Anime and Manga

I agree with the point that it is hard to come up with something new as people take something they like and slightly change it or incorperate other concepts they like. But really it isn't that hard to come up with something new. I also enjoy the fall of a main character or to be more specific for me it is a fall from grace or a tragedy. Something that goes along a Greek Tragic story. For this you don't have to make a cliche, just using that template come up with something new. I can't think of anime that fall under this off the top of my head. A cliche I find quite irritating in anime is the clueless main character who just relies on his incredible strength/stamina. This can be seen in many of the popular animes in the west like DBZ, Naruto, Bleach, One Piece and many more. That cliche can be spotted at some point in these anime. Apart from that other cliches are those that make anime, anime. Stuff like hidden powers, secret pasts and origins.

I really don't mind the cliches as a idea (for example the idea of gathering some magical stuff have been done in a endless number of animes) because I think the most important thing is the development and the characters. There are some stories that the concept is quite cliche but some are really good and others are worse than bad. The problem with Naruto, Bleach, One Piece... is that they lead the same way of development (getting stronger) and they are more or less the same, with different characters.

Have you ever heard the expression "if it ain´t broke don't fixt it", well I think that can be applied hear. But I agree to much of some thing (specially cliches) can be bad. The problem is that if you knew your anime history you woud know that after the 80's the anime industrie was in a pitch. All the high bugdet anime producctions and experimental anime didn´t pay off, so all the anime companies that weren't broke coudn't afford to take more risk, meaning they had to produce cliche anime that had allredy proben to work and that they coud actually do some money of it. But wen you think about it, maybe the problem isn't that there is to much cliche anime, the problem is that you don't work hard enough to get original fresh anime. Think about it, all the anime that you mention are all main stream shoujen anime, offcourse theres not going to be anything original in there because they don't want to be original and the viwers of does shows want the same old hero story that's the fun part. Me for example I love Bleach (the manga at least, yes Im saying that the manga is better and you know why: Because it doesn't have goddam fillers!!!!!) and I enjoy the same old storie of watching Ichigo get stronger and kick everyones asses, thats the fun part (but in Bleach defence it has some interesting plot twists). So really when you think about it, you saying that the anime shows you just mention are cliches and that not original is like saying that the in the movie industrie is fill with cliches because in all romantic comedies the guy allways chases after the girl. If you whant original anime you don´t go and look in the shoujen part of anime, no you shoud go to the progressive part of anime. Take the work of ABE for example, thats fresh, original and something diferent to all main stream media anime thats out there (ABE has wor such series as "Serial Experiment Lain", "Haibane Renmei", "Technolize", etc) all of wich are far from being your typical anime series. So if your anime fandom has reach the point were you don't like the same hero storie being told time afer time after time, or your tierd of watching panties shots or big breast girls, or if you are just tierd of all the fanservise series that are out there; then I recomend you that you start doing some series diging to find some diferent anime, is not easy to find but belive me is out there. I recomend that you start with some thing that has been made by studio GONZO, there are one studio that produces high cuality anime ("Hellsing series", "Last Exile", "Samurai 7", "Basilisk", "Kaleido Star" just to mention a few) and only a few fanservise anime from time to time. Then move on to ABE and the rest is up to you to find.

THE Cliché you will see too often is: "Ooooooooh i lost my parents!" and all the stuffs that go with it. And you do not got it in anime only: Harry Potter with Harry and Neville, Lord of the Ring with Frodo and Aragorn, Eragon, Jaxom and Lessa in Pern, halfly Anakin, Asajj Ventress and Talessan in Star Wars... then in japanamie, you got Naruto, Sasuke, Iruka and blah blah blah; you have also Gundam Wing where they're ALL orphans (Heero have no parents, Duo got them killed, Trowa's one too, Quatre's mother died then his father, Wu Fei had is colony "boom", Relena's "father" was murdered, and her and Zechs' family was all killed). In Saint Seiya G, it is this little girl who's following Aiola. In Yu Gi Oh, the main character and the Kaiba brothers are orphans. In FullMetal Alchemist, Al and Ed are orphans, Winry too, and more or less are Envy and Wrath. Oh, and there's also Kyo in Alice 19th, and Link in Ocarina of Time. I understand it is "cool" to have lost his/her parents in an anime/novel/film/game, but pleaaaaaaaase... it become unbellievable at the end! And characters are becoming the same!

And girls are always meant to be pretty, with enormous breath if possible. Look the Minerva's girl in Gundam Seed Destiny, they're here only to make boys' nose bleed.

In mecha anime, in half of the stories, the mechas must fight extraterrestrial being.

In horror, there must be a girl with long black hairs, if possible covered with oil. Or a little boy making cat's noise.

In yaoi, one of the boys look hetero and the other is a little false-girl, often younger, naïve and blah blah blah.

Boring, isn't it?

Talking about anime cliches, then listen to these anime laws that all anime have to obey:

Law of Metaphysical Irregularity The normal laws of physics do not apply.

Law of Differentiated Gravitation Whenever someone or something jumps, is thrown, or otherwise is rendered airborne, gravity is reduced by a factor of 4.

Law of Sonic Amplification, First Law of Anime Acoustics In space, loud sounds, like explosions, are even louder because there is no air to get in the way.

Law of Constant Thrust, First Law of Anime Motion In space, constant thrust equals constant velocity.

Law of Mechanical Mobility, Second Law of Anime Motion The larger a mechanical device is, the faster it moves. Armored Mecha are the fastest objects known to human science.

Law of Temporal Variability Time is not a constant. Time stops for the hero whenever he does something 'cool' or 'impressive'. Time slows down when friends and lovers are being killed and speeds up whenever there is a fight.

Laws that shooter anime have to obey:

Law of Inherent Combustibility Everything explodes. Everything. First Corrallary - Anything that explodes bulges first. Second Corrallary - Large cities are the most explosive substances known to human science. Tokyo in particular seems to be the most unstable of these cities, sometimes referred to as "The Matchstick City".

Law of Phlogistatic Emission Nearly all things emit light from fatal wounds.

Law of Energetic Emission There is always an energy build up (commonly referred to as an energy 'bulge') before Mecha or space craft weapons fire. Because of the explosive qualities of weapons, it is believed that this is related to the Law of Inherent Combustibility.

Law of Inverse Lethal Magnitude The destructive potential of a weapon is inversely proportional to its size.

Law of Inexhaustibility No one *EVER* runs out of ammunition. That is of course unless they are cornered, out-numbered, out-classed, and unconscious.

Law of Inverse Accuracy The accuracy of a 'Good Guy' when operating any form of fire-arm increases as the difficulty of the shot increases. The accuracy of the 'Bad Guys' when operating fire-arms decreases when the difficulty of the shot decreases. (Also known as the Stormtrooper Effect) Example: A 'Good Guy' in a drunken stupor being held upside down from a moving vehicle will always hit, and several battalions of 'Bad Guys' firing on a 'Good Guy' standing alone in the middle of an open field will always miss.

First Corrallary - The more 'Bad Guys' there are, the less likely they will hit anyone or do any real damage.

Second Corrallary - Whenever a 'Good Guy' is faced with insurmountable odds, the 'Bad Guys' line up in neat rows, allowing the hero to take them all out with a single burst of automatic fire and then escape.

Third Corrallary - Whenever a 'Good Guy' is actually hit by enemy fire, it is in a designated 'Good Guy Area', usually a flesh wound in the shoulder or arm, which restricts the 'Good Guy' from doing anything more strenuous than driving, firing weaponry, using melee weapons, operating heavy machinery, or doing complex martial arts maneuvers.

Some other Law that allways have to be obey:

Law of Inconsequential Undetectability People never notice the little things.... Like missing body parts, or wounds the size of Seattle.

Law of Juvenile Intellectuality Children are smarter than adults. And almost always twice as annoying.

Law of Antagonistic Americanthropomorphism The really nasty 'Bad Guys' are always skinny Americans.

Law of Americanthropomorphistic Intellectual Inferiority The stupid 'Good Guys' are always big Americans.

First Corrallary - The only people who are more stupid than the big dumb Americans are the American translators. (Sometimes referred to as the Green Line Effect)

Second Corrallary - The only people who are more stupid than the American translators are the American editors and censors.

Law of Inverse Lethal Magnitude The destructive potential of a weapon is inversely proportional to its size.

Did you see GENESIS in Gundam Seed? (the only false things I found in your Law. I should translate them one day).

I really don't mind, I just expect the cliches to happen, no big deal for me.

Whenever I notice a cliche, I just go "Huh...meh.", and keep on watching.

If there's enough good animation mixed in with good voice acting and character development, I could care less about storyline >_>

[quote=Feariel] In yaoi, one of the boys look hetero and the other is a little false-girl, often younger, naïve and blah blah blah.

[quote]

In F.A.K.E Dee and Ryo/Randy both look hetero and don't act like girls. But this is the only couple I found that's actually like that^.^U

A very large cliche for me, is that what ever guy I have the hots for he's the one that's treated the worst. That happens in shows that aren't anime too! so that's so big! anyway, examples. Miroku, Joey(Jonouchi), Krilin(I didn't have the hots for him, but he was my favorite) That dude with green hair in Loveless, Sousuke's always getting hurt by Chidori..

Another (but I dont see this alot anymore) cute little animals or demons or whatever they are, sometimes they're annoying kids, but some shows have cute short annoying things. Like Shippo, and Rebbeca, and Kiiro(but he's not annoying) and Kirara, Rin etc...

if you like the anime laws how about this ones: Law of Musical Omnipotence

Any character capable of musical talent (singing, playing an instrument, etc.) is automatically capable of doing much more "simple" things, like piloting mecha, fighting crime, stopping an intergalactic war, and so on...especially if they have never attempted these things before.

Law of Quintupular Agglutination

Also called "The Five-man Rule", when "Good Guys" group together, it tends to be in groups of five. There are five basic positions, which are: 1) The Hero/Leader 2) His Girlfriend 3) His Best Friend/Rival 4) A Hulking Brute 5) A Dwarf/Kid Between these basic positions are distributed several attributes, which include: 1) Extreme Coolness 2) Amazing Intelligence 3) Incredible Irritation

Law of Extradimensional Capacitance

All anime females have an extradimensional storage space of variable volume somewhere on their person from which they can instantly retrieve any object at a moment's notice.

First Corollary (The Hammer Rule) - The most common item stored is a heavy mallet, which can be used with unerring accuracy on any male who deserves it. Other common items include costumes/uniforms, power suits/armor, and large bazookas.

Law of Hydrostatic Emission

Eyes tend to be rather large in Anime. This is because they contain several gallons of water, which may be instantaneously released at high pressure through large tear ducts. The actual volume of water contained in the eyes is unknown, as there is no evidence to suggest that these reservoirs are actually capable of running out. The reason water tends to collect in the eyes is because Anime characters only have one large sweat gland, which is located at the back of the head.

Law of Chromatic Diversity

Air can be any color of the viewable spectrum.

Law of Old man Comic Relief

One law would be that Comic relief comes in the form of a short bald wise mouthed dirty old man or alien Or the combation of any two of thoughs traits.

First Corollary - If old man is present, and is acting too horny, stupid, etc., there will invariably be an old woman to whap him over the head with a frying pan or something.

Law of the wise old man

Little, old Japanese men always know how it ends and withhold the ending from anyone, especially the hero. This includes special power weapons, ancient relics, and people who know everything.

Law of Omnipotent Unreliability

Any 'Bad Guy' with Omnipotent powers/weapons will never use those powers/weapons against the 'Good Guy' until it is too late.

First Corollary All 'Bad Guys' suffer from Antagonistic Boasting Sydrome which require all 'Bad Guys' to threaten with or exemplify their prowess and not use it against the 'Good Guy'.

Second Corollary No 'Bad Guy' may use any new, secret, or superior military device without one of the following events occuring:

a) The control device being broken.

b) The control device being taken by the 'Good Guy'.

c) The control device is in fact not the real device at all and was just 'fooled' by the 'Good Guy'.

d) The 'Bad Guy' has already lost and cannot use the device.

More anime Laws: The Law of Interdimensional Hammers

Whenever a female character witnesses a male character of her preference performing any sort of questionable act (i.e. looking at another girl or anything she might construe as perverted) she can reach into an interdimensional realm (usually behind her back) and withdraw a huge Anime Mallet of Doom with which to whack the said male over the head with.

The Law of Instant Band-Aids

Whenever a character is injured (usually in a head shot, maybe from a mallet whack) Band-Aids will always instantly appear on the wounded individual (and always in pairs, set in a cross fashion) These bandages will then, most likely, disappear by the characters next screenshot.

Law of Universal Edge Defense

Any projectile attack, from a blast of magic to a hail of bullets, can be easily defended against by holding a suitably cool-looking sword or other bladed weapon between the attacker and defender, usually so that the edge cuts into the incoming attack(s), causing the halves to go flying harmlessly past the defender. Observed most often in fantasy and martial arts anime.

Law of Intractable Sanity

There is no such thing as insanity in anime. When faced with horrifying supernatural forces that would drive most men mad, anime characters will either: a) Die quickly (but in accordance with all other laws (e.g., slowdown and exposition), b) Get possessed by them, especially if they are beautiful girls or men in a position to ravish beautiful girls, or c) Kill them, wipe the blood off their blades, and walk on whistling.

Celestial Body Control

At a dramatically correct moment, a hero can summon a sun/moon/halo to appear behind him to cause a dramatic silhoutte.

Aura of Forgetfulness

Any hero who wishes his identity to remain secret will invariably succeed regardless of disguise because everyone around him will forget everything. Otherwise, how does Sailor Moon keep her disguise?

Cool Hair Factor

The hair of a hero will always coalesce into thick strands that drape his face in a dramatic fashion, regardless of wind, the elements, etc.

Law of inverse coping

Any single event will happen to the ONE character LEAST capable of dealing with it.

Law of Love

Anime follows very distinct rules of love. a) The anime characters that fall in love usually must hate each other first. b) The guy is usually too stubborn to admit his love so the woman is usually the first to admit her love. c) The characters find out that they love eachother 2 seconds too late.

The law of Necromatic power increase

The hero will invariably not have the power to defeat the enemy in the first battle and thus will succumb to a seeming death. From this death the hero will recieve insight and an exponential increase in power that will make him far stronger than the enemy. This will invariably be surpassed by the next enemy.

The Law of Amendment to the "Five man team".

If the team is made totally of one sex. 1) The leader (usually doesn't think themself worthy) 2) The fighter (usually there to defend someone) 3) The intellectual (usually something about them surprises everyone at every turn and can make anything) 4) The good looking one 5) The leader's rival (usually best friend of the leader who constantly points out their inadequacies) 6) The mentor (usually has a vast store of knowledge about the enemies minions, even when the minion was just created five seconds ago)

The Law of Handicap

When a "Good Guy" is outnumbered by a large group of "Bad Guys," the "Good Guy's" strength will increase as needed to quickly defeat the "Bad Guys." However, when a number of "Good Guys" overwhelm the number of "Bad Guys," the "Good Guys'" power will decrease, thus giving the "Bad Guys" a chance to win and prolonging the battle until the hero shows up.

More anime Laws: The Law of Interdimensional Hammers

Whenever a female character witnesses a male character of her preference performing any sort of questionable act (i.e. looking at another girl or anything she might construe as perverted) she can reach into an interdimensional realm (usually behind her back) and withdraw a huge Anime Mallet of Doom with which to whack the said male over the head with.

The Law of Instant Band-Aids

Whenever a character is injured (usually in a head shot, maybe from a mallet whack) Band-Aids will always instantly appear on the wounded individual (and always in pairs, set in a cross fashion) These bandages will then, most likely, disappear by the characters next screenshot.

Law of Universal Edge Defense

Any projectile attack, from a blast of magic to a hail of bullets, can be easily defended against by holding a suitably cool-looking sword or other bladed weapon between the attacker and defender, usually so that the edge cuts into the incoming attack(s), causing the halves to go flying harmlessly past the defender. Observed most often in fantasy and martial arts anime.

Law of Intractable Sanity

There is no such thing as insanity in anime. When faced with horrifying supernatural forces that would drive most men mad, anime characters will either: a) Die quickly (but in accordance with all other laws (e.g., slowdown and exposition), b) Get possessed by them, especially if they are beautiful girls or men in a position to ravish beautiful girls, or c) Kill them, wipe the blood off their blades, and walk on whistling.

Celestial Body Control

At a dramatically correct moment, a hero can summon a sun/moon/halo to appear behind him to cause a dramatic silhoutte.

Aura of Forgetfulness

Any hero who wishes his identity to remain secret will invariably succeed regardless of disguise because everyone around him will forget everything. Otherwise, how does Sailor Moon keep her disguise?

Cool Hair Factor

The hair of a hero will always coalesce into thick strands that drape his face in a dramatic fashion, regardless of wind, the elements, etc.

Law of inverse coping

Any single event will happen to the ONE character LEAST capable of dealing with it.

Law of Love

Anime follows very distinct rules of love. a) The anime characters that fall in love usually must hate each other first. b) The guy is usually too stubborn to admit his love so the woman is usually the first to admit her love. c) The characters find out that they love eachother 2 seconds too late.

The law of Necromatic power increase

The hero will invariably not have the power to defeat the enemy in the first battle and thus will succumb to a seeming death. From this death the hero will recieve insight and an exponential increase in power that will make him far stronger than the enemy. This will invariably be surpassed by the next enemy.

The Law of Amendment to the "Five man team".

If the team is made totally of one sex. 1) The leader (usually doesn't think themself worthy) 2) The fighter (usually there to defend someone) 3) The intellectual (usually something about them surprises everyone at every turn and can make anything) 4) The good looking one 5) The leader's rival (usually best friend of the leader who constantly points out their inadequacies) 6) The mentor (usually has a vast store of knowledge about the enemies minions, even when the minion was just created five seconds ago)

The Law of Handicap

When a "Good Guy" is outnumbered by a large group of "Bad Guys," the "Good Guy's" strength will increase as needed to quickly defeat the "Bad Guys." However, when a number of "Good Guys" overwhelm the number of "Bad Guys," the "Good Guys'" power will decrease, thus giving the "Bad Guys" a chance to win and prolonging the battle until the hero shows up.

Sorry Im not trying to spam, it was an error when I posted the first time so I dought that I had to do it again.

Cliches are fine but as long as its not used as often as you breath.

There are some really repititive type of anime's lately and when you watch it, you'll say... "This one seems like..."

Yup, scenes like christmas wherein the hero guy works all night for a present to the girls... onsen trips that give nosebleeds... festivals that end up in mushy scenes under the fireworks... etc...

I wonder how come most people lack originality these days. I'm really thankful to other new anime's today that broke and set new standards. Fullmetal Alchemist is nice. Eureka 7 too. Noein as well. Also Ouran. ^_^

Yo dnwalker, what your doing is called plagiarizing, stealing somebody else's words without acknowledgement. I won't link to the site, but most of those laws come from The Anime Cafe: The Laws of Anime.

Bad guys just before they run away from a fight with the main character(s) say corny lines like: "That'll teach you to mess with us",
"You got lucky this time", "Yeah well maybe now you’ve learnt your lesson" or "Yeah serves you right"

In magical girl series, the heorines resolution is proporationally equal to the amount that the people around her (usually friends or team members) chant or call her name (*cough* Sailormoon).