"Unbreakable Rules" of Anime (spoilers)

[Crossroads Inc.]

The other day I found myself watching the 7 part epic remake of "Giant Robo" for the first time. I caught the english dub, which wasn't all that bad.

Well upon watching the final 7th episode, Our Hero and Giant Robop face off aginst the Big Bad of the show, this Giant eyeball machine. After getting trounced and smacked down, our Hero races to get back to Giant Robo and reactivate him. He is faced with an army of minions from the bad guys of the show, but joined with allies as well.

After much excitement, he is about to get to Giant Robo when he is stopped by a thug, just as all hope seems lost, one of the main characters, who we all thought dead, suddenly reappears and saves our Hero. Shortly there after others who we thought Dead appear to him. My response?

"Oh oh, the dead heros are re-appearing, the badguy is going to be screwed!"

Sure enough, moments after their appearance, the Badguy is well indeed screwed and soundly defeated. The point behind this is that it seems to be an unbreakable rule of anime:

"If during a confrontation, Dead Heros or Friends of the main character show up, whoever he is facing will be defeated."

There are of course many others that I have noticed, another being:

"Any Power Ranger/ Voltron style group that uses a 'finishing move' attack stright away, will be defeated."
This is another one noted as well.

And I am curious how many other people have noticed various things an anime, not so much stereotypes of genera,s but basic "Rules" that, upon happening, we Know what will follow

[verlieren]

100 Rules of Anime. Though it's more like a joke, it pretty much hits the nail on the spot. And technically, power rangers isn't a anime...

[SapphireFox]

There are of course many others that I have noticed, another being:

"Any Power Ranger/ Voltron style group that uses a 'finishing move' attack stright away, will be defeated."
This is another one noted as well.

This rule also applies to most magical girl shows and any other "sentai as a sub-theme" type shows.

[Nephtys]

This doesn't happen in Gurren Lagann. Kamina's later 'ghost' appearance is a dream, where he represents what the protagonist, Simon, must NOT do.
Nor does it happen in Martian Successor Nadesico. Two prominent characters are killed, and it's lampooned that in real life, people don't come back from the dead.

[Dragon Angel]

Oh god, I remember that in Mai HiME, when... Spoiler

...the Obsidian Lord and HiME Star were destroyed by every main character, despite all his safety checks AND a recent carnival killing off all but one of the HiME. They were literally resurrected by a prayer!

And now, for my additions:
1. Constant pulling of out-of-left-field trump cards, a.k.a. the "DBZ method". Too many shounen stories fall into this, unfortunately... Can't win with what you have? Pull a new ability out of your - well, this depends on the story.
2. A LOT of anime (especially the comedies) seem to go for the "open-ended" endings these days. It's as if writers no longer have the guts to make solid conclusions to their own stories, or characters, anymore.

More will follow later on...when I'm on an actual computer.

[Majin Gojira]

It's hard to find a giant robot show post 1995 that doesn't have a big bad attempting Instrumentality.

Darn you, Evangelion!

[SapphireFox]

It's hard to find a giant robot show post 1995 that doesn't have a big bad attempting Instrumentality.

Darn you, Evangelion!

Yes yes even now Evangelion is finding new ways to screw with peoples minds

[ANGELUS]

For Martial arts anime (think Dragon Ball or Saint Seiya):

- It doesn't matter how powerful your current enemy is, next season your enemy will be far more powerful.

[open_sketchbook]

In non-action shows, the quality of animation in a show's opening is inversely proportionate to the actual animation quality of the show.

[The Yosemite Bear]

He who attacks first has already lost.

oh and Ken says you're already dead.

[Koolaidkirby]

you will always face the minions one at a time before facing the head honcho, allowing the character time to get strong enough to defeat said head honcho, whom could have crushed him easily at the start.

[Oni Koneko Damien]

You know that annoying side-character who pops up every once in a while to challenge the main character to a fight? Perhaps he/she's an opposing love interest or just a competitor/anti-hero? Don't worry, no matter how much you've trained/gained new powers/whatever between this time and the next time you meet them, they will have mysteriously gained just as much proficiency so as to still be able to annoy and fight you on an even ground.

[Bellator]

"If during a confrontation, ... Friends of the main character show up, whoever he is facing will be defeated."

Oddly enough, this usually doesn't apply to DBZ. Friends of Goku usually get killed / defeated.

[Majin Gojira]

Man, so many of these are just par for the course Shounen only tropes...

[Shinn Langley Soryu]

If tanks are featured in a mecha anime, they will automatically be outclassed by even the weakest grunt mecha simply by virtue of being tanks.

[Dragon Angel]

Man, so many of these are just par for the course Shounen only tropes...

Perhaps you would enjoy a few Shojo tropes?

1. Every guy in a shojo anime is a bishonen. Every guy. Now, granted, this is probably what young girls like to see in Japan (and you won't see me complaining here either...), but I haven't seen many shojo where there is a healthy mix between pretty boys and (somewhat) manly-looking men.
2. This one may be somewhat unfair because of Japanese culture, but all-too-often I see shojo heroines becoming more "damsels-in-distress", just waiting or about to be rescued by their dreamy crushes. I know I know, many of us just want to be swept off our feet, and I guess this is the ultimate imagining of such a fantasy.
3. It's more of a general romance cliche than just shojo, but it deserves mentioning: Love can almost always be represented by a four-dimensional object. Think of it - every main character in a shojo anime has probably had a relationship with every other main character at some point in time (this is where yaoi fangirls come in). And, chances are, these relationships will have a chance to blossom once more! WARNING: This is an exaggeration of course, please take it with a grain of salt.

[Ford Prefect]

It's hard to find a giant robot show post 1995 that doesn't have a big bad attempting Instrumentality.

No it isn't. And calling these rules unbreakable seems silly.

[Majin Gojira]

It's hard to find a giant robot show post 1995 that doesn't have a big bad attempting Instrumentality.

No it isn't. And calling these rules unbreakable seems silly.

Very. Rules are made to be broken.

And I should have said "Super Robot" show instead of just "Giant Robot." I mean it takes me all of half a second to think of one without an assimilation plot (Shin Mazinger), and another half second to think of two more (Gaiking the Great, Kotushin Jeeg)! That's too long!

[Formless]

Threads like these are what TVtropes was invented for.

[Vendetta]

You know that annoying side-character who pops up every once in a while to challenge the main character to a fight? Perhaps he/she's an opposing love interest or just a competitor/anti-hero? Don't worry, no matter how much you've trained/gained new powers/whatever between this time and the next time you meet them, they will have mysteriously gained just as much proficiency so as to still be able to annoy and fight you on an even ground.

Although this doesn't apply in One Piece, whenever Coby shows up he's massively better than he was last time, and Luffy still one shots him every time.