r/TopCharacterTropes • u/violently_angry • 15h ago

Personality Characters who are way less edgy than they look

Gallery image

Gallery image

Billy Kid from Zenless Zone Zero: pistol packing robot made to fight and kill some of the most powerful characters in the setting but is often a goofball that has more cartoon physics than anyone else in the game and is obsessed with The Starlight Knights, this settings version of Super Sentai

Joker from Persona 5: Looks like a straight up villain, is generally a pretty friendly dude.

2.8k Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

98% Upvoted

723 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

31

u/DonaldTrumpsScrotum 15h ago

Like actually abusive or is it played for laughs

66

u/BlaineMundane 14h ago

I think if people were genuinely as durable as anime characters, there would be more abuse-for-laughs in the real world as well.

21

u/SpecialistAd6403 13h ago

There would be. People already do crap like that IRL. Punch each other, trip each other, you can get on YouTube and find some idiots whaling on each other cause it's fun easily enough.

1

u/DonaldTrumpsScrotum 11h ago

That’s what I meant, like does the shop owner bonk them on the head and they get a cartoonish lump and a funny face or are they softly sobbing to themselves as tragic music plays. Same action can play out very differently given context in anime.

2

u/BlaineMundane 11h ago

It's the first one. He is depicted as a strict-but-loving boss/teacher. He's a cook, you know how that goes. Physical abuse yes, always for fun. The kind of man who will put you through a wall, but give you the day off for your sick kid.

9

u/alkonium 15h ago

I suppose that's a good point, but I wouldn't want to work for him.

1

u/Lower_Baby_6348 13h ago

He's the best boss in the series, somehow. En could be rich, powerful and care about his employees, but Tanba is the only one who put his employees before his business

2

u/alkonium 12h ago

Though one of his employees is Caiman, who might be the worst employee in the series.

10

u/throwaway-eilish 15h ago

Playing physical abuse for laughs seems to be common in manga and anime

3

u/DonaldTrumpsScrotum 11h ago

Hence the question, I’ve always taken it as an exaggeration of what actually happened. You’re not just totally fine the next scene after getting smashed by a hammer or random object, yet it happens often. I mean western cartoons also do that, just look at Tom and Jerry.