Kimagure Anime Blog

Today, I’d like to break from the usual anime summaries. While my mid-season reviews are close to what I consider overdue, I have to stop and rant for a moment. I’m about to embark on something futile. Today I begin what I hope will be an occasional series of rants against anime clichés. Like I said, this is a futile effort, but there is only so much a person can take before the pressure cooker in their brain just goes boom. This is futile because there is absolutely no way anything can or will change. People and fans are just way too happy with the status quo, or if they’re not happy they’re certainly okay with it. People flock to the familiar, and like to be warm and fuzzy. I’m not criticizing the people that enjoy these shows, because I’m one of those people. I know what I like and I sit through many clichés usually without flinching. So onto the futility, and I hope to find more shining examples of anime clichés that deserve rants such as this.

Today I will rant about the childhood friend character type. Spoilers ahoy for Gift: Eternal Rainbow, and possibly other anime.

I was recently introduced to Gift: Eternal Rainbow. In this Da Capoesque exercise where it vaguely feels like a blatent rip off of Da Capo (even the school uniforms are similar), we are introduced to three main characters. Amami, our hero and male lead for the show, his non blood-related sister, Riko, who’s the same age as him, and finally Kirino, his childhood friend. For most readers, particularly those who have seen Da Capo, someone in this triangle is about to find they have no leg to stand on. In this case, we don’t have to think too hard about what’s to happen in this situation. Kirino is about to find herself in the all too familiar world of the childhood friend cliché. As much as you love her, Nayuki from Kanon, or even Kaede from Shuffle, you can’t deny they’re all either screwed or about to be. And this is not screwed in the good sense of the word. These lovely ladies have doted on their male counterparts for years, and always seem to lose at the last minute. Let’s get something straight, I’m not here to complain about the situation they set themselves up for, it’s how they handle it that started to bug me.

All in all at some point the main male lead has to break the news that he’s in love with someone else and our childhood friend ends up breaking down and lying that she’s fine. Some go psycho, some take it well, some don’t have time to say much since the show ends, and some continue to fight on provided there are episodes to continue with. I’m here to complain about the last category. When Kaede lost her cool and went nuts after Rin revealed his love for Asa, it was somewhat different and a welcome change. So Kirino in Gift, after finding out that Riko didn’t play fair, basically says that she’s not giving up. Because even though Amami has said multiple times that he’s in love with the lovely Riko, she just won’t take no for an answer.

So Riko and Amami end up looking like this. I want to punch Amami in the mouth. Kasuga Kyouske (from Kimagure Orange Road) taught every anime male that wishy washiness is a good thing. Grow a spine Amami, tell her again that she’s wasting her time, and end it here. I don’t want to see five more episodes of Gift that center around Kirino’s efforts. I want to see Amami and Riko enjoy some wonderful days together in happiness. This is not that much to ask really. Shuffle had a win here as well, at least Rin and Asa had an episode before she got sick. My original negative review against shuffle earlier this year was probably not as fair as it could’ve been. I was again ranting on cliches, but it’s not as bad as I made it out to be.

So now we get to watch more episodes of Gift and it looks like Kirino is going to counter Riko’s gift with something else in the hopes that she will be able to win Amami’s love back from Riko. The reality of this situation is that Amami should have stopped her, but didn’t. Kirino should grow a spine and start living for herself and give up hanging on the crutch that is Amami.

I’ll admit that I’m possibly being premature here. If the writers come back and hand the win to Kirino, I’ll be back and unhappy. If this plays out with Riko winning this race then I’ll go with it. If Rinka-chan shows up and takes care of business then I’ll rescind this whole rant and never write one again.

So what do you think? Please comment and argue if you think I’m way off. I’m just one person, with one opinion.

I’ll have more Anime cliché attacks in the future.

For a final thought, I continue to watch and enjoy my anime even though it’s full of clichés, because to be frank and very honest. Anime is fun to watch. ANIME BANZAI!!!. Apologies to Jeff.