Top Ten Cliches in Japanese Anime
I’ve been watcing lots of anime recently. I’m somewhat a late bloomer, plus the fact I prefer to watch them slowly, like two or three episodes per week (mainly to make sure they last longer), unlike some people who can finish a DVD season in two day marathon…
I’ve always wanted to blog about the anime I watch, just like Silencers or Dustyhawk, but never got round to doing it, i suppose this’ll be a good way to start.
Top Ten Cliches in Japanese Anime
- The eyes. The big, shimmering eyes. That has got to be the top anime cliche.
- The coloured hair. Pink, purple, blue, green, white (popular for villains) and any other colour on the animators’ palette. Funny considering 99% of Japs (like most other Malaysians) have natural jet black hair.
- One in ten girl characters have cat ears or small horns. But still exhibiting full human characteristics (more or less). Unless it’s Felicia on Darkstalkers, who has bat wings for ears…
- 9 out of 10 girls in the show have bodies like supermodels with 42DD bustlines. And 23-inch waists. Normally proportionately drawn bodies are reserved for mothers, bystanders, khe-le-fehs and shop assistants.
- The angsty, moody anti-hero with the mysterious past (usually involving death of parents). Also usually with a secret power or skill with super-large weapons.
- And his name is usually some bombastic neo-ancient-European-cum-Tolkienesque moniker like Edward Stormbreaker or Zidane Gunblade. Or something like that.
- If the hero travels in a ensemble group, they usually consist of the following: the abovesaid anti-hero, cheerful pretty girl with useful superpower, another dark, morbid beautiful girl with secret past, huge giant (usually pretty dumb) ‘muscle’ character usually with one defining characteristic (dirty-minded, obsessed with food, etc) and one talking pet for comic relief.
- The usual Japanese cliches - flashing the ‘V’ sign with a big grin, the huge sweat drop, the giant screaming head with throbbing vein, strange Japanese words appearing around the character when he or she is either feeling embarassed or cute, etc.
- This one I like - the slo-mo fight scene with the ‘stationery‘ characters and moving lines around them. And the characters shouting out the names of the ‘super moves‘ before they strike. That’s like, giving due warning to your opponent, isn’t it?
- The big stupid evil henchmen. With bodies like Mr. Universe. But gets beaten to a pulp by girl heroine. Without breaking a sweat.
Update: At the moment, I’m halfway through FMA, NGE and GitS. Like i said, late bloomer.
Technorati Tags: Animax, anime, Japanese, cartoon, Japan, Fullmetal Alchemist, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Ghost in the Shell
August 24th, 2006 at 6:53 pm
dude…. you will learn the anime marathon kung-fu very soon.
August 24th, 2006 at 7:28 pm
And with basketball/football/tennis/whatever sports related anime series, the basketball court/football field/tennis court seems to be extra big and the characters take forever to get to the other end.
August 24th, 2006 at 7:44 pm
Usually I don’t comment (silent reader), but Gundam doesn’t have all (or at least, not all) the traits you mention ler. Hehe!
August 24th, 2006 at 8:29 pm
that’s because Gundam has the infamous LEGENDARY REUSED SCENE!
August 24th, 2006 at 8:54 pm
serge - if i marathon, very soon i’ll run out of anime to watch! but if i got a lot then different story la…
ken - speaking of sports anime: the unbelieveable super slam dunks in b-ball. when most asian can’t even reach the rim. And the shaolin soccer style power kicks.
jason - hmm… mecha anime a bit diff. but other than NGE, i haven’t really gone into mecha yet. Unless you count transformers!
August 24th, 2006 at 9:36 pm
Hmm… the top ten cliches are reserved for mainstream anime. As for Gundam shows, well, a lot of the cliches are there, especially the angsty anti hero part.
I havent watched Eva, lol. But I’m surprised to see going through GiTS which is VERY cult anime.
most of the cliches you mentioned are valid for anime that were produced around 200-2004. As for the later ones, a lot of the other anime productions have [thankfully] begun avoiding most of the cliche as it no longer sells.
But the big boobs and big eyes are still quite staple.
August 25th, 2006 at 1:28 am
you should watch eva silencer. takes sometime to understand it..very gloomy. another one you should watch is rahxephon.
oh simon, if you have the time and resources.. go watch Graveyard of the Fireflies.
August 25th, 2006 at 7:02 am
ok. eva and graveyard next on the list. for me GitS is okay, but the tech is just OK, sometimes like just like normal cop shows. but the characters are what makes the show interesting…
August 25th, 2006 at 8:23 am
But Transformer is not anime.
Even if it is, it doesn’t have the traits also. Ha!
Try to watch Hellsing, damn chio one.
August 25th, 2006 at 9:06 am
Errr… It’s Morrigan who has the bat-like morphing ability in Darkstalkers. She’s actually a succubus. Felicia is the catwoman. *innocent*
August 25th, 2006 at 9:15 am
And just to add up a bit, no matter how serious the storyline, no matter how cool the graphics is, every anime have the same showering-type when crying, the same feet-up-in-the-air style, the same cartoony-angry face, and not to mention the same double cross-type handiplast when wounded. Hmm..
August 25th, 2006 at 10:29 am
Err jason … Transformers is anime. The one that we see on TV is the americanized version. What actually happen was, the japan viewers didn’t emjoy it so they sold it to the americans. On american soil it became a big hit. Since it became a big hit, the japs started producing Transformers such as Transformers Masterforce, V:Victory, Headmasters and such.
August 25th, 2006 at 10:52 am
watch Doraemon. The best of the best.
August 26th, 2006 at 7:48 am
jason - okay, okay, let me go and watch a few mecha shows and i’ll do a top ten mecha anime cliches, ‘K?
ferdaus - oops, you’re right about darkstalkers. I keep getting the two mixed up. re handiplasts - the bandages come up immediately after they get beaten up!
IX - Nobita! Nobita!
December 22nd, 2006 at 9:15 pm
Isn’t transformers a japanese anime to begin with? i mean i used to beleive it wasn’t but after i knew how old it was and seen the headmasters series in japanese which ofcourse had some trash language aswell but was cut from the english series as well as the changes in some names like [Optimus] is actually [Convoy]
December 22nd, 2006 at 9:17 pm
And now if your talking about some of the best gundam series i think the mostly would be: gundam wing, zeta gundam, gundam X and the movie: Char’s counterattack.
July 4th, 2007 at 9:19 pm
If the hero travels in a ensemble group, they usually consist of the following. LOL. BLEACH TO THE POINT.
The most cliched anime around I think is Bleach. 8 out of 10 of these apply to it. But hey, what the hell is wrong with cliches like big boobs and super large weapons?
August 31st, 2007 at 5:51 pm
I think you forgot that the hero and co are from 10 to 17 years old and that after a good beating they look like they rise form the dead and kick the villain’s ass. The super smart brat who resolves the unresolvable…
October 3rd, 2007 at 4:29 am
you forgot a cliche whenever a character is happy she/he will close their eyes and smile.
December 17th, 2007 at 1:33 pm
Mecha cliche.
constant thrust = constant velocity
lasers travel slower than light
somebody singing can take down an enemy armada
there is sound in space? (except in akira briefly)
inertia has no effect. (pulling a 10,000g turn will not turn you into poo)
more to come but I can’t think of any more off the top of my head.