The shoujo where the whole thing is devoted to showing the girl deciding whether or not to confess to her crush. It annoys me. I want to see them get together and then have something happen.
Girls who have absolutely no idea that the boy they love loves them back. If they loved them, wouldn't they be looking out for signs of returned feelings.
Girl is treated horrible and yet still manages to fall in love with the guy
This is more to do with character design but why is it that shoujo heroines go between being either full chested or flat-chested, usually with lots of comments made about both situations. I mean, there is a middle ground here.
Stupid girls with really low marks or really clever girls. The first is more annoying. They somehow manage to make a big fuss about it and get tutored by the exact same guy who they like. What are the chances? It'd be nice to have a character who was in the middle; not exceptionally clever but not dumb either. Is it too much to ask?
The whole transfer thing; boy transfers to class. Girl falls for him. The rest of the manga is about her trying to confess. Does it not occur to people that the girl did exist before the guy came to the class and that she probably liked someone before this?
The whole 'OMG I can't tell him about [this] and [that] because he'll totally misunderstand' and then the truth comes out in the worst way possible and they have a whole 'you betrayed me' thing for a while, when if she'd just told him in the first place it would've been totally fine!

There are a whole load of other but I can't think of them now.

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I am the master of my fate;
I am the captin of my soul.
William Ernest Henely

I rate manga with 5 being the average score.

-The infamous "I will protect you!" phrase
-Girl crying over something that isn't even worth a damn
-Female lead starts off comical, quirky, and a bit crude but quickly degenerates to a pathetic crybaby as interaction between said female and her love interests increases
-Girl's almost raped, but then her guy comes and saves the day
-Girl starts off hopeless but, by some "miracle", pulls a lame ass Yamato Nadeshiko out of left field

Those things never cease to activate my gag reflexes. I also have my fair share of shounen cliches that make me scream--but that's another story.

Last edited by jptranslator_girl at 7:11 am, Jul 13 2010

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I'm a bit of a drifter between two countries

I agree with jptranslator_girl!

Manga's like Mamotte Agemasu make frustrated. The whole rich guy that's either popular or very scary. And the weak female leads! Or when the whole girl population is inlove with one guy and he picks the weak female lead that doesn't talk much.

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There are many, but the opposite hair color cliche gets to me the most since even if you like the series and it's original and all, it SPOILS the outcome! You have no choice but to put up with it.

There are so many cliches I've read. XD And believe me, I've read a LOT of shoujo.

-Opposite hair color (as mentioned above) - typically, one main lead has light-colored hair while the other has dark colored hair. There are a few exceptions, though. (I don't really mind this cliche as much as some of the ones below...)

-Hot spring - Seriously. This happens in a LOT of shoujo mangas, where the class goes on a field trip to the hot spring, and the girl is shown in the bath. The guy accidentally sees her, and she goes, "Pervert!" or something like that happens.

-Accident - This happens so often. There's always some kind of car accident or something like that where one of the character ends up in the hospital, and it's usually a huge plot twist.

-Childhood friend - one of the main lead's childhood friend appears in the middle of the story (and has a liking for the main lead)...it usually develops into a love-triangle between the main leads and that friend

-Transfer student - Mostly a bishoujo or bishounen whom the girls or the guys in the school fall for. Takes a liking to one of the main leads which develops into another love triangle.

-Girl is dense, unpopular, gets low grades, and is supposedly plain. Guy is a bishie, super popular, gets the highest grades, and is rich.

-Girl thinks the guy is a jerk and a pervert at first, but falls in love anyway.

-Girl falls in love with the guy because she thinks he's hot (in some cases).

-Guy is a bishie and popular and takes a liking to the plain, unpopular girl which often leads to bullying (see the next one).

-Bullying - Girl and guy get together, only the guy's a popular bishie and the fangirls beat (or try to beat) the girl up.

-Beach - Girls in swimsuits. Can happen when the girl and the guy to on a trip to the beach for the weekend on summer vacation to try to do "this and that".

-Sick - Guy gets sick and girl tries to help him by cooking him a meal and giving him medicine or something like that.

-Girl is terrible at cooking, and while cooking, the kitchen explodes. Guy is perfect at cooking.

-Sleeping face - One of the main leads finds the other main lead sleeping and tires to kiss him/her. Or at least for the guy sleeping, think something like, "He looks like a little boy."

-Transformation - Happens when the girl is plain and considered ugly, but during a dance or a date, she is transformed into a bishoujo, usually by her best friend or her super pretty sister.

-Main lead has an oh-so-meldromatic past life that's supposed to be a huge plot twist. Can happen when he or she doesn't get along with family.

-In love triangles, the main girl is supposed to be plain and the rival girl is really "pretty", even though we see the main girl being much cuter than the rival.

-Flat-chest - I hate this cliche. So much. The main lead girl is almost ALWAYS flat-chested. Why do they never have a medium-sized bust size?!

-Girl catching the main guy trying to kiss the other pretty rival and runs off crying. They make up afterwards because the guy explains that it was an "accident".


Last edited by rosieechan at 11:29 am, Jul 14 2010

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I ♥ Shoujo!

Well...there are quite a lot of cliches in shoujo mangas. Some I don't mind, some I actually like (for example I'm a total sucker for the cliche "super strong guy/girl who can beat the crap out of an impossible number of people"), and some I can't stand. My most detested cliches are:

- Brother/sister complex. I don't know why they're so into incest in Japan, but to me it's just wrong. Even among non-blood related siblings it feels wrong to get into that kind of relationship, but especially when there are blood ties I just can't stomach it.

- Guy treating girl like trash and yet girl adores him. I have long since understood that feminism is not all that advanced in Japan, but there's a limit to how tolerant a girl should be. Honestly, when I see this kind of scenes, I want to shout "Tell him to go take a hike already!"

- Woman gets groped on a train but doesn't say anything because she's embarassed. For crying out loud, it's the offender who should be ashamed, not the victim! Punch the creep in the face, or stomp on his foot, or shout, but DO SOMETHING!

- Girl falls for guy for no good reason. This is really annoying. Guy does something totally trivial, like picking up a dropped book, or help girl up after he has bumped into her, or say "are you alright?" and girl gets all bewitched and falls for him head over heels. I know that love at first sight is a common cliche, but still it bugs me when a girl starts worshipping someone she doesn't really know. On the other hand, I like the opposite cliche (guy acts like a total jerk and girl hates his guts, but when she gets to know him she falls in love with him). Somehow I prefer it when you fall in love with someone because you learn to appreciate his character and not because of some silly first impression.

Erm....not that I'm taking offense to what you said (I promise I'm not), but I'd just like to mention the fact that there actually aren't as many Japanese that are into incest as you'd think. We don't exactly walk around saying "Hey, it's really cute that you want to do your brother!" during conversations *lol*. A lot of people misunderstand when they read manga or see something fetishy from Japan, and assume that what they've seen or read is a norm for us. But please trust me when I say that incest is not a popular hobby for the Japanese. Manga doesn't represent real Japanese daily life, I promise.

I do get what you mean; and again, I'm not offended or anything. It'd probably just be more accurate to say "I don't get why manga artists are so into incest......" instead.

Last edited by jptranslator_girl at 7:45 am, Jul 13 2010

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I'm a bit of a drifter between two countries

Quote from jptranslator_girl



Sorry, I guess it was a wrong choice of words. Of course, there is no reason for the japanese to fall in love with family members more than other nationalities. I guess that it is just a popular plot twist among manga artists, like you said. Still, it kind of creeps me out...maybe I'm overly sensitive to this kind of thing, but I've refrained from reading a lot of shoujo mangas just because they have brother/sister complex element in them. I can tolerate it when it is displayed in a comic manner (overly protective brother/sister who makes a fool of himself or something), but when it gets serious I really don't like it.

Gosh, so many shoujo cliches that can be quite silly.

Girl is admired by her friends for her inner and outer beauty but doesn't think herself as beautiful as the rival/ex-girlfriend. In fact, compared with the rest of the characters, she is indeed the prettiest character in the series. But she only feels worthy when the male interest tells her she's pretty.

Guy treats girl like trash then falls in love with her because he's spent so much time bullying/taunting his victim. He just happens to do this.

Rival as totally inhuman.

People get violently ill from not having an umbrella.

People with the flu have to be visited by love interest. Doctor's orders.

Boys with flower backgrounds.

Stupid, innocent, dense girls who don't know the difference between right and wrong, because everything is all roses in their world. Guy loves it of course.

Also the super popular girl/guy looks/acts like a total mess at home.

Girl/guy gets injured and despite the respective opposite treating them like trash, they get together. Another variation is the princess carry.

Male interest conquesting girls, then brought down to earth by so and so.

Spin the bottle games, and then the happy/unhappy couple get locked in a closet.

A character is said to be emotionally strong and admired for it, when she's actually a trainwreck. Cries every chapter over little things, plays pathetic mindgames, etc.

"Tough" girls who are emotional messes, dumb, unreasonable, or are victim to the princess carry, etc.

The worst cliche is when the main female lead hates the other main male lead, but of course they fall in love. Also of course the main male lead is popular and his fan club goes after his girlfriend. These situations are use WAY too often.

There isn't a single shoujo manga that I've read that that doesn't happen. Srsly, is that really the only way to get sick?
And other than being out in the rain, the characters also get high fevers for overworking themselves.

Also, what's with the student-teacher relationships... I've seen them to frequently done, for my liking.

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Life is as sweet as a cupcake <3

No no no, it's cool. Seriously. And you're not overly sensitive. You just don't like what you don't like, and there's nothing wrong with that Like I said, I know what you meant, and I wasn't mad or anything.

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I'm a bit of a drifter between two countries

girls who are saved from some bullies by the hero.
many bishies falling for one dense girl
girl first thinks he is a jerk, but starts to think he´s cool
happy end
boy falls for the girl who loves him or otherway round
childhoodfriend loses to strange in case of love
the guy always comes at the right time
mixed baths or girl comes out of the bath whn the guy comes in
guy doesn´t realise that the girl is in love with him but everyone else knows it

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currently reading: Nyotai-ka
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