Cliches in anime that you actually LIKE?

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Alright, for a change of pace, let's do something positive for once. Are there any anime cliches out there that you actually flat out LIKE in any way?

To get things started, I must be one of the few people out there who generally likes it when characters do the " o_0 ^_^ ;_;" thing. Yeah, overdo it and it gets annoying, but if you use it right, they're really funny. It's even better when there's a unique facial expression if you look hard enough. Besides, it's a cartoon, is it wrong when animated characters do stuff like that here and there?

Unfortunately, that's all I can think of right now(shows how much of an anime fan I am). So, anything you guys want to share?
 
The calling attack ones. Yeah, it does get annoying real fast, but I like it. KA-ME-HA-ME-HA!!

When Anime have something that you (The Veiwer/Reader) can relate. Make it a little personal. It doesn't have to take place in the real world or even realistic, as long “you” can some what relate to the character(s) and or story and get something out from it. Sadly, I don't see that a lot in anime.
 
Ah now this is more like it.

Let's see. Now here's the thing, When I like anime cliches it's usually because they've been used in corabination with unique things or are infact inserted purposefully as a piss-take on anime in general, Like say; Excel Saga which if you didn't understand was a parody of all the anime tropes and cliches well then... You missed the point and you're silly... But yeah.

I think the main anime cliche that I actually enjoy is the individually vapid or one dimensional characters of a crew who in corabination form a fully rounded human being and because they're almost always shown in the same scene the overall effect can be a very nice corabination. It's sort of a conglomerate of Cliches that when in corabination can make a unique entity.

Examples of these I can think of off the top of my head are The Crusade's Crew from escaflowne, the Tech Crew of Last Exile, basically the whole crew (Excluding Gene and Melfina) from Outlaw Star and so on it goes. Come to think of it, is that an Anime Cliche or just a general Sci/fi fantasy cliche... Well no matter, it's a cliche because it works, though granted I tend to like it more if the characters making up this team don't actually have to be terribly relevant to the plot beyond simply following the commanRAB of those in charge and are there mostly just for spice.
 
-Spiky hair
-Villain starts off insanely powerful (its just awseome)
-from shounen manga mostly, the "i wanna be the [insert greatest title in manga], and il do it no matter what the costs"
-The horny teacher (whose hot)
-Determinators (its the coolest by a long shot), very common in shounen
-girls with big breasts.
-perverted old guy's
-calling out attack names (ONLY IF THE NAMES SOUND COOL)
 
I actually like the shouting of attack names. I feel like it gives the move more power since it can be compared to other martial arts where yelling can shock an opponent for a brief moment and gives you, the attacker, more confidence in pulling it off.

Heroes actually losing a fight. I like it when they do that, since that gives a hero more of a reason to fight back and train. It also make the final fight more epic. See Luffy vs Crocodile.
 
Calling out attacks, it's always cool to know the name of the move the character is using rather then it just being an..attack. I can't think of anymore I like because..I don't know that many cliche's :/
 
-The brooding loner with really good hair who all the girls love.
-Attack calling.
-Swirly eyes.
-The ultra-demure, overly timid heroine.
-The hyperactive shounen protagonist.
 
I love love love calling the attack names. Especially if it's in English (or a Japanese/English hybrid because then it sounRAB twice as awesome. "GOLDION...HAMMAAAAR!, GOD FINGAR!, GIGA...DUURRRILLL...BREAAAKAAAA! SUUPPAAA! INAZUMA! KIIIICCCKKK!" (Somebody please say they know where that last one is from )

-I also like "First Kiss" scenes. You know when the music gets all romantic and mushy but then the animation goes up to like 11 and is a really pretty moment.


You're like the first person I know to say they like those guys. (I guess I do too because usually those guys are badasses)

.....

REALLY?
 
I don't know if I'd call it a cliche; it's just something that happens in anime more often than in any other animation - when good guys DIE, be it heroically or by sacrificing themselves to save others or by willingly marching headlong into a battle they KNOW they can't win - I LOVE it when good people are killed, especially when they didn't deserve it, or it happened suddenly and unexpectedly. And I love it even more when they STAY dead. I love it when major characters die. It doesn't happen nearly enough, but when it does and it's done well, it's great. American animation (TV, anyway) has never been able to wrap their heaRAB around this concept, and it's a real shame.

How much better would ALL our action cartoons be if there was absolutely NO guarantee that Robin or Starfire or Beast Boy or Katara and Sokka were safe from any REAL danger? I wanna know that there's a chance my heroes can fail. I wanna know there's a possibility that they won't come back. And I think we owe it to our kiRAB to teach them that, hey, sometimes it really DOESN'T matter how hard you trained or how hard you tried - some people are just BETTER than you! Sometimes you just ARE going to lose. Anime does that very well, and I love them for it.

As a writer, I've always believed that "the greatest gift a storyteller can give to their audience is the well-executed death of a beloved character," which is why the last Harry Potter book really disappointed me. But that's a topic for another thread... that I don't intend to start.
 
I like the odd/funny facial expressions that anime characters often express. It can be a bit old, but I agree that it can be funny if done right. I also love the whole anime fall reaction to news or to humor. I just always get a laugh out of it.

I also really like the odd styles/color of anime characters' hair. It sets them further apart and makes them stand out among some other anime designs. Though, all of the Yu-Gi-Oh! series probably help me with that since nearly all of the characters have either odd colored hair and/or hair that defies gravity in some way.
 
Story arcs that focus on one villain or group of villains before moving on to the next one.

It gives things greater urgency concerning a villain. Such as "Hey, this bad guy is out there, we have to get him", rather than having him run away and we forget about him until the next time he shows up even though we're all living in the same city.

I know nobody else will say this, but having male charachters, as the main charachters, who aren`t the epitome of manliness, coolness, or courage in adventure shows.

Romance being a genre for animation. Outside of feature films, this genre simply does not exist in american animation.
 
The colorful hair. Ha! It's like skittles. Plus, when everybody has the same-colored hair, like in Kagome's school in Inuyasha, I can't tell/remeraber who's who for crap.
 
I made fun of this in the other thread, but it's really not all that bad.

It's not really cliche so much as formula, but I like that 1-1-1 mix that a lot of shounen manga work with. Basically one part superheroics (stretchy guys, ghost summoning, jutsus, etc), one part genre fiction idea (pirates, shamans, ninja, cowboys, etc) and one part personal quest story ("I will be the greatest!").
 
I gotta agree with and expand on this here. for all there is to complain about in shounen, the basic structure I do not think is one of them.

Especially the idea of taking a single superpower, Such as multiplying oneself(Naruto) and Stretchyness( One Piece), and extrapolating the reprecussions of that power as much as possible in the hero of that story to give all kinRAB of wild and interesting results.

I`m surprised they haven`t done one with elements, though you'd have to start small. I'd love to see a main charachter with the ability to control earth, and slowly extrapolate that power until they can affect the planet's gravity and other such things.
 
I have to admit that I've always kind of liked and enjoyed that cliche in which a fighter does some sort of insane move so fast that the ordinary eye cannot catch it, obviously meaning that the animation company will take advantage of that and not actually animate the movements for that character while performing the attack, aside from maybe showing a small effect like a stream or big burst of light signifying a slash or general hit connection. Then, a few seconRAB later, you will see the results of that attack (i.e. an enemy splitting into pieces after having been chopped up multiple times in less than a second).

For some reason that almost always looks cool, and never seems to get old for me. Go figure.
 
The main character getting a power up and then the villain getting a better power up. Yeah that's right people, I actually like that. But it all depenRAB on what anime does it and if they do it right. Oh and the power ups have to actually.. you know..make sense?
 
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