A tremendously unpopular opinion at this point, so much so that this might start some measure of controversy, but let me be clear I have no desire to change my mind; there is no point in trying to take a stand for it as some might feel compelled to. Let me begin that it seems particularly faddish, in that the only things that remind me of the fascination were other trends of their time that swamped the genre, be them Harry Potter or Twilight, yet is far larger and more widespread than any of those types. More widespread than the fact so many "original characters" were "random", "crazy", or "insane", gods or god-like in power, or wolves or dragons. What is such a thing I find vastly cliche and excessively, unreasonably popular, at least where the greater community is concerned, to the point it might cause argument?

Anime as a fandom in roleplaying is overdone. 

Not just overdone but [i]vastly[/i] overrepresented to the point I admit I roll my eyes whenever I see a quasi-serious or more realistic topic suddenly have a character submitted to it from the archetype, usually the giveaway being the face claimed artwork. Alternatively, when lacking thereof, exaggerated hair color or bizarrely named abilities or talents. For obvious reasons this is expected in the associated topics, i.e. fandom topics, although it is so pervasive it consistently appears in genres outside itself and relies heavily on tropes. Not that I bothered counting the amount, I merely note there is no shortage of "magical girl of suspiciously young age", "shy guy who is bad at things", "angst ridden youth with powers and or sword", "evil demon child often with doll or toy", and related. While I am aware these stock characters exist for a reason in the greater application of the genre, being crucial to some extent there, I find it terribly banal where roleplaying is concerned.

Now the the question of course here is [i]why[/i] do I take issue with this beyond the obvious and for myself that lies in the fact I play the to-earth manner. That is to say I prefer my characters and topics to simultaneously be "as-if" and worlds much like our own, with obvious changes to accommodate their inherent breaks from realism. Without prattling on, it upsets the suspension of disbelief and going on the mental journey to imagine the events; a reason I prefer roleplays sans pictures as a whole. However, it is not so limited in my experience. Stock characters are, just as one would expect them to be, hardly interesting or original, and it makes it harder still to interact with them when they are often as exaggerated as they are either by the design of their player or by merely copying from only what they know in the source inspiration.

Granted I have been doing this for some time, a couple of decades, so I believe I have a fair idea of what gets turned into tropes and people tend to skew toward, I am also particularly jaded. No less, before it gets brought up, for reasons I myself still am looking into I do tend to be innately opposed to whatever is trendy at the time; it always seems shallow to me, et cetera. Regardless, relic of the past or not, I still find it overrepresented and commonplace to the point its veneer has worn off. People are free to like whatever they like but in roleplaying keeping it topic and genre appropriate needs be valued much more. There is a time and place for everything.