No sooner have I started enjoying something it's like the world conspires to take it all away from me. There have been some 'okay' anime lately that are at least watchable but it's remarkable how even by anime studio standards the amount of utter shit that's being pumped out by the people looking to milk isekai anime in particular for all it's worth as if there aren't a myriad of other genres for them to at least try and see if something sticks.
At least I can instantly dismiss the ones with awful animation that look like it was hacked together by an intern or worse an Indian in a couple of months in blender but what's more surprising is there have been anime with good quality artwork that gets flushed down the drain due to shitty unimaginative writing and it's pissing me off.
Anime often operates on tropes don't get me wrong, I'm not expecting that much from them. However the tropes lately aren't even subtle and are being smacked in your face repeatedly as if you're supposed to enjoy it, it's so bad even the obvious die hard anime fans who spam the comments pages are bitching about it all.
We're used to the 'MC is a loser' tropes, but now it's very much like they're picking out a bingo card of extremely shit MC tropes like 'MC is OP insecure loser and constantly doesn't know his own strength' even people with a single IQ point can see it's a retarded plot point. Or worse they try and use it as a gag but it falls flat when they repeat it every five seconds.
It's so bad now that I will watch anything as long as the male character featured isn't a massive retard. Even Kazuma from Konosuba the king of insecure virgin tropes gets some degree of confidence and can deal with women who give him shit. You don't drag the whole thing out several episodes because it's complete cringe and prevents character development.
Am I missing something here? Is it some asian thing about saving face so they can't ever have MCs that have any kind of degree of confidence in themselves? Or are things really that bad in Japan now all the mangaka are suffering severe depression which would make sense unfortunately.
I'm a 80s and 90s anime guy and being old I think everything new sucks. Except unlike previous gen, this is with cause.
isekai is the fucking worst, no real conflict, op protagonist, just an endless parade of success, like watching someone play video game with game genie on.
I assume given its popularity that isekai is fulfilling something missing in modern japanese society and youths in general and they're getting some kind of satisfaction or even a dopamine hit of seeing someone else living a fantasy life on easy mode.
As for MC being a doofus? That's always a thing, worse now, I don't have an answer (to anything ever) but if I were to make a guess, dumb loser MCs are easier to write for anime mills, and identification, makes the readers relate or even feel they're better than the MC in some ways.
In general, it is harder to write a smart character than a dumb character, because a smart character has to be capable of solving problems in smart ways. If you aren't careful and skilled, it's very easy to either end up with a "smart" character that's actually kind of dumb because he misses solutions and clues and details he should figure out (ex: many episodes of Doctor Who), or a "smart" character that's really just magic (ex: many versions of Sherlock Holmes, basically every scientist in superhero fiction. Also many episodes of Doctor Who).
No character can be smarter than his writer. Most people are average, so most characters should be average.
To a certain degree. That said, there are ways you can fake it; the writer has hours or weeks to solve a problem and can then have a character divine that same solution in a few seconds, for example. You can use a computer to do complex calculations, then have the character perform them mentally. You can consult and research with people that are smarter or more knowledgeable than you, then have you character use their knowledge.
Isekai was never meant to be anything amazing, I personally like them in spite of things if they have decently written characters and they can even make a nice filler sometimes when I just want to relax. I'm an anime watcher so I also understand the point of an insecure MC character among other things but especially with the way they react to women it's so unbelievable because even the most insecure virgin out there is not going to run away if a hot girl is literally sitting on top of him and sticking her boobs in his face, it would just never happen. The only time it would make sense is if he was promised to another which would make it more wholesome instead of cringe.
Even if you're somebody who considers yourself a loser, you still want to be that guy who eventually makes it, it's only people who have actual mental problems that go full black pill and incel to the extreme.
Anime protagonists tend to be on one end of a spectrum or the other; either over the top horn dogs who are constantly get up skirt peaks and grabbing titties (almost always followed by the tsundere punching them), or pathetic socially paralyzed virgins who get the 'nose bleed' if a girl so much as touches their hand. And the second does seem to be way more common.
I can think of maybe 2 or 3 protagonists off the top of my head who don't fit that mold and actually act like normal guys. I don't know if it's some weird Japanese cultural thing that's highlighting something real, or if it's that they're not allowed to show more guys acting realistic because it's broadcast on TV in Japan or what.
I'm genuinely curious how much of it is a reflection of real life and how much of it is just tropes being written in because they are easy or because the writer is simply writing stuff that he saw when he was just a reader or watcher of anime and manga and these things were tropes long before he started. Are indirect kisses really that big of a deal in Japan? Is holding hands really this monumentally sexy and intimate moment that has guys shaking in their boots?