respected shows known for their reluctance to fall into cliché.

 

[Abedeus]

Hypothetical scenario: You ask someone to hit you in the stomach, while you are wearing a piece of armor. Somehow, upon impact a piece of the armor tears loose, cutting and injuring you badly.
Would you not agree that this was ironic? That what you wore for protection ended up hurting you worse than what you were trying to protect yourself against?

- OH THE IRONY!
- That's not ironic, it's coincidental!!

That's one example of a scenario that is not covered by the dictionary entry.

Tl;dr: I still think someone with a Gurren Lagann avatar complaining about Gurren Lagann would be ironic. (I realize you didn't, but hypothetically)

Well, hypothetically, you are a human, humans are animals, and animals poop in the street and pee on trees.

Why aren't you, as an animal, doing the same thing?

But listen: I can not be bothered to discuss this any longer. There are and have been more than enough discussions on this subject and, frankly, I am becoming bored with it.

Same.

 

[Nazulu]

There are a few, but the one that really gets to me is when they need to go into detail explaining there techniques and well thought out plans TO THE FUCKING ENEMY!!! They really don't need to explain a lot of this shit either, we can have a bit of mystery.

 

[Marik Bentusi]

Characters farting out new superpowers if they're just emotional enough.

 

[Kukakkau]

The lead character always has to take a pounding and keep fighting till eventually they become strong enough to beat their opponent - this is normally accompanied with the line "They can still stand??!"

 

[Madara XIII]

FREAKING FLASHBACKS!!! As much as I love how some things happened, I can't help but feel rage when they show the same flashback a multitude of times!

I'm looking at you Naruto!!!!

 

[Madara XIII]

The lead character always has to take a pounding and keep fighting till eventually they become strong enough to beat their opponent - this is normally accompanied with the line "They can still stand??!"

LOL I second that.

The Main Character having the most FREAKING LIFE or SPIRITUAL PRESSURE etc etc etc, when they aren't all that skilled XD

Bleach, Naruto, Inuyasha, it goes on

 

[sketch_zeppelin]

"It can't be helped" go back and watch your fav animes and i gaurante this line will pop up in most of them. Anytime someone makes a mistake or somthing bad happens some one is bound to say "It can't be helped" that exact damn line!

It reminds me of the "shrug" in acting. for those of you who haven't studied acting the shrug is a big acting no no because its ambigous in its meaning and its a sign of bad acting because: It's over used, generic, and doesn't do a good job of telling the audiance what an actor is feeling. "It can't be helped" has a similar feel to me. It's just a generic way of saying "lets move the plot along".

I think I only heard that line once in Clannad. And I'd say it was fairly well executed:
<youtube=OmKds9KVBgY>

but why did he need to say it at all? Why not sure or okay? "It can't be helped" doesn't seem to fit any particular situation. Its just somthing generic they say. I honestly think its a translation thing. like when they use a phrase that has no easy translation into our language they just say "It can't be helped"...makes them sound like robots.

I interpret it as "I guess there is no other way..." He will have to take one for the team since there's no other way around it. And it certainly fits Sunohara's character.

Then why not just say that? "It can't be helped" makes it sound like he didn't actually hear what his friend said and is just responding randomly.

also lets say your right, that it means taking one for the team. then why have i heard it used as a in drastically different situations? The phrase seems to have no real meaning in animes. I know it's not a huge thing but everytime i hear it in an anime (reguardless of quality) it's like nails on a chalk board.

 

[Jonluw]

"It can't be helped" go back and watch your fav animes and i gaurante this line will pop up in most of them. Anytime someone makes a mistake or somthing bad happens some one is bound to say "It can't be helped" that exact damn line!

It reminds me of the "shrug" in acting. for those of you who haven't studied acting the shrug is a big acting no no because its ambigous in its meaning and its a sign of bad acting because: It's over used, generic, and doesn't do a good job of telling the audiance what an actor is feeling. "It can't be helped" has a similar feel to me. It's just a generic way of saying "lets move the plot along".

I think I only heard that line once in Clannad. And I'd say it was fairly well executed:
<youtube=OmKds9KVBgY>

but why did he need to say it at all? Why not sure or okay? "It can't be helped" doesn't seem to fit any particular situation. Its just somthing generic they say. I honestly think its a translation thing. like when they use a phrase that has no easy translation into our language they just say "It can't be helped"...makes them sound like robots.

I interpret it as "I guess there is no other way..." He will have to take one for the team since there's no other way around it. And it certainly fits Sunohara's character.

Then why not just say that? "It can't be helped" makes it sound like he didn't actually hear what his friend said and is just responding randomly.

also lets say your right, that it means taking one for the team. then why have i heard it used as a in drastically different situations? The phrase seems to have no real meaning in animes. I know it's not a huge thing but everytime i hear it in an anime (reguardless of quality) it's like nails on a chalk board.

No idea. The only place I can remember having heard it used is in that scene.

 

[gigastrike]

The belief that reference to mythology automatically makes your show deep and smart. Also the use of Latin.

 

[Nannernade]

It grinds my gears when people prefer to watch anime in Japanese instead of a language they, you know, understand? You will not become more japanese if you hear japanese people talk, just letting you know. And the excuse they always use (translation errors) are negligible since some japanese word plays won't work in english. And again, laughing at these jokes doesn't make you japanese either, they aren't important to the story.

Well first of all, I don't think anyone thinks that, they watch them in japanese because the japanese actually get into the role, they act with emphasis, the americans well... I can easily tell they are just reading from a script... plus they pronounce everything wrong in english...

The cliche that really annoys me the most is the fact that every character has to name and shout out their moves before they can perform them.
I can understand the Bleach style of this, but things like hand to hand combat? The only example I can think of is from Kashimashi where the girl Tomari always goes TOMARI KICKKKK whenever Asuta gets too perverted towards Hazumu.

 

[Ranorak]

If its a series, and someone dies. And comes back. And dies again. And 'Oh look! We cant bring him back to life like last time, we have to find a new way to resurrect him!'
...
...
...
And do.

In all fairness, you probably never read any of the major DC or Marvel comics, did you?

 

[ArchAngelKira]

I've got a couple
1.The big boobed clutzy chick
2.bad gy 900000000 times stronger then everone on the good side with 12 people just as strong as him still DOESN'T WORK TOGETHER TO WIN!
3.EMOS

 

[Madara XIII]

I've got a couple
1.The big boobed clutzy chick
2.bad gy 900000000 times stronger then everone on the good side with 12 people just as strong as him still DOESN'T WORK TOGETHER TO WIN!
3.EMOS

LOL you just defined anime itself

 

[ArchAngelKira]

"It can't be helped" go back and watch your fav animes and i gaurante this line will pop up in most of them. Anytime someone makes a mistake or somthing bad happens some one is bound to say "It can't be helped" that exact damn line!

It reminds me of the "shrug" in acting. for those of you who haven't studied acting the shrug is a big acting no no because its ambigous in its meaning and its a sign of bad acting because: It's over used, generic, and doesn't do a good job of telling the audiance what an actor is feeling. "It can't be helped" has a similar feel to me. It's just a generic way of saying "lets move the plot along".

I think I only heard that line once in Clannad. And I'd say it was fairly well executed:
<youtube=OmKds9KVBgY>

but why did he need to say it at all? Why not sure or okay? "It can't be helped" doesn't seem to fit any particular situation. Its just somthing generic they say. I honestly think its a translation thing. like when they use a phrase that has no easy translation into our language they just say "It can't be helped"...makes them sound like robots.

I interpret it as "I guess there is no other way..." He will have to take one for the team since there's no other way around it. And it certainly fits Sunohara's character.

Then why not just say that? "It can't be helped" makes it sound like he didn't actually hear what his friend said and is just responding randomly.

also lets say your right, that it means taking one for the team. then why have i heard it used as a in drastically different situations? The phrase seems to have no real meaning in animes. I know it's not a huge thing but everytime i hear it in an anime (reguardless of quality) it's like nails on a chalk board.

When I saw her act like this I thought "Does she do the same thing while watcing Patrick & spongebob?"