So lately I've noticed that the plot for canon couples in anime tend to follow certain patterns, these in particular. Do they sound like any anime you know?
1. She is a cold, emotionless girl who does not express affection well. He is a friendly, somewhat idiotic boy who just wants her to love him back and he goes to great lengths to get her attention. If in the end there is some kind of life threatening event, she realizes her true feelings and finally opens up to him.
Example: Arashi and Sorata in X were the only example I could think of off the top of my head as this kind of plot is not as common as the rest, as it is actually more of a western storytelling convention.
2. She is a tiny, beautiful girl with a harsh personality and he is an average nice guy. They may not like each other much at first but as they are forced to spend more time together, the two fall in love and eventually admit their feelings for one another.
Example: This is a popular choice of romance plot these days as loli characters seem to be 'in' and is quite similar to the above. Pretty much anything Rie Kugimiya is in, including Shakugan no Shana, Toradora! and Zero no Tsukaima follow this premise.
3. She is an eccentric but cute girl and he is beleaguered by her antics. She develops a crush on him and slowly over time she learns to be more normal, at which point he begins to fall for her. At some point they may admit their feelings and get together, but not before some misunderstandings occur.
Examples: Haruhi Suzumiya follows this plot somewhat, but the defining series would have to be Chunibyo Demo Koi ga Shitai, as this is pretty much exactly what happens in the end.
4. She is an aggressive type who chases after the male lead despite his complete disinterest. Usually this also involves a harem. There is an inverted version where the boy is a perv and if the girl is naive constantly turns him on without realizing.
Examples: DearS, Highschool DxD, Shuffle!, Girls Bravo, blah blah blah. I hate this one because there is no way a normal teen boy would reject a hot girl and secondly because harems largely annoy me.
So those were the patterns I noticed, just from what I've seen. If there are more, let me know. Also, because I'm interested to see if anyone else finds romance plots to be overused tell me if you noticed any examples of these in other anime.
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