let's discuss anime archetypes and clichés

Regarding your first point, I don't know that I've really come across too many characters with the surname 'Vermillion', but German names seem to be a very commonplace thing to throw in there.

As for the whole bathing thing, it is most definitely a cultural distinction. They do shower, but baths are more prevalent. When showers are taken, it's often in tandem with the use of the bath (they're typically placed very close together). Sometimes it's just a bath. It's a very specific ritual depending on the situation.

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Why don't you take a pill, bake a cake, go read the encyclopaedia.

ah yes. If I remember correctly there were some pseudo-German names in Attack on Titan. And there was one anime (can't remember which), where the main character wore shirts with German lines on it. Actually the worst anime using pseudo-German is Girls und Panzer. Nearly every sentence has German words in it, even though it wouldn't be needed. Since I'm German, that series is completely unwatchable for me. Most of the 'German' words in it are more like pseudo-German and don't make sense at all. Sometimes you would wish that they actually would have a German on their production team, who checks the words and stuff.

I'd say harems.

Harems are a red alert for me.

Mostly because one in the bunch is a twelve year old.

Always.

And the others are the hero's age... fifteen-to-seventeen.

It's probably why I like Kiyone the most in Tenchi Muyo cartoons.

There is one clice I find a little irritating in anime:

Anime heroes take fighting too seriously.

A lot of fighting stories require that the hero win his fights, but I've noticed that a lot of shonen animes take their fights seriously, to the point that no hero can ever lose what fight they get into.

EG look at two boxing stories about underdogs who get a shot at a championship: ASHITA NO JOE from Japan, and ROCKY from the USA (the first film). Rocky gets a shot at a world title, and while he doesn't win he gets satisfaction from having gone the distance with a champion. Joe on the other hand wins at the cost of his own life.

From a storytelling and dramatic perspective it's nicer for a hero to always win a fight, or if he loses he comes back stronger and achieves a win.

But my point is that in Japan, because the were once a feudal culture of warriors, they are a very combative people who take challenges seriously (exams, fights, etc) and that any failure/loss is a sin and humiliation, and this can be seen in their anime (Your Lie in April, Bento).

While Western animation has a hero lose but he can take it easy because he's got other important stuff, in anime a hero can not lose at all. It's a cultural thing in Japan, and I think it's there in most of their animes.

I hope that makes sense.


07/08/06... 786... the sentinel of Allah has arrived.

Vermillion isn't German. It doesn't even have the slightest German touch to it.Google says it's dutch. ---Lincoln Lee: I lost a partner.Peter Bishop: I lost a universe!

I never said it was. 

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Why don't you take a pill, bake a cake, go read the encyclopaedia.

Is Attack on Titan really set on Earth? The pseudo-German aspects feature pretty prominently in this series, I think, with the names and maybe even the temperate landscapes and the city setting the characters live. It's decidedly Central European seeming, at least. I believe Fullmetal Alchemist took the same approach, being inspired by Germany or the rest of Central Europe, in terms of names, culture, and environment. Don't the AoT characters' uniforms resemble lederhosen a little bit, or some other traditional type of South Germanic (Bavaria, Austria, Switzerland) clothing?

"A New Kind of Man" (John Foxx, 1980):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt4oi-PRbN4