I can't stand the "maniac bright-eyed energetic innocent pixie girl" with "emo lonely my parents are killed when I was 3 cool guy." And the girl is usually pinning after a guy that wants nothing to do with her, but then they suddenly end up together because he was hit by an epiphany. I'm looking at you, Gray and Juvia. I feel that this kind of dynamic is extremely toxic, both in real life and in anime/manga/roleplay. A similar trope to this will also be "masochistic girl forever pinning after a guy that constantly hurts her in hopes that he will change, and he does." I'm looking at you too, Lelouch and Shirley

What I do prefer is something akin to a "golden tag team" couple. A couple like Misaki and Usui from Maid-sama- because they feel right for each other, they are both ambitious, smart, and fully capable without each other. Another amazing example will be Kaguya Shinomiya and Miyuki Shirogane from Kaguya-sama. Maybe Lelouch and CC would've been a better fit too. Erza and Jellal from Fairy Tail also feels good together. Lucy and Natsu- both extroverted, happy-go-lucky, loyal. I feel like couples that are so vastly opposite strikes me as strange- like Raven and Beastboy from Teen Titans.

I really hate that one ignorant/clueless character who's always like- chasing around the mc bc they love them, and doing absurd/unrealistic/stupid to slowly become a "damnsel in distress". Like holy crap stop that, cease, begone thot. if she doesn't have a spine, she's not worthy of the mc's affection (or my husband, k thanks).

There are exceptions to this, where the char gets some development and become tolerable. But outside of this.. like.. why? why are they there? they're so useless.

I'm heavily look at characters like that one chick from Tendou: Sirius the Jaeger. Just.. like.. why. can you not.

May 25, 2020 21:06:42 GMT @akio said:

It's just over-used, and primarily female. Where is the male ecchi? Ah, but then again, why would a room full of starved male writers and animators want to bother with that? Wouldn't want to look gay or anything, someone might notice.

Probably more accurate to say it's the audience and clientele that the industry caters to, but I'm no expert. There is a surprising amount of women working in the animation industry. It's just sad that most content is dictated by sales and, as you said, sex sells.

Hence why I'm quite tired of the "good for nothing MC but actually has a niche talent/skill/trump card to overcome his struggles!" trope. I do like Shield Hero, though. Though I think, for that it's more along the lines of the author cleverly writing in the protagonist being shrewd and crafty rather than relying on a special trait — though I do hear that comes more into play in the light novels later down the road.

I hecking loathe pretty much every isekai that's come out in the last decade because of their cardboard cut out projection template Protagonist-kun with negative personality who always saves the day and always gets a bunch of girls fawning over him so some basement dweller can put himself in the dude's shoes and pretend like they have some modicum of worth - *SHARP INHALE* I hate a lot of tropes associated with isekais, though, like the shameless ripping of video game GUIs that look terrible and make no sense in the setting, or the, "Wow, look at that! Being weaboo trash suddenly makes me a genius here!"

I dislike lazily done secret villains. I think that trope can be done well, but it's definitely become something more common as a way to subvert expectations without any real build up or payoff, and it completely kills pacing and doesn't feel satisfying when the threat is conquered, since... we only, like... dealt with the threat for the little bit when the baddy was revealed. Honestly, this is more an issue I have with western media, but Nines bringing up Shield Hero reminded me of the heckin' Pope, and now I'm having war flashbacks, sdljfkshdkfjsdh.

I've never been a fan of the 'do you accept your harsh reality or submit to ideal fantasy' trope, not because I don't think it has potential, but mostly since I've never seen it done very well given that potential. It doesn't help that the answer media always wants you to believe is 'well, duh, accept harsh reality', but then they put all their time in making the protagonists scream about it when they never actually address why they (and by extension, you) should come to that conclusion. It's like an answer we're expected to see as 'correct' without any thought put behind it. I dunno.

Training arcs. *sobs* Jojo's did it right when they montaged for, like, maybe two minutes. Anyone who tells me part one was paced poorly is a LIAR.

Love interests that barely matter until the very end so they can have a female character to pair main boy up with in hopes for a sequel series. BT Like, if you're not going to build up a compelling romantic connection between two characters, just don't include it at all, please. It's even worse when the pairing makes no gosh darned sense, and the writers may as well have been throwing names into a random number generator.

Edit, because I had this sitting as a WIP in the quick reply for hours and two people replied, sdlkjfhkdjfh, but hard seconding the above two posts, honestly? I was mostly thinking, like, Naruto/Bleach for tacked-on love interests, and it's extra slap-in-the-face-y when those characters get shoved to the sideline because the writers only know how to power up the main protagonist and their rival. *sobs*

Yeah the Ichigo/Orihime and Renji/Rukia ending bugged the hell out of me because at the very surface, Orihime's crush on Ichigo was highlighted the most and it's never really shown him reciprocating her feelings.

On the other hand, my dream endgoal of NaruHina was answered with Naruto -The Last- and YEAH... THAT MOVIE... JUST... BROUGHT ME TO TEARS... I'M GOING TO BE A SUCKER FOR SAYING THIS BUT... EVEN IF IT MIGHT NOT MAKE UP FOR AN ENTIRE SERIES WORTH OF DEVELOPMENT... MY THANKFUL SHIPPER HEART LOVED THAT MOVIE...

Fruits Basket does a pretty good job portraying various relationship dynamics. Sometimes portraying some not very nice ones as well. I do really love how Tohru comes off as emotionally weak yet strong at the same time... I recommend this in-depth analysis video made about her which dives into her writing and development.

the way that i just freeze and groan loudly when i just want to enjoy one of my old favorite series but oops there's just casual incest / pedobear content (or some other stuff that's just a super huge yikes going on that was really iffy when i was younger but has definitely gotten a lot more problematic as i've gotten older)

because look i may be shameless garbage that likes kuroshitsuji and vampire knight and loveless but just. can we not do the yikes stuff please? like? can we all just agree? to just not?

and i'm honestly not sure what's worse, when it's something that's just..... the main scope of what's going on in the series (like loveless) or where it's something largely going on in the periphery (like vampire knight) because on one hand it's impossible to escape but on the other it's just annoying any time it pops up and the series is otherwise fine except for this specific part of it.

idk i've just been going on a kick lately where i want to go back and revisit my old faves and i keep freezing up as i realize oh yeah xyz thing happens and y'know what that's really uncomfortable why is this a thing i'm gonna have to deal with thanks i hate it-