Everything has its typical something. But anime is one of those industries that likes to abuse a certain concept or scene just because it seemed to do the trick a few times. Needless to say, after you watch the same scene in 20 different series, you’re kinda not impressed or amused anymore. But they still don’t learn.
Guy accidentally trips and gropes the girl
This one must be the most overused scenes ever. Usually, the main character falls and, of course, he ends up touching the lady parts of his crush. Well, in some cases it’s not the crush, but that’s how it usually goes. Either this, or he ends up with his face stuffed between her titties. I’m trying to remember when did it stop being funny. Oh, after the first time I’ve seen it.
The beach episode
It doesn’t matter what the show is about. Slice of life/comedy? Here comes the beach episode. Is it a heartbreaking drama? Let’s relieve the tension with a beach episode. Are they fighting against evil using some giant ass weird robots? Then we clearly need the beach episode because it makes so much sense. It doesn’t matter if the season has 12 or 6188 episodes. The characters will sure be able to take a break from the plot and just enjoy their life on the seaside with their boobs in the sun. Mmm…so appealing.
The dangerously clumsy girl
Clumsy is not sexy. It is meant to be funny and petty, not sexually appealing. And it’s not even cute anymore. To go even deeper, this cliché could’ve been called the rich and shy glasses girl that can’t do anything right. They fall, the break things, they make a mess when they cook, they cut their fingers, they accidentally murder someone. And they’re everywhere. I’m so sick of this characters I just want to go and punch them in the fact back to reality. You’re not cute and sexy and you don’t make people want to take care of you. You’re just getting on everyone’s nerves.
The magical window seat
The main character always gets a seat by the window, in the back of the class. This is the general rule of anime. This is the spot where they can daydream or sleep in peace, doing their main character job. Sometimes, you can recognize them because they might be the only ones with crazy coloured hair. Regardless, their spot in the back of the class is untouched and, if they get to be moved around, they will somehow always end up in the same chair by some miraculous twist of fate. You lose your seat, you automatically become a side character. This is how it goes and there’s nothing you can do about it.
Running late for school
Much like being clumsy, I think this is supposed to add depth to the characters. Much like being clumsy, this is abused and overused. The running late for school with a slice of bread in your mouth has become so overused that Nichibros decided to make fun it. And it was a good joke. But that doesn’t mean other characters have stopped doing it. It is much less popular nowadays with all these noisy alarm clocks, but hey, it still happens.
I have no time to write a proper ending. You tell me what’s the most annoying cliché you can think of.
Wanimu 
Here for the Nichibros gif. Best two scenes of the show.
I’d say the anime cliche I find most annoying is “small-breasted anime girl getting stupidly jealous of girl with melon breasts”. Even shows that I otherwise quite liked in most other aspects, e.g. Hataraku Maou-sama, managed to annoy the hell out of me with that one.
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“We made a promise when we were kids and now I’m going to stick with it even though it is the stupidest idea on the planet.” I really dislike that sad excuse for a character motivation and I hate it when that is what the entire plot hangs on.
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And let’s not forget about the power of friendship.
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i dont think i really mind cliches if i can just roll my eyes through them. the magic window seat in particular is usually fine because i dont really see much attention drawn to it. the beach episode is definitely annoying, as well as its close partner, the onsen episode…mostly because they feel boring and wasteful.
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AHHH rukia has been Too long since I’ve seen a post from you was a great post. I don’t mind cliches but for me would be all the misunderstandings of when a girl likes a guy kinds scenario all these ridiculous things happen
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I’ve accepted clichés as a part of anime… They’re obviously not going anywhere any time soon, so might as well. But they still bother me from time to time.
One trope that very much annoys me is when characters state exactly what they’re about to do (like how they’re going to defeat a villain) or explain things to the audience, as if we couldn’t grasp the meaning of what’s happening. I know in some situations that is necessary but it gets so old…
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YAY A RUKI POST.
I sincerely wished for the first one to ever happen to me…
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One day, Rayz.
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More like one millenium
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Cliches will always be in anime, so I’ve learned to accept them.
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I like some cliches~ I also really like when they subverted!
I guess in the need what I enjoy is the execution and if they’ve been done well, and if they’re then I don’t mind （＾ｖ＾）
What I tend not to like is when it’s used for TSTL situations or to entangle the plot with stupid :’D
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Personally, the two cliches I hate the most are the “childhood friend in love with the protagonist,” and “main protagonist has a perverted best friend.”
We all know by this point that Mr. Main Character probably won’t end up with Ms. Childhood Sweetheart, so it makes no sense to keep showing it.
And the perverted best friend… I won’t even go into that, because this comment is already far too long.
Great post, by the way!
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> doesn’t like beach episodes
I take it you’re more of an Onsen fan. Though, honestly, what would you expect, the boob related cliches are targeted at male audiences, ofc YOU wouldn’t like them. And neither do I, most of the time (comedy shows get away with doing this), but who cares, I just skip them.
> the corner window spot
That’s because they save time and money by focusing the scene on the main character , so that they often don’t have to draw the rest of the class members as background. Also, the window seats are usually easiest to use to express that the character is bored by looking out the window instead of spoon-feeding you a “I am so bored” line.
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I would normally give you the ‘you must be fun at parties’ line. But I know for a thing that you are not.
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> I know for a fact that you are not
That I am not, parties are overrated anyway. Meeting new people, especially? Ugh…
Though, you surely can’t say much in that respect seeing how your profile picture is (and I assumed you sympathize with) Tomoko.
Let’s just hope, to never meet at a(nother) party. I will do my best in that respect by not attending many or any of those.
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