Anime 101: I’m Late for Anime School – An Introduction to Anime Tropes

In almost every genre in anime there’s one stereotypical trope that has been around for decades, and that’s being late. Being late, as in being late to anime school — or, whatever, the character being late to their specific school. With toast still in their mouth our main character rushes to school, bumbling and fumbling on the way there. Now most would think that this is just something shows do just because they feel like it, which is the case sometimes, but actually there’s more. Welcome to Anime 101! Today’s lesson: “I’m Late for Anime School.” This is Yui from K-On! She’s actually early for school In quite a few Shojo manga and anime, usually a female character wakes up and exclaims “I’M LATE” in comedic fashion. This is done to show the character’s normal morning routine before they get tossed into something crazy, and show how they normally live their life. Usagi from Sailor Moon is a prime example, because in the first episode of Sailor Moon she’s late on her way to school, running with toast in her mouth, sees a cat named Luna being bullied and saves her, which thrusts her into her conquest of the magical girl genre. It uses her being late to show a character trait and advance the story.

This method of tardiness isn’t used just to advance the plot, it’s also used as a way to introduce new characters. Our main character fumbling and bumbling to school will usually bump into someone so hard that they’ll fall on the floor, and when they look up — BAM — they see a new…