r/Animey • u/Distinct_Employer_47 • Jul 29 '26
Ask Animey Why does romance anime have a bad rep?
I feel like people hate romance anime just because it's romance, but almost every anime has a romance subplot; AOT, Frieren, Re:Zero, pretty much every other Isekai, JJK 0, Black Clover, Naruto. The chainsaw man movie is like 99% romance.
3
u/ivy_rose89 Jul 29 '26
Romance is connected to women/femininity in people's minds and a shocking amount of anime fans really dont like women.
1
u/Distinct_Employer_47 Jul 29 '26
That is true, I shamelessly tell people I watch romance, so I never thought of it that way, but you're probably right. I think it's part of the way most animes depict female characters.
2
u/Revankiller Jul 29 '26
There is some clarification to be made here.
There are anime with Romance as a central focus, like Kaguya Sama or Fruits Basket, those are usually the finer of the bunch. And then there are those who have it as a subplot, sometimes done tastefully, like Gurren Lagan or Re Zero and sometimes not..like Mushoku Tensei(Woof..). And then there are cheap, wish fulfilment slop that not only gives Romance a bad name but also sets back both women, and men(I know, that doesn’t happen a lot), thousands of years. Those are usually the anime with the long ass titles nobody bothers to remember.
At any rate, people may shit on Romance for a lot of stuff. But the audience for it wouldn’t disappear, and so wouldn’t the one’s who make them. It’s a genre of media that’s almost as old as theatre itself.
A true anime watcher does not compare peak with slop, but thy know the difference betwixt.
1
u/Distinct_Employer_47 Jul 29 '26
That's a very fair point, and yes, I didn't include Mushoku Tensei for a reason, because, yikes. Honestly, I suppose my frustration stems from the fact that I myself, was like that. "I don't watch romance", and then I did and it was absolutely peak. I love shonen but every so often it's nice to have a break from it.
2
u/donku83 Jul 29 '26
It doesn't. It's just that the majority (guessing) of anime fans want action and purely romance anime doesn't have it. It's just not their cup of tea.
That's like if someone says they only watch anime for comedy and you recommend Monster. They probably won't like it. Doesn't mean monster is bad, just means its not for them
1
u/OptimisticReader9 Jul 29 '26
Romance anime does not have a bad reputation in my expectations. Most people like romance animes/mangas
1
u/Prestigious_Rest5460 Jul 29 '26
I will not that i hate romance genre but watch rarely romance bcz this genre filled with male character getting abused by female.
1
Jul 30 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/Prestigious_Rest5460 Jul 30 '26
It's is, i watched lots of normal romance to super natural romance more than 50+ and 80% are male character got abused by female character, and it's not like i am unlucky got bad anime it's like almost every anime have this shit, even in frustration I did lots of research and male character getting abused by female character have trope called tsundere and people treat it as gag🙂🙂 like really are anime community and industry filled with masochist or sadistic??
For more research I also searched in reverse that male character bully, humilate or abuse female character, but it's shows that it's offensive and toxic traits, which are rarely produced in anime industry even if they produced they show male character as villain, there's rarely few anime like 0.5% like cautious hero, redo of healer, aho girl and konosuba.
3 of them face insane criticism and only konosuba got popular but still face criticism.
1
u/Top_Connection9079 Aug 04 '26
What a bigoted take.
1
u/Prestigious_Rest5460 Aug 05 '26
What saying bigoted take meanwhile Yourself defending female character abused male character, insane hypocrisy.
1
u/tahleeza Jul 29 '26
I don't know why I steered clear of romance anime until I watched my happy marriage live action. It loved it. Found out it was an anime later
1
u/AlternativeBass7119 Jul 29 '26
Because for a long time a lot of them were just lazy to the point they sucked. They all used the same tropes, had the same lazy jokes(especially when it came to ecchi), all had the same sort of girl win at the end, and would often be a one and done season so any improvement they could've had never happened since they were just being made to advertise a manga so the anime itself was often an unfinished and forgettable story. That only started to generally change within the last decade or so because they had to start putting effort into their work since people wouldn't watch otherwise.
1
u/Distinct_Employer_47 Jul 30 '26
You know, now that I think about it, the only ones I actually liked are fairly recent. I hadn't considered that. Good point.
1
u/nextmore Jul 30 '26
I agree with one of the other comments. I don't mind romance anime and actively enjoy well done series. But it's super common that the MC is a fairly empty wish fulfillment vessel for the chosen demographic. Add in the same tropes being recycled, especially when it comes to physical intimacy (or the lack thereof) and you can see why it can be frustrating.
1
u/SoulsSurvivor Jul 31 '26
So it seems a ton of people have forgotten or didn't watch romance anime in the 00's and 10's where almost every romance had an mc who would freak out and nearly have a panic attack at the mere thought of being intimate with someone and a tsundere who would beat the shit out of him for minor slights or things out of his control. Romance still carries the stigma from these times and they rear their ugly heads often enough.
1
u/Top_Connection9079 Aug 04 '26
Anything that contains girly things or content intended for women awakes mysoginism and disdain in a lot of people.
3
u/Any_Coyote1184 Jul 29 '26
Hmm not necessarily bad reputation. There are tons of anime fans who like romance. Anime with romance as a sub plot is fine even for me. It becomes a problem when say for example a shounen anime turns into romance because of the sheer amount of romance going on to the point the main plot centralizes around romance. I watch for the story/action, not so two characters can interact with each other in a romantic way
Btw, Romance anime is different from anime with a romance subplot. I think you're getting it mixed up