Super Official Anime Discussion Thread

[Super_Boom]

Aeolus451 said:

That version of the nice guy or nice girl is inhuman. The MC and other characters will develope feelings/emotional attachment or pure physical attraction/desire towards another character at some point especially if they are attractive/likeable. Regardless of the character(s) being good natured or bad, they'll want  

Sooner or later, people will act out those impulses. It's human nature. Most stories in anime/manga take place around a school with teenagers.  That's why I think alot of anime is just missing something or it never quite scratches that itch as good as you might want it scratched. 

One piece and bleach. Plenty of single male and female characters but no one ever dates or have sex (or imply they have sex) even though they are really long anime/manga.

In Naruto, all of the younger characters remain single and they never hook up even though they actually have feelings for each other yet those feelings were part of the plot.

I just wish that anime in general starts to evolve. Make characters date eachother and use that in the plot. It doesn't need to be SOL or romance. 

Eh...I'm not necessarily defending it...just stating what the thought process seems to be. Different people have different opinions on how these themes should be handled, and I can't say either is really right. I just think vicariousness isn't necessarily the best answer here. Personally, it doesn't bother me too much, since I enjoy other genres that put more focus on these themes anyway.

Regarding the examples you posted, I don't really mind adding variety to that particular genre. Off of the top of my head, Rave Master, Magi, and Fairy Tail (to a lesser extent) are/were pretty open about coupling characters naturally in the middle of the story. It was never exactly a huge moment, but I can definitely see the appeal to that type of writing. Rave Master in particular had some of the most well-written romance I've seen in an action shounen.

At the same time, I'd rather authors not feel obliged to touch on it either. In One Piece, for example, the author actually responding to a fan request for romance by telling them to "go read a shoujo". Pretty blunt...but I can't say I disagree with him either. One of the reasons I grew to hate Naruto so much was because the romance felt so contrived and forced into the story.

This probably sounds odd from me, since I'm such a big ship fan...but that's how it is for me anyway. Personally, I'd rather have no attempt at romance at all than one that doesn't mesh with the overall narrative. But to each their own of course.