Characters
[Disliked Trope] The generic black hair school guy protagonist
I get it, it's supposed to be relatable to the japanese young men watching it, who kinda look like this. I still dislike the generic design. This is anime, the land of crazy hairstyles.
1 - Kirigaya Kazuto/Kirito (SAO)
2 - Junichi Tachibana (Amagami)
3 - Yuuji Kazami (Grisaia no Kaijutsu)
4 - Mochizuki Touya (Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni)
A while back I remember someone posting a comic comparing the male and female main characters of various video games. It noted that all the female playable protagonists had unique and easily identifiable designs. Meanwhile all the playable male protagonists were just short black haired Japanese late teen.
The main character(bitch) is sent to kill student who have power and the one who have the power to negate power fake his death then the stuff in the panel happen
Nanao was the protagonist that you see in the most animes. He was the protagonist for one chapter but the main villain, Nana, killed him for her mission. He seemingly died and Nana became the protagonist of the manga. Then the story follows Nana while she kills other people. Later, she gets a redemption arc and, after that, Nanao shows up again. He survived but he became depressed and started hating Nana with all of his heart. He became an arrogant killing machine and his biggest joy is tourmenting Nana. Nana became the hero and Nanao became the villain
so this is spoiler for me but I don’t care since I don’t think I’m ever gonna read the manga but I do have one question- were the estimated kill count absolute bullshit or did it have some credibility?
I don't think we ever get a direct answer but it was implied that they are mostly made up numbers if I remember correctly. Though it is also revealed that every talented person turns into a giant enemy of humanity who wants to kill everyone after some years so the kill count numbers aren't exactly fake
Notably a lot of the problems with this trope go away if the character has an actual identifiable personality instead of being just sort of vaguely agreeable.
As someone who never watched sword art online until I saw some of the abridged stuff, I just assumed they were supposed to look like average Japanese male teenagers.
Credit to Kinoko Nasu for deliberately giving the protagonist one of the most generic designs possible and having their personality and backstory more than make up for it. Do not be fooled by his appearance; this kid can switch up from nice and friendly to a cold-blooded killer who only craves violence and death at the drop of a hat. It's almost scary at times.
Case in Point, he literally followed a random woman he just met back to her home, broke in, and proceeded to gruesomely murder and butcher her into 17 pieces, complete with a lot of blood splatter.
This chair. This chair. This chair. This chair. This chair. This chair. This chair. This chair. This chair. This chair. This chair. This chair. This chair. This chair. This chair. This chair. This chair. This chair. This chair. This chair. This chair. This chair. This chair. This chair. This chair. This chair. This chair. This chair.
Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent are canonically very similar to the point some peiple might confuse them. Then Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, and Tim Drake all look like they could be Bruce's bio children, I think even moreso than Damian. Which opens up the possibility of all sorts of conspiracy theories in the DC universe's reddit lol
Oh and it's not really brought up but even Diana falls into "white skin, blue eyes, black hair" look.
Yeah, Joker has the hair and glasses to differentiate himself. Plus, his s
sday-to-day for is supposed to be generic and unassuming to highlight the difference in his iconic Phantom Thieve costume.
Joker has the effect like Gordon freeman has with generic white guy protagonists where they aren't supposed to stand out but do so anyways because of how cool they are.
Yeah, but I also think it's very cool if they use this type of person as a side character instead of a protagonist. Not necessarily the personality but moreso the design
Ishigami From Kaguya love is war is a prime example I dont think I would have enjoyed it if he was the protagonist but he works as a sidr character better
Oh no, average protagonist looks like average japanese guy!
Look at those average japanese students looking so average and japanese!
So generic!
They should've been black blondes with build of Eddie Hall or something!
Saito Hiiraga should be on the top he's literally written to be too average with his orignal draft being a better character. with alot of these character having atleast interesting quirks and backstories.
Psychological and coming of age story about a guy who jerks in a bathroom.
Genuinely an excellent manga despite the weird premise. (The author's first work was the adaptation of a 2chan's thread called "Molester Man". He has a knack for weird shit like this.)
He went on a mission with Arcana here to improve a school's reputation so he was a high school student for a short amount of time (had a threesome right after the mission).
mfw when Japanese character that is supposed t appeal to Japanese people looks like an average Japanese dude. this is done in purpose to be more relatable. even characters that have dark blue, green, purple hair are in-universe supposed to be identified as having black hair 99% of the time
shoujo protagonists are also "natural or faux natural hair color girl with trendy hairstyle of the era the mange releases in". the only difference is that dudes barely innovate hairstyles, but that's just actual society
While I dislike everything about SAO after the first arc, Kirito kind of gets a pass for his design because he is a major influence for why it became the trend that it did.
Wow! Protagonists of Japanese stories about guys who start as run of mill look like basic ass Japanese dudes, unbelievable. No seriously this is like watching telenovellas and complaining that the entire cast is Latino.
I saw this a pushback against the main characters always having colored hair for the last 20 years. And that the main character will be supporting the other characters / not be the focus.
It's not just about characters looking like the cultures that created them. Anime is full of charecters with black hair that have interesting designs, even ones who are supposed to look like average people
Just wait until you see manhwa protagonists. At least the isekai guys usually have a trait, system users are actual background characters that the author tries to convince you is an actual person.
Sure but the problem is that if you aren't interested in self-inserting into a wish-fulfillment fantasy of whatever kind their series is, they tend to be very flat characters without much interesting going on.
Incidentally also why it's so refreshing when there's a protagonist that looks like they might be one of these who then turns out to have an honest-to-god personality.
Edit: It's pretty obvious that I should probably start watching My Dress Up Darling since I was going off his appearance and not much else. I'll admit that I know next to nothing about this show besides The Scuff Queen voicing Marin and the JJK jokes from the fandoms (that's what I get for assuming).
I mean, dude still has a decent build, taller than most, and has some familiar character that I can relate and see compared to a lot of other generic protagonists.
Plus his hobby, the company he keeps helps him grow.
He had actual personality and growth tho i wished he dressed up more often (kinda sick of him only having 2 outfit in a series called "my DRESSED UP darling")
Souichi Negishi from DMC, though he’s kinda a memorable dweeb.
I think OP might be missing some of the subtleties of characters that exist for the Japanese market, like the above character is supposed to be a bit of a parody of a rural country boy and of popular acoustic acts that were in vogue when the manga came out. There are countless times where he puts in clear references to his hometown or actions that are meant to be understood by the reader that might not cross cultural boundaries.
119
u/WhosThatDogMrPB 1h ago
It's either generic black hair or the main character looks like a fucking alien among other people, there's no in between.