3. The Unrealistically Cheery Survivor Girl (Sometimes Boy)

This type of character can be male, Hayate from Hayate the Combat Butler is an example. But it's usually a teenage girl. She has cancer. Her mother died. Her father was an abusive drunk. A gang of rival ninjas ritually sacrificed her dog to Cthulu, who also came and ate her legs. She's been living in a ditch by the side of the road and only getting out once a week to scavenge for rotten apples and roadkill. People regularly come by her hole in the ground self-made hovel to beat her up, spit on her, steal her roadkill meat, and call her names.

But she's SO HAPPY! She has a face that just lights up with joy. She's not letting the struggle get the better of her! She's overflowing with milk and honey, no matter how mean everyone is or how tough she has it! She's a survivor!

Yeah, that's a... little unrealistic? People who go through intense traumas and grief in life shouldn't be expected to just put on a fake smile all the time. I'd rather have an "angsty" character, because at least they are feeling something that makes sense relative to the bad things that happened to them. It just doesn't make sense to have a character like that, it's unrealistic. It's also kind of a slap in the face to people who have experienced traumas, like we're supposed to just "get over it" and not let it affect us. I know it's a great ideal to be like that, but it is just that, an ideal. And its use in anime to sort of cutify the suffering girl character is pretty annoying.

Why I Dislike This Type:

If I met someone like this in real life, I would think they had a serious mental illness (kind of like many character types on this list). It's not normal to be so happy when life is bad, no matter what religion or philosophy might tell you otherwise. I get that Japan is very much a "grow a thicker skin" culture, and they respect people for having a strong, unbreakable spirit.

I get that. But it's not good to tell victims of circumstance to just "suck it up, buttercup" all the time, either. Sometimes, people need nurturing, support, and validation of their suffering that can't come from repressing it. Some people need closure in the form of justice. Others just need a shoulder to cry on. The "plucky girl" tells real girls in real life that their suffering and traumas are erasable with a little positive thinking. Positive thinking is ok, but we can't act like it solves everything.

Also, this character's plight is often a string of almost comically exaggerated bad events designed to pull at our heartstrings. It comes across in the worst examples as calculating and manipulative, like showing us a baby bird with a broken wing. Like, of course I sympathize with it, but using things we're all naturally predisposed to sympathize with (basically, a sad little girl) feels sort of like cheating.

2. The Clueless Jerk Guy

Basically, the male version of the tsundere.

Hey, dumb crybaby! You're a girl! Girls are weak and stupid. You should be like me and play sports karate action ball! Feelings are bad! Grr!

*female characters swooon*

Whatever, I have work to do, out of my way, ladies!

Yeah, I've taken shots at many female character types, but there are bad male character types too. They may not be as noticeable as the overly theatrical girl types like the yandere and tsundere, but these can be annoying too. This type is someone who shows up a lot in comedy, shounen, action, ecchi, harem, and romance shows. He is a total jerk who is indifferent to girls' feelings, and/or totally oblivious to their expressions of said feelings. And the panties drop for him anyway. In real life, this happens, and it's just proof that Satan is in control of everything and there's nothing any of us can do about it. Or proof that biological drives to mate with "alpha" guys linger in human girls from a forgotten time when that would have conferred a reproductive advantage on women who did that. Either way, it's a sick, sad world.

I think maybe it's because a certain amount of jerkiness in the Japanese male is tolerated or even encouraged; they are supposed to treat women like children, who need their authority and guidance in the form of punishment for bad behavior and occasional rewards for being good. Usually, this punishment is in the form of indifference or withdrawal, the girl is desperate for the jerk to notice her, and he can use this to get her to do something he wants, or to get her to stop doing something he doesn't like, or to win an argument.

I said they're the male tsundere but they can have a touch of male Mary Sue-senpai as well, often being very handsome, tall, and/or wealthy. Often, like the Mary Sue-senpai, he has refined manners and is elegant. Like the Mary Sue-senpai, their love interests fawn all over on them while they barely notice.

Defining Features:

• May or may not be a jerk with a heart of gold.

• Does not recognize love advances, either intentionally or unintentionally. Does not have much sexual interest, if any.

• Focuses on one thing so much that women are not a distraction to them.

• Unintentionally hurts girls' feelings for comedy or drama in the story.

• Sometimes can have an immature "girls are icky" attitude.

• Likely to be a red oni character type.

• Not usually as malicious as they are just aloof and indifferent.

• Cannot catch feels, at least, not until later in the anime series (much like the tsundere).

• Like the tsundere, will often make "I was just in the neighborhood" claims whenever they do something nice, chivalrous, charitable, or when they rescue a female love interest from danger.

• Often tells an emotional girl to calm down, but in a mean way, like "you're ugly when you cry".

Why I Dislike This Type:

While it's not terrible per se, it's bad because it can be an abusive relationship dynamic portrayed as a romance (like with sexy slave characters), because these kinds of characters are boring, like their counterpart the Mary Sue-senpai, but mainly because in real life, as hard as this is for many people to believe, women do prefer considerate men.

If they don't like "nice guys" it's because a self-described "nice guy" is usually a loser who thinks that his self-diagnosed niceness is the key to getting you between the sheets. I'll pass. So while women are sometimes attracted to dominant, powerful men, they don't want men to be wholly inconsiderate to them either. Some healthy balance between being self-interested and being interested in the other person is where it's at. I hear many, many more women complaining that their boyfriend or husband is "inconsiderate", a "jerk", or that he "doesn't care" than I ever do that he is a "softie" or a "wimp". It's important to me to challenge this stereotype that women go after jerks, because it will just mean boys will get the message that they have to act like jerks to be attractive. Let's face it, these anime bishounen princes are attractive for other reasons (looks, grades, popularity, refinement, status, charisma), not because of their cold aloofness bordering on sociopathy.

(Although there may be something in the above link about the appeal of tsunderes that applies to males who act that way too.) It's basically exaggerated; women want a powerful, leader-type man, true. But if he's too indifferent, she's just going to, in real life, read the indifference as genuine disinterest in her, and be indifferent to him back. I just want to be as clear as possible in making sure guys don't think aloofness is a way to score, because it could easily backfire in real life and that would suck for them.

Honorable Mentions:

- The Genius Ditz: Oh my God how quirky and charming! NEXT!

- The Hot-Headed Shounen Fighter: Why get meaning out of the conflict or experience character growth, when you can just punch walls until you feel better?

- The Yamato Nadeshiko (traditional housewife type): Yeah, that's what I fantasize about, a girl who will do my laundry and yell at me for forgetting to take off my geta in the house.

- The Overly Optimistic Girl: Makes me want to puke. (Except for Sailor Moon.)

1. The Generic Male Protagonist

New from Kawaiicorp! It's Protagonist Boy! He has brown hair, no glasses, no hobbies, no special interests, and no defining characteristics! He's basically Bella Swan with a penis! He's as dull as dirt, but hot alien babes want to have his babies anyway! Say hello to the best protagonist you won't have to write about or think about! Call now!

Eeyeah. I internally fume whenever I see a new anime pulling this crap. And it happens at least once every season. He's an ordinary high school boy, and.... that's it.

Defining Features:

• Male.

• Middle school, high school, or (more rarely) in college.

• Brown or black hair (occasionally some other color, usually dark).

• Brown eyes (again, with occasional exceptions).

• Does not have supernatural abilities or powers of his own, if there are other people in the school who do.

• Not usually exceptionally skilled or passionately interested in anything.

• Led around by the balls by female characters, be they tsunderes, yanderes, Mary Sue-senpais, or even complete psycho killers (like in Higurashi).

• Has to have everything explained to him in expository info dumps by said female characters (which is why they're usually written as a "transfer student" or freshman).

• Will have the infamous anime cliche spot next to the window in the classroom.

• Is going to be the "straight man", the only person who's not insane in the room, etc.

Why I Dislike This Type:

Basically, they're boring. Their personalities are a blank slate. Like many female sex-object characters, their entire being is shaped by other characters' actions. Calling them "the protagonist" is sometimes iffy, they're better described as the main character or main viewpoint character. I'll explain. A "protagonist" is supposed to be the character who makes the story happen, whose desires, goals, wishes, and ambitions drive the story. For example, Ash in Pokemon is the protagonist because everything that happens in the anime is caused by or linked to his desire to become a Pokemon master. But these characters are passive and weak. Rather than making the plot, it just sort of feels like a thing that happens to them or around them. They're reactive rather than active.

Interesting Subversions:

• Accel World subverts the usual trend of the protagonist being average by making him short and chubby.

• Shinji Ikari in Neon Genesis Evangelion is essentially a deconstruction of this character type. Says something that this trope was already getting old when NGE first came out. Shinji shows the problems of having a very passive character as the main viewpoint character, and how that can be frustrating for the audience.