Writing Conventions of Anime, Part 1

I have seen a lot of anime. Before Netflix, I made a list of all the anime franchises I've seen (not counting hentai or ecchi). I counted things only once even if I saw multiple entries from one franchise; for example there are more than 23 Lupin III movies of which I might have seen 17 and I list Lupin III as 1 item. With that in mind, this list had over 130 items on it. I stopped caring about anime around then because it became all the same to me; seemingly generic. Still, I'm no closer to understand the strange, FUCKING WEIRD culture of Japan than I was after only seeing a handful of anime, but I do consider myself an authority on overused and crappy writing styles, techniques, motifs, themes, elements and such of anime which I'm compiling here in a list I'm calling Writing Conventions of Anime. I lost the original list too, so I'll be starting from scratch.

1) Character Archetypes.
Goku from DBZ. Serena from Sailor Moon. Yugi from Yu-Gi-Oh!. Ash Ketchem from Pokemon. Vash the Stampede from Trigun. Yusuke Yurameshi from YuYu Hakusho. Himura Kenshin from Rurouni Kenshin. Naruto. Eikichi Onizuka from GTO. Ranma Saotome from Ranma1/2. Lufi from One Piece. Excel from Excel Saga. InuYasha. What do all of these characters have in common? They're all simpletons who are unlikely heroes and unexpectedly very gifted at whatever it is they do and while they're rough around the edges, they're all very compassionate human beings. Likewise, what do the characters Vegeta, Seto Kaiba, Gary Oak, Knives, Hiei, Aoshi Shinomori, Sasuke Uchiha, Tatewaki Kuno, Il Palazzo, and Sesshomaru have in common? They're all gifted, privileged, talented yet arrogant and mean, sometimes cruel people who excel in life.

These are two common character types which tend to come in pairs. I call them the Peasant and the Noble because I suspect that the origins of these character types come from powerful culturally rooted stories about classism which was a big thing for much of Japans' feudal era which is close to 800 or so years. Peasants are unrefined, uneducated, untrained, but most people are lower or middle class and can easily identify with the peasant. The nobles such as merchants, artisans, warriors, and lords were all arrogant dicks who looked down on others.

The most well known samurai is Miyamoto Musashi. His is the romantic story of a peasant who overcame class discrimination to become the most highly regarded warrior of his time. Samurai lined up to duel him. He won his first duel by provoking his opponent who spat in the face which created an opening Musashi seized as an opportunity to brutally beat the man to death with a wooden sword. He won his last duel by purposly arriving an hour late and he used a boat oar. Hot damn!

People seem to like the Noble too. Characters like Vegeta, Sasuke, and Seto are very popular. Interestingly enough, the Noble's story tends to be about personal growth and redemption where they hit a lot of low points whereas the Peasant's story is about overcoming challenge through willpower and the fulfillment of dreams. The Noble tends to be redeemed directly or indirectly through the Peasant and they become friends. Sometimes, best friends.

My favorite Peasant and Noble pair? I don't have one. You?