---
title: '8 Anime Tropes that Need to STOP'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=lYNUBHJDNMA'
video_id: 'lYNUBHJDNMA'
date: 2026-07-28
duration_sec: 909
---

# 8 Anime Tropes that Need to STOP

> Source: [8 Anime Tropes that Need to STOP](https://youtube.com/watch?v=lYNUBHJDNMA)

## Summary

The video presents a collaborative rant between the speaker and SquidtheCynic, listing and criticizing eight annoying anime tropes, including the harem trope, one-sided friendships, formulaic sports anime, female characters reduced to love interests, power fantasy protagonists, anti-killing heroes, repetitive comedy, and unrealistic diets in sports anime.

### Key Points

- **Harem Trope** [00:42] — Features a bland male lead surrounded by multiple women who are all desperate for his attention, but he never acts on it, leading to a lack of progression.
- **One-Sided Friendship** [02:42] — A character like Naruto or Deku persistently claims friendship with someone who hates them, eventually breaking them down, which feels like Stockholm syndrome.
- **Formulaic Sports Anime** [04:00] — Sports anime often follow a predictable pattern: a lonely protagonist discovers a sport, joins a team, and overcomes inner demons through the sport, lacking innovation.
- **Female Characters Reduced to Love Interests** [05:44] — Initially strong female characters lose their personality and become one-dimensional love interests after meeting the main character, often used for comedy.
- **Power Fantasy Protagonist** [06:59] — An underdog protagonist with hidden power is misunderstood and betrayed, but still saves society; the issue is when the protagonist is untouchable and others are dumb.
- **Anti-Killing Hero** [09:03] — Heroes refuse to kill villains despite them causing massive harm, which is seen as unrealistic and frustrating, especially when it leads to repeated escapes.
- **Repetitive Comedy** [10:38] — Comedic relief characters often rely on the same joke (e.g., being a coward or pervert) and are physically assaulted repeatedly, which becomes unfunny and insulting.
- **Unrealistic Diets in Sports Anime** [12:36] — Characters bulk up by eating massive amounts of plain white rice, which is nutritionally poor for muscle gain; a McDonald's hamburger is a better option.

### Conclusion

The speaker rants about these tropes to vent frustration but acknowledges that anime continues regardless, and thanks SquidtheCynic for collaboration.

## Transcript

Spend enough time watching or 
reading any type of fiction,  
and you'll begin to notice 
certain recurring themes and 
archetypes. There are always good 
and bad examples of such tropes,  
but when--like me--you see both in 4 seasons
of anime over and over again each year for  
years...eventually, it wears on your 
spirit. I need to express my frustration 
somehow so, yeah, now is the time.
By his own free will and NOT because he  
is being held captive in any way at all, 
SquidtheCynic and I are joining forces 
to expose 8 of the most annoying tropes in anime, 
to us, or also to you, if you agree with our list.
We're all familiar with the harem 
trope, also considered a subgenre,  
since it's often combined with other genres
like Ecchi, Isekai, and slice-of-life.  
According to formula, it features a 
male lead with the vaguest personality 
possible and AT LEAST 3 women 
his age...most of the time,  
all desperate for his attention. A crucial
yet unspoken rule of anime harems is that  
although, in more cases than not, the protagonist 
is attracted to the women surrounding him, 
he must never act upon it. The harem-haver 
never commits to dating, never romantically  
pursues anyone even outside of
the harem, never does ANYTHING that  
a real person--or at the very least, 
a compelling character-- would do in 
his position. The harem dynamic usually 
goes something like: "I LOVE HIM." "NO,  
I LOVE HIM MORE." "LOOK HOW ATTRACTIVE
I AM." -- "Uhh-huhhuh you guys and your  
jokes. W-W-wait a b-b-b-boooob?"
So yeah, I'm not personally a  
fan of the average ecchi harem show.
But I'm not trashing on the subgenre  
as a whole, just a specific trope within 
it--the witless, reluctant harem-haver. 
Some may prefer there be no sense of progression, 
and that the protagonist remains clueless  
and single so he's easier to relate to.
But why not make him an absolute chad?  
Why not make him a scumbag taking 
advantage of how lucky he is in 
the romance department? Maybe instead 
of stumbling into a harem situation 
he wins different women over to assemble 
a harem. Not as easy to route for,  
sure, and okay whatever, not realistic
or relatable, but are you seriously  
going to tell me you find it easier to 
believe that not one, not two, but SEVERAL 
conventionally attractive women all 
want to bear children with this dude  
AT THE SAME TIME, despite him having no stand-out
traits and being tolerant of them at best,  
their unwilling victim at worst? 
I just think it would make harem 
'plots' far more interesting if the protagonist 
was zany, deranged, flawed, anything..?
The first in my anime tropes I hate list is one 
that I’m having a little trouble describing,  
and Frenemies is the word that comes 
to mind but it isn’t quite accurate. 
What I’m referring to specifically is a 
relationship like Naruto and Sasuke from  
the Naruto anime or Deku and 
Bakugo from My Hero Academia. 
And it's really a one sided 
friendship where one person  
harbours legitimate hatred 
towards the other person who 
keeps persistently claiming that they are 
in fact friends. Then eventually y'know  
they go through a lot, maybe 100 maybe 
200 episodes together, and do in fact 
become friends in the end. And I’m not even mad at 
this trope in the way you probably are thinking. 
If anything I sympathise with the Sasuke or 
Bakugo type characters. Imagine, if you will,  
making it very, very clear that not only do you
do not want to be friends with someone  
you actively hate them and wish ill 
upon them and yet time and time again 
they just pop up into your life randomly 
insisting that you guys are actually very close. 
Whenever the hate filled friend finally 
breaks down and accepts the stalker weirdo  
I'm just sitting there like,
“oh no oh lord he has stockholm  
syndrome someone please save him, 
please save this little baby boi!”
I've always been a sucker for sports 
anime, especially the kind that are  
about sports I play and understand.
And even if I've never heard of the sport,  
learning about it through the story 
is part of the fun, not to mention the 
supreme levels of hype!
At first you think you're safe,  
I mean it's just a show about teenagers tossing 
around a ball, right? But what I love most 
about sports anime is how the team 
members' relationships and problems are  
intertwined with the sport they play.
Like how the bonds we form with our  
teammates can change us for the better or 
how hard work and passion lead to success 
no matter who you are or where you come from. 
Using sports as a foundation for character  
drama like that is a near-perfect 
formula for an entertaining show... 
SO PERFECT, I GUESS, that almost no anime 
I've seen for a very long time has bothered  
to switch things up. Let me clarify.
Search the seasonal lists of anime 2010  
to present, read the plot summaries, 
and you will find the following:
"Character A, lonely and/or unmotivated--insert 
optional sad Sport-related backstory here-- 
discovers or re-discovers Sport, and 
is inspired to join the Sport team." 
The story then follows Character A as they get 
to know the colourful cast of side characters,  
who battle with their inner demons right up to  
the end only for their shared love of 
the sport to save their souls right in 
time for that FINAL match with 
the legendary opposing team!!!
If I may throw out a few ideas of 
my own, how about a story where the  
main character uses the sport to become famous, 
or escape an unknown world 
they've found themselves in? 
Switching up character motivations and 
the setting of the story is the quickest  
way to turn stale archetypes into
something new, but before I start  
to feel like I'm teaching some kind of writing 
class let's move on to the rest of the list.
Trope number two is female characters 
who start out as real people  
and then morph into love interest drones
when they meet the main character. It's a  
pretty long name for the trope but 
I think that describes it the most  
accurately. And I guess this actually isn’t 
a problem exclusive to female characters but 
I see that far FAR more often than the 
male counterpart. And, the worst part  
about this trope is that the initial
badass female or good character female  
will oftentimes make a reappearance 
for comedy purposes, just as a joke,  
and anime that come to mind that have this
particular character trope in them would be:  
Welcome to Demon School, My Hero Academia 
or Shokugeki no Soma--that's probably like,  
my least favourite example of it.
What’s most annoying is that this happens,  
right, and the character is presented 
normally at first and then changes 
after a little bit to this non-character. 
Don’t--Don't play me like that, don't show  
me someone cool only to then take them away and
bring them back occasionally as just a recurring  
joke. Just introduce them as a 
dumb love interest from the start 
and boom no more issues my expectations 
have now been properly tempered.
Another common theme in anime I don't like 
is the other category of self-insert anime  
protagonists, one that can tie in
with harems but is a trope all its  
own. An underdog who no one appreciates, 
wrongly accused, outcast from society. 
Chosen few know the truth of his 
unparalleled power. But I--uh,  
um, I mean, this ch-character I'm writing--
has been corrupted by betrayal, disallusioned  
with authority, um, so, that's why he 
has no friends, he's a lone wolf, he uh 
chooses not to let anyone get too 
close because he's cool like that.  
The protagonist is barely even willing to protect
the society that cast him out from danger,  
but he does it anyways since, deep down, 
really deep down, he's just so kind. 
You know that thanks to the one specific 
character who quote on quote "sees  
right through him" and monologues to the
audience about how one time they saw the  
protagonist rescue a feeble kitten from a river.
Looking at power fantasy type anime I and many  
others enjoy like Overlord, it's clear the 
issue isn't how powerful the main character is 
because that really is fun to watch. 
Overlord's protagonist is even the  
villain of his universe with grey morals
but a rapidly growing group of loyal  
admirers who never question anything he does.
I probably have to look further into why  
THIS works when another anime that 
matches my summary, Arifureta, doesn't  
at all. (CLIP: "Take it in the ass and DIE!")
But I suspect it comes down to, What did the  
protagonist do to warrant how others treat 
him? Not only should those on his side 
have respectable reasons to admire him, 
those against him should have respectable  
motivations as well. Too many intended
power fantasy protagonists are straight-up  
cruel to everyone around them, 
trying very hard to seem badass. 
He may SEEM to make mistakes or be in the 
wrong, but REALLY, everyone else is just too  
dumb to understand why he's in fact, right.
As I said, it's not about the fact that  
it's a power fantasy--it's about 
the protagonist being untouchable.
My third trope is one that I know a 
lot of people are going to agree with,  
it is talked about constantly in every corner of 
the internet that discusses anime, and that is  
the holier than thou main character 
who refuses to kill anyone or freaks  
out when someone else tries to kill someone.
Now I get it, I understand, murder is not the....  
ideal solution to your problems. It’s 
kind of lame, it's kind of cringe. 
So it should always be the hero's last 
resort, right? In good storytelling,  
in a hero's story you don't have the 
hero just go out of his or her way to  
murder someone. That being said, trying 
to imply that killing someone who has 
destroyed the lives of dozens, hundreds or 
sometimes even thousands of other people  
will somehow result in the loss of your
humanity goes WELL beyond idealism and  
straight into stupidity. There is a difference, 
right, between elevating yourself to judge, 
jury and executioner and just trying to do the 
right thing to save as many people as possible.  
This happens in, I dunno, probably 
70% of battle shounen but I think 
the funniest possible example is actually 
Batman. I know it's not anime but uhhh, fight  
me. You won't. Imagine though, being a random 
citizen of gotham and seeing that once again 
Batman has sent the joker to arkham asylum and 
knowing that--"Oh, damn"-- in 8 days he is going  
to break out for the 63rd consecutive time
and once again wreak havoc on my community  
all because a billionaire orphan won’t 
just let the cops shoot this guy.
I'm not the first to point out that "comedy" 
in anime doesn't always translate well,  
or that what certain prominent
creators find hilarious  
is just...kind of irritating. You could say it's 
a culture gap but I would disagree, some writers 
are better at characterization than they 
are at plot, or better at worldbuilding  
than they are at comedy, and where media
comes from doesn't change that. Though  
I can't understand how behind the scenes you 
could pick one barely intriguing characteristic 
and decide it will be the crutch of your anime's 
sense of humour. Oh look, he's a coward and  
a pervert, AND he yells? If that doesn't
get you rolling on the floor, I don't know  
what will! Not to mention how this trope is 
a 2-for-1 deal with the other character who 
has to physically assault him every 
episode to reign in his shenanigans. 
You could make a character's goofiness 
another thing to like about them,  
or you could make them the butt
of the same joke over and over  
again until the unfunniness of that joke 
is all your audience associates with them. 
Like Zapp from Blood Blockade Battlefront, 
except that character is at least actually funny. 
(CLIP: "I got a big-ass sword shoved down 
my throat chief! *screeches pathetically*) 
Even if this character serves a purpose in the 
narrative besides being the comedic relief,  
which is more than I can say for most examples,
if you're a fan of them you'll have to endure  
all those moments while waiting 
for something cool or meaningful. 
It feels insulting because if you've watched anime 
that is funny you know you don't have to sacrifice  
depth or nuance for comedic relief.
I get how you want a contradiction between the  
seriousness of the main plot and the light-hearted 
interactions a loud reaction character brings. 
But I also hate it, and wish it didn't 
exist. I know no amount of complaining will  
make that happen, but I do feel slightly better,
I guess, now that I've ranted about all of this.
Now then. I have saved my least favourite 
anime trope for last. And that is...anime  
diets. My least favourite trope in anime, I’m not 
even joking, I'm not trying to pull a meme on you.  
What I mean by anime diets is not like anime fad 
diets--what people are doing to lose weight or  
whatever--I just mean, diet in the general sense 
of what people are choosing to eat. And this is a  
really big problem in sports anime. I mean I say 
really big problem but people probably don't even  
notice this I guess. But for me this is a really 
big problem in sports anime which often show  
people changing their diet and eating more to help 
their training. But then they just eat a gigantic  
bowl of plain, white rice. Some examples of this 
are: it happens in Hinomaru Sumo, it happens in  
Dragon Ball, Hajime no Ippo does this...
There are many more, I know I've seen this  
dozens if not millions of times but I googled 
“anime boy eating simply too dang much rice”  
and somehow that did not prove nearly as helpful 
as I expected it to. But, as someone who knows  
the struggle of forcing yourself to eat in order 
to gain muscle it is especially annoying to me 
I think. Time and time again someone will be 
training, putting in the work, and as a part  
of that they are eating more food, makes sense
so far, right, eat big to get big. What makes  
NO sense whatsoever is choosing plain 
white rice as your extra calories. 
A 2 cup serving of white rice 
has--what--500 calories, over 100 grams  
of carbs and under 10 grams of protein??
A McDonald's hamburger is a better,  
more weight-friendly optionfor bulking 
than a bowl of plain white rice. 
(That’s true by the way you can 
actually look that one up). Please,  
Japan, please just do this one thing for me--stop 
showing young boys eating massive amounts of 
white rice in order to get bigger and stronger. 
That's all I want from you right now...
Don't forget to check out SquidtheCynic's channel, 
a big thank you to him for helping me out with  
this video. It was a lot of fun, despite the pain.
And again despite the pain I will not be quitting  
my anime career. Anime never 
stops...It...it never stops. 
Thank you very much for watching 
and I will see you next time!