Forum - View topicThe List - 5 Worst Anime Relationships
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Replica_Rabbit
 Posts: 354 Location: Portland |
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Shield Hero get good reviews on the site (both Anime and Light Novel), ANN's writers all have different opinions on Shield Hero. I see it as more mixed instead of being a punching bag. Anyway, my problem with the Slave Crest is what happens to Raphtela if Naofumi dies. Would her ownership automatically go back to the slave dealer or would she be free? As far as I know, that question hasn't been asked in the story yet (but I only watch 5 episodes and read some wiki). That strength would quickly become a weakness if Naofumi isn't around. Also, it still bugs me that she has zero problems with the Slave Dealer who locks her up in a small cage and almost let her die. Those five episodes were banking on the viewers liking Naofumi if you didn't Shield Hero would be a lost cause. I still believe if I watch all of Shield Hero I would still have the same opinion about it from the beginning, but I would be way more annoyed for wasting my time watching it |
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Gray Lensman
Posts: 143 |
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I'm just going to presume Love Hina is a stand in for ALL the excessively violent tsundere love interests, otherwise I personally would have difficulty making a list with anything else on it. I'd have to run out of all of those characters before I could even think of adding Future Diary's Yuno to the list - I can at least understand why she is broken and acts the way she does by the end. Although I might suggest if you want to avoid picking the same things over and over again, couldn't the option be to title the list 5 MORE and avoid anything from the first time? Presuming that this IS a second list, of course. |
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Kougeru
 Posts: 5529 |
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So as others have implied theyspoiler[ actually half-ass it and stop at the very end which just made the whole thing worse. They really should have gone through with the relationship. Tired of stories having half-assed endings.] Shield Hero's pro-slave message is exactly why I can't stand the show and it honestly amazes me how people ignore that aspect of the show. The rest of the show isn't even written well. Generic main plot, overpowered MC, female characters that exist only to swoon over him. But having a character WANT to be slave just felt like the author fulfill a dream of his own. Which is fine, that's his right. But it's my right to call that pro-slavery message a vile thing. But yeah, I'm surprised no Sasuke/Sakura listed here. Sakura was such a terrible character all around |
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jl07045
 Posts: 1527 Location: Riga, Latvia |
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Is one person's very specific decision in very specific circumstances a pro-slavery message? I don't mean it as a rhetorical question. But I don't see strong arguments for it. What I would see as a pro-slavery message is: 1) a general endorsement of non-equal status between races, genders, ethnicities or social classes; 2) an idea of slavery as a just punishment; 3) arguments for its economic value. Do we see a slave-master relationship between them later in the story? In form - yes, in content - not really. There is a punishment for disobeying orders, but it's clear that later on Naofumi respects her enough that he won't give such orders and will release her if they have fundamental disagreements. Now what this tells about acceptable power relations between a man and a woman is imo a more debatable issue. Last edited by jl07045 on Mon May 18, 2020 2:16 am; edited 1 time in total |
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DirtyCircle
Posts: 127 |
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I was going to hop on questioning if the true ending and good ending adaptations for OREIMO were that alienating but I saw this comment and have to send my love instead. KOI KAZE is an amazing anime. After seeing it, I read the fan translation of the manga online too. It's pairing is completely awful/concerning from a logical, real world point but holy moley, does it pay off being a roller coaster of a ride. |
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Gray Lensman
Posts: 143 |
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I watched Koi Kaze myself and it does a few things right. The two know what they are doing is wrong, to the point that the brother even moves out in order to try and stop things from progressing any further, and it has a setup that helps overcome what should be the inability to see each other in such a fashion, namely that they didn't grow up together so that when they meet it's as strangers who have both just gone through a breakup - the brother/sister reveal happens at the end of the episode. Plus, it isn't treated as a good thing that they have a relationship - even the protagonists know it is wrong but can't turn the feelings off. It's also about as far into any of the brother/sister relationships I ever want to watch - Domestic Girlfriend has a decent setup for something similar where the crush/sex happens before anyone involved become stepsiblings, which makes it watchable in a trashy soap opera sense. |
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Thespacemaster
Posts: 1109 |
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Look as far as bad relationships go, i am not going to pretend i am a sort of expert.
However from this list, i defiantly dont think shield hero should be number 1, especially when you compare the sheer toxicity as that in Future Diary and Death Note. Does forming a relatsionship based on a slave contract at the start a good thing? Nope. is their an argument that it is sort of base on stocklohom syndrome? ehh ..maybe but that is argument in on itself. In Future Diary you literal have a woman kidnap the her love, tied them up, drug them, manipulate his emotions, murdered him in a previus incarnation and cotnrol all his movements, In Death Note you have a scumbag who has no inch of love towards the girl at all, would repeatedly abuse her and manipulate her emotions to suit his purpose. Than Oreimo which in the anime version literally marries his sister, i mean cmon you can't tell me Shield Hero should be ranked all above these? at the very least it should be lower than them. So Yeah i still believe Ann has a bit of biasm when it comes to these things. P.S i have a question? why is that when it comes to master and slave contract everyone talks about SH but no one mentions other titles that had a similiar thing if not worse? Like How Not To Summon a Demon Lord, The Familiar of Zero and even Death March in a parallel world? I feel like SH gets singled out a bit too much. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11376 |
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There are a couple of reasons, I think. I can't speak to Familiar since it's been too long since I watched it, and I don't think I even finished it. Demon Lord was generally more humorous and heavy on the fan service, plus the slaves weren't entirely innocent, having intended to enslave the one they summoned themselves. I also think that people tend to view magical servitude as slightly different from chattel slavery. Death March just didn't have enough people watching it to cause a ruckus, and wasn't good enough for anyone to care enough to defend it, but it did get complaints. Hardly anyone still remembers it enough to think to bring it up now. But SH also had the false rape accusation, and a self-pitying hero, among other problems, so it's not just the slavery issue. Even so, overall it's not a terrible anime, but as the characters slowly get over their worst issues, there's still that one nail sticking up from your armchair that keeps you from being able to kick back and get entirely comfortable with it, and you wish it would stop poking you. Whereas Demon Lord and Death March are so bad in so many ways, they're more like an iron maiden, and nobody wants to settle in with that, so they just keep these series at arm's length as they watch instead of becoming emotionally invested in them. tldr: nobody mentions them because nobody cares about them. (disclaimer: "nobody" is a relative generalization, not to be taken as a statement of literal fact) |
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bennyl
Posts: 123 |
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Devotion and dependence are two different things. It doesn't matter however, the author destroyed her own premise when she said the list was only about bad romantic relationships, and Naofumi has never expressed any romantic interest in Raphtallia at all during the anime. So by her own admission this was click bait and nothing more than a long winded way to shout "Shield man bad!" again. Last edited by bennyl on Mon May 18, 2020 12:21 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4088 |
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Not at all surprised at the list, even as I agree and disagree with it.
Future Diary: No one wants to give Future Diary[ context? The plot machinations and spoilers behind it are daunting but just taking it at its face value is just wrong. How to explain it without spoilers: I can't. But this?
This is just wrong. "How is Yuki supposed to make a clean break?" Yuki wielded Yuno like a weapon, both inadvertently and on purpose. He needed her to survive the Future Diary game and neither show or the manga ever painted the relationship shown as romantic. They did, however, show it was more genuine than the relationships Yuki had with his parents or his friends. Codependent in a "You'll keep warm/alive and I'll keep you sane" sort of way. They're broken individuals in an actual dying rotten world doing the best they can. Basic summation: spoiler[Second Yuki ended up with third Yuno... I think? Time travel and multiple worlds are involved and I know the first Yuno killed both the first Yuki and second Yuno...] I can say that it's a "Worst possible scenario for a relationship" equal to a "last man/woman on Eath" one... wait a minute... [does the math]... imagine that... Death Note: I would have lead with "they're both mass murderers" but it's not even a relationship outside out of Misa's mind so why say more about it? Love Hina: "Love at first punch", I love the manga and liked the first few episodes of the show before they ran out of manga to adapt. [Reads the comments] Some people just can't take a punch, I mean a joke. These are five girls in a huge hotel turned dorm, they are not easy people to live with. In Love Hina, reality is up for debate. No one mentioned Otohime but... there was just so many delightful details about that love triangle that it would either end in Keitoro/Naru or it would have ended in a three person relationship. It really is a cute romance... if you ignore the time when their ages were 5,4 and, uh, 2. |
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D.E.D.E
Posts: 96 |
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Was gonna mention this as well. Not once as Naofumi shown ANY inclination that he was interested in Raphtallia like that at all. It's been solely one sided at this point. He doesn't even acknowledge it. So how on earth did it end up on a list which also has Light Yagami king of manipulation and lies, who knows Misa's feelings for him and uses her as a disposable tool, Oreimo's relationship of incest, which is portrayed as a positive thing (do I need to say anymore than that?), and Future Diary as number 1? Yeah, I have some issues with this. Especially when you have animes like Eva or even Naruto with hella more problematic relationships as others have said. Hell, even if you didn't want to use those ones there's still off the top of my head: Baccano (Ladd and his lover which is essentially his victim) and Seven Deadly Sins (every Meliodas interaction with Liz), just to name a few. Shield hero somehow beat out a lunatic who's constantly walking a tight rope of whether or not he should kill his lover? |
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Chris Handsome
 Posts: 282 |
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Shonen Jump manga and most Shonen manga in general have bad romantic relationships.
The only one that doesn't is One Piece, because there are literally zero of those in that one. But you know, I kinda like how Toriko does it. He just ups and accepts a marriage proposal, goes on one grand vast food hunting adventure that ends with the GOD of all frogs, then has a big east for a wedding. Then they fly into outer space to find spoiler[Planet Vegeta.] That's a way to end a series. My pick for worse relationships though goes to Mysterious Girlfriend X. How can you not get sick reading that? And it doesn't ever evolve into anything meaningful anyhow. |
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Kirki
Posts: 296 |
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Oh come on guys, Love Hina wasn't that bad! (or I didn't read enough of it to get tired of it) It is one of the few mangas that have been translated in my language, at least partly, so in the volumes 6-10 I bought and read, Naru and Keitaro were a really funny couple. Yes Naru can be too tsundere and violent some times, but it was for the sake of the gags and it is considered comedy classic and genre defining for a reason. (I never watched the anime)
Light and Misa were a couple in Death Note? Really? That... whatever relationship, could be considered a couple? I never would have thought. Oreimo should have been first. It would have been fine if the story was only about two siblings that learn to get close, but I think they got TOO close. Red flags all over for so many reasons. Yuno and Yuki of Mirai Nikki were awful people who deserved each other and gained happiness together in the end, so I don't know if I can say that they are a bad couple. Naofumi and Raphtalia from Shield Hero were not bad either, definitely not deserving the number one spot. Raphtalia got freed and chose Naofumi again out of her own free will. Shield Hero turned into a boring show after that, but their relationship still stands. My personal un-favorite couple of all times is (warning, unpopular opinion:) Kaneki and Touka from Tokyo Ghoul. Not because it happened. I was really rooting for them in the first series. It was because when it happened, both characters had turned into mere shells of their previous selves. Touka disappeared for years, only to return as the most perfect yamato nadeshiko to ever yamato nadeshiko'ed, and Kaneki, with each of his metamorphoses, kept on becoming an even worse person than he was before. There are so many cans of worms to be opened here that it could take an entire essay on psychology and depression so I will not even try. Let's just say that it's better for a ship to sink after some good writing, than sail through bad writing. I will always remember Tokyo Ghoul:re as the "fanfiction" ending to the real Tokyo Ghoul series. Disclaimer: I am not trying to undermine anybody's experience of the Tokyo Ghoul series or "fight" over a "ship" that's already canon, there is nothing to debate. I am merely expressing my personal experience from the series. If you want to comment on it, please be civilized. I understand that there were supposed to be messages of hope and optimism through the ending of the series, it just didn't work for me, and that's all I'm trying to say. |
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db999
Posts: 300 |
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I see a lot of people defending the relationship in Shield Hero, but I 100% agree with it being on this list, maybe not as number 1 but it's still a toxic relationship because Raphtalia is a slave. It doesn't matter to me that Naofumi never treats her as a slave because he still technically owns her and every time it's brought up it immediately ruins my enjoyment in the show. I'm saying this as someone who legitimately enjoys Shield Hero and considers themselves a fan of the series, but this relationship is easily my least favorite thing about the series. The reason why it's so bad is that it's the easiest problem in the series to fix. For one thing, the fact that Raphtalia and Filo are his slaves is rarely brought up in the series. Sure we see them going to meet the slave trader 3 or 4 times, but outside of the opening arc they rarely seem to acknowledge the plot point.
To the author's credit, I think they seem to know that slavery is a bad thing because when they dive into Raphtalia's past and spoiler[show the noble who keeps the demihumans in a dungeon where a ton of them die] it's shown to be horrific and awful, but then they only acknowledge the fact in order to prop up Naofumi as the paragon of righteousness in comparison. Like it would be so easy to fix this problem with the plot, the author could just have Naofumi buy the slaves and then free them of the slave seal and then all these problems would instantly vanish, and it would also be legitimately good writing. They could even tie it into the natural way Naofumi's character arc is progressing in learning to trust other people again after losing his faith after the opening 2 episodes. But enough about Shield Hero, now I want to talk about Death Note. I don't know why some people don't consider this a relationship when throughout the entirety of the series Misa is considered in-universe to be Light's girlfriend. They even kiss several times throughout the series, so I'm not sure why some don't consider them a couple. Sure Light doesn't love Misa and is just using her, but that's the reason it's on the list in the first place. Finally, I'm kind of surprised to see people putting forth the relationships in Naruto in the comments. None of the romantic relationships in that series is anywhere close to what I'd consider toxic the only ones I might be able to see an argument put forth for would be Sasuke and Sakura and spoiler[Obito and Rin, but with that last one Rin is dead by the time of series begins and Obito dies near the end of the series so it doesn't really matter.] I can see arguments put forth for Sasuke and Sakura given the actions Sasuke makes during the series, but by the time they actually become a couple, Sasuke has become a good person. I also don't like them together Sasuke should have either remained alone or married someone else, and Sakura could have ended up with literally anyone else and it would be preferable to me, but I wouldn't say the relationship as depicted after they end up together is actually toxic. He's mostly just absent from her life, but when they do meet up they show genuine affection towards each other and treat each other with mutual respect, so I don't end up having a problem with it. |
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michizure
Posts: 177 |
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To be entirely clear, I was implying that Evangelion reaches professional levels of relationship disfunction, and so (I agree) might justifiably be retired from lists like this one to allow for more competition. I wasn't referring to the author at all, and I do not support ad hominem attacks. |
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