Why is the "childhood friend" such a common story beat in love stories? The people really cling onto someone they knew from school for that long?
>>283642353Childhood friends in romances serve the same purpose as jobbers in battle shonen. A friendship you've had since childhood is something special, so a love interest has to be REALLY special to be chosen over the childhood friend.
>>283642353Most stories have teenage characters, I guess if you are a teenager your childhood really wasn't that long ago, with adults it happens but it's pretty rare.
>>283642353Because Japanese has a word for childhood friend and words have power.
>>283642353The childhood-friend-to-wife pipeline used to the be norm when you lived in a village and only ever traveled 40 miles way your entire life.
>>283642463No person is ever going to value someone they didn't meet until they were an adult over someone they've known since childhood
>>283642444Yup. Romance and romcoms have their own variety of powerscaling. Character archetypes like "the ice queen" and "the school idol" exist to scale how hard it is to develop an intimate relationship with them and (if the author is based enough) lay pipe.Interestingly enough, the osananajimi exists in a perpetual state of being both the easiest and most difficult pussy to wrangle.
>>283642934It really is all is just power level horseshit. That's all Japanese writers are able to write. That and the fact that they cannot write an original story if their life depends on it. It's a common story beat because they're just copying and ripping off some other shitty anime story that ripped off another shitty anime story.
>>283642444It also serves as a cautionary tale, do not rest in your laurels when it comes to other people.
>>283643139Not at all. There's nothing to it, they just get fucked over because that's the rule in these stories. They get fucked over if they're too patient, they get fucked over if they're too forward, they get fucked over even if they're not into the main character and reject them.
statistically the longest lasting friendships and marriages are from people that knew each other since they were kids, this is true in the west too
>>283642353best currently airing trashy romance is going to have a CF winner anyway.
>>283643099It has nothing do with any of that, it's just how the genre works. It's not interesting if the journey is easy.
>>283643341Except most romcoms characters don’t go say “I like you. Romantically. Let’s go on a date”. Maybe if childhood friends did that they’d win
>>283642353Yeah, like Linda and Tada Banri
>>283643535It has nothing to do with lazy writing, it's the same reason why there has to be a jobber in an action series. In order for the rival/antagonist to be a threat, they have to win against someone who's already established to be strong (or in the case of a romance, special to the person they're pursuing)
>>283642353Why are you pretending to be retarded? The trope you describe is a universal thing. The west has its own counterpart with the whole "girl next door" trope. It's essentially the same concept, with your male character having a beautiful girl living next door and who the boy has known since childhood. It's a staple of teen romcoms.
>>283643583Shonenshit is lazy writing, you fucking peabrain
>>283643601>Why are you pretending to be retarded?OP isn't pretending, anon.
>>283643513It's not interesting seeing the same stale Jap stories recycled a billion fucking times
>>283643627Shonen is not a fucking genre, and it's not lazy. The most effective way to show that a character is strong give them wins against strong characters. Otherwise, it's all just empty hype.It's why Worf is always the guy who gets his ass kicked in Star Trek; he's the strongest guy on the ship, so they any antagonist can be a credible threat if they beat him.
>>283643645How many times a story has been told is completely irrelevant and does not affect a person's enjoyment of it. What matters is execution. Literally every story ever made has been told before.Formulas become formulas because they work.
>>283643657There has to be, because it's profitable. Stupid people love power level arguments and waifu wars alike, it's just how they're built.
>>283643693Too bad it doesn't actually fucking work and these stories are all fucking boring.
>>283643726They keep getting made and people keep spending money on them, so clearly they aren't
>>283643762Thanks for telling me you actually eat up isekai and light novel slop and think it's good
>>283643657Yes, they do. There's literally no other way to establish how powerful a character is than having them go up against someone who's already known to be powerful.In order for anyone to be a credible threat, they have to be at least as strong as the strongest member of the main cast. You can't just tell the audience that a character is strong, you need to actually show it.
>>283642353Japanese writers cannot write original stories, please understand.
>>283643798There is no such thing as an "original story", every story ever made is derived by one that came before it.
>>283643377Wtf? Isn't this guy a bit too old to be crying for his sister?
>>283642444Skill issue.Yotsuba won.
>>283643781"Isekai" and "light novel" are not genres. The former just means that the protagonist is reincarnated in a new world and tells you nothing else, not even what kind of world it is. The latter simply means "novel targeted at young adults", which says nothing about its content.
And more cancer showed up.
>>283643877Tell me then, Mr. Professional Writer, other ways to make a character look strong that are more effective than actually showing them win a fight.
>>283643817You have dogshit taste and you know it. Some writers have a wide range of inspirations they draw from. These Japanese writers and autistic fucking freaks like you who read your shitty little isekai stories? They live in a very very small bubble. One LN author will look at another LN, and just rip it off completely, same characters and all. All following the same narrow set of rules for all of their stories. You act as if you've never seen a story complimented for being fresh and introducing new and interesting ideas.
>>283643099>it’s all just power level horseshitWestern writers have used juxtaposition to demonstrate degrees of difference in this way going back to Homer. There’s no better way to do it, so why are you expecting them to reinvent the wheel?
>>283643865It has nothing to do with the girl having short hair it has to do with the girl appearing more feminine.
>>283643915Isekai and LN are not styles or genres.
>>283643877"A powerful character can only appear powerful if they beat another powerful character" Then how would the initial character appear powerful to begin with?
>>283643931You read isekai and romcom and shonen slop.
>>283644001The word shonen means absolutely nothing except "young boy". It refers to the target audience and says nothing about the content.
>>283644001Yes. And you don’t understand basic literary concepts that you should have learned by age 12. Never forget all the time you’ve wasted.
>>283644036>going full ERM ACKSHUALLY mode
>>283643983Usually by just giving them a title or rank that the audience can infer that they're really strong from, giving them a non-combat strength feat, or showing them defeat a bunch of weaker opponents all at once.Then once that character is successfully established as being powerful or skilled, they can fulfill their real purpose in the story, which is to be a measuring stick for other characters.
>>283644074You're right, mass produced romcom slop is just the peak of human literature.
>>283644113These are all just corporate mandated guidelines for writing more than anything.
>>283643971
>>283644135>can’t differentiate between real and conceptualsub-90 IQ?
>>283644157They predate corporations, so no, they aren't corporate-mandated
>manga doesn't have love rival>is still a successful and beloved mangaI guess it's a shitty trope that's not needed after all
>>283643798This isn’t a Japanese thing. Japanese literature and movies have original stories .The problem is that most mangaka, light novel authors, Viusal novel authors, anime creators, JRPG writers don’t read books or anything else. They just experience the slop (not even the quality) from the previous generation and continues it on. It’s even worse for mangaka because most mangaka are artists first by far. By the time they’re good at art writing is just a way to be able to draw manga.
>>283644377
>>283643877There's also the fact that you're arguing with an actual autist who would probably insist that a character who has jobbed once could never win in a story
>>283644378Slop fades into obscurity and becomes forgotten though. Only the best of the best of any generation of media are remembered or go on to inspire future media.
>>283644378Miyazaki was right.
>>283642353It's a comforting fiction, a beautiful lieFalling in love with the girl you've always known, your bond closer than with anyone else, going from friendship to love to fucking
>>283644378>Japanese literature and movies have original stories .There is absolutely no such thing fucking thing as an "original story". TVTropes has an entire fucking article about this for a reason
>>283644539Oh shit, if TVTropes says so, it must be true.
>>283644539Of course this is why we should have 2 million identical isekai stories and that's a good thing
>>283644580There are no "identical isekai stories". Isekai isn't a genre. The only defining traitsof "isekai" is that the protagonist gets transported to another world. Fucking Alice in Wonderland is an isekai. The term Isekai alone says nothing about what kind of world it is, or the plot or story structure.A few popular examples and a bunch of copycats that don't understand why the thing they're copying is popular isn't a genre.
>>283644613Actual autism
>>283644661>>283644580bro thinks he can spam "I hate isekai!! It is bad" 10 times and that makes a conversationLike, just because a lot of it is derivative and people will agree...you can shut down the brain and autistically repeat "I hate it aaaah"
>>283644810As you defend derivative trash for no reason but to appear like an annoying fucking faggot, it works.
>>283642353The answer is likely a mix between familiarity and sentimentality. It's like rewatching a show you're nostalgic about several years after you first enjoyed it: you take something you've always liked and are (or at one point were) deeply familiar with, then you explore it again in a new light to see if you find anything new to like or even love. A lot of romance stories in anime take place in high school, and the only way you can really be nostalgic about someone at a middle/high school age is if you knew them at a younger age — hence the default to the "childhood friend" for that taste of nostalgia.Western media likes to portray this with exes instead, but Japanese media has a preference for "first love only love"
>>283644953>defendThat post said it's derivative..I never defended it. Holy way to miss the point. meds? Closing your ears and repeating that you hate it autistically when someone tries to discuss it is, still, not a conversation. Why does everyone think "thing being trash" an excuse to behave like this?
>>283644378I don't belive you anon, because every time I find something interesting, it doesn't have even 10k subscribers on mangadex, when every schematic slop goes to 70k+
>>283645073Love stories will keep introducing new rivals just for the fuck of it.
>>283645133Nothing like a pinch of hopeless drama to pad out a serialization, eh?I think editors like that trope more than authors, but they all go along with it at the end of the day, so hell if I know.I wish the go-to trope was developing side character romances instead. At least fewer characters end up alone that way.
>>283642353I think it's purely because the vast majority of Japanese people are socially anxious and hate meeting new people especially the writers of romcoms, so the person they've basically known all their life is the easy option. I personally don't get it, I grew up in a super small class where I knew everyone since kindergarten and none of us ever dated because we were basically as close as siblings and dating your sibling would be weird
>>283645864You sound like gay. Dating sister like girl must be awesome
>>283642353
>>283642353>beep boop what is a friendshipWhat a fucking retarded thread. Why does it have so many retards trying to shove in some reddit-like response.
>>283646946Being angry and retarded is how /a/ operates now.
>>283647137
>>283642353Because it means the MC has to make no effort to actually meet someone and get to know them before getting into a relationship. They already have someone lined up who they have known for years and already likes them
>>283643865She's not a childhood friend.
>>283643139I would love for a series to do the standard "you should have nabbed them when you had the advantage" thing to a CF only to reveal that no, they really did and still do see them as a friend so there was nothing to nab in the first place and everyone was seeing a crush where there was none
>>283642353How many cocks in blonde slut phase?
>>283643569That's in the "too forward" category. A lot of love interests who launch out of the gate saying they want a relationship won't get it, unless they're paired with a person who shuts them down and forces then to take baby steps. And even then that can last through the whole series
>>283642353Meh
CHF is one of the best ways to write a 'soulmates' romance, and I absolutely crave that shit.
>>283645133That's how you keep the audience engaged
>>283643865It helps that she looks just like her sister.
>>283646739Somebody befriend that girl.Or else she'll osananajimi-kun.
>>283642353Easy way to make a heroine in love with the protagonist. They were childhood friends, so they naturally came to like each other because they've known each other for so long.
>>283643341>they get fucked over even if they're not into the main character and reject them.How does that work?
>>283642353Here in the /a/, nobody keeps their childhood friends.
>>283644953"Derivative" is not a criticism, every story ever made is derivative.
>>283642353Because it's the cutest thing ever. You can't deny that.
