Anime and Manga Stack Exchange
Anime and Manga Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [tropes]

A recurring element across anime, manga or works in other media. Tropes cover clichés, genre conventions and other recurring plot points, character types, narration styles, …

A trope, in the general sense used here, is a feature that is found in many creative works (anime, manga, or any other media), for example a plot point, a character type, a setting, a narration style, etc. It is expected that at least some readers or viewers will recognize the trope. Some tropes have a well-identified source that other works have imitated, departed from or alluded to; others are so old that their origin has long been lost.

The website TV Tropes collects tropes (in all media, including anime and manga, despite the name). If you're looking for a list of works using a certain trope, TV Tropes is the place to look. You'll also find lists of tropes seen in a particular work.

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Why are most isekai happening in a medieval world?

Why are most isekai happening in a medieval world? I have been reading some of these and I actually can't recall of any in which the story is happening in an other era than in a medieval period. Why is that? Is it common in Japanese videogames too,…
AirOne
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What is the technical name for the short exaggerated anime scenes?

You know, those scenes that typically cut to out of context OTT animations to exaggerate reactions? e.g. when a character is angry the whole screen might be taken over by swirling colours, angry eyes and shouty mouth. There must be a technical name…
user52086
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Where did the convention of two-sentence episode titles in Shonen series originate?

I heard a joke on a Podcast the other day that said Shonen Anime tend to have episode titles that are two sentences long. I noticed the case with both Dragon Ball Super and Fist of the North Star. What series set this trend, and why does it seem so…
Chris Slojkowski
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Why are old anime women often depicted as young girls?

Admittedly I don't watch enough anime to have full context, but in numerous situations I've seen what's depicted as a little girl is actually a woman 100+ years old. Is there a reason for this characterization? Is it a plot device, or is there…
David Hobs
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Why are many anime characters blond?

There are a lot of blond-haired characters in anime, especially the old ones, like super saiyans, naruto, gundam series, fma, etc.
rtr
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Why always "skirt-flipping" fan-service's (mini-skirt blowing up.)?

Sometimes in anime/manga, I see some scene's where the MC flip the skirt of the heroine, or even some random character with a cute face. I know there are many kind of fan-service's like groping breast, yuri scene's, etc. But why is it almost always…
anon
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Why Is Britannia often depicted as an almighty power?

Often in series revolving around wars, you will see a mention of Britannia. More often so, they are depicted as an almighty power which is to be feared, or even one which has dominated most or all of the world. Some of the most known examples would…
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Strawberry Haagen Dazs: The favored flavor of anime murderers?

Has anyone noticed how certain anime regarding murder and death that there is usually a reference to Haagen Dazs in there somewhere? Strawberry Haagen Dazs to be specific. In certain anime, such as Kara no Kyokai episode 5 where the main character…
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Is there any correlation between the CPU and CPU candidates' oppai sizes like there is with KanColle?

Hyperdimension Neptunia is an anime that is based on the console war. Its characters are based on the game consoles, namely, Sony Playstation, Microsoft XBox, Nintendo Wii, and the scrapped Sega Neptune. Now, moving on to Kantai Collection for a…
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What is the origin (or first known work) of this "Reluctant Maou Heiress" trope we see in several contemporary works?

This "Reluctant Demon King (魔王 Maou) Heiress" trope seems to be a subversion of the classic "Hero vs Demons" fantasy genre. The demon king is gone, and the heir to the throne and/or the owner of Maou's power is a female, and she has almost no…
Mindwin Remember Monica
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Why are wash pans dropped on a character's head?

I've been watching anime for a long time and I still don't understand what it means when a wash pan falls from the sky onto a character's head. I've seen it recently in Rosario+Vampire when the witch summons a wash pan over another character's…
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Why is the childhood friend trope commonly seen in anime?

I've noticed that most anime, especially in genres like slice of life and romantic comedies, there is at least one character that plays the role of the childhood friend (osananajimi). This is often coupled with the unrequited love, girl next door,…
romcom_god
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What order are couplings like 'CharAxCharB' in?

In doujins coupling characters from a show off, the characters are usually referred to in the title as "Character A x Character B" (I feel this snippet from hanagai! explains it better) Is there any meaning to the order of the 'multiplying'? Is…
Toshinou Kyouko
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What's the first time bending anime?

In some anime, the time expands of the stories do not match with the change of the characters' ages and the like. For example, in Detective Conan, there has been one thousand and more episodes, and it's indicated in the anime that almost all of the…
Michael
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Are threads as weapons real?

There are multiple manga/anime that depict threads as weapons. For example in Basilisk : Are these weapons based on real world counterparts?
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