What trope in anime that was weird to you at the start and still weird to this day?

[Kaldrak]

The trope where people who isekai particularly high schoolers remember everything in biology, engineering or literature.

Ash did that in Army of Darkness as well, but he had a car and some kind of crazy textbook, lol.

 

[Hitspark]

Thought of another trope that gets on my nerves. Powers that are supposed to be useless but are actually completely broken in the hands of the MC.

It boggles my mind that, somehow, these powers are supposed handed out by gods since the dawn of their existence but no one but the MC EVER had the luck, determination or circumstance to discover how broken it really was. Thousands of people get these "bad" powers and only 1 person in the entire history of the world thought of something? "My power is to blow air really hard but it turned out that if I tried really, really hard that I could cause tornados and tsunamis! This level of power is simply undocumented in history, thank goodness I don't have ANY predecessors or I would have some challenge"

Even worse is that the powers usually aren't that bad. I saw one manga who was like "All I can do is repair stuff, but I need the amount equal to what I'm fixing" like...How is this a bad skill? Imagine instead of replacing the entire car door, you just need some iron scrap from a junkyard car. Or fixing a wall, all you need is some wood or concrete or clay. It feels like Japan sometimes forgets that utility is absolutely one of the founding and most driving forces in all of civilization and history.

Bonus irritation - When explaining things to a natural born resident of the place, they use the phrase "In this world" as though that isn't the author screaming "I can't think of a way to explain this naturally so I'll info dump it on you"

Even in context it makes no sense because who goes around saying "In this world"? And it's never just once, it's ALWAYS when something is being explained. "In this world magic" "In this world monsters" "In this world skills" "In this world classes"

Just say the thing! I know it's a fantasy world, I don't need to be reminded!

 

[Greenfrost]

The trope where unattractive guys with the personality of a baked potato are somehow out of nowhere women magnets. I get it's a wish fulfillment and self insert kinda thing, but it really breaks suspension of disbelief, and could be fixed by giving the MCs more desirable qualities.

 

[Teddy]

The trope where people with normal upbringings have lethal cooking; Sure I believe fantasy ingredients may be lethal to different species or don't have toxicology reports; but everyone over the age of organic paperweights in the age of digital information should know you don't put dish washing liquid into the bento when cooking for your crush.

 

[dsid2814]

misunderstanding as a central reason for most of the conflicts
I understand how vague the japanese langauge is, as someone who studies.

but it can be infuriating, when all the problems could be solved if one person just double checked what someone was talking about, or something.

 

[Teddy]

misunderstanding as a central reason for most of the conflicts
I understand how vague the japanese langauge is, as someone who studies.

but it can be infuriating, when all the problems could be solved if one person just double checked what someone was talking about, or something.

If you ever work at a corporate job or civil law; these kind of thing don't feel like a ridiculous trope....

The amount of simple misunderstandings that have costly consequences with responsive malice is frustrating

 

[carbryvietia]

It boggles my mind that, somehow, these powers are supposed handed out by gods since the dawn of their existence but no one but the MC EVER had the luck, determination or circumstance to discover how broken it really was. Thousands of people get these "bad" powers and only 1 person in the entire history of the world thought of something? "My power is to blow air really hard but it turned out that if I tried really, really hard that I could cause tornados and tsunamis! This level of power is simply undocumented in history, thank goodness I don't have ANY predecessors or I would have some challenge"

My pet peeve is MCs who are really overpowered but then the story has the audacity to claim that they aren't and they're really weak and I'm like ok, I'll humor you. And sometimes the plot does actually pull through and make it compelling and believable, but other times I feel like the author is trying both the overpowered MC route and the underdog route and it just does not work.

 

[Teddy]

My pet peeve is MCs who are really overpowered but then the story has the audacity to claim that they aren't and they're really weak and I'm like ok, I'll humor you. And sometimes the plot does actually pull through and make it compelling and believable, but other times I feel like the author is trying both the overpowered MC route and the underdog route and it just does not work.

When you have to self-insert as a loser? Below Average? Low-Esteem individual but also have to appeal to grandiose delusions? Imagination? ambitions?

Its just difficult to write a character with no impetus/self-efficacy but somehow is able to achieve great ambitions.

Popular Shounen have driven, innocent kids who want to be the best thus they work/strive to be the best which makes sense.

Morally Bankrupt Isekai Seinen that have useless or terrible MC that immediately use their powers for evil also makes sense.

Morally Superio,r Paralyzed, Nice, Lonely Guys who don't have the self-efficacy to change their original lives, must have a strong reason to actually work hard in isekai and use their powers creatively. If they were so creative and resourceful in real life, they wouldn't be the useless self-insert character from the start anyways.

 

[NoDigit]

My main pet peeve trope in all media is "immortality is a curse". I could understand it if they were old, crippled, tortured souls, but people who remain young, healthy and of sound mind complaining about not being able to bare life is peak copium on the writers' part. Some probably want to imagine it to be a curse just because they can't have it. It just doesn't make sense to me. Surely, staying healthy and mentally agile is great! That's the whole point of all of medicine.

 

[Kaldrak]

My main pet peeve trope in all media is "immortality is a curse". I could understand it if they were old, crippled, tortured souls, but people who remain young, healthy and of sound mind complaining about not being able to bare life is peak copium on the writers' part. Some probably want to imagine it to be a curse just because they can't have it. It just doesn't make sense to me. Surely, just staying healthy and mentally agile is great! That's the whole point of all of medicine.

Well, yeah. None of us can be immortal of have super long lifespans, so we do cope with this by writing most immortal characters that way.

One notable exception in fiction (not necessarily manga/anime) that I've found is Belgarath from the Belgariad/Malloreon, by David Eddings. He was called the Eternal Man and was over seven thousand years old. An itinerate storyteller, powerful sorcerer, and a womanizing drunkard who seemed to enjoy life to its fullest (though he did have a mission from his literal god who existed on the same plane as him and talked to him directly, so that probably helped). He missed his wife terribly though, but that's only a natural response to her dying. There were a few other immortals around (including his daughter) that he kept company with on occasion.

In fact, the defining factor of whether or not your ageless immortal is miserable or not seems to be whether they've got company that lives as long as they do. Near ageless Elven societies in Tolkienesque fantasy stories that last for millenia mostly seem to be doing just fine, by comparison. It's just the poor shmucks who live alone, traveling from place to place and never forming real connections with people because it makes them feel sad when everyone around them is constantly dying who are really miserable. I mean, hell, that sounds pretty bloody miserable to me too, and I like the idea of sticking around for at least a hundred more years than I'm going to get, assuming it's not horrible, anyway. I wanna see what happens.

Bottom line, you want to make immortality appealing? Give your characters friends, family, and purpose. Hell, these things are what make life appealing in the first place.

 

[croissant]

1. MC's family rarely have a role in the story. Or if it does, it must be because they're also have hidden powers like MC.
2. Chicks quickly get wet when MC get serious with their otaku hobbies/obsession.
3. Knowledge/skills MC get by being a weeb somehow gives him an advantage against other people.
4. Society failures almost always get reincarnated to isekai with medieval fantasy settings, which most of the time derived from tolkien's lore.
5. "Puzzle" which most of the time just simply a japanese word-play which doesn't make any sense because it is so forced.
6. MC easily get away with sexual harrasment.
7. Hot and beautiful jk which are also school's darling which somehow actually hates normie stuffs. Loves garbage pervert MC.

 

[eddkim]

everything has to take place in a school.

 

[Hitspark]

My pet peeve is MCs who are really overpowered but then the story has the audacity to claim that they aren't and they're really weak and I'm like ok, I'll humor you. And sometimes the plot does actually pull through and make it compelling and believable, but other times I feel like the author is trying both the overpowered MC route and the underdog route and it just does not work.

You mean how a supposedly average, loser character who has shown that he's the strongest beyond a reasonable doubt still has the rest of the cast believing he's weak because...we can't have a character that's strong actually leading the story?

 

[Hitspark]

When you have to self-insert as a loser? Below Average? Low-Esteem individual but also have to appeal to grandiose delusions? Imagination? ambitions?

Its just difficult to write a character with no impetus/self-efficacy but somehow is able to achieve great ambitions.

Popular Shounen have driven, innocent kids who want to be the best thus they work/strive to be the best which makes sense.

Morally Bankrupt Isekai Seinen that have useless or terrible MC that immediately use their powers for evil also makes sense.

Morally Superio,r Paralyzed, Nice, Lonely Guys who don't have the self-efficacy to change their original lives, must have a strong reason to actually work hard in isekai and use their powers creatively. If they were so creative and resourceful in real life, they wouldn't be the useless self-insert character from the start anyways.

I don't get this, why would you want to self-insert into a loser anyway? Isn't the point of self-insert to feel good? Who wants to live like they're down and out, strike it big, and then still get looked down on?

 

[TrueGoddessReincarnation]

I don't get this, why would you want to self-insert into a loser anyway? Isn't the point of self-insert to feel good? Who wants to live like they're down and out, strike it big, and then still get looked down on?

They can relate to being a loser. Not somebody that has their shit together.

 

[Grimmycoffee]

Characters going "keh" and "urgh", especially in normal and serious interactions

 

[Teddy]

I don't get this, why would you want to self-insert into a loser anyway? Isn't the point of self-insert to feel good? Who wants to live like they're down and out, strike it big, and then still get looked down on?

They can't see themselves as being chad right off, so the character has to be a loser first; once they habe successfully self-inserted they can feel the power of being OP through bad writing

 

[Hitspark]

They can't see themselves as being chad right off, so the character has to be a loser first; once they habe successfully self-inserted they can feel the power of being OP through bad writing

They can relate to being a loser. Not somebody that has their shit together.

And here we find the fourth and fifth bombs dropped on Japan. Dear goodness, look at the carnage.

Edit: I must have been incredibly tired not to notice what I said here.

 

[panzerkampfwagyu]

My pet peeve is MCs who are really overpowered but then the story has the audacity to claim that they aren't and they're really weak and I'm like ok, I'll humor you. And sometimes the plot does actually pull through and make it compelling and believable, but other times I feel like the author is trying both the overpowered MC route and the underdog route and it just does not work.

Ah yes, I personally call that trope the false underdog and utterly loathe it. Both because of how utterly vapid it gets used to make feelgood stories, but also because it makes any character who does that into a grade a cunt who commits the equivalent of going to elementary schools in order to get best student grades every damn time while disguising themselves as an elementary schooler.

 

[dsid2814]

the nice character can become really scary, kinda mother, it's just kinda eyerolling.