Anime Why do anime writers continue to include those annoying little brats...

[Bloodseeker]

You know the ones. The little brats that stand around and do nothing but whine, restate the obvious, and act like little bastards that are in dire need of their first serious *ss whupin'. Brats like Shippo from Inuyasha, Rini/Chibiusa from Sailor Moon, Sara from Love Hina, and Roger from Star Ocean: Till the End of Time (not an anime, but it has an anime-ish feel to it).

These characters are obviously intended to be cute, but at the end of it all, they always end up doing nothing but annoying everyone in the viewing audience, with the exception of a few fangirls. So with all of the "proof" that the formula doesn't work for what it was intended for, why do writers continue to use it? All it does is put a black mark on their product.

[Hayama]

AHHHHHH! Characters like that drive me nuts! I wouldn't say I hate Shippou or Chibiusa but I most certainly don't like them. As long as they stay in the background they're fine, but as soon as they get an episode or two that focuses specifically on them I want strangle my TV.

Honestly, I don't know why they do it. I think they figure the amount of people who will think the brats are cute outweighs those who just plain get annoyed.

[SilentSecurity]

Maybe they are there so you have someone to dislike, you can't love all the characters after all.

~Rod~

[Chaos Eidolon]

perhaps its to add diversity to the story, or enrich the enviroment to make it more realistic, i mean you cant like everyone you meet in real life...maybe its trying to mimic that :P dont really know, i dont like those characters for the most part either :animeswea

[Kenji]

Those types of characters are placed in the anime as comic relief, they're annoying or act silly most of the time, which helps keep the watcher attentive and to allow the watcher to see more diversity among each of the other characters.

[Lord Dante]

I think they're there to fill gaps in the show, I mean there's only so much the main cahracter can do by themselves.

[SilentSecurity]

Maybe also to show the main characters patience level. In inuyasha's case he isn't very patient with shippo.

~Rod~

[Raiyuu]

[font=Trebuchet MS]The only one you've mentioned that I'm qualified to talk about is Sara-chan, and I think she serves a purpose - both to demonstrate what a caring kind of guy Seta is, thereby justifying Naru's attraction, and to add comedy when the pint-sized brat repeatedly decks Keitaro.

Characters in stories, whether it be anime or film or books, have to serve the plot. Putting a character in who is actually useless or irrelevant is a first-time writer's mistake, so such characters would be unlikely to crop up in popular mainstream series like the ones under discussion. Annoying as they may seem, they'll all have a purpose, from the writer's point of view.
[/font]

[eleanor]

[color=darkslateblue] I think a lot of Japanese veiwers think they are the cutest things ever, or something. Mostly I am annoyed with the sheer amount of stupidity anime creators give some female characters. I guess that is what Japanese guys find attractice in their culture, or maybe they just want to make us irritated.

i.e. I watched the first episode of Elfen Lied yesterday, and there was this [spoiler]girl with brown hair who wouldn't shut up or recognize anything, and sat there going 'huuuuh?!' while there was 6023895720 people armed with guns looking shocked in front of her, and some freaked out crazy blood-thirty chick behind her. I am sort of glad she died.[/spoiler] And that girl from Loveless. She also made me go crazy.

Which is also bad for me, because as Raiyuu said, they serve the plot. Unfortunately, it is one of the reasons I have not been watching anime lately.[/color]

[You Don't Care]

"Annoying" characters in the story are used to make the "better" characters look more amazing.

But in some cases, such as Shippo of "Inuyasha", the annoying character learns to up the ante and achieve somewhat of a level that could be closely compaired to the less weak characters. (Sometimes, that annoyingness provides an important element to specific plots.)

Have you watched ALL of "Inuyasha"? You might be satisfied with how Shippo changes toward the end.

[Otaku America]

[QUOTE=SilentSecurity]Maybe they are there so you have someone to dislike, you can't love all the characters after all.

~Rod~[/QUOTE]

[COLOR=Navy]I agree with this statement. There will always be annoying brats if the anime is never serious. Anime like Jin-Roh don't even contain any annoying characters. On the other hand, Sakura-chan from Naruto completely pisses me off. I know she will play a greater role soon but for now she just gets in the way.[/COLOR]

[Slightly cynica]

If you notice, alot of them are girls.

Isn't it that in Japan, the more high and girly a girls voice is the more of a cute women she is? I think it's from a different point of view being as we are American and not Japanese. To them it's probaly most adorable.
While women with deep voices who are less annoying are either villians or tomboys.

[Guest Kyo krazy]

[QUOTE=Bloodseeker]You know the ones. The little brats that stand around and do nothing but whine, restate the obvious, and act like little bastards that are in dire need of their first serious *ss whupin'. Brats like Shippo from Inuyasha, Rini/Chibiusa from Sailor Moon, Sara from Love Hina, and Roger from Star Ocean: Till the End of Time (not an anime, but it has an anime-ish feel to it).

These characters are obviously intended to be cute, but at the end of it all, they always end up doing nothing but annoying everyone in the viewing audience, with the exception of a few fangirls. So with all of the "proof" that the formula doesn't work for what it was intended for, why do writers continue to use it? All it does is put a black mark on their product.[/QUOTE]


Well, they do get annoying at times but I'm sure that in the plot of it all they do come in handy, NEway I'm new here so could you help me or show me the ropes or something like that? Cya! :sweat:

[gwynva]

[quote name='Xy GGu']"Annoying" characters in the story are used to make the "better" characters look more amazing.[/quote]
well, i do not see how that chibi-thing makes usagi look better, the brat behaving as if she is the boss/adult whatever, i want her to drop dead everytime i see her on tv.

[quote name='Xy GGu']Have you watched ALL of "Inuyasha"? You might be satisfied with how Shippo changes toward the end.[/quote]
Yes, to tell the truth towards the end i never find myself wishing that i was the one hitting his head :)

Even in escaflowne there is this cat/girl really annoying always on the tail of Van and not adding much to the plot, but i think anime writers do really enjoy themselves whenever they create a character as such. Even directors do it sometimes, create small scenes to amuse themselves only...

[Drifting soul]

When will anime writers learn that we don't want to watch a whole 52 length anime for these types of charecters? All they do is waste money by having to hire adittional voice actors for charecters who serve nothing to the plot! Some of them are ok-ish but if all they do is distract and annoy the main charecters we love so much then they shouldn't even be there!

[eleanor]

[QUOTE=Slightly cynica]If you notice, alot of them are girls.

Isn't it that in Japan, the more high and girly a girls voice is the more of a cute women she is? I think it's from a different point of view being as we are American and not Japanese. To them it's probaly most adorable.
While women with deep voices who are less annoying are either villians or tomboys.[/QUOTE]

[color=darkslateblue] More like...innocent and naive. If you look at Japan's J-Pop stars, 90% of them give out this 'I'm so innocent, cute, naive, and sweet!' image. They wear school girl outfits and random puffy hair-things that are sometimes accompanied by pigtails. And other such things. A lot of Asian girls try and pull off the innocence look... no idea, really. [/color]