The Love Triangle Troupe
First let me say, I’m not a huge fan of the love triangle troupe. I think when done right it works extremely well to the point you feel for the 3rd party & hope they find someone that deserves them. Then there’s the times it’s just unnecessary and sometimes creates drama that just fuels the “misunderstanding”! By no means do I say the love triangle is unrealistic, although yes played up in shoujo but that’s completely fine. For instance Horimiya does a great job with its characters and you want all of them to find happiness, but those live triangles never make you feel like one person is in the wrong. My Teen Romantic Snafu I think also does a good job of fleshing out the characters as friends first and then seeing feelings develop so you don’t necessarily hate any of them all while wanting to support your fan favorite. Then there’s ones like In the Clear Moonlit Dusk where the 2nd love interest comes in and just stirs the pot and I sit there thinking, “this anime was fine without this unnecessary love triangle plot line.” While by no means can I ever say the writer shouldn’t do this as I respect the art they put out but that doesn’t mean I’ll always love an aspect. Life is messy and I appreciate shoujo for making romance fantastical and some good drama but I don’t always like the unnecessary love triangle when the story is already completing enough. Just wanted to vent this as an opinion, again I enjoy so many shoujo and at times I love classic anime troupes but again like most things when it’s done right it’s beautiful then when it’s not it can hurt the overall story.