A Discussion of Anime Tropes (& Anime More Generally)

Malcolm and Simone have a thought-provoking discussion analyzing some of the most common anime tropes and what they reveal about Japanese culture and desires. They explore the prevalence of high school settings, "isekai" fantasy worlds, unusual relationships, slice of life, and more. The hosts share their own theories on how these tropes represent escapism, surrogate parenting instincts, and a cultural lack of meaning in adulthood. They also recommend their favorite anime series and studios.

Simone: [00:00:00] Hello, gorgeous.

Malcolm: I know, same time. Well, hello, Simone. So we were talking about something and you spontaneously had this idea. Which just enchanted me because I think you might be right. And sometimes when we're looking at the world, there's these little nagging questions which persist beyond reality.

Where it's like, what on earth is going on here? You know? You're talking about a big one with sexuality. I'd say is, why is it that... Gay males and straight males are more likely to find the opposite gender repellent than gay versus straight females.

That's where we can say something is going on here and we can use these sorts of persistent differences or unusual patterns to suss out deeper things that are going on within a population.

Now [00:01:00] in anime, there are actually many of. And in Japan, there are many of these, so our audience may not know this, but my wife was born in Japan, and she spent a lot of her childhood going to Japan to trips and stuff like that, you know, for her, it was sort of like her home away from home, and her middle name is actually Haruko so even has a Japanese middle name and, bye. One, so we're going to go over a few different questions that we've seen sort of persistently in anime, and I'll go over the three that I know we're going to cover, and then we might come up with some others. The first one is, why are, hmm, what's the way to say this that won't get the video?

Why do females who phenotypically present as youth appear in specific situations within anime where if they were [00:02:00] presenting that way in live action within most Western countries? Everyone would literally immediately be arrested. Yeah, it would be super illegal. Why is this such a normalized thing within anime?

Would you like to know more?

Malcolm: That is question number one. And I would point out that

As time has gone on I have seen this more and more within high production anime.

To the point now where it's just almost totally normalized. Mainstream. Where it would be almost a little weird if it didn't appear even once in an anime. It, it would be like an anime without a, an episode where they go to the, Beach or onsen. The onsen, or the hot springs, or the, a beach episode, you know?

It's just a thing, right? If I, if I saw a harem comedy and one of the characters wasn't, Ooh, you know, I'd be like, okay, what's going on here? Oh, note here. A harem comedy is anime where a number of [00:03:00] women are all interested in one man. It does not surprise me why anyone would find that interesting, but that's, that's nothing.

anime?

take place in high schools? This is a very interesting question because you do not see any other art form across any other culture I'm aware of. Almost all of it only takes place during one stage of an individual's life. Right. Yeah. And, and especially none where it's their high school age. And then the final question is What is going on?

This actually came from an a comment. I, I personally wouldn't find this to be that interesting a question, but it may have interesting answers. What is going on with all the Eizoukei anime? That's anime where people are transported to another world. Why is this a popular genre right now? Alright, so let's go to the first question.

You had an idea that sprung to you one day, and I think it may be accurate.

Simone: Yeah so we were watching an anime in which there's a dynamic like this basically where like a, [00:04:00] a salaryman wakes up in... Fantasy video game world and then, you know, ends up in one of these relationships and it, you know, you, you expect these relationships to be, can I, is it okay if I say Lolita?

No,

Malcolm: you

Simone: cannot say that. Okay. So, you, I think most people make the least charitable interpretation of these types of relationships and why people are interested in them. So, last, last night we were watching this anime called My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even At Level 1, where this salaryman basically wakes up in a video game world and starts befriending people, and his Before we go

Malcolm: further with the anime explanation, I want to explain what makes it such a unique anime, from a, from a watching it perspective.

Yeah. And it is so clearly a just a desperate fantasy of what if life wasn't terrible? Yes. In every single angle of the anime, that it breaks down many [00:05:00] ideas to much more simplistic tropes than they would normally be broken down into. It's not a particularly good anime or anything like that, or funny anime or anything like that, but it is.

Notable in its simplicity, and honesty was what it's trying to do. So continue with what you're saying.

Simone: Right, so the main character immediately makes a friend, and the friend he makes is phenotypically very...

Malcolm: Phenotypically presents as a young human female.

Simone: Yes. And you expect to make the least charitable interpretation of why viewers would be interested in this kind of relationship which is precisely why you expect if this were all to be live action, that it would be highly illegal.

However the more we watched the show and we saw like the dynamics of their relationship play out. The more I came to realize one, this show is the fantasy of a beleaguered salaryman. I mean, careers in Japan are, [00:06:00] are famously brutal, the hours you're expected to work, the unpaid overtime you're expected to work, the long nights drinking.

It is, it is a toxic work culture. And this is the fantasy of not being in that work culture and also being appreciated for your work and being really good at your work and getting things done all the time. It's sort of just this fantasy of everything but. The, the, the Japanese work culture that still pervades the nation.

And when you look at what's happening in his life it's to me a picture of what people, what humans in Japan would like life to look like. And it's not this untoward type of relationship. I think people would expect it to be. I think it's actually. Cosplaying as a parent, but that Japan lacks the cultural shorthand for a man wanting to be a parent.

And so it's instead, it manifests as this perverse type of relationship or, or is kind of implied to be that perverse type of relationship when like really maybe [00:07:00] the trope that is being played out in many of these animes with these phenotypically what is it? What, use the word, use the word that's safe for

Malcolm: monetization.

Phenotypically, youthfully presenting

Simone: females. Yes. Maybe all the animes with these tropes are really more playing on the audience's. Desire to be a parent and to take care of young people and to raise people and, and experience the satisfaction of taking care of someone who loves you and appreciates you and admires you.

Malcolm: And that reminded me a lot of an anime. I think it's called something like. Lotte, L O T T E, where one of these characters that you're talking about is a succubus and... So

Simone: you would also totally not charitably interpret th