Anime Characters Who Have No Idea What Kind of Show They Are In

Many shows are aware enough to point out their own idiosyncrasies and even hang lampshades on them. Take the above comic for example, anyone who knows anything about Batman knows that The Joker has 'died' more times than anyone can count. It is just the way that Batman comics work, villains avoid death so that they can be reused down the line. The fact that Robin is so sure that The Joker is dead puts him in one of the more regrettable catagories in media: genre-blindess. There are often characters who have no idea what kind of show they're in exactly. Not literally of course but their actions are often completely oblivious considering the kind of show that they are in. Anime, having a wide array of sub-genres within itself often finds itself in this predicament. Many shounen animes have a few characters with hints of shoujo in them as well as many others. For a better idea of genre blindness lets have a look at a few characters:

Shirley Fenette, Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion

We start with a rather tragic example. Shirley is an interesting character as she seems to be under the impression that her show is a shoujo or harem anime rather than a shounen about terrorism. While most of the main cast is worrying about how they plan to start revolutions or avoiding being killed, Shirley is more worried about what her darling Lelouch thinks of her. Most of Shirley's time onscreen is spent playing the "does he like me game" and frequently engaging in romance anime tropes. Unfortunately, her genre-blindness proves fatal. These kind of actions don't really fly in the very cynical world of Code Geass which gets Shirley in big trouble more than a few times. (Similar things could be said about another classmate, Rivalz Cardemonde, but we'll keep this to one character per show)

Rock, Black Lagoon

The world of Black Lagoon is filled with killers, drug dealers, mob bosses, and psychopaths; Rokuro Okajima is not one of them. Rock is the typical anime protagonist who has high ideals that are frequently called into question by the cynical and crapsack world around him. However, while most shows will give evidence that the hero's idealism is actually needed in the world, Black Lagoon never actually gives you any indication that Rock is actually right. Instead you keep waiting for him to finally become the badass criminal that you keep expecting to be. Instead he keeps expecting the best out of the criminal underworld, people who have never acted nobly in their entire lives. A truly Genre-Blind character if there ever was one.

Rossiu, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

Rossiu has all the traits of a great leader: he understands politics, sometimes the ends have to justify the means, and overall is a realist. However, he exists in a universe where doing the impossible is not only possible but the main trade of the protagonists. In a real-life scenario his "greatest good for the greatest number" philosophy is justified. However, in an anime that frequently defies all the conventions of the actual world that we, the viewer, live in; he is just plain wrong.

Every Yu-Gi-Oh! Villain EVER

Anybody who has ever watched Yu-Gi-Oh! is completely aware of how ridiculous of a show it is. I mean, I understand that it is a show about card games and it has to be the be all end all. However, it has the most genre-blind villains on the face of the planet. They live in a world in which the protagonist is pretty much invincible in one very specific area, playing a children's card game. There are much better ways to defeat a protagonist: giant death traps, guns, knives; just about anything other than playing a children's card game. Most of their evil plans wouldn't even seem to necessitate playing a card game as most of them have powers that work outside of that arena. What powers you ask? Soul-stealing powers, powers of possession, ANCIENT EGYPTIAN LASER BEAMS!! All things that you don't need to be playing a children's card game to use.