Every genre and medium has character archetypes associated with it, but few have as many and ones which appear with as much frequency as anime does. Tsunderes, Kuuderes, Yanderes; not only are many of these staples of almost every airing show nowadays, but the formulas used to create them are nearly identical. Most of the time, characters from different shows could be switched around without anyone noticing. The reason why these characters are so popular in the first place is fairly straight-forward: they play into power fantasies by implying that exterior behavior does not accurately reflect interior feelings. However, after so many reiterations of the same exact thing, the market should start to be frustrated. Anime is a very financially-driven medium, so why is it not considered profitable to put new and creative spin on the tried-and-true archetypes when doing so would almost certainly enhance viewer enjoyment and yield capital return? Shows like the Monogatari series have done exactly this and gotten massively positive results, so why do so many animation studios vie away from any sort of enhancement to the formula?
While I'm not a big anime fan, this article would catch my attention. The only thing I would say, would be whoever writes the article should be sure to explain the archetypes so a casual viewer like myself would know which is which. – Austin Bender9 years ago
