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manekinekocake · 2 months ago

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#waiting in the summer #official art #uon taraku

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animebw · 1 month ago

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Phenotyping the Stereotypical Anime Love Triangle

Something I've noticed over my years of watching anime is the existence of a specific kind of love triangle. One that pops up over and over again, often in some of the most popular shows of their respective eras. And the more I think about it, the more it feels like the skeleton key to really understand The Male Fantasy as it exists in otaku culture. This particular trope, repeated across so many different genres and decades, is a Rosetta stone for understanding how male anime writers approach female characters and why so many of them fall flat. Or maybe it's just a fun little pattern I've noticed that I'm trying to make into a bigger deal than it is. Either way, I need to rant about it for a second so it'll stop bugging me. So roll up your sleeves and let's do some literary science here.

First, we need to define what exactly I'm talking about. This isn't about every single love triangle, nor is it about harems or any romantic situation with more than three participants. No, the breed of love triangle we're discussing here involves one guy at the center, romantically pursued by or entangled with two specific kinds of female character archetypes. The guy in question is pretty versatile: he can be shy, a self-insert, brash and egotistical, edgy and emo, whatever the story needs him to be. But it's the girls fighting over him who matter. Put simply, this is a love triangle where the two female characters represent two competing philosophies of romantic happiness for the male lead. They aren't just fighting over the guy: they're designed around two specific, directly contrasting character archetypes that the guy must choose between as competing statements on what love should be. And everything about the girls- from personality to color design to even superpowers- is designed to emphasize that contrast.

So what are these two competing archetypes? Put simply: Hot and Cold.

HOT: The exciting girl. Probably a tsundere. Even if not, her personality is strong and overbearing. Her hair is red and most likely long. If this is a fantasy setting, she'll be some flavor of alien or superhero or magical warrior, something that sets her above common people. Her elemental power is, naturally, fire. This girl represents challenge and adventure for the male lead. She's someone who crashes into his normal life and upends it, shaking him out of complacency and inspiring to seize his destiny with two hands. If he chooses her, it symbolizes his willingness to reach for greatness and keep pushing himself to accomplish the impossible, proving himself worthy of being such an incredible girl's partner.

COLD: The shy, quiet girl. Her personality is usually sweet and caring, though sometimes she can be a deadpan kuudere instead. Her hair is blue and almost certainly in some kind of bob cut. Elemental power: ice. While the Hot girl is someone new who crashes into the male lead's life, Cold is near-guaranteed to be his childhood friend, someone who's known him for a very long time. She represents stability and domestic comfort. In contrast to Hot inspiring him to rise above him limits and become something greater, Cold accepts him as he is. She's the girl you don't have to change for, the girl who'll give you a long and happy life of simple contentment. By choosing her, the male lead shows he's able to see the happiness right in front of him and mature into a dependable partner.

Obviously, not every example of this trope fits all these parameters. There's plenty of variation in how many aspects of the Hot and Cold archetypes each girl fulfills. But if you look across anime history, you will find that a great deal of 1-guy-2-girl love triangles fall into this pattern to some extent. For just a few examples:

Darling in the Franxx- Zero Two and Ichigo. Probably the most prominent modern example.

Chivalry of a Failed Knight- Stella and Ikki. Go watch Trixie's video series on The Asterisk War for more info on them.

Re:Zero- Emilia and Rem. Obviously Emilia's a huge departure from the Hot archetype, but she fulfills the thematic purpose of someone Subaru must challenge himself to be worthy of.

Oshi no Ko- Kana and Akane. They swap the expected hair lengths, but the personalities are pretty spot on.

Waiting in the Summer- Ichika and Kanna. Never watched it so I may be wrong, but from what discussions I've seen, these two fit.

Shakugan no Shana- Shana and Kazumi. The show where I first started noticing how often this trope popped up.

Guilty Crown- Inori and Hare. Another case where Inori is much more a Cold archetype personality-wise but fulfills the narrative role of the Hot archetype.

Evangelion- Asuka and Rei. Kind of a funny example because they probably inspired a lot of future hot/cold love triangles, but they're also worst-case subversions of their respective archetypes that turn what they represent into something horrifying (What if the spunky foreign girl is actually a walking shell of trauma? What if the demure girl-next-door was actually just Your Mom?). Essay for another day, perhaps...

Blue Box- Chinatsu and Hina. Pretty textbook example of how this trope functions in a normal, grounded high-school setting with no magic or monsters or whatever.

Your Lie in April- Kaori and Tsubaki. See above.

Fate/Stay Night- Sort of an edge case with Saber and Rin both fulfilling the Hot archetype, while Sakura tackles the Cold archetype.

And finally, an honorable mention for Flip Flappers, which asks the question, "What if there was no guy and the girls were just in love with each other instead?"

It's worth saying at this point that I don't think this trope is inherently bad. Writing characters who represent two contrasting ideas or philosophies on how to live is a staple of literature across history. And I don't think all of these examples are bad either! If you've been around on this blog long enough, you know how much I adore the way Re:Zero handles Subaru's relationships with the girls around him. But the reason this trope bugs me so much is, well... have you noticed anything missing in this discussion of what these archetypes represent and what it means for the guy to choose one or the other?

Exactly: What about what the girls want? What are their desires? So often it feels like the girls in this kind of love triangle are written solely for their importance to the male lead, with little consideration for who they are as people. This trope can work, but only when everyone involved has dreams and personal goals beyond the triangle itself, things they want to accomplish that are bigger than who ends up smooching who at the end. And while the guy usually has bigger, more plot-relevant things going on, it's a bit of a coin toss whether or not the girls are allowed that same interiority. More often, they only exist for the sake of some dude's personal growth, denied the chance for the narrative to build something resonant out of their own circumstances and speak to their own experiences. Case in point: Akane being driven to attempted suicide by online harassment in Oshi no Ko mostly just existing as an excuse for her to fall in love with Aqua for saving her with no lingering impacts on her psyche or her relationship with the entertainment industry. Because why focus on how this traumatic turn of events affects her when her story only really matters in service to someone else's narrative?

The Hot/Cold love triangle exists for straight boys and men to explore their perspective on love. It gives male viewers a choice between the excitement of love as a constant adventure that challenges you to be better and the warmth of love as a stable commitment that accepts you as you are, and it tries to guide them toward the answer it believes it's best. But a relationship isn't something you can possess like an object. It's not a choice you can make on your own. It's a partnership between two people, each of whom matters equally in building a life together. And if stories like this fail to show men the importance of the woman's perspective? Then no matter which best girl wins, all girls lose.

PS: Surprise! Stealth advertisement for my webcomic, lol. I actually got the inspiration for Beyond the Sable Shore from thinking about this trope and wondering, "How could I write this kind of love triangle in a way that's actually compelling and meaningful and does justice to the female characters?" So if this discussion was interesting for you and you wanna see me grapple with this trope a little more, feel free to check it out!