Most Common Anime Cliches

Or if it's not that, then one parent and child.

Oh and why is it always mothers with sons and fathers with daughters?

This happens in comic books,movies,books and well...EVERYTHING.

This is so overused, I can't even begin to count how many anime use this cliche. - NerdyPweeps

Yep I see this all the time. - Anonymousxcxc

Normal hair and costume would be too boring. Imagine if in Naruto everyone looked like a conventional historical ninja, or if the pirates in One Piece dressed like somali or 1500's Caribbean pirates. It would suck. Number three on this list would be "the character design is so boring and unoriginal" - DanoMR98

In an anime, there are 20 people in one frame. Some are blonde, some have brown and black hair, some have red hair, and one person has dyed hair. Some have hooded eyes, some have almond-shaped eyes, some have round eyes, and one has huge eyes. They're all wearing common clothes you see other people wear, except for one, who's wearing a cape, and looks like he/she's on his/her way to anime con and is a total weeb. Try spotting the main character! - Ohno

It doesn't really bother me, but is it normal for the characters or something? - NerdyPweeps

Let's play a game. It's called spot the protagonist

I guess it's okay for some people, but it's disturbing or just weird to others, you know. We all have our own opinions and I totally respect that. - NerdyPweeps

Fanservice. Fan service everywhere. Sometimes it takes a step too far

I don't like it when a show becomes too inappropriate to watch.

It's good, but gets repetitive over time.

I actually don't hate this type of ending, I actually like it a lot. It's just that it's WAY too overused, especially if you're talking about Inuyasha. - NerdyPweeps

Try attack on titan or death note - Manlypants

This has Naruto written all over it. - NerdyPweeps

DBZ did have a few fillers in which all were bad. Still not a bad show... - SelfDestruct

Fairy Tail does not have as many fillers as Naruto.

Two words: Fairy Tail

In Yona of the Dawn I feel like most of the arc in Awa was filler. Seriously it took five episodes just to complete a simple episode arc. what?! - Anonymousxcxc

It gets annoying when overused. Looking at ya Fairy Tail! - Goku02

Its Pretty common to have a female characters with incredibly large breasts. - egnomac

Being a girl, I find this stereotype very offensive (but ugh making boobs be the same size is nearly impossible lol) so... yeah I don't know

Most of the time I refuse to watch an anime with oversized boobs - Manlypants

Well duh, most of the creators are men. Men can't really write about a female 100% compare to a female writing about a female. Best way to relate to the story is knowing the main character front to back which is why most main characters are male because men are the authors. So this is a naive suggestion on thinking this is cliche when its just natural for male to talk about a male. Plus men don't know what women are thinking 90% of the time anyway. That why you have the other cliches here in the perspective of what man think how a female acts. All they see is girls with large breast

Wasn't kill la kill a shoujo?

Not in every anime or manga, but still in most of them. - NerdyPweeps

Kill la Kill and sailor moon are shojo, which means the main characters are girls.-KyokoKuchisakeSuccubi

You know, the power of friendship. Happen all the time.

Looking at you, Fairy Tail. Natsu Dragneel and Erza Scarlet in particular! - Goku02

This is most definitely Naruto.

Also the power of friendship cliche is the LAZIEST cliche-KyokoKuchisakeSuccubi

You'd think that the main character would be sitting in the middle of class or by the door, nope apparently not

The only classroom type animes that I have seen so far that I can name off my mind right now that don't use this is Boku No Hero and Assassination Classroom where both Deku and Nagisa sit in the exact middle of the classroom.

And Madoka Magica. I mean, Madoka sits in the middle of the class also - MLPFan

It's usually in the back of the class, for whatever reason. - ItsPisces

Yes this...

And they beat all their enemies through the power of friendship

Especially girls falling onto a guy main character in a compromising position, then yelling and slapping him like it's somehow their fault that this happened.

His name is happosai (from ranma)

Kame, Jiraya,Meliodas,that guy I forgot his name from Ramma... - Garoto_Oceano

We're still waiting for one, Attack on Titan

So stupid I'm 15 for goodness sake!

Every Non-Action anime.

so true

LOL so true! What were the villains thinking standing there watching them charging powers? - Goku02

It gets very annoying that the villains do NOTHING to stop the attack as if it's sacred or something

This needs to stop.

KAMEHAMEHA! - LordDovahkiin

Watched spirited away and the main hero was chihiro

This Ain't No Cliché! It needs to happen more often.

It's called shōjo -KyokoKuchisakeSuccubi

As she runs, she narrates her life with something like "Hi, my name is blankety blankblank and I'm only 15 years old. It's my first day of he new school year and my goals are blankety blank blank blanker blank"

Every single magical girl anime has this trope. - ItsPisces

*ahem* Smile Precure

Sailor Moon, Madoka, etc...
It's kind of a bummer.

Or walks into a girls room, trips falling on a girls breasts or walks in on her naked and somehow the girl gets super strength and hits him so hard he flies out of the room..SO ANNOYING!

This is not the case in DBZ. The older, the stronger. Well, most of the time at least. - Goku02

Practically everyone in One Piece.

Well, they're pirates. And they travel by a ship. So of course, they'd eat a lot! Do you know how long travelling by water is?! - MLPFan

How aren't they fat?

Almost everyone in DBZ. - Goku02

Luffy, Goku,Naruto... - Garoto_Oceano

It's so frustrating when characters are so strong it makes me not care about the story anymore. Like ok what are they gods now? It makes it hard to believe they exist or could ever be defeated. I like the suspense of not knowing and that others actually have a chance to catch up with their skills and it makes the fights more thrilling when they have weaknesses they have to overcome. Not every fighting based anime can be like DBZ and get away with it. DBZ can because they somehow make it work. (But I would enjoy options for fighters like Piccolo and Android 18 to catch up with the power of the Saiyans. It'd be nice if weaknesses could be explored too.) - NerdBunny

Why is it that almost every anime protagonists are better looking than me?
:( - yungstirjoey666

It's the same story every SINGLE TIME!

Girls... girls everywhere

Episode 12 of valkyrie drive, ova 1 of high school dxd, and many more.

boi

The main characters encounter a tentacle monster which grabs the female characters and their clothes rip/dissolve off revealing their naked bodies, and the male characters stare with nosebleeds then struggle to kill the monster while the female characters hang hopelessly.

Literally every modern anime.

I see this a lot

Like Yu-GI-Oh-NO.

This is just in general, no need to say only girls..

And that would be what is called a Badass Sue (a type of Mary Sue). - Anonymousxcxc

Definition of a Mary Sue.

Whether if it's blocking shots with swords at 16, Or trickshotting sniper rifles at 14, where the hell did the training come from and why is it always chicks hogging the showcase?

When excited and against any real world logic anime characters get nose bleeds! Its hilarious to me!

"A chance, the setting sun starts to whisper
But, you know... the blue Ribbon won't come untied
Shining, dreaming, suddenly the sea breeze changes
It's not that I don't love you
But, I want to go home now
Twilight always
Resembles a wondrous country
Making me count the stars"


That's the English translation of the second Japanese opening of "Ranma 1/2". - Martin_Canine

One piece, especially when it's your own crew mates. Looking at the straw hats.

Don't get me started on that.

Commonly in the beginning of anime the main charature will talk about how there happy with the normal with normal life, then later get into some non sense that changes there life or something

So, have you seen all the bad cooks like Seraphim from Is this a Zombie? and Ryou from Clannad? Like, there's always this girl that can't cook

It was originally very unique ( Goku ) but then DBZ was too inspiring that Naruto, Luffy, Natsu,.. stole the trait and it became cliche : P - Goku02

Rory mercury takes it to the extreme at 900

Wendy Marvell all the way - ShyChilds

How is he a cliche? He's a character from Mirai Nikki-Vestalis

Just another lame excuse for cheap titillation, guaranteed to bore viewers living in cultures where nudity hasn’t been sexualized.

They need anime to sell an institution that’s as useless as the Mongolian Navy. We need more anime characters with G.E.D.s instead. (Japan has G.E.D.s, called _daiken_ in Japanese.)

This happens with Harry Potter too. - Goku02

Well, this happens in lots of fantasy series, not only anime - XxDarkStorm_PhoenixMothxX