#i feel like fitting characters into archetypes/tropes tend to be quite limiting??

[sunny-daysss]

I won’t put this in the fandom tag cuz I’m really not looking to debate people, but I feel like calling Akito (from Fruits Basket) a ‘yandere’ is just kinda... Weird?? Like I guess she fits the general criteria, but I also feel like it kinda removes the nuance from her character

[nneogram]

— writing tag

a big thank you to my soulmate? @renjunlite for tagging me in this! denise & i recently became mutuals and !! when i saw you had followed me back perhaps i screamed. much love :)

⇒ what is your ideal setting for focusing on your writing?

in general i need a setting where i can be completely alone with my thoughts. as of recent this has been late at night, in the safety and comfort of my bedroom, with everyone else in my house fast asleep. something about knowing that it’s just me and my thoughts present with no possibility of outside intrusions brings me the peace and clarity i need to write. like, no one wants to see a jeni deep in thought contemplating the many ways i can describe lee jeno’s beauty haha

⇒ what is your favourite genre to write?

i aspire to write angst but in all honesty i feel like i haven’t experienced enough in my nineteen years of life to do angst justice. i suppose my favorite is fluff because it is what i am most comfortable and confident with. one day, one day, i will write a fic that’s that perfect mix of angst and fluff - those fics have a way of building me up and then tearing me down and i l o v e it.

aside from the overarching genres (fluff, angst, smut), i like good ol’ slice of life topics: college, roommate, neighbor, you name it. my favorite, though, would have to be the slice-of-life-turned-fantasy plot! a prime example of this genre would be the anime film kimi no nawa, it has all of my favorite tropes wrapped in a bundle of visually pleasing aesthetics and music: soulmate!au, dream!au, parallel universe!au.

⇒ do you prefer to write on paper, or digitally?

for writing fics, it’s much more convenient to do so digitally - specifically to my case, i tend to do so through the google docs app on my phone, only bringing out the laptop when i’m doing large edits or revisions. 

aside from fics i prefer writing on paper. it’s so therapeutic to put paper to pen! i’ve been writing in journals, notebooks, really any piece of paper since i was very young. i like having physical copies of my thoughts because i can look back on them and flip through the pages - i recently stumbled across a diary of mine from third grade. third grade! that’s almost a decade ago!

⇒ it’s the middle of the night and you suddenly wake up with an idea. what do you do?

luckily i charge my phone right beside my bed, so if/when this happens i go to the notes app on my phone and type down as much as i can remember :)

⇒ who is your favourite person to write about?

jeno! in my head, he easily fits certain character archetypes, and it’s so easy to write character dynamics for him. i think another thing that draws me to him is that i have encountered people irl with a similar personality type - one of my close friends reminds me of him so, so much - so it’s easier for me to visualize the interactions and dynamics.

⇒ do you like making your own characters, or do you usually write about real people? 

for tumblr purposes, i write about real people (as you could probably tell from my blog). but in all honesty, the pieces i release on tumblr are originally intended for my oc’s. in my archives are these quite elaborate storylines and character dynamics that will likely never see the light of day (a doctor!au based on grey’s anatomy and descendants of the sun! college!au and highschool!aus centered around realistic predicaments such as imposter syndrome, and broken families! the list goes on!) if anything, i prefer writing for my own characters, because this allows me to mold and shape them how i want - with original characters especially, i always write a little bit of myself into them. with real people, there are limitations to this, of course.

denise worded her response so beautifully and we have eerily similar thoughts on this question, so i highly suggest referring to her writing tag post for a semblance of my perspective on this as well. i also suggest referring to my writing disclaimers for some of my thoughts on this as well.

⇒ have you ever written a book, or a story with more than 15 chapters (100k words)?

as far as i know, i have not! i’d like to try some day, if i have the time and motivation.

⇒ how often do you get ideas?

too much and then not at all. i have so many ideas that come at inconsistent (and usually inconvenient) times that i don’t know where to start! 

⇒ do you ever get an idea that you really like, but just can’t seem to finish?

DID YOU MEAN: JENI WITH ANY AND EVERY WORK IN PROGRESS?  my process right now involves starting on one idea, then losing motivation, then getting another idea and starting on that one, then losing motivation for that but finding inspiration for an old wip, then going back to that one etc etc. the cycle repeats over and over again until eventually one of the pieces is finished (at which point i go “o shit cool” and post lmao).

⇒ what is your least favourite plot?

i can’t seem to write high school au’s anymore. perhaps it’s because i’ve experienced the college life now and forgot what it felt like to be in high school?

⇒ tag 5 or more people.

um mmmmhrrrnnngg i haven’t been paying attention to who’s completed this tag already, so i apologize in advance if you’ve already done so! @joonary, @kitsutaes, @mintyuser (srry it didn’t tag you earlier for some reason!) @jaehours, @du0tine​ :) :) i don’t usually do tags often but if you don’t want to be tagged in future posts feel free to let me know! much love <3

[drink-n-watch]

In my time I’ve watched a few CGDCT shows as well as their Cute Boy counterparts and I find the comparisons between the to amusing and occasionally eye opening. I’m not sure how many of you routinely watch both genres. I was curious to see if those that do noticed the same this as me.

First let me start with a HUGE DISCLAIMER. I have some more sensitive readers (especially when it comes to this subject for some reason) so I want to make this very clear. This is observation not judgement. I don’t think one type is better than the other in any way. Both have brilliant and horrible examples of their respective genres. Moreover, I don’t think these observations tell us anything at all about the fans. The only conclusion we could possibly draw is that the studios that produce these shows think their audiences like certain tropes.

ready!!??!! Here we go!

We can’t deny that in conception and marketing, bith CGDCT and CBDCT shows are created to appeal to a particular demographic and in a particular way. There is an idea of non-explicit sexual appeal that’s always present. Again, I’m not saying that’s way you enjoy in them. And if it is, I don’t see anything wrong with that. I watch both genres and there’s a reason I chose these shows entirely on visuals and never even bother to read the synopsis. Finally, (this post is going to be ¾ disclaimer) these are general observations. Of course, exceptions exist. And my perception, like everyone else’s is subjective.

I almost feel obligated to write something deeply offensive now. After all that, the rather innocent and neutral post I have in mind seems like a bit of a letdown.

So here are the general commonalities I’ve noticed :

go on…carefully….

Reasonable expectations

Most cute girls shows I’ve watched center on characters that have fairly realistic goals and adventures. School girls with club activities that could conceivably exist IRL for the most part. Even when it’s more outlandish, it does at least seem potentially possible. Their goals are often in line with those expectations. Win a pageant of festival. Give a great performance. Have their club recognized as official. Get good grades and make friends. The mindset of the characters is generally realistic and the type of thing you could expect out of the “average”.

Even in something such as Gabriel Dropout which features angels and demons, the preoccupations are how to get your parents off your back and do decently at school while spending most of your time playing video games… relatable!

By contrasts, cute boys want to take over the world! They’re not just joining a school music club, they are international best-selling idols who are going to dominate the pop charts in every country. Their plans are intricate and complicated and completely out of reach for the common man.

And even if they are not peculiarly impressive (and they are, more on that later) their aims are still lofty. They can’t simply get good grades, they have to get the best grades, then leverage that to gain control of a multinational company, so they can use the almost unlimited resources to search for their long-lost sister. Some anime exec somewhere saw a soap opera and thought – girls like exaggerated, we’ll give them exaggerated!

track and field club: princes! – tennis club: princes…

Girl next door vs Prince charming

This understated vs completely overblown approach also seems to apply to character concepts. Cute girls generally opt for an idealized version of the everygirl trope. They’re beautiful (because all anime characters are generally beautiful) but within the context of the story they’re cute, and most of their friends are just as cute. They come from average backgrounds and have the types of life that seem common in Japan. They are special in how normal and down to earth they seem.

While the boys are…well…extra. They are super rich, artist, play boy geniuses. Or angelic innocents with a heart of the very purest gold. They routinely save orphans from burning buildings. They are extremely talented at everything. They also always have difficult family situations. Very very difficult ones.  Forget everyboy they aren’t any boy you’ve ever met. 

or don’t, it’s ok…

Fanservice

It’s no secret that cute girl shows routinely feature heaps of fanservice, implied or explicit Yuri and occasionally stray into eroge territory. By now, this is almost a specific feature of the genre. Even the most innocent offering will usually find a way to show underwear or bathing scenes.

Traditionally cute boy shows tended towards non-physical fanservice. By this I mean the characters act in ways that are in line with audience fantasies rather than getting caught in various states of undress because anime. This is in fact slowly changing. More recent shows follow the cute girl formula more closely and series find excuses to show us muscled young men shirtless or add in onsen scenes. There are still slight differences in presentation (most commonly agency usually remains firmly with the characters) but the trend is definitely towards equal opportunity objectifying.

However, in many ways the shows are also incredibly similar. True, shows aimed at women tend to be more traditionally comedic with jokes and punch lines meant to make the audience laugh while those aimed at men tend to be more cute, with images and situations meant to make you go awww. But a lot of tropes and base storylines are common.

Wether it’s true or not, these shows represent what production companies think we want in romanticized partners. They are supposed to represent an ideal. We can parse this and try to ferret out the sociological basis. However, what’s been trotting in my head lately is what this means when applied to the harem genre.

See the (reverse)harem genre covers a lot of the same ground and often we can see parallels in the characters. As such, I am really intrigued by how Harem MCs compare. In my experience, reverse harem main characters are actually pretty close the the cute girl prototype. A little shyer and less proactive but generally, they are good humoured, optimistic girls, incredibly devoted to their friends and quite single minded in their goals which tend to be reserved when compared to the boys around them. Even in visual design, they would often fit in a CGDCT show with very little alteration.

On the other hand, harem protagonists are nothing like cute boy characters. Even interestingly fleshed out ones like Hachiman or best boys like Ryuuji and Yūta, are archetypes we either don’t see at all or that are relegated to barely there supporting roles. And looks wise, they would simply not make the cut at all. After all, harem mcs are everymen and everymen are plain. (Is it just me or do they often “look like delinquents” for some reason…) Cute boys are the visual definition of elaborate. They tend to be so detailed and ornate in design that I occasionally get a little fatigued looking at them.

why does he have a dog collar over his tie?

So what does this mean. Well in my original conversation, I had dumbed down my take away as this (warning, this may be super insensitive, it’s what got me in trouble). Production studios seem to think that boys want-expect little to nothing of girls beyond agreeableness, while girls want-expect absolutely everything. Mind you this isn’t a morality call, I don’t think either is good or bad. I also don’t think either is particularly accurate. But it’s an intriguing assumption to base your stories on. Especially if entire genres get dictated by those base assumptions.

This becomes particularly interesting with the cross gender disconnect. Why would one archetype be considered perfectly fitting for an audience surrogate and not the other. Pretty much all reverse harem fans I know (all 2 of them) will agree the the protagonists are nonsensical unless they are parodies of the genre (shout out to Haru and bestest girl Chyio). But they also aren’t particularly bothered by these characters.

We could speculate all day about why these character choices are made and so consistently enforced and how they affect storytelling and fan reaction. maybe someone better suited could even theorize on how they affect our real life interaction and expectations. I warmly invite any of you with an interest in the subject or a love of researched and analytical posts to share your own thoughts. For now, I will leave it at this.

These are my personal observations from my very limited sample size. I’m not entirely sure what to make of them yet but I do believe that people who like one genre should give the other a try. They may be surprised!

great cleavage

  Asking for Trouble; My Observations on Cute Girls and Cute Boys In my time I’ve watched a few CGDCT shows as well as their Cute Boy counterparts and I find the comparisons between the to amusing and occasionally eye opening.