When adults in romance/romcom manga/anime behave no differently than middle schoolers as soon as they are in any kind of remotely intimate situation with somebody else. I’m sorry, if you are old enough to have graduated college and now be working in an office setting, some person touching your hand as they pass you papers shouldn’t make your heart go doki doki all of a sudden. I used to have more patience for this, especially in manga, but it’s been bugging me lately. I just really want to see well written adult romance/romcoms. Is that too much to ask for?
I feel like this one applies to all forms of media to some extent. Romance is never ever ever depicted mundanely. It’s always an explosion of sensations and never in a way that actually happens.
That is fair. I think it might just be more noticeable in anime due to the exaggerated way in which it is animated. When portrayed in live action, despite being over-exaggerated compared to real life, there is only so much you can do. Some actor’s face isn’t going to turn fluorescent red and have steam coming out of their head for example.
I still want better written adult romances though. Please Japan?
I think the romance between Sato and Takahashi in Demi-chan is extremely well done, and about as accurate as it could have been with Sato being an actual succubus.
Sensei lock-on is another i recall being a good teacher-teacher romance.
Telework Yotabanashi which is about two adult neighbours finding each other was fantastic, as well. The guy sending her a spreadsheet so they could match up their schedules was such a grown-up-problems moment.
Then there’s the legendary Molester-man.
Telework is definitely on my list to check out since I really liked Sweat and Soap. I can’t tell you the number of times over the years that my wife and I have had our calendars both open to figure out when we can do something, so that definitely rings true. I will be checking these out!
You should read Wotakoi (can also watch partly), Sweat and Soap, Telework Yotabanashi, Kasane to Subaru and The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity (not with adults, but definitely less tropey) if you haven’t already.
Three of these are Yamada Kintetsu manga. They make awesome manga
Wotakoi and Sweat and Soap are probably two of the best adult romances I have read in the genre. I have heard of some of the others and will be checking them out. Thanks!
Canonical character ages being a decade less than their appearance, behaviour or environment suggests.
If you wrote a story for adults, with characters that behave like adults, in environments and situations that require experience and maturity to navigate… Let alone understand as the viewer.
Why the fuck are they always 12-17 regardless?
Anime always skip over the therapy arc that must come after every show in this mold. A 16 year old high school student faces endless life or death battles and kills people/creatures to survive some contrived plot? Yeah, that is going to take years to live normally again afterwards.
Except when they include the when-the-trauma-goes-untreated-arc.
Get in the robot shinji.
GET IN YOUR FUCKING MOMMY ROBOT, YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHINJI.
Male protagonist in harem freaks out when boobies are in view. Just fuck, damnit!
This is why Trinity Seven was such a breath of fresh air in the harem genre. MC is a total chad who is fully aware he’s in a harem story and takes full advantage.
Wasn’t able to stick with the manga, turns out that was the only interesting thing about it and it only carried the plot as far as the anime got. Was still fun to see!
I also dropped the manga. The plot became just way too absurd, convoluted, and impossible to follow. It also felt like the story had reached a pretty satisfying conclusion and then suddenly a whole new realm of big-bads appeared. It was pretty nakedly contrived to keep the
cash cowstory going.Yup, there was plot, but no plot.
Lucky for us Mato Seihei no Slave has since taken the harem genre to new heights. MC got over himself pretty quick with how the “rewards” work.
How the main characters seem to have lots of money and free time especially the kiddos.
The version of this that I am tired of is when kids are living at home without parents. This is usually just handwaved away through the parents working overseas or something like that. It’s just lazy writing so that they don’t need to worry about writing parent characters or deal with parent/child interactions.
Yeah I saw one where a middle schooler had her own apartment and she said her uncle checks up on her every week. Her friends would frequently spend the night and it somehow worked out fine.
Pointless fucking fanservice or more specifically making a character who’s only existence is fan service, it just ruins characters. Love me some of Atsushi Ohkubo’s work but he for some reason always puts in a character who is nothing but fan service. Fire force, we have a character who is literally just a joke who does nothing but loses their clothes and sit there doing fucking nothing. Even though the first intro sort of implied they were competent at what they do but that was an outright lie. Even though I dislike Blair from Soul eater at least she was competent but still relegated to a “joke” character.
Edit: Also don’t get me started when some fucking manga artists start throwing in lolis into the equation. That shit is disgusting and honestly one of the main reasons its so hard to go back to Made in Abyss, the fucking story and world building is awesome but it just feels like the author is a pedo and sort of including parts of his fetish into the manga.
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