Ah, the good ole days of anime tropes; how we love them so much here at Honey’s Anime. Watching a guy bump into a girl going to school and somehow ending up landed between her oppai or grabbing them has always reminded us of some of the funnier ecchi series—of which there are literally hundreds of different series—that the anime gods have blessed us with. Though, as great as anime tropes are, there does come a time where like any joke or skit seen a sense of boredom begins to seep in. You’ll begin to find that same scene we discussed above losses its hilarity and when several series do it, it just becomes semi-annoying. What does this mean though for the older anime tropes of people running around with toast in their mouths because they are late or girls revealing their pantsu because of random wind gusts? Are Tropes in Anime Getting Old? Should tropes be removed or are they themes in anime we need to keep protected!?
For the Tropes!
Anime tropes are iconic in the world of Japanese animation. Even in more recent series like Hinamatsuri where you see some typical tropes like guys getting into random situations because of alien/time traveling girls—reminiscent of past anime like To Love Ru or Asobi ni Iku yo!—you can’t help but laugh when the randomness floods your screen. There’s something just silly about comedy tropes in anime that even after they have been done to death, work as a whole for a show. Yes, they are incredibly simple and yes, many tropes can be overused in hundreds of anime works but why stop when they do make people laugh? That’s why even now after decades of toast running high schoolers we won’t say anime tropes need to die out.
No more Tropes!
Now if we go the opposite direction and do think that anime tropes need to die out, let’s think why that should happen. A lot of anime tropes can be seen as tiring at this point in the anime world meaning most see an ecchi, comedy or even drama anime with them and instantly don’t want to watch because they think the show will follow the same routines of anime series before it. While no one should ever do this—seriously watch a show for longer than a few episodes—we do understand that people’s time is precious and a series that begins with common anime tropes might annoy most. That’s why maybe saving tropes till a few episodes in might be a better idea than spamming them in the beginning. We’re looking at you Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni.
Final Thoughts
Anime tropes aren’t bad in anime and even after thousands of shows utilizing the same ones over and over again, we don’t particularly hate them here at Honey’s Anime HQ. Equally though—and we know it can come off a bit contradictory—we do wish anime wouldn’t always rely on the romance tropes, ecchi tropes and comedy tropes we’ve seen used for the last 20 something years of anime series. However, this is our opinion on the topic and we now open the floor to you readers to let us know what your thoughts are on anime tropes. Are anime tropes getting old? Tell us in the comments down below so we can hear your unique thoughts on this very intriguing topic. Remember for more articles just like this one, keep stuck to our hive here at Honey’s Anime.
Author: Aaron