With all the anime or shows you've seen now, Do you feel you want to see something new? ...Like a new kind of story? ...Something different?

[k5rakitan]

I want a reverse harem anime show where the woman isn't timid towards her love interests. Healthy relationships are built on open, honest communication, and I want more role models for that present in our society.

[IdiotWithPencil]

Like why does everyone nowadays have breathtaking visuals but mediocre story lines?

Mediocre sells more than exceptional sadly (or better said bland), I would love some of the obscure things like 20th century boys or Helck to have an anime but sadly they aren't as popular (or marketable) as something cliches like MHA, BC or any of the millions of Isekai harem light novels =/ (though some are interesting like I'm a spider or Slime date)

Also some don't even have that nice visual, from each season about 90% of the series are amateurish uninspired shit fest XD while the exceptional ones can be counted by hand (like the last time I heard of a stunning anime it was Deamon slayer and that was truly beautiful)

[joannekwan]

Eh, I'm pretty particular about the series I like. A show can't just be different, it has to have the right mix of everything else (characters, story, etc.) to get me hooked.

The last new series to give me really positive 'OH BOY, I'm really enjoying this!' was Kaoru and Rilakkuma lol.

[liamhernandezlucas]

I think you just described a very large portion of shoujo manga and maybe magical girl shows (minus the adults part).

[liamhernandezlucas]

A lot of writers seem too preoccupied with who their audience is. Do I appeal to men, women, kids, adults? Do I account for ethnicity, sexuality...? If you have a story to tell, and it's a good story, someone will like it and your audience can grow from there. But all these 'catered' stories tend to end up a bit bland, and often full of little insults to people outside the target audience just to make the target audience feel better.

Your strong female protagonist can only say 'men are pigs' so many times until it makes her sound like an insecure narcissist who needs to insult others to feed her own ego. And your burly man protagonist can only say 'Women, am I right?' so many times before he comes across as a tone deaf dumdum with a lack of human empathy.

Wow, that was a rant.

[surenlicious]

Let's start with shows with healthy PLATONIC relationships. I'm done will all the romance bullcrap, I don't need that shit shoved into my stories for no good reason. Give me the plantonic life partners that always have eachother's back and NOT bicker all the time. I want to see healthy friendships too, and not just among teen protagonists.

Give me the soft girl showing strength in other ways then just being 'badass' or slaying a mofo with her bare hands. I also don't need violence/combat/war in every freaking setting I drop my arse into, conflict can thrill can be done in so many other ways yet I don't often see those.

This is kinda why I'm just writing my own novel, with all the stuff I do want to see haha.

[Jophiel]

I'm not too big on something different and would most likely try to read/watch something that has something I'm familiar with but I also don't watch a lot...(only actually finished 5 anime series all my life). Out of all the anime I watched, the only one that made me want to continue reading the manga afterwards was Houseki no Kuni. I don't know what could set it apart from the others but the protag's dynamic transformation was really something throughout all it despite the episode/chapter length.

[Cavechan]

I want a reverse harem anime show where the woman isn't timid towards her love interests. Healthy relationships are built on open, honest communication, and I want more role models for that present in our society.

The Villainess show this season has been a pretty good show thus far with the MC building positive relationships, though she is still quite oblivious to the other characters liking her. lol

A lot of writers seem too preoccupied with who their audience is. Do I appeal to men, women, kids, adults?

Many of these stories are published in magazines that have specific audiences so they naturally cater to those. Like you wouldn't find an adventure action story in Hana to Yume or a reverse harem with BL-vibes in WSJ. I think this makes losing a specific audience tougher since the audience is already picked out depending on what magazine you're trying for.

And WSJ dominates the market. Since it produces some of the most popular series, you're going to see a lot of series that have the same audience.

[HGohwell]

Seinen anime just hits differently tbh (I think we've had threads on this in the past). A lot of stories you'll have seen a million times as a shounen or shoujo anime are so different (often but not always better for having more room to breathe) as seinen. I'm a huge fan of Bungou Stray Dogs. Speaking strictly on the animes, it's a story about magical superpowers and character arcs about overcoming the cycle of abuse. Lots of younger fans came over from MHA fandom when the first season of the anime ended because BSD was just about to start its second season and on paper they sound very similar enough fans of one would enjoy the other. They are not the same and many of the younger fans did not like that almost the entire cast is distinctly grey and a lot of complaints were made that abusers were redeemed and glorified (that second part is distinctly not true we're constantly reminded that he is a shitty person even if he's trying to do better). Also a fantastically strong female cast who don't exist for a man or male gaze without having to give up any elegance or femininity and being distinctly different characters. And also a god of destruction who most people agree has a lot of not straight implications and not disney villain queer coded but actually properly done but regardless of weather you agree on that or not he is portrayed wearing high heels, corsets, fur and every manner of elaborate and more feminine fashion without ever becoming a joke or diminishing how ridiculously badass he is, and I just think it's great to see a write of a big series .put a character out there who will wear whatever he likes, pull it off like a boss and still always be taken seriously.

Romance genre's with a fun new take, What's the Point of Me Getting Popular? more commonly known as Kiss Him, Not Me is your typical suddenly pretty romcom with overweight dorky anime fujoshi getting so depressed after her favourite anime characters she loses a lot of weight until she's forced to actually go to school again and suddenly there are pretty boys interested in her. Where it goes off on a nice twist is that it's clear no only were they never interested in her before she was pretty, expect one of them who's best boy, she was never interested in them either. She looked at them as just basic stereotypes she could project her fantasies onto too. And it's really interesting to see them all, expect best boy who is best boy, realises they're doing this because she's pretty and they don't know anything about her, and also discovering her dorky stuff isn't that dorky once they give it a try, and her realise she knows nothing about them and learning they're not stereotypes either and them actually becoming friends and also no falling out over a woman, the two pre-established friends actually stay friends, it's been a while so don't quote me on this but I believe this is even addressed head on in the manga with the pair basically go "wait why are we having a petty squabble over a girl this is ridiculous". It's a lovely fresh take on the romcom harems.

[jcmraz]

Back in 2009 I did. I almost entirely stopped watching anime in 2010 for that exact reason. Everything got stale and I'd seen most of the stories and characters a dozen or more times. Recently I got back into anime more and more and I've accepted that I'm shonen trash and just love the excitement and emotional progression of that kind of story.

[GesuGesu]

I would say that Gon and Killua is one of the strongest friendships I've seen in manga and anime. They're just two 12 year old boys who become friends near the start of an adventure and stay friends throughout.

Any of the "Cute Girls Doing Cute Things" genre would have the kind of platonic relationships you're looking for. The main focus of these shows is just relaxing fluff of usually a group of female friends who do some sort of common interest together. For example, K-on.

[R.n.P]

Nah, being new or against the grain is overrated, just cuz something is different from other stories doesn't automatically make it a good show, things don't just become a cliche for no reason, they have to be so enjoyable n interesting that so many authors can repeat it over n over

[LostSpirit]

I would say that Dragon Ball Z, Naruto, and Bleach still follow the core premise of a fantasy. There's a power system in place like with the power levels early and the Saiyan Forms later with DBZ/S, the Ronin/Chunin/Kage levels in Naruto, and the Zanpakuto unlocks in Bleach. There are varying differences in story, but I would love to see more stories like Steins's Gate, for example. Or even Durarara. It's more a breath of fresh air than anything. Don't get me wrong, I love, love the stories mentioned, but I also love the set that makes an active attempt to be wildly different.

[surenlicious]

Thank you for the suggestions!

[AVXP]

Nah, being new or against the grain is overrated, just cuz something is different from other stories doesn't automatically make it a good show, things don't just become a cliche for no reason, they have to be so enjoyable n interesting that so many authors can repeat it over n over

I kind alike what RnP said. It's like, we can all suggest ideas to other writers that we wouldn't do, ourselves.
We want, in one thread, to keep naming all the tropes we''re tired of seeing, but 96% of the content here is based on the tropes that -THAT particular author/artist likes so......?

Place characters in a stable, safe relationship and Tapas will consider you a writer who writes boring relationships and how you forgot that conflict brings spice and ANY relationship needs some kinds of tension or else no one will care about that couple.

Make any set of characters, with any kind of chemistry (and comic chemistry is basically, they are in the same scenes together) NOT DATE and they will be shipped for you.

Skip over anything obvious and fan-fiction will come along after and try and add it to your story.

Choose any other formula and face the 'what you should have done' horde.

What's missing isn't a new story or novel idea, it's execution.

[IdiotWithPencil]

Place characters in a stable, safe relationship and Tapas will consider you a writer who writes boring relationships and how you forgot that conflict brings spice and ANY relationship needs some kinds of tension or else no one will care about that couple.

Fuck this, I love myself the slice of life fluffy romance god >_< I hate HATE stupid conflictive romance where a million of comunication problems or 3rd guy/girl appears out of nowhere and blah blah blaaaah god just kill me!!!

Seriously the most entertaining romances I read, or better said can actually stomach without gaging and rolling my eyes from all the bullshit, are those no conflict cute story >=O.

Seriously I care 1000 more about the stupid cute hug of speudo harem then the whole of lore olimpus >=/ fuck conflict give me more cute healthy relationships

[joannekwan]

Or better yet, good and healthy relationships between couples that have to face perils outside of their bond.

[IdiotWithPencil]

I think the closet thing I've found to that would be Retired Hero's, Hero's already love each other (they have a very healthy relationship) and the problems come more from their daughter getting into trouble or remnants of the Evil army inadvertently threaten their home.

[AVXP]

the problems come more from their daughter getting into trouble or remnants of the Evil army inadvertently threaten their home.

So your favorite kind of romance story is one where the romance isn't part of the story.
Sounds like what grabs you are the little moments that just say "Everything is cool between these two" and you fill in the "How did we get here?" part yourself.

couples that have to face perils outside of their bond.

Again, sounds like the romance part isn't really that important.
Like, let it be there, in the background.

[joannekwan]

Again, sounds like the romance part isn't really that important.

Depends on how one writes it. Like the couple could be learning how to deal with a new event in their lives, like the death of a loved one, a big move, kids, a new work-life balance? The focus would still be on the couple and how they grow stronger together and find a deeper love for one another. And you still don't need cliché misunderstanding/communication issues for any of the above scenarios.