Boring Characters...?

[Jo'ogn]

Or often I see events in a story that make me say, "Dude get over with it, it's not that complicated!"

Related to your exploration of 'prude' and 'hentai' characters, most anime are targeted at teenagers who simply lack experience and self-confidence. I am way through this "OMGBBQ111oneoneeleven MY 1st KIZZorz!!! was indirectly through a bottle neck." Actually I was nervous and intimidated at times as a teenager, but never that prude, or inhibited.

Again as most anime are for teenies, the perversion is mostly (ab)used for comical relief. You hint at it, but you don't elaborately talk about it. Simply because it would destroy the effect of being funny, if you get serious about it.

Darkling and I are over 30, and in "White Feathers" we go both ways. We don't exaggerate the hentai humor, but use them as awkward moments of the young characters in our play. Sooner or later all of them face their fears, in the way you describe it and try to understand them. I also prefer anime that use this more mature approach. But that's because of my age.

"Love Hina" was funny till Naru's violent prude (tsundere?) and Keitaro's clumsy behaviour became rather annoying, because it was clear that she was simply denying her own feelings on one hand and it would have ended the whole manga/anime if they had simply fallen in love and be done with it.

Japans film culture is mainly drawn and animated is explained in wikipedia. So I bet quite a lot of anime try to 'educate' young ppl about love, sex and relationships. They are not necessarily very serious about it. i don't know the Japanese culture enough to understand everything about their way of doing things.

Statistics claim that many Japanese couples have barely sex even once in a year(!). And that they need to go to Love Hotels to find a moment of privacy, will certainly have its effect on the cultural behaviours, as christian morals have on West Europe and North America.

[Coatl]

Statistics claim that many Japanese couples have barely sex even once in a year(!). And that they need to go to Love Hotels to find a moment of privacy, will certainly have its effect on the cultural behaviors, as christian morals have on West Europe and North America.

I actually saw a documentary on that. it's almost sad...

But anyway as those of authors who live outside japan, we should we should design characters that we see in our lives. I'm not racist towards my own culture, but going to Mexico, most of these guys are perverted even I'll admit that I caught myself following there antics, but when you explain what's behind it, it actually makes a character more three dimensional, although you can save the explanations until the very end or as a side thing if you want to keep it up with the humor.

[JinzouTamashii]

Has anyone really ever thought, "Geez, I made this game based off some of my friends but now I've realized that my life is exactly like a harem anime!"

No?

I guess not.

(By the way, if you really have friends like that, get new friends!!)

By exaggerating the personality for interesting effect, sometimes you accidentally make complicated characters and they grow as they interact. Sometimes, I think that's how Umineko and Higurashi are written since Ryukishi has a definite "throw them all together and see what happens" style...

[Coatl]

Has anyone really ever thought, "Geez, I made this game based off some of my friends but now I've realized that my life is exactly like a harem anime!"

No?

I guess not.

(By the way, if you really have friends like that, get new friends!!)

By exaggerating the personality for interesting effect, sometimes you accidentally make complicated characters and they grow as they interact. Sometimes, I think that's how Umineko and Higurashi are written since Ryukishi has a definite "throw them all together and see what happens" style...

Funny thing is that i did have a few friends like that. It's inspiring me to write a story for game where instead of playing the main guy, you play as that guy's best friend. It seems great for parodies.

[JinzouTamashii]

(☆. ∠) Written from the wingman's point of view, huh? Always a good take.

[tigerkidde]

In regards to the OP, I think why you may be seeing a mass replication of the same personalities and characters is that each of the authors have been building a story up with certain characters in mind. So when they release their first game or story that they've been waiting to share, you get a cast of characters with very familiar personalities, possibly influenced from whichever anime/manga that inspired the story. And then you have each author producing one of these stories generating a mini-horde of similar novels.

And I think once some of the authors get the Japanese high school setting and characters with Japanese names out of their system, we'll start seeing less of what we're used to and may be surprised with what they come up with.

[Voight-Kampff]

And I think once some of the authors get the Japanese high school setting and characters with Japanese names out of their system, we'll start seeing less of what we're used to and may be surprised with what they come up with.

Oh that made me laugh so hard - because I suspect the very same thing to happen.

I've always assumed that fans of anime/manga/VNs who are inspired by said media to make their own creations tends towards replicating what they know of the genre. Consequently, if all a person has experienced are romantic comedies based in a contemporary Japanese, high school setting, well...

[karakuri]

Oh, I agree SO much to this. Yeah, we need archetypes and stereotypes as guidelines, but we can do SO MUCH BETTER. People are incredibly complicated and no two are the same, and we need to reflect that more in our own characters. I think I'm also especially bored with the world so I demand colorful, exotic, and wayyy out there characters to quench my thirst.

It's also the settings that bother me. Why do they all have to be high school? I don't want to go back to high school! Has anyone done a dating sim that takes place in a mental hospital? Or maybe on a battlefield. Or in the mafia. Or maybe where the main character's a visiting alien? A change of scenario can get people to start thinking original.

But, we still don't need wacky settings to have wacky characters. I would even appreciate a high school story if the characters were quirky, intriguing, and surprising. Basing characters off real people helps, as long as it's not for creepy reasons. That and maybe taking archetypes and then swapping a few traits across, or giving them unusual life experiences that shaped them as a person. Give them strange fears, or desires, or complexes.

[JinzouTamashii]

Even just writing a character out of college... working... and living on their own does wonders for opening up real world locations, since they now have freedom and can go where they please, within the constraints of their schedule.

[Coatl]

I think more people should start writing characters that dont fall under the conventional VN guidelines cause we all know that in real life, not a lot of people behave the way that characters in VNs do.
We always have these characters in a VN:
the girl who's your childhood best friend, she's usually the true ending but she's really air-headed.
the girl who's a major tomboy even tougher than the Main Character.
the rich girl who at times might be older by a year.
the shy girl that takes a while to open up and always has this look on her face as if she's drowsy or been taking too much Nyquil.
the bubbly girl who will be into the weirdest things.

then we have two main character types:
The kind that is respectful to women, he only lust during evil intentions or romantic situations. He's soft spoken, not attractive but for some reason he attracts women.
the kind who is generally a jerk when someone's wrong but never gets in trouble for calling someone stupid.
both who have a strong sense of justice

then you have these supporting character aka the only males or females that you don't date.
The cool one that for some reason won't admit they're cool but have that sleek eye design, crazy sleek hair style and only smiles when he's happy. He only offers advice when the MC (main character) is really in the wrong or lost. Other than that he/she is a person of little words. Not only that but there are times when you date that BF's crush so that's the only drama you truly get.
ten there is the one that is energetic, he's a bit weird but at the same time he's loyal, especially if you have any health issues in which he takes care of you.

And I can write more about the bad guys but that doesn't often apply in VNs as much as i wish. I understand if these archetypes are the only one you can think of and they often fall under this mold. but when I see many VNs use these characters and don't try to apply some innovation, it becomes bland and boring, especially if the designs are quite frankly uninspired.

In order to over come this, we got to look deep within ourselves, if there was a person we love but shot us down, we have to think what kind of person was he/she, and maybe apply that to one character. If we act a certain way, we got to look deep, read a VN or watch a cartoon and write down how we, ourselves, react to certain situation, and I think that is a true way to apply something fresh on to stale archetypes.

[JinzouTamashii]

I don't see the issue with some of those character types though. I think the issue comes in when that's all they are, when the writer's being writing them like that for so long, he or she has forgotten the subtleties and turned the characters into stereotypes or mockeries of what they might have originally been.

The kind that is respectful to women, he only lust during evil intentions or romantic situations. He's soft spoken, not attractive but for some reason he attracts women.
the kind who is generally a jerk when someone's wrong but never gets in trouble for calling someone stupid.
both who have a strong sense of justice

Yup. They work because then we don't hate the main character and think of him as a shallow jerk or a bubblehead (Hi, Naruto!) and it gives the story a sense of purpose. Otherwise, you're thinking: why am I even reading this? This is dumb.

"Guts" from Berserk is a good example of a righteous morally gray character that still manages to be likable to the reader.

[Coatl]

I don't see the issue with some of those character types though. I think the issue comes in when that's all they are, when the writer's being writing them like that for so long, he or she has forgotten the subtleties and turned the characters into stereotypes or mockeries of what they might have originally been.

That's what I'm saying, that's why I want authors to find some originality though cause the character can become quite stale after a while, we want the character to at least change in one way or another. Bruce Campbell's character in the entire Evil Dead Trilogy (Something i highly reccommend for you guys that like action and horror) starts off as this scared guy, not knowing what to do but by the end of the series he realizes that he has to be tough to handle the monsters that come from the source of evil. Same with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (I highly recommend it to everyone) during the story Jim Carrey goes from A to B.

Actually if you want to make a character grow in a certain way here are the key ingrediants:
Culture: meaning "Who am I" whether it be young whit male with a degree, or aspiring turntablist in his 20s. "Culture" refers to who a person is.
Content: That is the message, how that person is feeling at the moment or during an event
Context: that is the where. Is he a home, is he in a flash back.
so any person trying to develop character should get a notebook, divide a page in thirds vertically, and label the top of each columns; "Culture" "Content, and "Context"
and from there first focus on the where (Context) or Who (culture) and start filling in the blanks for you character at those particular times.
that way you can help develop a character, it's a lil bit of work, but it makes a differece