• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Does ANYBODY like this old anime cliche?

Status
Not open for further replies.

Boogiepop

Member
Guy trips/falls through some contrived means, accidentally grabs onto a girl in some inappropriate way (usually grabs onto her boobs), generally gets slapped/otherwise beat up afterwards.

Like, goddamn does that ever pop up EVERYWHERE in anime, and for me (and pretty much every other anime fan I know) it just elicits a groan or a disapproving shake of the head. Sure, for its close relative of "guy accidentally walks in on girl changing, gets beat up for it" or, like, the variant of this where the guy accidentally pulls off some clothing, I get that there's a good bit of fanservice to it, which I can at least understand (not a fan of fanservice myself, but I at least get it). But to the best of my recollection of the many, many times I've seen this, it's generally not played that way, and is more of a gag or a joke, and at this point it's got to be one of the most worn ones out there. And at least how I read it, it's generally trying to make you laugh through shock value and the absurdity of the occurrence, which just plain doesn't work when you've seen it so goddamn many times. Maybe I chuckled the first time or two I saw it, but nowadays I'd be more likely to laugh if they go for the set up and then have the guy just miss and fall flat on his face or something.

So yeah, does ANYONE out there actually like these types of scenes? Like, for real, would love some insight into why they keep being so goddamn prevalent when pretty much everyone I've ever talked to who watches this stuff seems to be incredibly sick of this.
 
It doesn't happen to you all the time? I feel like I'm falling into cleavage left and right.

More on topic, it seems to be related to the whole awkward interaction trope especially with the overly shy or sensitive hero. Also fan service.
 
I think the only people who like that trope are guys who want to be in the MC's position.
You usually see it happen all the time with self-insert main characters.
 
Any time I try to get back into anime they all seem to be full of the same cliches, it feels like the diversity has really shrunk if not repeated to cater to the same audience.
 
I like it because it usually happens within the first 5 minutes of the first episode, making it an easy decision to drop the show.
 
51m4P63APoL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

This book by J.K. Rowling has the two protagonists meet in such a way.
He saves her from falling down some stairs by grabbing her breast.


Imo the trope is very stale. There are other parts to fall into.
 
Yeah, I had a feeling it was gonna be this when I walked into the thread.

In general "pervertedness" is something that's grown really thin in Anime, like the creepy old dude who hits on the girls for fun also needs to go.
 
Is that really used in anime without being self-parody anymore? The accidental pervert trope has been done to death and back and has to just be used because of how hokey it is now.
 
It wouldn't be a trope if people didn't like it. Unfortunately anime still has a lot of male gaze problems.
 
It only really happens in shitty light novel harem adaptions these days, and they haven't even been selling well lately.

Any time I try to get back into anime they all seem to be full of the same cliches, it feels like the diversity has really shrunk if not repeated to cater to the same audience.

This really couldn't be further from the truth. Many of the best-selling and most popular shows in Japan these days are ones that pander to women like Yuri on Ice, Uta no Prince-sama, Touken Ranbu etc. There aren't nearly as many harem shows the past few seasons as there were previously.
 
Terrible under most circumstances, but it works in shows like To Love-Ru where it's expected, and often exaggerated to absurd satirical lengths.
 
Is that really used in anime without being self-parody anymore? The accidental pervert trope has been done to death and back and has to just be used because of how hokey it is now.

There was a video I recall watching by one of the big YouTube anime reviewers talking about this---basically he pointed out that these tropes have been around so long that no show actually plays them straight, but uses them to point out the absurdity of the classic trope. But that in itself has become so played out there's no real meaning to be found in using the trope.
 
Seven Deadly Sins annoyed the hell out of me because the MC just grabbed whatever he wanted whenever he wanted.
 
The only time I didn't mind it was in evangelion and I'm not saying that because I'm a fan but really, can't think of any other instance of this kind of scene actually provide something to the ongoing characterization of the involved instead of the usual vacuous fanservice that only hurts the scene by being so useless and awkwardly fit.
 
I liked it when "happened" in Nazo no Kanojo X, because was a deviation to the trope.

Ah, thank god the scene was properly executed in the anime.
 
Ah, I've always wondered about this trope and that makes a lot of sense.

How else is he supposed to engage the hot popular girl who would never notice him in a million years? Why fate of course and tripping and falling right into her tits. Hi-jinks and giant robots ensue.
 
I think it's pretty dumb these days.

It's just almost always a kind of boring trope used exclusively for predictable characterizations obligated with a stroke of ecchi. Maybe if it's done cleverly I wouldn't mind, however that would work. It has to be really funny though. And can't use a "BOING" sound effect. (Yeah right..!)

Don't get me wrong I wouldn't turn off an anime entirely because of it. But I will probably have a hard time holding back a "-_-" when it's invoked, unless a show is so good I'm just rolling with it all lol.
 
How else is he supposed to engage the hot popular girl who would never notice him in a million years? Why fate of course and tripping and falling right into her tits. Hi-jinks and giant robots ensue.

Honestly, I thought of your comment more of "what better way to start off a bad interaction with a pretty girl you like than by accidently grabbing her, especially in a very formal Japan." Like, I can totally get the original use and I think it's pretty clever actually now that I "get" it. Like you talk to the girl you like then shit your pants midsentence. How can you recover from that? Obviously, its become more it's own joke now, but it's neat to think about its original purpose.
 
I want that fucking cliche nuked from orbit. Such an obnoxious and unfunny trope that follows the same exact scenes everytime it's used.
 
I've stopped watching most anime because I've gotten so tired of the tropes that center around fan service. I still can enjoy some shonen shows like JoJo, Hunter x Hunter, One Punch Man, and Mob Psycho 100 but so many are filled with unnecessary harems and fan service shots. Sports anime, although filled with tried and true sports anime tropes, I still find enjoyable and they usually have minimal fan service aside from the main character typically being awkward around women and/or oblivious to a crush. The only fan service heavy show I've gotten through lately is Yuri on Ice, but I loved the music/OP and liked the Yuri/Victor relationship, I was just glad it wasn't centered on your typical anime middle/high school romance drama.
 
It's annoying as fuck and I wish media as a whole would stop doing it. However nowadays, it only seems to happen in Light novel and shitty shonen adaptions, which I avoid anyway nowadays.

Wasn't expecting it to happen in Trails of Cold Steel though. Good thing the rest of the game makes up for that garbage scene.
 
I've stopped watching most anime because I've gotten so tired of the tropes that center around fan service. I still can enjoy some shonen shows like JoJo, Hunter x Hunter, One Punch Man, and Mob Psycho 100 but so many are filled with unnecessary harems and fan service shots. Sports anime, although filled with tried and true sports anime tropes, I still find enjoyable and they usually have minimal fan service aside from the main character typically being awkward around women and/or oblivious to a crush. The only fan service heavy show I've gotten through lately is Yuri on Ice, but I loved the music/OP and liked the Yuri/Victor relationship, I was just glad it wasn't centered on your typical anime middle/high school romance drama.

Sports anime you say?

tumblr_inline_odaeue5KpE1r5ight_500.gif


I just wanted an excuse to post this GIF again

---

On topic, I recall months seeing this one anime I dropped early on attempt said trope, but it subverted it by having the guy move out of the way at the last minute, and in turn girl fell in a way that made her end up not showing anything.

I'm like, cool!

Except immediately afterwards, the MC fell in a position that just so happened to let him get a peek under the girl's skirt, and saw her panties.

Sometimes, ya just can't win...
 
The only time I didn't mind it was in evangelion and I'm not saying that because I'm a fan but really, can't think of any other instance of this kind of scene actually provide something to the ongoing characterization of the involved instead of the usual vacuous fanservice that only hurts the scene by being so useless and awkwardly fit.

Wait, which scene in evangelion, the one in rei's creepy, empty, bandage-strewn apartment where it's weird and awkward and not even remotely titillating and the scene just won't fucking end, or the one at the end in the alternate universe where Anno is shitting all over the trope and anybody who demanded it of his creation in which teenagers kill in horrible biomonsters at the command of a world government hellbent on destroying life as we know it?
 
Well I was close. My first guess was the falling on top or tripping. It's funny but I feel like I didn't see the breast grabbing until later on.
 
This actually happened to me in real life tho

At camp when I was a youngster we were made to play a game where you have to touch a person to catch them and win, while she tries to avoid you, and I accidentally touched her boob. She cussed me out the whole way back to the cabins lol
 
The real question is what are we supposed to get out of it? A laugh? A cathartic experience? Does Japan not have any bags of sand lying around?
 
I feel like this trope isn't as common as it was perhaps 4 or 5 years ago.

But I haven't kept up with the shitty LN adaptations recently so maybe I'm wrong, idk.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom