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.
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.