Otome stereotypes

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Awiola
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Otome stereotypes

#1 Post by Awiola »

I'm currently trying to write a parody of an otoge [very bizarre, I hope] and I am kinda struggling with coming up with ideas. There are many cliches but which of them are the most overused, characteristical or just good to made fun of? It's better to focus on parodying story elements or character traits? Since it's a parody of genre full of ikemens - making some of them a bit ugly or adding them an uncommon distinctive feature? [For example - teacher LI who really likes to kabedon heroine and is bald cause he want; something like this.]
Maybe is there something you would like to see in a game like this?
Or anything else you want to share?
It'll be bizarre and twisted in many ways anyway, so any idea [no matter how stupid] is greatly appreciated.
My english is pretty horrible c: Honest Critique

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Selidor
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Re: Otome stereotypes

#2 Post by Selidor »

For parodies, you have to think about who your audience is going to be. For an otoge parody, chances are the sorts of people who will be interested are going to be otome fans with a sense of humour, who can appreciate the silly side of a genre they love. For this reason, I would say an affectionate parody is going to be the best approach. Have a look at something like the manga/anime Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun, which pokes fun at shoujo manga tropes but is clearly written by someone who loves the genre, or Hatoful Boyfriend, which explores otome tropes through pigeons and a bizarre overarching plot.

The example you’ve given of a bald LI teacher who likes to kabedon the heroine reads to me (without any further context) as a much older man who likes to physically menace a teenage girl he holds authority over, which doesn’t sound like it would have much appeal to the English-speaking otome community. For a scenario like that, it might be more entertaining to have the heroine be actively pursuing a more reluctant older man.

Even in a parody, if it’s a game about romance, the characters still need to be appealing to the audience or it won’t be much fun to play. So if you don’t want to make them conventionally attractive, it’s important that they still have endearing personalities. If you do want to make them conventionally attractive, you could give them contrasting personality traits that subvert tropes in interesting and funny ways (the stoic, mysterious guy who actually just avoids talking to anyone because he’s really socially awkward etc). You’ll see this in regular otome too, but in a parody you can push the characteristics further into ridiculous territory.

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Re: Otome stereotypes

#3 Post by qirien »

Hey, having written an otome parody (WANTED: Dragon), I think this sounds fun! We wanted to parody the sweet, quiet, pushover protagonist of a lot of otome games and therefore went with a commandeering, morally-questionable protagonist. But there's lots of other places you could go with this.

You mentioned kabedon - this would be the perfect thing to make fun of! Like, a character tries to kabedon and instead of the wall hits another teacher, a paper wall, a stuffed bunny mascot, or a cactus.

It could also be funny to make fun of different character tropes - a megane-kun who's a rapper, a "school prince" who is actually really into cosplay, or a tsundere who really is just a mean, mean person.

This page lists some common ones that could easily be turned into something funny:
https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/intere ... pes/.85336

Good luck!
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