1 internet to whoever can guess where I got the title for this entry from. Hint: it’s a comedian. After an incident a few nights ago that isn’t really worth going into, I decided that I would write about things in the anime world that just piss me off. No more intro needed to this really.

Male Lead Characters

I know it must be slightly hard to come up with characters to populate an anime or manga series with but do creators really have to reach for the “Character Personality Creation For Dummies” book? Here is what i’m talking about. The typical male lead, which for repitition reasons I shall now call “ML’s”. How can you tell this guy from his elusive, well hidden cousins? Here is a few things to look for.

• Nervious around women.
• Totaly stupid.
• Utterly clueless about women.
• Perversion. Usualy for boobs. If not entirely he has a obsession about 1 or more parts of the female body

Characters guilty of this:

• Yuuto – Nogizaka Haruko no Himitsu
• Tsukune – Rosario+Vampire
• Saito – Zero no Tsukaima (however this is forgivable as he has moments that totally redeem himself)
• Yuichi – Hanbun no Tsuki ga Noboru Sora
• Keitaro – Love Hina

All of the above characters are guilty of this crime against the anime world. The stupid male is so overused and it is about damn time we got some change happening. How can they go about correcting this bad choice? Easy, you call the stupid moron’s couisn; the compentant, awesome ML. This guy can talk to women, understand them and what is going on with them and to a certain extent their feelings and just generaly act like a normal guy would. He doesn’t stutter or get nervious when the ladies get close to him, doesn’t freak out when they hold his arm or spew forth pints of blood at the meet sight of cleavage. He is a normal person who the anime world is much to devoid of.

Characters guilty of being awesome like this:

• Tomoya – Clannad
• Yuichi – Kanon

I wish I could add more than 2 people to this list but I just havn’t seen an abundance of romance genre shows with awesome ML’s and these are the only 2 that come to mind right now to show how well done male protagonists can really be. Of course both of these series were based off of visual novels (1 adult, 1 not) of their perspective titles, however Key know how to make male characters seem authentic and 1 can only hope others take note of this. This part is getting way to long despite this being perhaps the 1 point I can’t stand about anime over all others so it’s about time we moved on to…

Tsundere Girls

For those who don’t follow japanese terms very well, a Tsundere character is a girl who is usualy very insultive, often physically abusive and very hard to get along with. However she is a nice girl at heart and will eventually become much more friendly after awhile. These type I have never understood myself. In shows like Zero no Tsukaima, the object of the ML’s affection is a rude, abusive, bitch of a character who physically beats the male lead on a daily basis on top of blowing him up with magic. Yes these girls have their nice sides but honestly if a woman was always beating you up, insulting you, throwing stuff at you and screaming at you, chances are you’re not going to fall in love with her are you? You’d call her a Crazy bitch and dump her ass and find someone better.

Now why can’t the ML’s seem to do this? Of course everyone wants to see the guy get the girl in the end but for once why can’t it be someone who you don’t expect? Someone who is nice to him and looks after him rather than giving him brain damage by kicking him in the head when they get mad? Just once i’d like to see this play out in a series.

Guy finds girl. Girl likes guy but is a tsundere so she is a total hag to him. He tries to put up with her crap but in the end he meets someone else that is genuinely nice and he says to the tsundere “i’m sorry, I can’t put up with you anymore. you always hurt me, yell at me, beat me and i’m sick of your shit. I found “X girl” who loves me, I don’t want you anymore”. Just totaly shatter her feelings to show her what’s what. These girls need a harsh slap upside the head in the spot most vunerable. Hit the weak point for massive damage! Sorry i’m back now. Perhaps that is too harsh of a view but still I would love to see it and i’m sure a lot of others would too.

High School Romances

Ok we get the idea already. Stop it. In high school you had learnt about girls and how awesome they are so you were on the look out for a girl friend. Since when did 99% of romance show need to use this setting as the backdrop? Why can’t their be settings were the story takes place at someones work, or their home, or… ANYTHING but a damn school. Out of all the shows ive seen that involve romance I can only think of 1 that didn’t abuse this, and actually had an honestly portrayed ML. That show was Koi Kaze which I throughly enjoyed however I do doubt that the topic of full-blood incest will sit well with the majority of people.

Also a point no one seems to realise is that there is no way people who aren’t even out of their teens live happyly ever after. How often does that happen these days? Yes I know this isn’t supposed to have any real connection to reality reasoning but the chances of 1 couple surviving until their 70s or whenever they die is just insane. Much less expect every show that has 1 of these couples to. We never see what happens 2 or 3 years later to see if they are still together. Yeah yeah nit picking but still. Think of it this way though.

Remember the old Die Hard movies? No i’m not talking about the latest one, but rather the first 3. In the original Holly, John’s wife, is taken hostage. He saves her and she falls in love with him all over again and they get back together. In part 2, John is going to the airport to meet her. Hijinx ensue and sure enough he saves her life yet again. Thats life saving act #2. In the third movie however she doesn’t talk to him anymore. He has become and alcoholic and he says it’s been months says he had talked to her. If saving a womans life TWICE isn’t enough to live happly ever after then what hope do 2 18 year olds have, when the biggest obstical they’ve overcome is them admitting they like each other?

Underused Character Personalities

While there is an overflow of overused mundane personalities, the ones that really deserve to be used more than just once or twice are often forgotten about until a show comes along that makes you remember why you liked those types in the first place. Examples.

Innocently Stupid

• No real surprise here but this girl is usualy stupid but in a way that is cute enough to like. She doesn’t mean to have dumb moments but they happen often enough for hilarity to partake. She can also be tricked into thinking something that isn’t right with little to no effort
• Best example: Kana – Minami-ke

Sincere and Caring

• This lady cares a lot for the people around her and is sometimes too nice to the point where you expect them to turn into a demon and eat someone. They love people and think nothing of going out of their way to do things for others, again to the point where it just seems unnatural.
• Best example: Akari Mizunashi – Aria

Shy but Sweet

• A rarity for characters but it does exist. Thes girls are quite shy around people and often get nervious but are very kind. Usually softly spoken too. Not much else needs to be said about this class really.
• Best example: Sora Kajiwara – Sketchbook ~Full Colors~

Strange and Unusual

• I think most people know what this means by now. Anyone who has seen the brilliant Azumanga Daioh will know who i’m refering to straight away. Yes my favorite anime girl of all time Osaka. She so personifies a potentialy epic personality that should be used again. However i’m sure if it was it would come under fire for trying to copy her trademark blank stare and downright strange, random thoughts. Actually on second thoughts perhaps this shouldn’t be used again as it was done so well mabye further use would only hurt.
• Best Example: Osaka – Azumanga Daioh

Well that about wraps it up from me. This post has gone on enough that any more would just be treading grounds on issues I already have, but in different forms so let me end by saying anime is in no way perfect, and I doubt it ever will be but damnit I still adore it.