Tropes – Pinkie's Paradise

Anime Over Explained: Pinkie Tries to Make Sense of Anime

Hey Island Guests, did you know anime could be weird? I know! Surprising right?! Most things anime characters do we can justify trough weird explanations , divine powers , a demon hiding inside a character, an altered world or just plain old aliens. So to an extend we can still believe Soda Can’s fighting each other to proof which can is the strongest… yet there are some things in anime we should not look to far into. Today we will be doing exactly that last thing?! Why? Because it seemed like fun.

The Toast Run

Ah yes, grabbing a slice of toast and covering it with jam, then shoving it into your mouth and eat it as you run. If this happened in real life our streets would be littered with jam covered bread because so many of us arrive late at things. I bet there would be plenty of ants too with all the jam on the sidewalks. First of all when you bite on toast like that eventually it will get soggy and break off. Why not just hold the toast as you run?! I mean sure you need your arms to sling your backpack on… but after that they just keep running with the toast in the mouth. Technically I guess they are less wind resistant this way? But not really! Instead of holding it “vertically” allowing the toast to be a windblade it is hold horizontally.. as a windshield.. catching a lot of wind..slowing you down.

Let’s also not forget that you should not run for a while after eating, you might explode or something! Holding the toast in your mouth means you fully have to breath through your nose and will running way more exhausting reducing the chance of you ever making it in time drastically. A yoghurt breaker would make a lot more sense as your item of choice. Now of course yoghurt isn’t as popular in Japan but neither is toast. In fact they rarely have breakfast with bread right? So why do they all suddenly have bread on the shelf? I bet it is kinda stale and that’s why they have to toast it, but why would they all have red jam.. doesn’t anyone ever put peanut butter on it or apricot jam? The ultimate run food I would say is a banana. It kinda curves like a sword and we so loads of anime characters be super fast with swords. Also it could provide some fan service for those who want it and it’s so much healthier… and faster.

So here is my biggest gripe with this trope. It’s toast! Usually a character finds out they overslept and that they are late and they rush out of the house with a piece of toast in their mouth.. how did that bread get toasted? Do they toast it the night before? Just in case they are late? Or will they actually wait for the toaster to produce their crisped up slice of bread. Neither make sense, people don’t assume they are going to be late, even though they always are and usually characters are SO late there really is no room for toast making. The only way I can imagine this making sense is if they sell individually wrapped toast slices in Japan.. like as in how Oreos are packaged they have jam toast sandwiches. That kind of sounds gross and we never see them buy such things when doing grocery shopping. Please explain in the comments if you DO understand what is going on because I can not wrap my head around this.

Anime Boobs

Being as innocent and grey-sexual as I am I was always puzzled by the drawn boobs and their appeal to people. Surrogates I guess? Yet girls are really weird about their boobs in Japan.. it is a subject that they discuss regularly. Why? If I known a girl for three years now I would never say stuff like “Oh I forgot how big Senpai’s boobs are” Most anime girls who fawn over each others “rack” have known each other for a long time. So that makes no sense to me?! Did any of you girl readers do that in high school? I mean maybe once I could get, not that I find it particularly interesting (and I am into women) but sure I can believe Cup-Envy would be a thing.

I spent to much time on these things again.

For some reasons these fleshly assets are the talk of the town in anime. I think I talked more about tits (the bird) than I talked about tits (the boobs) simply on account that there is more to tell about. Yet what really doesn’t make sense to me is the scaling of these things. Like you think Power Scaling in Dragon Ball is off.. man the size girls attribute to their chest is way worse. I have seen Keijo characters with boobs so huge, that when these characters are grandma they will look like quadrupeds, which they call C cups. If a woman has a D-cup there is not a single shirt in the entire country of japan that fits them anymore and if they ever would have an E-Cup Luke Skywalker would mistake them for moons, only to be corrected by Obi Wan.

***These two fit together nicely! Kinda like a pair ..of …something?!***

So here is the weird thing, clearly those cup sizes they know are all wrong. What they call a C is definitely not that.. so how in a country/world so obsessed by boobs they size them wrong?! How are there so many big chested characters, but no shirts or bras to support them. Clearly they are unaware of the problems large chested women can endure dooming all young teen girls to chronic back problems later in their life. Except for a few rare occasions mother characters also never have big chests.. so where is the genetic sense in this?! Do all anime girls inherit chest size from their fathers family trees? Clearly they lack the science and it seems very weird that in worlds like this.. no one would study them.

***Oh they do that too..not so great scientists then!***

Naming Your Attacks

Now this is a trope that to a certain level I CAN understand. People do name their rifle as well. Just if I take out my gun and kill an assailant I do not yell out “Go Popcorn shoot them dead” Obviously because they know what I would be doing but also because it would be very distracting to my focus. What is even weirder that the trope in its current form isn’t even an anime thing. It’s a Street Fighter II thing. While Goku and Kenshiro did name their finishing moves, it mainly was used on a finisher or at least big attack. They don’t yell ki blast. Yet nowadays every attack has a name. Just look at Naruto. If someone yelled Sexy No Jutsu in my ear.. I’d probably realise it was a trick! It was Tiger Uppercut, Sonic Boom and Tatsumaki Sempukyaku that set the standard for this. Yes yes.. I know I left the most popular two of the franchise out, but you can point them out in the comments if you can!

So now we have an anime trope that isn’t even really an anime trope. For full disclosure this trope to me does not apply to magic. Some spells need verbal components I get that I am talking techniques that would not actually require it. Like anything in Naruto really, or Goku’s Kamehameha. The first time he uses this technique in the sub he doesn’t yell out the attack he just grunts to gather energy and releases it with a Haaaa. Showing verbal is in fact not needed. Frieza’s Emperor’s death beam also proves you do not need to shout attacks. Even if shouting a technique name is needed.. why not name it Poq or Wuv that would be a LOT faster and you would be unbeatable. Sure it doesn’t have the ring to it that Makankōsappō has to it but you’d be dead before you could kankosappo so I wouldn’t even know your attacks have cooler names. Poq is OP!

Then again Maybe Staz is right.. though he kinda proved my point

Speaking of names, what’s up with those. Galick Gun?! It’s literally named after Garlic? Why!Garlick already was a thing in Dragon Ball. Why name your attack after some legendary surfing dude? Blue Kill Thing.. or Pink Death Ray are way more descriptive. Luckily Piccolo did it right naming his attack Demon’s Penetrating Killing Light Gun. That was pretty descriptive. Stil would be defeated by my Poq attack though. Naruto fares a bit better. Rasengan means something like Spiraling Sphere and Chidori also had a naming story for it’s sound and such. Since these attacks have to be delivered to their opponent.. they would probably be prepared for your attack anyway, especially if they can read seals but I’d imagine “I’m gonna blow your head off” would be more satisfying to say then Spiral Sage Sphere.

***My gun Popcorn! Shoot them dead!***_{(I do not actually have a gun)}

Being Popular for Weird reasons

A very common trait in anime can be , being popular for very weird reasons. As if the writers have some deep trauma they have to compensate and make their old club cool. In an anime about Go , they make Shogi a popular game?! Really playing Shogi makes you cool?! This trope is often placed on the Student Council President as well. While I will admit some charisma is needed for the part these are usually the biggest overachievers in school, at least the ones that dare to open their mouth. Have you ever found that guy who does extra work for school credit cool?! Obviously their ambition can be attractive but how would a sixteen year old schoolgirl be into an uptight boy who loves rules and regulations?! One I can get ..but usually the entire school flocks out for these type of fellows.

Harem anime often do this even worse. Yuki Rito is good example. While this may sound bitter, nice people finish last in love. While you can KEEP a girl or boy by being nice to them, realistically that is NOT the way to get them. You have to be bold , cheeky or fun. Being nice is not a realistic hook, it CAN happen but not on the scale it happens in anime. Yuki is a former soccer player that now helps with the creation of Manga and he is very good and horticulture. That should NOT get you a Harem at least it would not in this world.

***If this image was anime..it would be sexy!***

Anime Schoolgirl seem hardwired to fall hard for positive traits. Jotaro is the delinquent and Kakyoin is the more studious boy and the latter would be more popular in the anime. In our world Jojo would be swimming in girls. Funnily enough Naruto is the one series that deals with this quite well again. Sakura falls for the bad apple and keeps doing so despite Naruto’s effort.. the geeky girl goes for him. Still most anime girls seem to be so goody good that they all want someone extremely respectable. That might be a cultural thing yet still to me it is weird and somewhat surreal.

In this case I’d say anime makes more sense then reality though because obviously it is way easier to see a future with a respectable person than with Fonzie. I would have so become a band geek if it had gotten me a girl! But alas! Perhaps if I turn Tsundere I will have more luck in this world! They are popular in both worlds.. even though being mistreated would not seem sexy to me. But with that said! Subscribe and like if you haven’t already! You BAKA! Oh yeah.. I am gonna hook up tonight!

Pinkie the Trope-Doctor: The “Break Up”

We all are familiar with tropes. Every serie uses them, if they say they don’t they lie. No series is without these golden geese that resonate with so many people and that can be told so many times over. Yet sometimes we are discovering tropes that we really are beginning to dislike. “Again?” we ask when we see them. We do not enjoy them and display some respiratory phenomena called sighs! Yet clearly there are people who still love these tropes! Otherwise people would not use them anymore! So how do we address these issues? We could blatantly hate on them sure.. but how about we try to fix them. How can we adapt a trope that no longer works for us into something that does without taking away from other people? I shall strap my little had with a cross on top on.. and view one of my least like tropes. The Break up

**I can already imagine my 100% MINE .. theme song!**

The Patient

So what exactly do I mean with the break up? It is a trope that features highly in many shows and movies. I am not talking about official romantic break-up , I am talking about when a main cast has a falling out, squabbles and decides not to hang out any more for whatever reason. This trope is highly present in basically any “monster of the week” type shoes, like Magical Girls, Sentai even in plenty of mecha and fantasy show. The trope usually has one character overhear or catch wind of something another character said..oftenly without context. It could also be a rivalry that is beginning to form.. for example both characters realising they are into the same guy. This trope seems to occur faster and more often across female characters but male characters and non binaries will be affected too. This can even affect animals or robots at time showing the problem might be bigger than a pure psycho emotional reaction. The breakup usually is displayed in one of three forms.

-The Misunderstanding: “I wish A would be a bit braver” says character B to C when A just was about to come in carrying cupcakes. A thinks they think of him/her as weak .. drops the cupcakes and runs away. The conversation continues and B tells C “She should just tell her mother he wants to come with the lake to us, we would have so much fun together’ When they find the cupcakes and something is Awry B and C try to talk to A..the latter annoys them by attacking them personally and now tensions are high and the group is split apart.

-The Squabble: On Valentines Day Character A B and C all hand chocolate to douchebag D.. who doesn’t acknowledge any of their love and just thanks them all for the chocolate. Completely unaware that they will never get the D they argue who has the most right to be with D as the split up. Usually this will result in just about every petty wrongdoing they ever did to each other being brought up. “You give me the coldest tea always” “that one time you did not say thank you when I rearranged your plushies for you” usually followed by a “I knew you always hated me!” which is often met with a sarcastic acknowledgment..because why talk things trough right away?

– The Manipulation: Evildoers finally figure out they can not beat the good guys because they work so well as a team, so they transform into classmates and walk up to person B and go like “hey have you heard that A said this about you” , before person B can march to person A to find answers a disguised bad guy is telling some bad rumors the other way around as well, somehow despite knowing each other very well the two do not believe they did not trash talk each other.. and fight.

These are of course generalised situations that however depict vividly how a situation would be. While some of the factors involved may very in the core these are the three main manifestations of the trope. More presently in “episodic” storytelling but also present in any other long running story that focus heavily on companionship.

The Problem

Now what exactly is the trouble with this trope you may ask? Strife and sorrow can indeed stimulate empathie between two individuals involved. It can create stronger bonds and reactions as well function as a mirror into a character’s psyche to highlight any flaws or desires. These form problems that can not be achieved through the conventional problem solving techniques of the hero dus create a more dimensional story. Hence the break-up should by all means be a beneficiary story telling device. However many, MANY anime have not been able to produce these effects. In fact it may result in a uninvested audience, a forced narrative and a blemish on previously written material. This trope is usually not used in episodes that are very relevant to the main plot, which results in ample problems as described below.

***But first let me take a VIcodin! Nom!***

No Tension: Most instances of a Break-Up usually do not exceed the length of a single episode. This means the deterioration of bonds, the breaking incident, the solo flight as well as the inevitable reunion make little to no impact on any of the major narrative. These break-ups are near always finite in time and the audience can tell if this is the case. At least if the audience is neither a child nor stupid. Usually episodes are titled something like “broken bonds.. our group is now trough” already telegraphing what kind of episode it will be .. thusly after the open credits the audience already knows how the full 20 minutes will go.

***Willow Pillow because .. Pillow Willow was to lewd for my blog!***

Throwaway Events: Another symptom of a bad break up is usually.. the level of relevance to the rest of the show. The Status Quo usually isn’t any different at the beginning of such an episode compared to how it us after the episode. As such it might as well not have happened at all. Characters usually go back from great friends to hating each other to great friends again. Very rarely do they use this trope to improve.. or even less often deteriorate that bond.

**Don’t be like Indy! Matter to your story!**

Inconsistent Characters: The Break-Up tends to be a force of nature that is very negative in nature. No matter how good trust is between characters this trope will activate anyway. Reasonable characters suddenly get extremely fickle and childish and the sweet girl suddenly can’t find an ounce of kindness in her heart. Even when the world is at stake.. boys somehow weigh heavier upon girls hearts and more of this nonsense. Characters oftenly change and change back to fit the limited narrative of a single episode just to bounce back after seeing a plushie, a flower or a phone strap triggering memories.

***You trust a stranger who tries to steal your ring three times, you trust a serial killer who tried to kill you.. but when your friend eats the bread… he can go to hell!***

All things considered this trope does not only waste an otherwise enjoyable 20 minutes it also is to the detriment of long running characters. It is hard to understand why a guy suddenly distrusts his best friends after seeing him with a few crumbs on his shirt. We can justify it and say.. his mind was poisoned by that item and that druggy looking fellow yet it still is a stab through the heart. We see their friendship build up as an unbreakable thing and than the most unlikely character destroys it in the most unlikely way and because we all know this chase in behavior won’t stick we just dislike the characters for being so stupid to buy into this.

**Oh no same colour scheme.. guess the world can save itself now?!**

The Solution

So how do we fix this? The simplest solution would be simply to add weight. But how can we do this in the oftenly breezy shows where this trope is featured in? We could simply let one get “killed” in their powerless state with others having to find a replacement but this would not be very satisfying. It would also be to grim of a decision and invalidate the break up right away .. because there is nothing to fix or grow over anymore. Yet in some cases it can still work. In scenarios where there is an unequal level of relevance of the characters the less relevant character can be killed of in such a way.. in order for the main character to focus on that pettiness that ended up getting their compatriot killed. Still this would be a too extreme reaction to fix the trope. However the shake the trope up a bit .. the final break up would be a good solution.

A less obvious way is to let the break up stick for a while. Do not tell this story in a single episode. Make sure the heroes still have a way to progress without the character. Give them a replacement.. a character that knows about their secret identity that can take up the mantle of the character that quit. That magical girl.. gets replaced by another one. This other character can be made to be a temporary one.. perhaps the powers do not agree well with her, perhaps the new character is actually a betrayer, it can even be as simple as the new character only being in town for a few days or simply not being good enough.

By not showing a character for a few episodes we can start to miss them, we can appreciate the character that was there and see how we don’t want it replaced. You can show a lack of synergy in the new format, to highlight what has come before. You can see the outcast element coming to terms with what happend, missing being a hero or realizing where they were wrong in an arc rather than an episode. Despite that we would know how it would end , the new element can still allow us to tell a multitude of stories that impact everyone involved and make for a memorable story line.

Another way this trope can be improved is by simply moving it earlier in the lifetime of a show. A group fighting only eight episodes in after barely getting to know each other is fairly realistic. A group having a falling out over something as simple as boys after losing loved ones together, a group squabbling over something petty 23 episodes into a series near it’s finale makes no sense. Early in a series this trope can be used to define a bond between characters. Perhaps this event can trigger a deeper trust as they were forced to overcome their differences together to deal with a new threat.. but t could also be used to keep a dissonance between two or more people that perhaps has to be solved across numerous episodes. Perhaps one girl was really hurt by the mistrust that was shown at her and she doesn’t feel as much a part of the group due to that discussion in episode 8, not feeling like she is good enough for the group, limiting her powers in episodes 15 where she fails and episode 19 where she overcomes it.

**PreCure uses this trope very early! Episode 8 in the first series and later even episode 2!**

Treatment

What is very important for the health of this trope is that we do not employ it to filler style episodes. This trope has to show some character development and needs some time to breath to reach its full potential. Rome is was not build in a day, and you can not make a character’s departure from the group relevant in ten minutes of screentime. It simply does not work like this. While the trope has the side effect of a bad taste in your mouth, applying it earlier in the lifespan of a show will make sure the taste is properly washed away without any salty feelings from the viewership, we can not condemn a character we do not know yet after all.

**Episode 2** Break Ups .. best break ups!

It is recommended that the show does not use this trope past the midway point for single season series. It would negate to much of what the show has tried to build in that single season. For longer running series the recommended dosage is never more than once per season and not more than once per two seasons. We do not like on and off again partnerships as it makes our heroes oftenly feel shallow and fickle. When this trope is applied more than once it has to be in increasing gravitas as incidents of a similar level will once again invalidate character growth. A clever writer can use decreasing seriousness if he wants to emphasis a constantly souring bond between characters however in this latter scenario this break up would most likely lead to a permanent goodbye as applying miracle fixes is just as character invalidating as miracle fighting. Give characters at least two to three weeks to recover for optimale presentation.

***Not a great example of the trope! But I blanked out! We know they still love each other!***

And there we go! A fix for one of my least like tropes in Anime and other media! Do you think my changes would make it better? What trope do you dislike yourself? Do you like the break up trope yourself? Let me know in the comments what you think! I can only mindread if I see you in person! Remember I love you all! Let’s keep the Internet a Happy Place and Keep Smiling!

XO

Pinkie