I've found a disturbing trend in a lot of shows I've watched (anime, video games, K-drama, J-drama, manga in particular). Well, first I have to say that not all stories have these two stereotypes. And there are lots of other stereotypes that go on in them (and I'm sure someone's already making a list) but these are the ones that piss me off the most. Why is it that:

a) The heroine is almost always a spunky and lovable moron
b ) The heroine always falls in love with a jerk, whose jerkiness is deemed hot?

Concerning A: Yes, it seems that the spunky cute idiot is always the heroine in these stories (Sailor Moon, CCS, My Girl, Palace, Tokyo Mew Mew, The Little Freaking Mermaid etc). They do the dumbest shit, act hyper (people around them always call it 'cheerful' though) and yet somehow manage to get incredibly hot boys falling in love with them, not inspite of their stupidity, but BECAUSE of their stupidity (which again, they may dub as 'honesty'). This leads me to believe that many people think that if you're sometimes prone to think logically and act calmly, boys won't like you. This makes nyrin a sad, sad panda.

Concerning B: Now I do like the whole opposites thing (obviously since I AM a fellow Clerith) and I understand finding the bad boy sexy (I mean hey, I'm a Renji/Sasuke/Yamato/Insert Rebel Bad Boy Bishi here fangirl, always have been). But if all he's going to do is abuse you, shouldn't you try to find someone else? Especially if there's a perfectly nice sweet and sexy bish just lying around hoping you'll notice him?

Like in Palace (a Korean Drama), the main character Chae Gyung falls for Prince Shin, who's a total jerk. She cries 24/7 because he acts like a bastard (while having random, infrequent moments of kindness which probably keeps her clingy) and yet she still chases after him. Yet there's Prince Yul, the Prince's cousin, totally nice and sweet and sensitive and HOT but she just won't get with him. I mean wtf? Is it that the more a guy abuses you the better boyfriend he'll be? What kind of twisted logic is that? It's a little scary too, and I sincerely hope that people don't think that a relationship like that can actually work in real life. I mean if a guy abuses you emotionally when you first meet, I think he's already given off the warning signs of a turbelent relationship to come.

Now like I said, I'm okay with the whole opposites thing and even the bad boy thing. But the girl should be smart enough to at least demand that the guy treats her better before being his girlfriend. Like Sam Soon in My Lovely Kim Sam Soon. She was in love with her jerk of a boss, but didn't get with him until he made some much needed changes, and never let him get away with his bastardness (and by the end of it, he really did make a change for the better, which I'm not sure happens frequently in real life or not, but here's hoping).

Anyway, this is just stuff that makes me go GRR. There's other stuff too, but I can't think of it right now. What do you guys think? Have you spotted these trends anywhere else?

And you've just resumed what Shoujo is about. Sad, yes, but true. There are more clichés, and each one is more stupid than the previous, then you'll ask yourself: What have I been watching? And at the end, you'll find nothingness.

Shouldn't this be in the "Entertainment" Section? :P

Ahem! Anyway...

I have to point out the jerk's angst-meter as well, which just shoots straight out of the roof. And the girl is all, "I-have-to-help-you-'cuz-for-some-STRANGE-undescribable-reason-I-have-this-butterfly-like-feeling-in-my-tummy-that-may-or-may-not-be-LOVE-but-it-is!!!!!!" :lmao:

Oh! And also the fact that the girl can do practically ANYTHING, and the guy can do zip... other than hurt himself and/or other people. XD

Clichés are entertaining though, and it's really how the writers/animators/authors mix it up that makes it interesting. It's harder to make some new couple-type and make it stick with the watchers/readers rather than something that's been used before. Plus the "opposites-attract" thing is more popular. :lol:

::should write a documentary of this::

Is this really supposed to be in the entertainment section? Someone can move it then, if they want. Ya though, it is hard to create different couple types, but at least show that these types of relationships don't usually end happily.

Like Sasu/Saku. Thank goodness kishimoto didn't have Sasuke suddenly getting all mushy and thinking Wow I love her now! Nope. Sasuke was a douche at the beginning and got even douchier in part 2.

It's 'cause the majority of women are attracted to bad boys. They know that they should get with the sweet guy who likes them, but the bad boy is unpredictable and because he doesn't show kindness or affection all the time, when he does show that affection then she feels like it's so much more meaningful, even though it might not be meant that way.

I wouldn't go so far as to tar all shoujo with the same brush though. Paradise Kiss for one, shows that the good girl meets bad boy storyline can be done well and be original.

I actually like the bad boy x good girl thing (is thinking about Mars), so to me, it never gets old. The cliche that I really hate is the one where the girl and guy meet once and discover that they're madly in love. They barely spend a week together and they get all mushy about their eternal love! And did I mention that they're only in middle school, or maybe a freshman in high school? (And yes, I'm talking about you, Fushigi Yugi).

Sasu/Saku has to be one of the most annoying pairing I've ever seen, but I'm not even going to get started on it. I guess the "girl chasing after boy but has no real reason to do so" grates on my nerves as well.

Like, ohmigod Madame. O_O How scarily accurate. No wonder I adore the bad boyxgood girl pairing! XD Oh, and most of the time, the bad boy looks so much smexxier than the nice guy... which is another reason to love this type of pairing. :lmao:

And is it just me, or is annoying cliche #2 the cliche in which the girl is much "prettier" when she cries? (Which, in case ya didn't know, is impossible in real life. =O)

Aw, I forgot about Mars. Rei x Kira are such an adorable pairing. There was a lot of angst in that manga, but it never felt OTT to me.

The instant love cliche is an annoying one. *nod* The one I really find annoying though, is the 'heroine gets saved from sexual assault by the hero' one. It can be done well, like with Kira's teacher in Mars, and how Rei dealt with him, but most of the time it just gets on my nerves. For example, in Doubt, when the token ugly obsessed geek tries to rape the heroine. Mind you, volume one of that manga was a cliche from start to finish. The Madame wasn't impressed.

I adore the bad boy/good girl thing too, hehe. Kyo/Tohru, Kiley/Momo, Rei/Kira, George/Yukari, and so on. And it's true that the bad boy is so much prettier than the sweet, predictable boy. Just look at Kiley (right) :wub: compared to Toji. (top left)

It's virtually impossible to look prettier when crying than when you're smiling. Tears usually go hand in hand with lip trembling and rapid blinking, and if you're really crying, blotchy face, ruined makeup and a runny nose. Not a good look. I've never seen a person cry glistening emo tears in perfect matching streaks down their face in real life.

I like Sailormoon, and I do thing Usagi is cheerful. XD; But like. I always thought Mamoru was a bit of a jerk to her sometimes...And yeah...She did have her dumb moments, but she has a good heart. XD;

I have no idea where I'm going with this.

Oh yes. And after years of the bad boy x good girl pairing, I am getting a bit tired of it. Come on, most bad boys in real life don't reform that easily! And why would you chase around a guy who treated you badly and ignore his nice, equally hot counterpart? :D I guess a reason why this is so popular is that most shoujo readers (me included) love to imagine themselves as someone like a heroine who can bring a bad boy to heel and change him, when in reality, life mostly does NOT play out like a shoujo manga. But, I have to admit that there are so many MANY things that can be done with an opposites-attract pairing and that's what gives it its spark, IMHO.

Another thing that does not translate well into reality, like people said, is the heroine suddenly looking more beautiful when she cries. It might be just me, but when people cry, their eyes don't suddenly get big and clear tears don't suddenly just go gushing out of their eyes. When I cry, at least, my nose and cheeks turn red from sniffing, my eyes also turn red, snot flows out of my nose and my face scrunches up as my eyes disappear into nothingness, rendering me decidedly unpretty. :P

What are the other cliches? I'll try to list some off the top of my head:
a) Geeky girl who wears glasses is suddenly transformed into a bombshell when they are taken off
B) Heroine is usually poor, an orphan (or one parent has died), not too intelligent in terms of book learning, but is sweet, spunky, and has a good heart. I have an intense dislike for these formulaic heroines; they all tend to act the same after a while. It is a great drama, anime, or manga, wherein the same basic formula is applied, but somehow, the manga, anime, or drama stands out as something memorable and different.

[RANT] These days my anger burns hot against 'spunky' and 'sassy' leading ladies who do bad things or make wrong decisions and then try to worm themselves out with their quirkiness and sassiness. Also with fictional girls (and guys) playing uber hard to get. What is it with you guys? Stop the craziness already!!!!![/RANT]

c) The rich, perfect girl is always the evil one.
d) The hero is either:
1) cold and forbidding
2) the ultimate bad boy
In either case, he is usually RICH.
e) They start out as enemies, and then suddenly, gasp! Discover that they have FEELINGS for each other.

This is one of my biggest pet peeves, not just in anime/manga but also in numerous Hong Kong TV serials. >_<

The heroine is usually someone from a humble, poor-to-average background, simple, kind, not-drop-dead-gorgeous-but-still-beautiful-in-her-simple-humble-way etc. Her "rival" is rich, beautiful, and a complete b*tch. And of course her boyfriend is a total sweetheart who is somehow or other henpecked by her, and who falls in love with the heroine/whom the heroine falls in love with.

Heaven forbid there exists nice, rich female supporting characters out there. :rolleyes: Obviously, this stereotype is meant to appeal to us 'average' viewers, but that stupid formula has been repeated ad nauseam. It would be REALLY nice to get a chance of pace once in a while.

There was one series that even had the heroine working with orphans/children, as a blatant display of her wonderfully kind nature. Because all good people love children, obviously. Excuse me while I gouge the bile out with my fork. :puke:

Heheh, this "I want to kill you = omfgIloveyoukissmenow" rational is quite prevalent in a lot of yaoi fics. :lol:


Another small pet peeve of mine is how everyone falls in love with each other. As in, Hero A falls in love with Heroine B, who is dating Hero C, who secretly loves Heroine B's Sister, who actually loves Hero A etc. etc.

It's like there are no other people in the world to fall in love with. :rolleyes: Nobody in these stories have every heard of "plenty of fishes in the sea"?

Although considering that a movie/series typically revolves around a particular group of people, it's not surprising that a story has all this interconnectivity (other than HK serials always coming up with twisty plot twists for the sheer sake of complicating things). But sometimes you just take a step back, and wonder why all the guys fall in love with this one girl, when there are plenty of others out there in this big, big world.

A typical, Filipino soap opera formula: the heroine works for a rich family and they all hate this simple country maid and delight in bossing her around. But of course, the hawt, and good-at-heart family fortune heir falls in love with her. :ermm: ...and his mom is actually not his real mom at all...and she's actually the heroine's mom who gave her up for adoption years ago...and the guy has a bitchy, also rich girlfriend who makes the heroine's life hell and ends up being the ultimate villain of the series(instead of the mom, who goes over to the good side, because hey, her daughter's there) :whistle:

This cliche I HATE to death: Two siblings grow up together and are superclose. When they are in their teens, they find out that they are not actually siblings.
...And they flipping fall. in. love.. *Pukes*
I mean HELLO?! If my brother tells me that he is not my real brother, he'd still be my sibling in my heart. And I certainly would not MARRY HIM! :puke:

@Kusari's post: ::gaspness:: That like sums up practically every Filipino drama I've bothered to take a peek at. XD And most Korean dramas that appear here. :P

And the latter one... damnit, I know it was a Korean drama, just forgot what it was called. >_< I remember a part where the boy-who-falls-in-love-with-his-"sister" accidentally switches the names on the babies in the nursery... so it was HIS FAULT!!!

Oh! And a popular anime/manga cliche - heroine and/or hero, whenever in an emotional scene, are almost always accompanied by sparkly-eyed-ness and in some cases, roses and bright lights and shy looks.

Hmm... my pet peeves...

They fight but really they love each other thing. So immature, so cliched, and so annoying (though Scrubs did that love hate thing in an original path). Even when their relationship took a step forward, they revert back in that routine as if nothing happened. I can imagine marital stability already in their future /sarcasm.

Everyone's in love with the girl (Fushigi Yuugi ). Everyone's in love with the guy (Love Hina). Anti-R wants to hurl from the contrived idea of it all.

Autumn Story?!
*dislikes korean dramas*

All of my many favorite pairings could probably fall into, at least, one of the many categories that have been mentioned here... :P

Hate that, especially when the girl or guy is as annoying as Miaka.

Can you say Tohru Honda and Kyo Sohma? xD (Although Tohru is pretty deep, actually xD)

Yes, it is THE cliché pairing, which DOES make me sad; I mean, another cliché thing is that the girl never ends up with her first "perfect-boy crush" and, when it DOES, I would have preferred the jerky-boy (Tokyo Mew Mew: IchigoxMasaya....EXCUSEZ MOI!?!? ICHIGOxRYOU FOREVER, BABY! D:)

Wagh. >_<

I've never understood that cliche. Wouldn't it be more believable for them to be in love before they find out they're not related? Yeah, incest and all, but it's far move realistic than them being close and then suddenly seeing each other in a different light when they find out they're not siblings. Plus, it would make for some great angst and possibly a nice ironic outcome where they move on and find new loves, when they really could have been together.

The only manga in which I've ever supported sister/adopted brother is Hot Gimmick, and that's only because Shinogu is the one guy who isn't a complete asshole. Azuza tried to have Hatsumi raped to get revenge on her father, and Ryoki's an abusive, jealous, controlling git.

Oh, which reminds me. Another annoyance is when the heroine gets slapped, and instead of slapping them right the hell back, she forgives the attacker without question, because she's just that nice. Either that or she blames herself. (Another Hot Gimmick example: Ryoki slaps Hatsumi because she didn't answer her phone. She responds by thinking 'It's my fault. I should have answered his calls') RAWR. Miaka's annoying, but at least she had the backbone to slap Nuriko back at the beginning of the series.

...

Madame can read my mind. o_O

Anyway, 'tis true. Sometimes the heroine can be more emo than the jackass-hero. Another annoying cliche related to that is when the main girl/main love interest of hero appears soooo strong and is actually a total weakling, and has a breakdown, in which the jackass hero has finally loved her enough to help her out of it.

Or when the anime/manga/ throws weak and often-used events to make the two characters fall in love with each other. Such as... when hero/heroine ends up taking care of his/her "love" (unwillingly or not) when he gets sick/injured. Or something. ::bad at giving examples::

Anyone seen High School Musical? :lmao: A Disney movie at its peak at cliches!!
The girl is a pretty newbie to the school and is a math/science nerd. The guy is the most popular guy in the school for being a basketball jock, but his dream is to sing in the school musical. (like, that is so Disney <_< )
Boy meets girl and she shows him he can be what he wants, and gets him to sing with her.
In the movie, there are also stereotypes with the nerds, the jocks, the emos, and the villians(?).
Anyway, that movie was so damn cheesy. I swear I was screaming at the screen "If you kiss, I think I'll lay down and die!" >_<

That would have been too cheesy. :no:

Did you forget to mention that the entire movie is within a 2 week timeline?

:no: Too fast, too cheesy, too chiche....

I dunno. Maybe it has to do with a girl's fantasy of having "her love changed him to be a better man" thing.

As for High School Musical: main guy is GAY, GAY, GAY!!!

"The childhood friend" thing.

Though there are exceptions, I don't really like this cliche that much. I rather just want them to let them stay "friends" the whole time. Like Shinichi and Ran, Cloud and Tifa. Though the latter does not really apply to this but still... <_<

I have been watching this movie in German, and it already seems cheesy enough!!
Just recently switched it to English, and Good God!! :shock:

Every freakin' person is on helium!!!

I also hate the child hood friends who fall in love cliche. It just seems like lazy writing because the writer didn't want to write about the characters falling in love or having real chemistry.

I even have a friend of the opposite sex who I was friends with since childhood. He is also my best friend. And trust me, the very thought of being in a relationship with him makes me sick. He's more like my brother than friend.

Ah yes High School Musical. I actually really liked that movie. I just wish they didn't try so hard to make the main girl see so tragic by having everyone call her "The freaky math girl" I mean come on, what school does that.

I did love Sharpay and her brother, and Kelsy.

Did anyone else think it was funny that the entire basket ball team was rather short. No way they would be the champions.

Also, they're schedual was very strange. Championship game in only the first two weeks of being back at school, and having the game at the home team's school no less?
Starting to prepare for the winter musical in January? Usually schools are preparing for the spring musical at that time. It's going to be one rushed production!

The girl who played Gabriella was a terrible actress, couldn't act at all! She was always wearing that smirk on her face, even when she was crying. (?)

The typical antagonists were too overdone, and therefore instead of hating them, Sharpay and Ryan were actually my favourite characters. (Love Ashley Tisdale! :P)

Too fall in love with someone in 2 weeks... too cheesy and unrealistic. I really don't support the canon pairing in that movie, I really really don't like it.

I'm a pretty big Troy/Sharpay fan, though, after reading some amazing fanfics about them. :sweat:

yeah i have definatly noticed a major trend.
Anyone watch Samurai Deeper Kyo?

It seems that Yuyu (the female herione or w/e) has every single guy after her.
And for what?! nothing except to promote the idea that a girl must be the following

1.dumb
2.helpless
3.over optimistic and cheerful
4. have big boobs (and this is apparent as the anime goes on)

for a boy to like her..
talk about having low self-esteem -__-;;

For example:
Akira (the blind samurai) likes Yuya
Demons eyes Kyo (no not Kyoshiro) likes Yuya
There are some moments where Kyoshiro shows affection towards Yuya
Benitora (Hitada Tokugawa) is MADLY in love with her.


Its crazy..and annoying how some anime are....

Yeah Im glad that happened too.
Kishimoto you are indeed ....a God...

:cough:NaruHina for life :cough:

On High School Musical, the main female lead is so thrown in your face about her being a Mary-Sue it sickens me. She never does one thing wrong in the movie at all, she's pretty, a braining girl, head of a science club, can sing extremely well and when she hears what Troy said to the basketball crew she's still all nice to him. Even when she thrown the basketball in the hoop with no mistake whatsoever...KILL HER!!!

TroyxSharpay all the way! xD

One cliche I really hate is how the character from the poor background is always the really sweet, down to earth and good hearted one, while the rich character is an arrogant, spoilt, rotten brat. Can't it be the other way round for once?