Anime sterotypes that need to die.

[EricTheFred]

Nonsense, Nate. Everyone knows the best way to attack someone with a sword is to give them about 30 seconds warning and run at them from 200 feet away while screaming maniacally. It's how the Ninja protected Japan for so many years.

Y'know, speaking as a WWII history buff, a lot of my lingering questions were just answered...

[EricTheFred]

My mom had a friend who had heterochromia. I've never seen anyone else like that though.

Weird thing is, I've known two different people in my life with heterochromia of the hair, (one was a girl with this weird silver streak in her hair just like you see Goth girls sometimes do, but this was when I was in middle school, ages before that became popular.) and I've read somewhere that heterochromia of the hair is much rarer that heterochromia of the eyes, yet I've never met anyone like that.

(And yes I do need to learn to read down to the end of the thread and use multiquote.)

[Etoh*the*Greato]

Hm. If the silver streak is Heterochromia, then yeah, I've known a girl with it. She had it in a spot like Rogue. Thought it was pretty cool. I actually kind of like the trait, but it may be a tad overdone in Anime.

Now correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to recall being told in Biology that the trait was far more common in females of any species than males. Were it not for Bowie's sterling example, I would swear it was a female only trait (and would, of course, be wrong).

[EricTheFred]

Hm. If the silver streak is Heterochromia, then yeah, I've known a girl with it. She had it in a spot like Rogue. Thought it was pretty cool. I actually kind of like the trait, but it may be a tad overdone in Anime.

Now correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to recall being told in Biology that the trait was far more common in females of any species than males. Were it not for Bowie's sterling example, I would swear it was a female only trait (and would, of course, be wrong).

It dawned on me after posting that Ryu's post about ''Central Heterochromia' may be the explanation for the eyes being more common than the hair. It is entirely possible I've seen a bunch of people with that trait and never noticed it. It wouldn't stand out like the blue-eye / green-eye thing that you see in Anime (and on the occasional cat or dog.)

[Lady Kenshin]

Maybe people already mentioned this, but calling out and explaining your moves in detail DURING a fight scene is...

Yeah.

[EricTheFred]

Maybe people already mentioned this, but calling out and explaining your moves in detail DURING a fight scene is...

Yeah.

Yup. Nearly as surreal as the detailed explanations conducted by multiple people in separate conversations (and sometimes on separate sides of the conflict) during an action sequence (esp. see Initial D)

[ich1990]

2. Friendship speeches and symbols.

To be honest, I think they should get rid of these. A little fresh creativity, s-il vous plait?

MasterDias is right, it really all depends on the... execution.

[SIZE="1"]Yes, I know it is not an anime.[/SIZE]

[EricTheFred]

[SIZE="1"]Yes, I know it is not an anime.[/SIZE]

Yes. It just should be.

[Etoh*the*Greato]

Maybe people already mentioned this, but calling out and explaining your moves in detail DURING a fight scene is...

Yeah.

I liked the fourth wall touch in Nadesico when all the crew members of the ship were watching the 70s style super robot Anime Gekigangar III and their director commented, "Why are they calling out the names of their attacks? Are they using voice command weapons systems?"

lol

[goldenspines]

MasterDias is right, it really all depends on the... execution.

[SIZE="1"]Yes, I know it is not an anime.[/SIZE]

*approves this post*


Concerning the whole "shouting my fighting skills" thing, I think, unless the fight moves names are really lame, I think this whole stereotype adds nice bit of entertainment in those fight scenes. Most of the time, when this is done, the fight is not meant to be realistic, it's meant to make the audience laugh or cheer.
For example, a move like, "Super special awesome punch of meanness!" doesn't really get many people interested and sometimes drives away viewers. This is a bad use of the stereotype.
But then there's something like, "Rider kick!" (I know, not an anime, but it's a good example) that can get a lot of people hyped up and excited. This would be a good use.

I will repeat my statement again. Anime wouldn't be anime without the stereotypes. Besides, if we ditch these old stereotypes and find something new, they will become stereotypes as well. D:

Long story short, stereotypes should not die, but the people that use them wrong should. :3

[Etoh*the*Greato]

"Get your hands off my brother PUUUUUUUNCH!!!"

- Kamina, Brother, Manly Soul, Great Leader.

[~darkelfgirl~]

Yes x 15.
Well it was interesting the first 500 times, but now.... Yeah, actually I hardly watch anime anymore. XD

Same. I'm about at wits end xD. This is why I made that 'anime that makes you think' thread. Trying to weed out the same-old, same-old.

I'm afraid to be typing this, since I can see several other people are viewing this topic and could very well be writing the very same thing, but here goes:

The thing about stereotypes is that they allow poor writing to flourish. Obviously, a really talented writer can take overused ideas and do something fresh with them, that's not really the issue. The problem is, someone who really has nothing worthwhile to offer can still pound out a sub-par story by stringing together a bunch of clichés. If said hack were forced to NOT use the same tried and true devices, he wouldn't have anything to offer at all, and we'd all be spared yet another mediocre story. THAT'S why the stereotypes need to be reign in: not so much because THEY create bad anime, but because they enable PEOPLE who create bad anime.

AMEN!!! [size=84]Back. This is what is happening to anime, and to fantasy literature, too (cruise around Amazon.com sometime if you don't know what I mean). [/SIZE]You don't have to throw everything out, but you need to create your own recipe (according to a friend of mine). You know?

@CrimsonRyu: I love white/silver haired villains, but c'mon, I don't want to see a legion of Sephiroths all over everything! =D


Heterochromia? So that's the word for that eye condition!

[Blitzkrieg1701]

I like that recipe analogy, there. When you think about it, there aren't really all that many "new" ideas out there, but there's an almost limitless variety of ways those ideas can be put together. I guess we could say that, by "stereotype," we don't just mean one familiar idea. Rather, we mean a whole set of ideas put together in a familiar way.

Yup. Nearly as surreal as the detailed explanations conducted by multiple people in separate conversations (and sometimes on separate sides of the conflict) during an action sequence (esp. see Initial D)

I think this can be pretty interesting when a manga does it, since the page can be much more fluid regarding the passage of time. In anime, though, it almost always destroys the pacing by grinding all action to a halt.

[Yamamaya]

MasterDias is right, it really all depends on the... execution.

[SIZE="1"]Yes, I know it is not an anime.[/SIZE]

That reminds me of the Kishin dude from Soul Eater(for the life of me I can't remember his name).

[Makachop^^128]

That reminds me of the Kishin dude from Soul Eater(for the life of me I can't remember his name).

I was thinking the same thing O_o

[Nate]

Guys remember TV Tropes. Old ideas can be used to great effect sometimes. And sometimes, even purposely avoiding cliches can become a cliche itself.

Plus, Mary is right. If we avoid stereotypes, then the things we use to avoid the stereotypes will become stereotypes themselves.

Actually, isn't that what happened? Japan wanted to avoid the stereotype of big manly men saving the world, so they had girly girls saving the world. What did we end up with? The magical girl genre. In avoiding a stereotype, they created a new one.

[Yamamaya]

I'm not saying all sterotypes are bad, it's just that some can get kinda old and frustrating.

[ShiroiHikari]

Guys remember TV Tropes. Old ideas can be used to great effect sometimes. And sometimes, even purposely avoiding cliches can become a cliche itself.

Plus, Mary is right. If we avoid stereotypes, then the things we use to avoid the stereotypes will become stereotypes themselves.

Actually, isn't that what happened? Japan wanted to avoid the stereotype of big manly men saving the world, so they had girly girls saving the world. What did we end up with? The magical girl genre. In avoiding a stereotype, they created a new one.

Quoted for emphasis.

[Nate]

I'm not saying all sterotypes are bad, it's just that some can get kinda old and frustrating.

That then is the fault of the writer, not the stereotype. Poor writers use stereotypes because it's easy; good writers use stereotypes because they can bring something fresh to the table regarding it.

Blaming a stereotype being used in a poor way is akin to someone throwing a hammer at you, and you getting mad at the hammer instead of the person who threw it.

[rocklobster]

How about the airheaded female? That is one stereotype I can't stand.

[GeneD]

1. The female lead with no purpose whatsoever unless it's 'cheering on the guys' (Tea from Yu-Gi-Oh is a prime example of this)

*coughcough* Which characters in Yu Gi Oh actually have a purpose? (I watch too much Abridged, yay for Ineffectual Man)

12. Villains with no real purpose behind their motives. Insanity and destroying the world for the heck of it are worn excuses.

I think insanity and destroying the world for the heck of it are excellent reasons.

I'm not really a fan of magical transformation sequences, so I don't really watch magical girl series. I'm sometimes also disappointed with non-romance romance situations or romance situations where no real affection it shown, but this may be resolved if I actually watched more shoujo series.

I don't think anyone could create anything with no stereotypes whatsoever, but I think you can overdo it and you will still find shows will lots of stereotypes with a huge fan base.

[Blitzkrieg1701]

So, to basically sum up the whole thread, there is one ultimate stereotype that we all think anime would be better of without:

[font="Arial Black"][SIZE="6"]BAD WRITERS![/SIZE][/font]

[ShiroiHikari]

The entertainment industry in general could do with less of those.

[Bobtheduck]

Also, heterochromia.

I could be wrong, but I think Heterochromia started in Urusei Yatsura... It made sense in there, because Lum and her kin were Aliens, but other artists liked the concept so much they used it for normal, Japanese humans.

It does make differentiating between characters easier, though i appreciate when they use more natural colors, and appreciate it even more when they avoid blonde (which isn't Natural in Japanese people except for Albinos, I think)

[Etoh*the*Greato]

The entertainment industry in general could do with less of those.

[Blitzkrieg1701]

That made me laugh a lot longer than it had any right to

[Kaligraphic]

I think we're too late. The grammar of anime is set and will never be changed*. All that's left is to combine tropes in new ways. For instance, the 5-minute magical girl strip-and-redress transformation could leave nosebleeds all around. Or the airhead could have the giant sword and accidentally eviscerate her companions, sending her on a quest for the philopher's stone to resurrect them. Or Inuyasha could be a gundam pilot and a student while trying to secretly protect Kagome. Or... well, okay, some of that's been done, but surely we can mash in something unexpected.

[size=0]* for certain values of never[/size]

[Doubleshadow]

My mom had a friend who had heterochromia. I've never seen anyone else like that though.

The last thing I will say about stereotypes and tropes and cliches is that there is nothing new under the sun. It's the execution that matters. And for the record, I do watch a lot of obscure anime and even the obscure stuff has archetypes, cliches, and all that "bad" stuff.

I've known three, including one with one brown eye and 3/4 blue, one 1/4 brown eye, the lower left pie slice was a totally different color.

I. Hate. Girls throwing themselves at guys for no other reason than he's there!

And not a stereotype but still annoying: English being spoken by Japanese that clearly don't speak English.

Case in point http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdB-UEb9YlU

Surely it's not that hard to find a native English speaker in Japan!

[the_wolfs_howl]

I get very tired of characters who have random, improbable hair colors like pink or blue when they're supposed to be normal humans in the real world. And characters who have hair like Rapunzel. Long hair is fine, but does anybody realize how easily hair that long can get tangled? I have hair down to my waist, and it gets so tangled I sometimes wonder why I don't just cut it all off. And it would get in the way of all the things these characters have to do.

As for the stereotype of shouting out your attack name before you strike, I think it would be better if they just yelled a bit or something. In FMA, for example, Ed has this signature yell when he's charging at an enemy; you could recognize it anywhere (in fact, that's how I've identified Romi Paku in other animes). It kind of does the same thing as yelling out the name of the attack, without sounding ridiculous or "why are you telling me exactly what you're going to do?" If you just yell, the enemy can't tell what attack you're going to use

[Nate]

I get very tired of characters who have random, improbable hair colors like pink or blue when they're supposed to be normal humans in the real world.

The reason this is done is because most anime characters, if you remove the hair, look exactly the same. By making their hair strange colors or styles, it makes them easy to identify, rather than if they all had hair like normal Japanese people.

There is a reason to the madness.
[quote]Ed has this signature yell when he's charging at an enemy]
Didja know she's currently playing Usakawa Dayuu in Shinkenger? Everyone else was stoked because she did a non-costume appearance in a recent episode. I had no clue who she was until someone mentioned FMA. XD