Anime and Manga Stack Exchange
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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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What does the "teehee" expression mean?

I'm sure most of you know this phrase, what does it mean? Does it represent stupidity cutey thing that they do? What makes this phrase so popular?
Darjeeling
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What are the added values of ecchi to a series?

A lot of series these days have either some sort of ecchi scene or is made entirely of fan service. While some use this for comedic moments and others for story purposes. But if I look at the Freezing, I don't see the ecchi bringing any added…
Dimitri mx
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Does this anime quirk have a name?

I've always liked this quirky anime technique, which was used in several anime around the 1990s and 2000s, but not THAT often. What is it called and how does it work? How do you animate it and when does it get used? I also found other…
Kenny M.
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Why do anime mothers often get the short end of the stick?

In a significant amount of anime, the protagonist (and possibly others) experience one of the following parental situations: Both parents are dead and are inconsequential to the story. Both parents are dead, but one was more consequential to the…
DeeeFoo
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Where did the trope of yaoi hands start?

There's a trope in yaoi manga of the character's having disproportionately large hands, often at least as big as their face. Example of Yaoi Hands: Where did this start? What was the first manga to do this?
kuwaly
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Why are Ringo-chan's cheeks always red?

In Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou, the character Ringo-chan is the Student Council president of the rival all-girls high school. For some reason, though, her cheeks are always red (as pictured below). At first, I thought they were temporary…
Cattua
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Was running into people with toast in your mouth already a cliche by Evangelion's time (1995-96)?

As everyone who's seen Evangelion knows, the alternate-reality segment in the last episode (of the 1995 TV series) prominently features a scene where Rei, mouth entoasted, runs into Shinji on her way to school. To those of us living in the year…
senshin
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What is the origin of the bubble during sleep trope?

A common trope across various anime and manga is the snot bubble trope. I've put an example below: I can gather what it signifies from the TV Tropes description, but what's the origin of this? Does anybody know where it was first used, or where the…
Matt
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When characters take off their glasses, why do their eyes turn into a "lip eyes" icon?

Often in anime which features a character who wears glasses, when they take off their glasses, their eyes turn into a sort of puckered lip emoticon that looks like the number 3. The meaning is fairly obvious, that the character looks drastically…
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Why do some Anime have Loli Teachers?

I've noticed that in some Anime, the teachers are very short/little, I mean they look like elementary school kids. The anime I'm talking about are: Strike the Blood Noucome Toaru Majutsu no Index I've heard same is the case with Doki Doki School…
Psy
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Why are the eyes in front of the hair?

In anime, strands of hair often disappear or stop short in front of the eyes. I've seen this often enough that maybe there's a reason or at least an origin of the pattern. Why do the artists do this? (Or do these anime characters actually have…
Praxeolitic
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Where does the idea of a Hadouken and Kamehameha come from?

Having read a few manga/watched some anime, I have seen that many characters can use attacks where they gather their "ki" or, according to wikipedia, "Life force", and release it in a fireball like manner. The most widely known examples of these are…
Deep
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Why is it that everyone brings melons when they are visiting a character in the hospital?

So I was reading in FMA recently and noticed that the Führer President King Bradley brings a melon with him when he comes and sees Edward in the hospital. I have noticed this in several other animes and mangas and was wondering what the origin of…
Cyberson
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Why does Rin have cat-ears?

In the Little Busters!-anime, Rin sometime has cat-ears for a very short time (mostly only a split second). Is it used to show a character trait? What does it mean? Here's an image of it:
looper
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What is the meaning of this 'fox' hand gesture?

In chapter 729 of トモちゃんは女の子 (Tomo-chan wa Onna no Ko), two characters are negotiating, while other two do the hand gestures depicted in the following image: By the Giseigo (Onomatopoeia) used here (コンコン - Kon Kon) I deduce it has to do something…
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