Best Anime Tropes That Will Always succeed.

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Anime is a medium that has series in various genres. Hence it will difficult to add tropes for all genres. So we will mainly talk about the tropes in the Fantasy series. There are few tropes that will mostly succeed even if executed poorly. There will always be an exception to these but you get the point.

I will give minor spoilers for few mainstream series and I will list them here just to give you a heads up. The series that will have spoilers are Naruto, One Piece, Berserk, HxH, AoT.

1. Villains as the chosen ones.

Chosen ones are one of the most overused tropes in fantasy in general. Nowadays people don’t like it and the achievement of the leading protagonist will feel less satisfying.

What if the antagonist is the chosen one? It is rarely used but whenever it is implemented it is always great. Griffith from Berserk is one of the greatest antagonists ever and he is the chosen fifth Godhand. Pain from Naruto is also a prophecized child who inherited the power of Ninja God himself. The future retcons destroyed Pain’s arc a bit but that is besides the point.

I personally don’t want to have a chosen one as a concept itself but if it is the case it will be so much better if the antagonist is the chosen one.

2.Found Family

This is one trope that I think anime does really well. A group of people with no blood relation join together and become a family of sorts.

This trope even if it isn’t used that well will still be an enjoyable thing. I don’t want the group to have rivalries trope as it ruins the family dynamic.

The Strawhats from One Piece, people from different backgrounds with different dreams living as a family to achieve their dreams. Or the Yorozuya in Gintama, where Gintoki literally acts as a father for Kagura and brother for Shinpachi. Such things are so wholesome to see and make one’s heart fulfilled.

3. Cool Mentors:

This is another trope no matter how reused it is, just never fails. There is something about cool teachers that everyone can relate to and someone who everyone hoped to have during their school days. There are so many amazing mentor-type character types in anime.

Kakashi from Naruto, one of the best side characters ever and one of my favorite anime characters ever. Yami from Black Clover, Aizawa from MHA, Bisky from HxH, Genkai from Yu Yu Hakuso, etc to name a few. Even a minor mentor character like Takeda from Haikyuu has a memorable impact in the series given his minimal involvement.

4. Protagonist-Antagonist Teamup:

I am not talking about villains who get redeemed and joins the protagonists’ side. That trope is good and has been used well in anime. Some iconic characters like Hiei from Yu Yu Hakuso, Vegeta from DBZ, etc are prime examples of them.

I meant antagonists who aren’t redeemed and are still on the opposite side. This trope hasn’t once been disappointing and the story elevates to the next level whenever it is used. It is difficult to implement in a story and that’s why isn’t as prevalent as I hope it to be.

Some examples are Hisoka from HxH teaming up with Gon and Killua or Kurapika, Guts riding Zodd in Berserk, Luffy aligning with Crocodile and other villains in Impel Town from One Piece, Zeke and Eren team up in AoT, etc. All the above examples are such great moments for the respective series.

Also in all the four examples that I provided, the protagonists are morally questionable and their respective world itself is an unforgivable one. I think the story should have moral ambiguity to even make these scenarios possible in the story.

5. Heroes to Anti Heroes

This is just a continuation of the above point. Having a good-natured protagonist with a good moral compass is fine for a story. But anti-heroes are just more interesting if the story warrants it. Also, it will be more interesting if the hero turns into an anti-hero having started in a good place.

Light from Death and Eren from AoT are great examples of these and both are well-acclaimed protagonists. In HxH, Gon’s story is slightly different but still memorable.

Another way to have this trope is to make your hero take morally questionable decisions and he knows them but not necessarily becoming a bad person. Sometimes an author just makes the hero do questionable decisions but only does them accidentally to not make him bad. I am not talking about those, they are just standard flaws you need to have in your protagonist. The protagonist actually does a questionable action with full knowledge.

Luffy from One Piece breaks jail which eventually leads to several prisoners escaping and he does this just because he wants to save his brother. Guts from Berserk does a lot of questionable decisions including killing a teenage kid though it is a miscalculation on his part.

6. Purely Evil Villains but with Depth and Layer.

Purely from the title, this will probably look like a hot take but I will explain. Nowadays I feel there are too many villains that have a sad past, thus giving them a reason for their actions. It is actually a great trope and even if done badly it will appeal better than a Dark Overlord trope.

But when purely evil Villains are done well, they just are much scarier and interesting. Just look at Johan Liebert from Monsters, probably my most favorite villain ever. Kira from JoJo is one of the most unique villains I have seen in anime. Doflamingo from One Piece and Mereum/Hisoka from HxH are other such great examples.

The risk part in having this trope is that it is really easy to fail and will end up making a very bland villain. But when done, they are really enjoyable.

7. Fights but with Ideology

Fighting to see who is stronger is alright and with good choreography and power moves, they indeed are enjoyable. Anime has so many such amazing fights.

But the most memorable fights are one that has an added element of an ideological battle between them. The fights must be more than to see who is stronger.

Gaara vs Lee from Naruto is a battle of Hardwork vs Natural talent, Pain vs Naruto is a battle with the theme of Peace.

Mereum vs Netero in HxH is a fight that questioned who is the real monster in the world, Gintoki vs Takasuki is a battle about sacrifice, Luffy vs Katakuri from One Piece is a battle of being yourself and not putting up a front, Dio vs Jotaro from JoJo is a fight about memes.

Most of the above fights don’t even revolve around who is stronger primarily. Lee lost, Naruto’s didn’t even end with fist fight, Katakuri actually came out victorious mentally though lost physically, etc.

8. Female Lead as strong as Male Lead

Usually, the female protagonist of a series is below the male protagonist in terms of strength. This isn’t inherently bad but just depends on execution. But I have noticed that whenever the female lead is stronger than the male or on par with the male, the story narrative always tends to be better.

Not a lot of shows follow this and hence it is somewhat rare. Kagura from Gintama is one of my favorite female leads in Shonen and she is portrayed as more powerful than Gintoki or at least both of them are portrayed as equal. Kyokai from Kingdom is probably stronger than Shin. Another example is Mikasa from AoT though Eren’s journey is different.

What other tropes do you think are definite success? Or do you disagree with any of the above ones? Do comment below.