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Relatable. (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/animemes@ani.social
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[–] 10 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Is it? Shonen is a revolving door of tropes, you'd be hard pressed to find a shonen anime that actually shakes the formula up.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

    Personally I dont like shonen much either, but I don't understand this argument of tropes=bad.

    Just because something has a lot of tropes doesn't mean it is bad. Tropes are tropes for a reason: it clearly means these are popular or highly liked/relatable vessels for storytelling. Not every story needs to be novel and invent new storytelling methods to be a good story. Sometimes, people just want more of the same.

    The Hero's Journey is a perfect example. Many, many stories follow this trope. And among those, some of the best stories of all time, including The Hobbit, The Odyssey, Dante's Inferno, Beowulf, Treasure Island, etc. Literal masterpieces, peak storytelling. Just because there are other stories, or even a lot of stories, that follow the Hero's Journey trope doesn't make the ones I listed bad, nor does it automatically make every story that follows the trope bad either.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago* (2 children)

    It isn't necessarily that tropes are bad, it's more like once you've seen a trope you can recognize the pattern and once you recognize the pattern you can more or less determine what's going to happen.

    Is the Hero's Journey a bad trope? Not at all, as you've said — some of my most beloved stories are structured around the Hero's Journey. I don't know if you've ever heard of Redwall, but all of the books in that 'world' by Brian Jacques are very close to my heart. It's also part of why I understand that once you've experienced at least one or two good Hero's Journey's — you've more or less experienced them all.

    Is it wrong to be entertained by them anyway? No, I hope you don't think I'm saying that.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I didn't think you said that, I was mentioning this argument as one I don't understand because recognizing a trope or predicting a story is an unusual and IMO "invalid" reason to not like something, and your comment seemed similar at first. I hear this a lot from a family member of mine who is anti-anime but also has a severe case of the Sonic the Hedgehog autism.

    He says "once you watch one anime, you've seen them all because they all have the same tropes." Which just doesn't make sense to me. Just because you read The Hobbit doesn't mean you don't have to read Dante's Inferno or Beowulf anymore. Its like the only thing he watches is the trope rather than the actual story being told, or the world/characters of the story.

    Initially, I chalked it up to probably some "side-effect" (not the exact word I would use but I cannot think of a proper word for it)of autism, but then I walked in on him just casually watching Totally Spies and Naruto. And I asked him why he watches those and not other anime I suggest, and he just said "because these are peak and your recommends are trash." Like, is Cowboy Bebop or Trigun (the original) trash? Compared to Naruto? Really? And I know he is not the only person that talks like this.

    I wish I could understand, but I probably never will.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

    So Cowboy Bebop is not a shonen. It's a seinen Apparently it isn't a seinen, but it would be if it started as manga. Trigun is a little odd because it shifted from shonen to seinen somewhere along its publication history.

    I point that out because seinen/josei compared to shonen/shojo is more or less the equivalent of young adult fiction to children's fiction.

    Children's fiction is supposed to be easy to understand. It should be filled with trope's, kids can't really empathize with things that are more complicated. Or maybe they're at an age where they can but maybe shouldn't, i.e. show with themes of suicide for an already teetering on depressed teenager.

    All that to say that I think your family members perspective is.. severely limited. Not watching Trigun because you'd rather rewatch Naruto is 100% their choice but... it's a pretty stupid way to live your life.

    "Pff, why would I watch these ninjas do magic? I can just watch space wizards do magic and fight with lightsabers. Naruto is trash, Star Wars is peak." Or something.

    Edit: I'm completely wrong about Bebop, it is not a seinen because it never started as a manga. Apparently that is an important distinction. I think if it had started as a manga, it would be a seinen.

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