I once was recommended a Japanese anime, "Gate". It's about a fantasy world trying to invade our modern realm. Earth strikes back with modern weapons, the fantasy world has no chance with their dragons, Orks and magic.
This I would love to see more of, asymmetrical warfare, it's just a power fantasy, but a fun one!
Interesting. Any sufficiently powerful magic erases all conventional weapons, so the magic of the fantasy world can't be all that powerful in the first place.
In Gate there is very little to no magic. It’s mainly a Roman-era army, with some wyverns and other creatures thrown in. The military even comments how hard the wyvern scales are and that it shrugged off .50-cal bullets. But it couldn’t survive a shit load of C4.
I’m not sure what it’s called, buy I love the trope of where a large party gets split off into two smaller parties who eventually reunite. This split could be forced through physical events or it could just be a relationship split between friends.
Lord the Rings is a great example of what I mean. Frodo is forced to leave after seeing what the Ring does and Sam goes with him, while Mary and Pippin get kidnapped and have their own adventure, and finally Aragorn and his merry trio go help the war effort in Rohan. They all end up reunited in the end though.
Warrior princesses (or otherwise 'fighting refined ladies') -- Who aren't tomboys, and are in fact fully feminine coded, but can still kick ass with the best of 'em. (Princess Leia, some iterations of Zelda, Rarity from MLP in a way though she's not a princess, etc.)
In movies?
I wanna see people be more casual sexual with friends, without it being a big deal. Cause that's how my friendships are like. A little fun times is not something to write home about, most of the time
It’s hard to write good sex into something and not have it detract from the plot. Most movies are plot driven and the casual sexual angle doesn’t normally contribute to advancing the plot (not saying it isn’t possible). It could be used in the worlds-building phase but then would also be a one and done thing.
One niche I think is severely underserved is like. A good guy who serves straight up classic villain aesthetics. Like someone who's refined, and cunning, always plotting something, and if the setting has superpowers, they got an 'evil' coded power... But their goals are those of a good guy. I don't think I've ever seen a character like that, unless you count Col. Mustang from the Fullmetal Alchemist anime/manga, who ticks at least a few of the boxes.
(If you know of OTHER characters who fit my description, PLEASE tell me)
You might enjoy the web novels Worm. The main protagonist is basically exactly the above, an antihero by necessity with an "evil" power. The book in general lends itself to grey morality, even for the heroes. The actual villains? Actual evil. The author likes to imagine unorthodox super powers and really makes the characters with them really sing.
Be warned though, it's a web novel that is literally something like "normal" 20 books long. Besides a rare lurch or two, it's also a surprisingly very good 20 novels.
Have you checked out the whole “Noir” genre? Burnt out old schlubby heros who look like bad guys is a whole thing there.
Humphrey Bogart in the Maltese Falcon, Terriers for a more modern take.
Bad guys who aren't misunderstood but aren't bad. They occupy a niche mindspace in which they have a genuine and noble goal but their goal is mutually exclusive with the good guy's goals (the Shadowlord from Nier Gestalt)
Then, on the flip side, bad guys who know that they're bad and revel in it (Jack Horner from Puss in Boots)
Good guys who are good leaders. They have no superhuman abilities but their power is to bring out the best in others. They don't beat the bad guys through sheer strength or being inspired by the power of friendship (which IMO is just the same thing), but they do so by strategically playing to people's strengths (Senku from Dr. Stone)
Same. I’d love a Battlestar Galactica meets SG-1 type show. Something gritty, fun characters, they go everywhere and there’s both space and terrestrial mayhem.
What I’d actually love is a series that gives a gritty take (Andor-like) on an elite Imperial squad that does missions and treats the Rebellion like the bad guys and the Empire like the good guys but maybe at series finale we do the switcheroo so we don’t completely humanize an empire that wants to kill everyone.
So far the most popular franchise with this is Transformers, but most of their media is mediocre at best. There are some exceptions like a few of the comics and some of the series which are really good, but overall as a franchise they are lacking unfortunately. I really love the trope though.
The other franchise with this would be Bionicle but I can't say I know much about it.
There are plenty of mechas out there, but they don't tick all the boxes for this trope. Most are either non sentient or require a human pilot to be active. And those which are sentient and autonomous are rarely fighters.
So if you know of any - please let me know. Thanks.
Evangelion has been on my list for too long, I just don't have time for anything in my life. So does each one have their own distinct personality, motivations etc? Are they actually characters or are they more like props?
Last year I watched anime Ragna Crimson, and I really liked "He is not an enemy that you use strategy to fight with. He is an enemy you use strategy to not fight with." along with the general strategic feeling of Crimson's actions. I'm open for recommendations, but I don't know when will I find time to watch them.
I've recently been going through Persona 4 Golden, and I love Kanji. He's a rough guy who people assume is a bully (for example, he beat up a biker gang), but he has a heart of gold - for example he crochets dolls for a kid to play with. He's very interested (and talented) in arts & crafts, but at the beginning he's ashamed of others looking down on him for that.
One of my favorite tropes, and quickly one of my favorite characters.