Well, hello again. It’s so nice of you to drop by and see what nonsense I’ve cooked up for you. Nothing is better than making new friends who share your hobbies and (most of) your opinions. This mention of opinions comes in to play today, because my topic might be seen as controversial or downright stupid. Fair enough, I say. That’s why it’s an opinion. If you completely and utterly find my opinion on the subject disagreeable, please make sure to drop a comment down below. If you agree, well of course I want to hear from you too! So what is today’s topic? Funny you should ask, because today we’re switching things up and focusing on anime. Now, taking into account the numerous genres that exist, it can be a little difficult to group everything together for discussion. You can’t exactly discuss the best villains in anime unless you exclude comedy and romance. Likewise, you can’t discuss best anime couples without removing horror or action anime. With that in mind, I started thinking about what brings everyone together, and realized that we all have things that bother the ever loving crap out of us, even in things that we absolutely love. Once upon a time, I could say I loved anime wholeheartedly. But, man, after watching show after series after show, there are some clichés that I would love to see dead and buried. So here we go! Buckle up while I talk about anime clichés that must die.
1] SUPER POWERFUL…. OR NOT
Everyone should be familiar with the cliché in pretty much any form of visual entertainment where there is one all powerful, super dangerous, sought after power or weapon or machine. The entire first season (if not more than one) spends its entire time building up this special thing that is more powerful than anything else in the universe. It’s the end-all-be-all. It’s the true apex of everything that exists. Be it an almighty power, like finally becoming a true super Saiyan, or the most powerful weapon in the world, like Voltron, that everyone seeks to become or own. Everyone fears and revers it. Once they achieve this, nothing in the universe can stand in their way. So the first season(s) show our heroes fighting the odds in order to obtain whatever this almighty thing is. Perhaps the main antagonist is currently in possession of said item or ability. The fights are nigh impossible. The struggle to win the battle is palpable. This truly is a magnificently powerful item/ability/power/etc.! I can’t wait for our heroes to finally obtain it! And then, against all odds, they do! Huzzah! Now they are unstoppable…
Except they aren’t. Because immediately after super Saiyan is achieved, now suddenly every antagonist is stronger than a Saiyan. In fact, psh you’re nothing without being a secondary form of it. Oh, you’ve achieved that? Well now everyone else is stronger than you and you’ll need to become a god. Oh what’s that? You’ve done so? Well, get good noob, because that power, that was so intensely sought after in order to be the best, is now worthless. Congrats. In the case of Voltron, it is supposed to be THE defender of the universe. Everyone wants to own it. Everyone wants to control it. But once our heroes are inside of the machine, every single enemy they come up against is so much more powerful and they barely scrape through by the skin of their teeth. For some reason, in most shows I’ve seen, the highly powerful, apex whatever is usually “meh” immediately upon its obtainment.
Hear my pleas, anime creators, mangakas, writers everywhere! If you’re going to have something be absolute perfection, either make it impossible to actually achieve, or let it live up to expectations. No, you don’t have to give our heroes ultimate power where there’s no struggle anymore, but don’t instantly decide that there has to be something bigger and better every single season.
2] WE CAN FILL MORE TIME!
The fillers. God, the fillers. It shouldn’t take twelve episodes to finish one fight scene. I don’t need the random episodes of the characters taking a reprieve from fighting monsters by going to the beach. I don’t need huge subplots that make no difference in the scheme of things as a whole. I don’t care about every side character’s backstory. Yes, you need to pad your runtime so that people keep coming back for more, keep buying the manga, keep paying for their Crunchyroll subscriptions. I get it. But there are some anime that I absolutely refuse to watch because they are a thousand episodes long, and over half of those are fillers. Some fans have gone through and made abridged versions of some shows so that people can actually watch the story from start to finish without the huge distractions. I used to watch one of the Dragonball series way back in the day, as a kid, and remember one fight scene (a single scene) that took us about 4 weeks to finish, because they dragged it out as long as they possibly could. I get adding more information to make you sympathize with characters, or wanting to amp up the tension to get people on the edge of their seats. But damn, there’s a limit. Eventually people get bored and tired of waiting, they lose interest, or they get annoyed. I was all of the above. I want to watch the main story and significant subplots that add to character development or build the world around it. I don’t have time to sit down and watch Bleach, Naruto, or One Piece. They’re far too long. I’d watch abridged versions that remove all the filler. I’d love that. That's just far too much time to spend watching a show that keeps distracting itself.
Apparently, this is an unpopular opinion, as I have seen YouTube channels, blogs, and essays devoted to the reason fillers are actually a good, enjoyable thing. I don’t get it, honestly. I really don’t. So maybe it’s just a patience thing. What do you think? Am I just too impatient, or are fillers super annoying to you?
3] WHERE'D YA GET THAT BODY FROM
This. Listen, I love titties as much as the next guy, but honestly what is with anime tiddies? In what realm is this possible? For some reason, anime girls always have the biggest, heaviest, gravity-defyingest chest that cannot possibly exist in nature. At some point, breasts stop being sexy and start getting ridiculous. And boy howdy are anime tiddies the worst about this. I’m giving a pass for hentai, because none of it is remotely realistic. I’m talking about your regular, non 19+ shows. It can make sense when it’s a comedy anime and they joke about how impossibly large a chest is. Sure. But this is hardly ever the case. Instead they are supposed to be a regular girl in high school, and no one even mentions how unrealistic they are or how uncomfortable they must be. Bonus if they jiggle every time she moves, or ignore gravity completely. Bonus bonus if the creators gave her the tightest, smallest piece of fabric possible so that they’re just… there. I feel like it’s become a challenge to create bigger and bigger boobs and smaller and smaller clothing just to see how far they can take it. What are they supposed to be for? Does anyone actually find them aesthetically pleasing? You want big boobs, make them a double D. Don’t break the poor girl’s spine AND laws of gravity just to please the tiniest portion of fans.
This goes for male anime physiques as well. Who looks like this? Real life bodybuilders don’t have twelve packs, abs on their abs, and neck muscles the size of a bear. Are people attracted to this? Is this supposed to look cool? Are people supposed to see this and think “Gosh I wish I looked like him!”? Frankly, it’s super distracting to me. I can’t get past how ridiculously huge dudes can get in anime. Plus, you see how vascular this guy is. Drink some water, man! You shouldn’t be popping veins like that. Men in anime always have glistening muscles, flowing locks of hair, and not a single body hair. Side note: WHO KEEPS OILING THESE GUYS? Sweat doesn’t glisten like that.
I don’t know who these physiques are supposed to be for, honestly. I guess some people look at them and find them attractive. I guess others aspire to look like this? If that’s your thing, more power to you. But, again, why does every guy have to look like this in action anime? Why can’t they look, I don’t know, normal? Like a regular guy who trains his body? Why does he have to have arms as big as a truck? Why is this the norm for men in anime in order for them to be seen as powerful? It kind of sends a message that you can’t be a strong person without glistening abs on abs on abs.
Oh, anime fans. A little side comment here: Fan service. We get it. You want to see skimpy clothes and panty flashes and jiggly breasts. You want to see muscular arms too heavy for a regular person to lift. It doesn’t have to be in every single anime. It’s in action, horror, fantasy, school life… every single anime genre at this point is just girls in clothes that barely cover them up and men with impossibly huge bodies. I’m not a prude by any means, but I get really annoyed at this weird idea that you have to have excessive skin in order to draw people into your show. Some of us just want to watch a good story and don’t need all of that. It is never anything other than distracting to me. I look at logical inconsistencies (Why does that soldier’s armour barely cover her up?) (Why does he have a six pack on his neck?) Enough is enough. Let me watch my anime in peace!
Okay, me, you got a bit riled up for that last entry. Settle down. The anime tiddies can’t hurt you anymore. So let’s move onto a subject that does hurt me every time, but not the way it probably should: love triangles.
This topic bothers me for a few reasons. For one, it’s in every single romance anime out there. Every. Single. One. It gets repetitive and stale so quickly, and there’s never any reprieve. Even the cutesiest stories have a love triangle or a love rival. If it didn’t happen as often, maybe it would be interesting. Instead, we’re bombarded with this time and time again. “Two people are in love with one character and they must choose which to date. Oh my! How will they choose?” or “This character fell in love with someone, but then fell in love with someone else afterward! Oh my! How will they decide?” Boring. Writers, please stop with this. Not every romance needs to be spiced up with a love triangle. Just focus on the romance of the two characters. Give them regular relationship struggles, like deciding what to eat for dinner or whose turn it is to take out the garbage. Or give them spectacular struggles, like financial problems, societal judgment, or dealing with grief. It really distracts from the characters and their strife when you suddenly introduce a third character who wants to bang the protagonist, too, and suddenly “oh my what will they do?!”
Another reason why this cliché always bothers me is because I never understand why they can’t just date them both? If you love them both and can’t choose, then don’t. Polyamory is a thing. Sit down and have an adult conversation. Talk to them both honestly. If they’re down for it, date both of them. If one is for it and the other is a jealous butthead, don’t date the butthead. If they force you to choose between them, date neither. Anyone who gives you an ultimatum is not worth your time. I’m sure this opinion is controversial, since not everyone is polyamorous. Or they hardcore ship one couple and will defend them until the end without ever accepting that maybe the other person is just as good. I have read (literally) hundreds of manga that would have been over in a few chapters if the protagonist had just decided to date them both. Fun enough, though, some mangakas have caught onto this and started introducing some comics where they become a throuple. Thank you! You have no idea how much of a relief it is to read a comic, think “great another love triangle”, then be blessed by a throuple. Really goes to show you that there are plenty of other things to write about besides this worn out cliché.
Bonus on this topic: Romance shows… What is with the lack of communication between characters? So many times plots are dragged out to ridiculous lengths because they can’t clear up a simple misunderstanding. Sure, it helps to pad the story time, but it’s incredibly frustrating to see yet another comic where they would have ended up together forever ago if they’d only actually spoken to each other about what was on their minds, instead of miscommunicating and then avoiding each other for big lengths of time. I guess I just want people to be able to have relationships without all the melodrama.
5] FRIENDSHIP > TRAINING
The last thing I’ll talk about has become the butt of all jokes, but is still very much prevalent in anime: The protagonist, who has trained for five minutes, versus the main antagonist, who has trained decades for this moment. They fight, the protagonist struggles, it seems the antagonist has won the battle… but wait! Protagonist has remembered The Power of Friendship™! Suddenly our hero has won the battle and is the champion of the war!
GAG. Deus ex Machina, oh how ye hath ruined everything forever.
It’s okay for our hero to fail in battle. Seriously, it’s cool. You can have him fail and barely escape with his life. A-Okay, bud. Or, if he wins, let it be because he outsmarts the antagonist. He does something unexpected that the bad guy didn’t train for. Maybe the protagonist has learned everything about the bad guy and knows how to disarm him or get under his skin. Let the underdog win because of his own tenacity or his own intelligence. Why, oh why, oh why does this cliché exist where the character can be on their last HP and suddenly pull through because “my friends are counting on me”? I'd love to sit here and type out a thesis on why this is a terrible message to viewers, or why it's worn to death, but honestly, what could be said that hasn't already? People have been mocking shows for this for a while. We all know it’s crappy, lazy writing. But, hey, it teaches you that friendship can overcome anything, so why not? Go forth, viewers, and let The Power of Friendship™ guide you. Don’t worry about outsmarting your opponent, or actually training to face them. Just remember, right before you die, that your friends are counting on you, and you’ll succeed.
I like Anime Tiddy's. lol.
Luckily not all anime are guilty of doing these. Fate/Stay Unlimited Bladeworks is great, and doesn't really lean much into any of these.