"Clones"

[rurounizel]

We were having a discussion of characters we like in the AnimeOnDVD forums and I had to post something that my friend... er... "something" (that's his username) said, because I agree almost 100%. This is pretty much how I feel about the subject

Comments

[suiheisen]

I suppose it depends on the personality of the viewer and whether they like or dislike repetition. Most everything has been done before to some extent, so I don't think there's anything inherently wrong in "cloning" but at the same time I admit I fall into that category of people that "something" feels sorry for.

Take the Yuki and Rei comparison. Both use deadpan humor- for example: something crazy/fun/unexpected happens and the Yuki/Rei character has no reaction (or perhaps goes *blink blink*) They aren't exactly the same character and the animation, show, music etc are all different, but the individual joke- the deadpan reaction to insanity- has been done and, to me at least, most jokes, no matter how good, get less funny over time. I start to see patterns instead of characters and it takes away from my enjoyment of the show.

It's not like Yuki is any less cool a character and I definitely hate to not appreciate her as much as Rei simply because she happened to come second, but I can't help but be a little bored watching the same pattern I've seen before.

It'd be like having chicken for dinner every night for the rest of your life. Sure, chicken is good and sure you can prepare it in different ways, so people who love chicken might be satisfied with that, cause more of a good thing sounds like a great idea, but a lot of people, even people who normally love chicken, would get pretty fucking sick of chicken and start complaining that dinner is always the "same" even if each meal had slight differences. The "basic building blocks of anime" have sadly become like chicken to me. I miss loving it, but just can't seem to stomach the same thing over and over anymore.