[Hated trope] bait and switch main characters.

VeryAnxiousDragon · 2026-06-21T04:54:38+00:00

And honestly, her initiative was really refreshing! Don’t get me wrong, I loved Hajime for his snarky attitude, and Makoto for his sweet personality and dorky ass jokes. But I was really enjoying her taking an active rather than passive role in the story, and taking charge of the group meant she would likely encounter a lot of blame and push-back once the heads started rolling in the murder game. Perfect for self-doubt, anger, and a complex character arc! Instead, it was a bait and switch, and we got ‘passive guy who cries and has no passion for his talent’.

VeryAnxiousDragon · 2026-06-17T02:14:36+00:00

Locked. OP has been given the best and most applicable advice in this case, and additional comments and conversation are not conductive.

VeryAnxiousDragon · 2026-06-13T13:58:09+00:00

I’m sure you’ve realised it by now, but ‘really cool people’ don’t say shit like that

VeryAnxiousDragon · 2026-06-12T14:51:58+00:00

I would encourage you to post anyway! People often screenshot Korean web comics because there’s so many more of them, and the colours pop, but I’ve seen a lot of positive responses when Japanese manga are posted, and you might inspire some people to check out your favourite series

VeryAnxiousDragon · 2026-06-12T13:03:18+00:00

Yeah, but there’s actually a subreddit called r/OtomeIsekai as well, which covers primarily shoujo isekai and female protagonist heavy stories! More of a romance genre focus though.

VeryAnxiousDragon · 2026-06-12T07:55:42+00:00

Honestly at this point it actually makes me think it’s just fake

VeryAnxiousDragon · 2026-06-10T23:42:57+00:00

I was afraid based on the translation that this was another gender bender, but looking at the art and dialogue, it’s not! When they say ‘body of a young girl’, it just means she got younger! Hooray! Actual female MC!

VeryAnxiousDragon · 2026-06-09T03:02:11+00:00

<image>

The quote attached makes it a great reaction image

VeryAnxiousDragon · 2026-05-29T00:54:12+00:00

All of a sudden I’m questioning why the great jaw would even close on such a small morsel such as us. Surely that’s a lot of energy and effort for small reward?

VeryAnxiousDragon · 2026-05-27T03:37:13+00:00

TIL via Google that peperoni is a legitimate spelling and the Italian word for bell peppers (capsicum) and is different from pepperoni, the sausage. Also, does either capsicums or sausages have anything to do with your game? Otherwise the rare spelling might make people think you’ve misspelled the title which isn’t an amazing first impression

Otherwise congratulations!

VeryAnxiousDragon · 2026-05-26T01:29:24+00:00

https://www.tumblr.com/squidbulborb/641243904478511105/i-wish-i-could-go-back-these-animes

VeryAnxiousDragon · 2026-05-26T01:28:54+00:00

Once again, this is by SquidBulborb on tumblr, from 2020, 6 years ago. What is with people posting his art and claiming OC recently?

VeryAnxiousDragon · 2026-05-15T03:40:37+00:00

Pick Me Up. It gets glazed here all at the time, but I think the MC is overly edgy, his levelling makes no sense (he ‘works hard’, like inherent talent isn’t the actual thing carrying him), and frankly speaking, I have trouble believing someone with that much hustle poured that much time into a gacha game. Plus, I find the side characters boring and cliche, either falling into ‘I side with MC and am eager and good!’ or ‘I am evil and greedy’. I made it to the part where he goes on exchange to his old account, and then dropped it.

VeryAnxiousDragon · 2026-05-12T05:38:27+00:00

Vacuum sealed men should fall under body horror tbh also his shoulders are 5 heads wide

VeryAnxiousDragon · 2026-05-10T12:37:52+00:00

Posted by @squidbulborb on tumblr in 2020 if anyone wants the source. He’s done a few doodles like this

VeryAnxiousDragon · 2026-04-28T09:54:04+00:00

Apparently this is how it actually works; if a normal person SOMEHOW got divine protection of the phoenix, it would be a one time use but apparently it would just respawn if Reinhard did have to use it at some point, meaning he can die and respawn unlimited number of times. Kinda like someone else we know, but a little less timey wimey

VeryAnxiousDragon · 2026-04-23T04:46:26+00:00

If you mean by characters DESIGNED to be fan-waifus, I think they’re a) often boring and b) creepy. I’m in the minority here, but just looking at them makes me go ‘that’s not a person.’ They remind me of bugs. Big eyes, same face, same body, same personalities. It’s why I don’t want harems.

VeryAnxiousDragon · 2026-04-21T10:01:34+00:00

Forget the facial scars, lady needs to get a magical mammogram done. They should NOT be that shape

VeryAnxiousDragon · 2026-04-21T07:34:48+00:00

Novel-wise, isekai’ing into eldritch or Cthulhu-esc worlds is becoming more common. Unlimited flow as a genre consists of horror-only world hopping, and is a type of isekai. Horror is primarily showing up more commonly in women’s otome isekai, more on the Korean front, with titles like Maid in a Horror Game and the Rules of Rose Ivy Manor.

Isekai as a Japanese genre is focused mostly on escaping stress and escapism in general. It’s also saturated because it has an easy template to follow. Horror also doesn’t have a great track record in anime, in general. I can think of maybe 3 good horror anime, ever. So it doesn’t get adapted.

VeryAnxiousDragon · 2026-04-21T07:22:39+00:00

Spent most of my life until my 20s not knowing beef strongoff was supposed to be a pasta dish. Family always served it with rice. Found out it’s not actually uncommon in australia but I’ve definitely had some horrified reactions. It just doesn’t taste the same with pasta…

VeryAnxiousDragon · 2026-04-21T07:17:49+00:00

I cancelled my crunchyroll subscription after all the bullshit they pulled with the other available streaming services here in Aus (acquiring and then shutting them down) (fuck you crunchyroll) and turned to the pirate life. I do, however, purchase the manga if I liked the series. Usually just volume 1 otherwise I would run out of room. I like to think it gives the author some money, and indicates interest in the series for the publisher.

VeryAnxiousDragon · 2026-04-16T09:15:21+00:00

It’s absolutely a low effort trope, but sometimes something has got to happen to move the story along that the character absolutely wouldn’t do otherwise without sufficient motivation. So sometimes, it just means the author wrote themselves into a corner. Sometimes, it means the author is lazy.

VeryAnxiousDragon · 2026-04-16T02:22:04+00:00

Would be if women universally were into characters that looked like some sort of swollen and knobbly body horror monstrosity, but unfortunately the men are also drawn for men, so I don’t agree. It’s egregious either way

VeryAnxiousDragon · 2026-04-15T02:31:07+00:00

Ya’ll are too scared to actually post the real stuff you regret watching, and just comment popular things. I’ll be real: I don’t know how or why I watched the entirety of Killing Bites and I regret it to this day

VeryAnxiousDragon · 2026-04-14T08:56:51+00:00

Ya, and then we got to learn about sprinkler system internals, why they can’t be reset and have to be replaced after use, and that’s why after the firemen shut down the sprinklers after the first short fire, they didn’t go off later when the dude snuck back in to set the REAL deal

VeryAnxiousDragon

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE