What Are Some of the Weirdest Tropes You've Seen?

[wandere]

As an extension of "tropes you're happy are gone", what are tropes that you have found weird to have seen multiple times? Obviously "weird" is a bit subjective, but that's good for variety innit? In my case when I say "weird" I mean why would someone come up with this more than once/why is this something that worked well enough in the past to be done again. But that could differ for you.

One of the weirdest tropes I've seen is orcs being able to kill women by raping them (I say this within context of specifically not hentai and I have never seen orcs go for men in non-hentai so yeah). It's a step up from the "goblins need to forcibly impregnate other races" thing and just...odd. I've never seen it properly explained in a story that used the trope which almost makes it feel solely pornographic, and maybe that's because taking a moment to explain orc psychology and orcs presumably having dicks capable of straight up killing someone (via puncture or rupture I guess? Don't think about that) would come off as a bit deranged. If I could think of one potential explanation outside of the story itself, it usually shows up in stories involving a class or school getting isekaied, so maybe it's a "less violent" (except it's very violent in reality) way to cull the cast early on.

Edit: Actually I think I'd like to alter that slightly; it's not just orcs, it's more like "Ugly Bastard kills people just by fucking them (nonconsensually)". That broadens it out a bit into more things (including one example with a guy) and increases the nonsense factor. You will not see this with anyone but a UB-type character, and as I stew on this more and more this has to be a kink thing right?

Besides that...think I would need more time to think of other picks on my part.

 

[Manko-sensei]

You surely love reading trash manga,.Taking into account isekai is written by people who believe they can increase their intelligence just because they want, rather than escapism it's just delusion. Following this principle, don't expect much of them.

 

[wandere]

You surely love reading trash manga,.Taking into account isekai is written by people who believe they can increase their intelligence just because they want, rather than escapism it's just delusion. Following this principle, don't expect much of them.

Hey, I'm trying to get off of it 😖
Regardless, when I pull some of this stuff up it's kind of like...I've seen it but it's not like I would ever read it again? Still, breaking away from a habit you've had for a long time is hard.

 

[panzerkampfwagyu]

A thing I find strange is that there are japanese that seem to strongly believe that they are the only ones with a hot spring culture.
Like, several countries here in europe get a protected affix to the city name if they have one. I really question where such a belief seems to come from.

 

[wandere]

A thing I find strange is that there are japanese that seem to strongly believe that they are the only ones with a hot spring culture.
Like, several countries here in europe get a protected affix to the city name if they have one. I really question where such a belief seems to come from.

Further than that, it seems like they have a "bathing culture" in general; between baths, public baths, hot springs, etc. so it could be about it being a step beyond that. But that's just rationalization; I would say there's some level of Nationalism going on. Less so that they believe they are the only ones with hot spring culture and more that perhaps they believe they are the only ones with good hot spring culture or they have the best hot spring culture. Through believing you're the best, Nationalism leads to ignorance.

 

[kohelemon]

Underaged Slight or Clear Sexualization. Of course, I do believe law is different in Japan, but it is still a bit weird. Yet I have to remember most manga are also made for specific people. Shonen for boys, Shojo for girls and so on. For example, I was a-okay with MHA when I was younger in many senses; Now some of the pervy gags don't work. I suppose that's more a sign of age than anything. I'm not attracted to the same things anymore, nor do I find the same humor humorous anymore, or the same entertainment entertaining.
And yet, we've got Seinen and higher which get even weirder with it, which can't be excused. At least not to me. But, that's why I usually stick to Shonen anyway.

 

[wandere]

Underaged Slight or Clear Sexualization. Of course, I do believe law is different in Japan, but it is still a bit weird. Yet I have to remember most manga are also made for specific people. Shonen for boys, Shojo for girls and so on. For example, I was a-okay with MHA when I was younger in many senses; Now the some of the pervy gags don't work. I suppose that's more a sign of age than anything.
And yet, we've got Seinen and higher which get even weirder with it, which can't be excused. At least not to me. But, that's why I usually stick to Shonen anyway.

I was actually wondering recently if like, this is kind of a stretch, but if part of it is because there was no scandal with manga similar to the "Seduction of the Innocent" book that let to public outcry in the US and the creation of the Comics Code Authority, where the industry self-censored comics that were released. As I understand it, manga isn't exactly a regulated industry, or at least not tightly regulated, and I think that might be due to the conservative nature of the government.

There's lot of emphasis on tradition and being pro-Japanese culture I assume, which manga and anime are a part of. I guess the difference is that in America, conservatives kind of hate art? Like they kind of despise anything that is new, innovative, or transgressive, which is how art works? Japanese conservatism might be different in the sense that they are pro-art as it promotes their view of what Japanese pride and culture is, including all of the uncomfortable underaged stuff? More willing to cover artists when they go too far, maybe.

I think it's pretty clear at this point that there are adults who read/watch shonen and shojo, these are the "demographics" but it's like YA fiction being read by people in their late 20s and 30s, and publishers 100% are aware of this, on top of adults probably being their most profitable customers when it comes to merchandising. For that reason, I have appreciated that as I have grown up, the horny underaged stuff has gone down, to some degree. It still is there, but we see it moreso on the edges than we do everywhere, and when we do see it in stuff that gets really big like My Dress Up Darling or Dandadan, it is at least like...it's easier to make a case for these things being valid and the arguably problematic elements to have a point in the same way that a movie or show in the West might have scenes involving minors and sexual elements.

Edit: So I did my due diligence and looked into it; Japan had a movement against books considered "unsavory" in general, but as it was said in what I read, it was milder. it peaked in around 1955 (around the same time Seduction of the Innocent was released), but in part due to manga actually being less violent and sexualized than in America at the time, as well as the manga industry refusing to regulate itself, what happened in the US didn't happen in Japan, which probably led to manga being able to flourish as a medium and continue to evolve to the point we're at today.

If you're interested, here are some sources, although I was only able to pull just a bit from each.
https://www.tcj.com/excerpt-manga-a-new-history-by-eike-exner/
https://www.tcj.com/seduction-of-the-innocent-hiroshima-1950/

Edit Again: I keep thinking back to this, but I guess the "simple answer" is also editors possibly forcing certain standards on what exactly gets published, like past a certain point in time it seems like Shonen Jump might have been like "Alright every manga we publish has to feature a kid as the main character or it isn't going to be popular"

 

[GipoScribantino]

I had to think about this but I suppose I found one that has gotten less popular from what I've seen, but it's still there.
Speech patterns to identify a character's role (and viceversa).

Not "weird" in that it's bizarre, rather because it used to be so rooted into novels and mangas that a character with a certain look or title talking in a certain way (or viceversa) not following the "canon" is still seen as "gap".

I am aware that historically european theatre, especially greek and roman, originally was based on "masks", literally masked men who behaved the same way in every play, and even Japan has similar variants, but society has moved on from there to develop deeper characters that don't necessarily fit into a "mask", even when adhering to common tropes.

I guess the weird part is really the expectations people have, including some authors who sometimes put jokes about it when they create a "mismatched" character. Still, being a trope I figured it would fit.

As a funny anecdote, when the first chapter of Kaiju 8 was published on Mangadex I checked it out to see what it was about and it was really predictable, but when near the end of the chapter a character was introduced and I thought "she's going to say so and so next" and upon changing page she said exactly what I thought of word for word, I gave up on the series completely.
The author (or editor) could've pulled anything, but I guess since the character was designed to look a certain way, she also had to behave a certain way.

 

[wandere]

I had to think about this but I suppose I found one that has gotten less popular from what I've seen, but it's still there.
Speech patterns to identify a character's role (and viceversa).

Not "weird" in that it's bizarre, rather because it used to be so rooted into novels and mangas that a character with a certain look or title talking in a certain way (or viceversa) not following the "canon" is still seen as "gap".

I am aware that historically european theatre, especially greek and roman, originally was based on "masks", literally masked men who behaved the same way in every play, and even Japan has similar variants, but society has moved on from there to develop deeper characters that don't necessarily fit into a "mask", even when adhering to common tropes.

I guess the weird part is really the expectations people have, including some authors who sometimes put jokes about it when they create a "mismatched" character. Still, being a trope I figured it would fit.

As a funny anecdote, when the first chapter of Kaiju 8 was published on Mangadex I checked it out to see what it was about and it was really predictable, but when near the end of the chapter a character was introduced and I thought "she's going to say so and so next" and upon changing page she said exactly what I thought of word for word, I gave up on the series completely.
The author (or editor) could've pulled anything, but I guess since the character was designed to look a certain way, she also had to behave a certain way.

The Moe-Industrial Complex is all-consuming and unrelenting. Dokidoki or die baka.
Edit: I thought of this just now but there are an alarming number of Romance slice-of-life manga that all have the same exact striped pajamas the female lead wears. Maybe it's a default texture/material on some drawing application? Or maybe it's a piece of clothing that actually exists, like the "virgin killing sweater" and variants? I have no idea where to start on that. I'm pretty sure some people know exactly what I mean but it's not exactly "normal" is the weird thing...

Ok so I actually looked into it and the Gelato Pique "Smoothie Lite 3 Cool Border Hoodie" and "Smoothie Lite 3 Cool Border Shorts" (You can look it up, I don't feel like linking) are pretty much a dead ringer outside of the design being more of a gradient. Also they cost around $150 dollars in total so if anyone wants to be a romcom female lead that's one of the costs, the other cost being a photographer hired specifically to take photos of you from a low angle 24/7.

 

[Manko-sensei]

I had to think about this but I suppose I found one that has gotten less popular from what I've seen, but it's still there.
Speech patterns to identify a character's role (and viceversa).

Not "weird" in that it's bizarre, rather because it used to be so rooted into novels and mangas that a character with a certain look or title talking in a certain way (or viceversa) not following the "canon" is still seen as "gap".

I am aware that historically european theatre, especially greek and roman, originally was based on "masks", literally masked men who behaved the same way in every play, and even Japan has similar variants, but society has moved on from there to develop deeper characters that don't necessarily fit into a "mask", even when adhering to common tropes.

I guess the weird part is really the expectations people have, including some authors who sometimes put jokes about it when they create a "mismatched" character. Still, being a trope I figured it would fit.

As a funny anecdote, when the first chapter of Kaiju 8 was published on Mangadex I checked it out to see what it was about and it was really predictable, but when near the end of the chapter a character was introduced and I thought "she's going to say so and so next" and upon changing page she said exactly what I thought of word for word, I gave up on the series completely.
The author (or editor) could've pulled anything, but I guess since the character was designed to look a certain way, she also had to behave a certain way.

Actually this is not merely restricted to otaku stuff. Some Japanese acquaitances of mine from my city only visit Japan once per year at most and in recent years they got really weird out at some things, such as young people they know that switched the way the talk to match anime girl intonation or public workers such as bus drivers that talked in a really deep voice (like some period character). Or young waiters that memorise what they have to say (in addition of the menu) like a machine and if you ask something unexpected they freeze on spot. Of course, many things are acritically repeated in manga like there is no other way to be (like every single maid-like waitress), but some of them are common IRL occurences. Definitely not colds, damn I hate those chapters.

 

[wandere]

Actually this is not merely restricted to otaku stuff. Some Japanese acquaitances of mine from my city only visit Japan once per year at most and in recent years they got really weird out at some things, such as young people they know that switched the way the talk to match anime girl intonation or public workers such as bus drivers that talked in a really deep voice (like some period character). Or young waiters that memorise what they have to say (in addition of the menu) like a machine and if you ask something unexpected they freeze on spot. Of course, many things are acritically repeated in manga like there is no other way to be (like every single maid-like waitress), but some of them are common IRL occurences. Definitely not colds, damn I hate those chapters.

When I was in college, there was actually an interesting article I read about "burriko" which was the tendency of Japanese women to speak in a higher-pitched, more "cutesy" voice in certain situations. It's kind of a reflection of gender roles in Japan, like if I remember correctly it usually came out in situations where a woman might have to defer to a someone or give off a sort of performative "I'm just a girl" vibe. I'm pretty sure I've seen it at least secondhand before, particularly when it comes to clips of idols, female celebrities, oh and ESPECIALLY vtubers. I can't find the document to read it, but if I am remembering correctly it has a level of like "doing it because guys like someone who they can protect", but I don't recall all of it so I don't want to make huge jumps.