Strictly Formula / Anime & Manga

• The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You:
  • The introduction of a new girlfriend follows a similar pattern, each time. A chapter focuses on Rentarou encountering the girl, the two of them experiencing the Soulmate sensation, and Rentarou getting to know them in a one-on-one capacity, in the process discovering their odd quirks and winning their affection. The following chapter or two focuses on introducing the new girlfriend to the rest of the Rentarou Family, often engaging in some activity related to the character's interests and/or their quirks. For example both Mei and Mai, maids of the Hanazono household, were met with activities that included everyone dressing as a maid, while Rentarou and the girls assisted athlete Iku in a game of baseball. Once the activity ends, the new girlfriend reaffirms her love for Rentarou with a kiss.
  • While there are variations on the formula, the main exception is Hahari, who had everyone meet her pretty much simultaneously, with the Rentarou one-on-one following later. This is due to Hahari initially entering the story as an active antagonist to Rentarou's Family, where most girlfriends Rentarou encounters by chance.
• Every Bubblegum Crisis episode ever has essentially the same plot: A person, often an old friend to one of the team, is introduced, and either forms a bond with a team member, or some Backstory about how the old friend and the teammate know each other is exposited. The friend goes away just long enough for something bad to happen to him/her. Irrespective of which teammate's friend it was, Priss gets all pissed off about the situation and decides to take matters into her own hands. As she is suiting up, however, the rest of the team shows up because they've always got her back. The team suits up, and goes off to kick the problem's ass. There's a heartfelt apology from the friend(assuming they survived) who is ultimately never seen again, and a wry signoff/joke. THE END.
• Most of Cardcaptor Sakura involved one of the Clow Cards attacking or causing chaos in Sakura's neighbourhood, leading her to neutralise and capture it (a occasional variation in the anime version involved Syaoran sometimes stopping the card and earning it instead). The final arc after she becomes Master Of The Cards mostly involves Eriol sending some magical force up against Sakura so she must upgrade one of her cards to stop it. The formula was occasionally put aside to focus on the personal lives of the main characters along with several romantic side arcs.
• Case Closed: Most cases happen the same way^note Ran and Kogoro visit some establishment to relax and Conan is taken along. They are greeted with 2-6 locals with Freeze-Frame Introduction. Conan free-roams and notes any Chekhovs Guns in the area or in someone's backstory. One of the new characters goes missing, typically the least likable one, and is discovered dead with horrified face. Conan gets a good look at the body before being kicked out and starts making notes of anything unnatural nearby until something gives him a "Eureka!" Moment. Just when the police are about to be done for the day, he puts Kogoro into Forced Sleep, asks everyone to attend Summation Gathering "on Kogoro's request" and as him recaps that, out of any other possibility, the victim was killed by one of the named characters in an elaborate Locked Room Mystery. The culprit goes into a Motive Rant, breaks into tears and is taken away. In the The Stinger the team does one last Slapstick. Repeat ad infinitum while mixing in Detective Boys and the Myth Arc.
• Every episode of Digimon Ghost Game follows this structure: the heroes hear rumors of an urban legend, they learn its a Digimon behind the chaos, they defeat the Digimon causing said chaos, and then one of three endings happens. Firstly, said Digimon either reforms because they are misunderstood, they either retreat to cause trouble somewhere else because they don't reform, or lastly, they are killed. Expect to see the first ending a lot because it's the most common one while the third ending is one that only shows up sparingly.
• Doraemon:
  • Almost every TV episode of Doraemon falls into this. Similarly to The Fairly OddParents!, the episode will almost always begin with Nobita crying about a problem and begging Doraemon for a gadget of the week whether it is getting revenge from the bullies Gian and Suneo, solving his school struggles, or showing off over Suneo's wealth. Nobita will abuse said gadget or it will end up stolen by Gian and Suneo and both misuse it themselves. Doraemon has to get it back and morale is taught or not.
  • Almost every Doraemon Non-Serial Movie goes through similar formula where Doraemon and friends travel to outer space or other timeline or some undicovered part of the world, interact with the locals, and is forced to fight enemies (either illegal time travellers or aliens or wizards), then Doraemon and friends, sometimes with the help of the locals, will defeat the enemies with his futuristic gadgets and save the day. There are some exceptions such as Doraemon and the Steel Troops, where the adversaries are simply way too powerful and numerous, that the only way to win is to have Shizuka and Lilulu travel back in time to convince the space scientist in the past to create Robot Buddy capable of love instead of Killer Robot that can only compete and conquer fiercely, thus altering the history.
• Along with borrowing heavily from the series, the Dragon Ball Z Non Serial Movies had a very distinct formula that they rarely broke from: the good guys are living their lives normally, the villain is introduced and does some damage, alongside various side villains, the heroes attempt to defeat the villain right away but are repulsed, the side villains and the non-central Z-Fighters duke it out, Goku fights evenly with the main villain for a while, the main villain reveals his true power and inflicts a Curb-Stomp Battle onto everyone, and then Goku pulls out a technique that defeats the villain. Piccolo also shows up to save Gohan at some point, Krillin tries to fight something and gets humiliated, and in later movies Vegeta shows up to save Goku saying "you must be defeated by my hand!" Every movie in between Dragon Ball Z: The World's Strongest and Dragon Ball Z: Super Android 13! follows this formula exactly, and the prior and later films don't divert from it much (for instance, sometimes the villain doesn't have a Quirky Miniboss Squad or Goku isn't the main character).
• Franken Fran gets a patient who wants something. She gives it to them through super surgery. It comes back to bite them in the ass. Fran tries to fix it, and ends up making it worse. Fran shrugs it off and moves on to the next patient.
• Galaxy Express 999: Since the series is a Road Trip Plot on a cosmic train, every couple of chapters are roughly the same. Tetsuro and Matel have to take a stop at every Planet of Hats on the route with arbitrary time limit for their stay, the two go sightseeing, and almost immediately their documents get stolen and/or Matel gets kidnapped, and/or Tetsuro gets into a fight. Tetsuro resolves the conflict and the two get back on the train just in time.
• Hell Girl: Introduce Victim and their problems, revolving around a central Tormentor. Victim contacts Hell Correspondence to deal with the Tormentor. Ai leaves them a straw doll and states the terms of the contract. Victim mulls it over. Tormentor comes back to make their life hell. Victim is driven to the brink of despair and pulls the string near the end of the episode. Flashy torture sequence in which the Tormentor meets Ai and is sentenced to Hell. Victim is shown living with the consequences. This is the fundamental formula for all three seasons of the anime. There is an over-arching plot (particularly in the second series) that is sandwiched in, but usually doesn't take up too much time until the season finale. However, the more creepy and/or unusual episodes, like the abandoned hospital in Episode 17 of the first season shake up the formula. In the manga (which came later), most of the series plot is reduced, further invoking this trope.
• Most of the cases in The Kindaichi Case Files follow Kindaichi and Miyuki (plus some other friends) going on a trip and encountering a series of gruesome murders. When Kindaichi inevitably uncovers the mystery, the killer will start a Motive Rant about how the victims had caused the death, intentionally or otherwise, of the killer's loved one, before breaking down with the burden of their guilt, then trying to commit suicide.
• Kirby: Right Back at Ya! nearly always followed this formula: Kirby and his friends live their happy lives. Dedede acts stupid and orders a monster, or on rare occasions, NightMare Enterprises sends something over without immediately informing him. The monster attacks. Kirby inhales something and copies its power. The monster is defeated. Kirby and his friends return to living their happy lives. This extends to even the special two-part episodes, and the Series Finale. The only episodes that don't seem to follow this are a couple of the "someone comes to Dream Land to get revenge for something" episodes, and even then, there are many similarities to it.
• The Laughing Salesman usually goes like this: We meet an ordinary person with some everyday problem. Moguro shows up and offers them a supernatural solution to their problem, which comes with some very strange but very strict guidelines for its use. Moguro's customer uses the supernatural solution, but either due to greed, ambition, pride, or some other character flaw ignores his guidelines and suffers horribly as a result. Moguro closes out the episode with some pithy commentary on how foolish his customer was and walks off laughing.
• Lupin III:
  • TV episodes generally follow the formula of "Lupin and gang arrive in a new location, and plot to steal something. They do, but Fujiko double-crosses them. Zenigata shows up and attempts to arrest the gang, but fails. The end."
  • The movies and TV specials tend to follow a more strict formula: Opening heist, exposition about the MacGuffin, plot-important Girl of the Week, evil organization attempting to get the girl/item, Goemon shows up for one scene and acts as a Deus ex Machina.
• Natsume's Book of Friends episodes usually follow this pattern: An ayakashi is trying to kill/possess/drain life force from the main character. Natsume manages to survive, but doesn't kill the creature nor lets Nyanko-sensei finish it off, only takes pity on it instead, upon learning the reason the creature had, which is always some serious problem. Natsume then proceeds to help said ayakashi, often getting exhausted and fainting in the process. When he regains consciousness, the problem is either already solved, or it will be in the next few minutes.
• Oishinbo stories usually follow this pattern: The staff at the Tozai News are invited to dinner by a highly regarded man. (For some reason, it's always a man and never a woman.) Everybody praises the food, except for Yamaoka who states that it hasn't been prepared the way it should in order to make the flavor ideal. The rest of the Tozai News staff tells him to apologize, but instead he invites everybody present to a dinner in a little while, where he promises to show them how the dish ought to be made. Then, he and Kurita go procure the main ingredient for the meal, while Yamaoka tells Kurita about it. For instance, if he'll be making sashimi Yamaoka will go catch a salmon while explaining while this particular kind of salmon is the best fish for sashimi. The day of Yamaoka's dinner arrives, and he treats everybody to a delicious meal. Once they've started eating, the dinner guests will always gush about how great the food is in a very detailed way, saying things like "Delicious! The sour pork doesn't hide the taste of the salmon!" At this point, Yamaoka will reveal that he made the food in some unconventional and unexpected way, everybody is shocked, and the person who hosted the dinner at the beginning of the chapter will admit that up until now he hadn't truly understood how the dish should be cooked.
• Most One Piece story arcs: the crew end up in some location they have a reason/are forced to stay at, they get a look around the place whenever there's anything especially interesting about it, find out trouble's brewing, new characters get their stories told, crew heads to confront bad guys, Luffy is indisposed, rest of crew fight similarly skilled opponents, Luffy comes back and beats the Big Bad, crew says their goodbyes to anyone they might have helped or been helped by (often taking the form of a huge village-wide party). Despite this, every story arc manage to be very different from the others.
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • Ash spent 20 years traveling in a very strict pattern. He would be accompanied by one (1) boy, usually elder and a Gym Leader, and one (1) girl of similar age, either a Gym Leader or the female protagonist from the region's respective games (if either partner has a little sibling, they may be included). Ash would travel the region in search of eight (8) gym badges and will take part in one (1) League tournament, which he would lose. The girl of the group, if a female protagonist, would be engaged in her own competitions, usually Pokémon pageantry of some kind, culminating in a final competition, which she would also lose.
  • For a long time, almost every episode followed this formula: Ash and friends meet the person of the week and/or the Pokémon of the week. This person/Pokémon will have a problem. Team Rocket will plot to steal Pikachu and/or the Pokémon of the week and are defeated in short order, with the problem of the week solved either by Team Rocket's defeat or some unrelated event. In the event Team Rocket get defeated much earlier in the episode and the conflict isn't fully resolved and/or they were defeated in a way that didn't involve Pikachu's Thunderbolt, they try again until it nears the episode's end and they get zapped. If the Pokémon of the week does not have a trainer, sometimes Ash or one of his friends will catch it. The only exceptions to this formula are Gym battles, character development episodes, or plot points from the games, but even these tend to have their own formulas.
  • The formula only changed with Pokémon the Series: Black & White (2011-2013), where Team Rocket got a big boost in competence and much less screentime, the implication being they had their hands full with special directives or other serious business, leaving Ash and co. alone. They didn't show up once per episode, and they didn't have much bearing on Ash's side of the plot. The half-season of Filler before Pokémon X and Y came out turned them back to normal, though they still get a couple episodes of non-absence. Additionally, the Gen 5 arc also altered the "Ash catches five Pokémon in a region, releases or otherwise gives up one, and then catches another Pokémon to replace it" gimmick, where he instead had a team of eight (not counting Pikachu) with no releases, though out of those, four got shafted in terms of screen time to make room for the starters, Scraggy, and the Merchandise-Driven rejoining of Charizard.
  • Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon (2016-2019), where the adventure-style layout was instead changed to a school-based Slice of Life show, threw the old formula completely out the window. Characters of the week are few and far in between, with most interactions being between the main cast and their Pokémon. In contrast to previous seasons, which had 3-4 main characters, there are now 6 main characters, and 1 extra Pokémon sidekick. Pokémon of the week are often implemented into the show more naturally, rather than being overexposed and being made the focus of the whole episode. In contrast to previous seasons, events from previous episodes are often regularly brought back and mentioned, adding more continuity. Team Rocket, while now humorous again, have become surprisingly competent and do not appear in every single episode.
  • Pokémon Journeys: The Series (2019-) sees only two total main characters, Ash and Goh, doing research for Professor Cerise across all of the existing regions and Galar, revisiting the adventure layout from previous series while also having elements of Sun and Moon's lesser number of characters of the week and increased focus on humor. Furthermore, there are no female companions this time around, though Chloe, Cerise's daughter, is occasionally given focus. More emphasis on Pokémon catching is present, with Goh regularly catching Pokémon in many episodes. The Team Rocket Trio, especially since Ash is now the champion of Alola, now have a machine that dispenses powerful Pokémon for them, allowing them to still be the balance between competence and silliness that they were in Alola.
  • The movies follow such a rigid formula that you'd swear that they only have two or three plots they recycle every year: Ash and friends will enter a location with a completely different appearance from the region they're supposed to be in, possibly come across the newest Mythical Pokémon/a Pokémon from the next generation of games, then come into conflict with an antagonist; either a one-dimensional bastard human who wants to use the title Pokémon for his (and yes, it's almost always a man) own evil ends, or a big, scary and evil-looking Pokémon with sinister/disasterous goals. If the antagonist is a human, expect them to be irredeemable jackasses through and through, though there is a rare Heel–Face Turn for some of them, but if it's a Pokémon, 90% of the time they're Not Evil, Just Misunderstood, and the other 10% perform a Heel–Face Turn. Oftentimes, the world will be at stake, a large-scale battle happens, a Disney Death or two will occur, Team Rocket show up and do absolutely nothing significant, and a Super Mode or two will be shown off (the portrayal of which may or may not directly contradict how they work in the games). To top it off, despite all that happens across the movie, its events will rarely, if ever, actually be referenced in the actual show. The 20th movie, Pokémon: I Choose You!, avoids this formula. It has no true villain (the closest thing being Ash's Jerkass rival, Cross), the fate of the world is never at stake, and it takes place in an alternate timeline from the main series. There is a Disney Death, though.
  • The endgame for the Pokémon arcs. After Ash gets the final badge, two things happen. One, the villains of the region get a rushed closure with their downfall being closely related to a Legendary Pokémon who is the Non-Protagonist Resolver. And then Ash enters the league where he'll almost always lose to a guy with stronger Pokémon bordering on Diabolus ex Machina (always a male character), and then he'll ditch his friends and Pokémon and journey to the next region, hitting a giant Reset Button on the way out. Pokémon the Series: XY subverted this by first handling the league arc, then making the Villainous Team arc the true finale of the season. And while Zygarde played a major role in stopping Team Flare, Ash and the entire supporting cast (including the Gym Leaders, Hero of Another Story, and Champions) got to play a majorly important role as well. Once again, Sun and Moon completely averts it by having Ash actually WIN the League for the first time since the Orange Islands, and so did Journeys where he made it to the very top of the World Coronation Series, defeated Leon, and became World Champion.
  • Ash wasn't often the only one having to change his teams out per the Bag of Spilling. When Brock was still a major character for Ash's later journeys through Hoenn, the Kanto Battle Frontier, and Sinnoh, he would remove some of the Pokémon from his team as well by leaving them at his gym (Onix, Geodude, and Crobat for Hoenn, Ludicolo for Kanto, and Forretress and Marshtomp for Sinnoh). May also did it to a lesser extent for the Kanto Battle Frontier when she removed Beautifly, Skitty, and Bulbasaur from her team. Even Team Rocket started to do this starting with Unova, where they have to give up all of the Pokémon they have on them before going into a new region (whether or not they leave them directly at Rocket HQ or release them into the wild). While their first case of this for Unova caused them to even leave behind Wobbuffet (their longest lasting Pokémon), he is reinstated for Kalos and is not subjected to this for Alola and Journeys.
  • As the starter Pokémon trio of each region are extremely prominent, Ash has to catch at least one starter for his team in each region, having one (Treecko in Hoenn and Froakie in Kalos), or two (as seen with Turtwig and Chimchar in Sinnoh and Rowlet and Litten in Alola), though he occasionally has the entire trio at times (in Kanto, Johto, and Unova). If he doesn't catch all the starters, that's because one or two travel companions (such as Brock for Mudkip, May for Torchic, Dawn for Piplup, Serena for Fennekin, Clemont for Chespin, and Lana for Popplio) will have at least one or two of them. Journeys threw this completely out the window when Goh ended up with all three of the Galar starters, and due to their prominence, he always seemed to have them on hand in every episode while the rest of his Pokemon remained in rotation at Cerise Laboratory. Pokémon Horizons: The Series carries over this element of the formula, with Liko, Roy, and Dot each owning one of the Paldea starters (Sprigatito, Fuecoco, and Quaxly respectively).
    • As a result of Charizard (the final form of Kanto starter Charmander) developing Wolverine Publicity later into the show's lifetime, after Ash was seen with his again in Unova, every series would feature a Charizard in a prominent role, often one promoting a gimmick in that era of the franchise. This started with Alain in Kalos having a Mega Evolving Charizard, but continued into Alola with Kiawe having a Poke Ride Charizard, Leon (in both the games and Journeys) in Galar having an unbeatable Charizard that can Gigantamax, and Friede in Horizons having one that can Terastallize.
  • Ash also usually catches the common bird for the region, a part of the formula that was only thrown aside in Alola^note Though a flock of the Toucannon line, Alola's resident common bird, raised the Rowlet Ash caught and Journeys, though it returned for Horizons when Roy caught Wattrel.
  • Due to Eevee's newfound popularity as a mascot opposite to Pikachu in Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!, the Alola chapter of the anime started a trend in which a fellow main character other than Ash would catch an Eevee, with Lana having one in Alola and Chloe having one in Journeys. While prior main characters (May in the Kanto Battle Frontier and Serena in Kalos) had Eevee before, these predate this mascot status as these Eevee still evolved (May's becoming Glaceon and Serena's becoming Sylveon), while Lana's and Chloe's have never evolved to follow in the footsteps of Ash's Pikachu never evolving.
• Most Pretty Cure seasons fall into formula to at least some degree, but some are much more noteworthy than others:
  • Every single episode of Pretty Cure Max Heart sees Nagisa encounter some kind of everyday problem, begin to deal with said problem, get attacked out of nowhere by a member of the Quirky Miniboss Squad who summons a Monster of the Week for no real reason, transform alongside Honoka, fight said monster to a standstill until Hikari transforms into Shiny Luminous, and finish up with either Marble Screw Max, Extreme Luminario, or Marble Screw Max Spark; monster gets defeated, miniboss squad member runs off, and Nagisa deals with whatever problem she was worried about, roll credits.
  • Nearly every episode of Smile Pretty Cure! has the girls dealing with some sort of mundane problem or one caused by one of Majorina's gimmick items, cutting to the Quirky Miniboss Squad having some sort of discussion or argument that relates to or causes the problem. One of them goes to wherever the girls happen to be, gives their stock Bad Energy-gathering speech and advances Pierrot's countdown clock one tick. The girls arrive too late to stop this from happening, and the miniboss summons an Akanbe so the girls can collect a new Cure Decor from beating it with Rainbow Healing, Rainbow Burst or Royal Rainbow Burst. Whatever the method used, the miniboss runs off and the girls settle the mundane problem. That this formula means the villains have no actual reason to summon monsters other than to hand powerups to the girls is the source of many a wallbanger.
  • The job episodes of HuGtto! Pretty Cure contain the girls learning about a specific career and being taught the responsibilities of said job. Just when they've got the hang of it, someone else who works for the company, or someone who happens to be visiting for the day becomes a target for the Oshimaida. After the battle, the girls thank the people at the job for the opportunity, and then take a commemorative photo with the Mirai Pad.
• Sailor Moon: One of the girls makes a new friend or had the friend without ever mentioning it, the friend has some kind of problem (romantic 99% of times), the Big Bad decides that — OMG, coincidence! — said friend is definitely the person who has... whatever the Big Bad is looking for, the Big Bads send a monster of the week, Sailor Moon and company start losing, Tuxedo Mask throws a rose and makes a small speech regarding the problem of the victim of the week, Sailor Moon uses her overly long attack to defeat the monster, figures out the victim didn't have whatever the Big Bad is looking for and the friend's problem is solved by the end of the episode, thanks to the fight or not. Also, the new friend will seem to have formed a strong, meaningful bond with one or all of the Sailor Guardians... and then they are never seen or spoken of again. This was in the anime version, the manga and live-action version was more about the Guardians.
• Saint Seiya:
  • Starting from the Story Arc involving the Gold Saints and their Zodiac Houses, the anime follows the following format: Athena is on the verge of death due to an action performed either by the current Big Bad or one of his servants (struck by a golden arrow, overextertion to prevent the melting of the Artic ice, being drowned inside an aquating chamber, having her life force drained within a vessel), Seiya and the other Bronze Saints must storm the villain's headquarters by defeating his servants whenever necessary (Golden Saints, Hilda's saints, Poseidon's generals, and the high-tier spectra under Hades' command), and finally have a grueling battle against the villain (Ares, Hilda, Poseidon, Hades). The Hades arc shakes it a little by having a preceding phase (Sanctuary) where the conflict is mostly between Hades' followers and the Gold Saints, as it's not until the start of the second phase when the formula operates as usual.
  • The movies (with the exception of the second one) generally follow the same format as the Posidon arc of the manga - Greek God X arises, proclaims they will destroy all of mankind; Athena confronts said god by herself and is promptly set up for a slow, tortuous death as a human sacrifice and her bronze saints (as the main characters) are given some arbitrary time limit to fight through the bad guy's minions and rescue her. Inevitably, they are all defeated at least once until Seiya (and sometimes Ikki) manages to struggle into the main baddie's chamber, whereupon he focuses all his and his friends' energy into the single punch that he's learned and blows the baddie to space dust. Athena is rescued, roll credits, the end. You could set your watch by it. Some of the other consistent guideposts: Hyouga will get curbstomped ala Worf. Shiryu will get beat within an inch of his life, but triumphs after shedding his armor to unleash his true power, and then collapses. Shun will fight defensively, get ripped apart, and call for his Big Brother with his last conscious breath. Ikki will then teleport in and avenge his little bro by viciously one-shotting the offender, but then gets Worf-stomped by the Dragon or Big Bad. Seiya will get debilitated somehow (blinding or poisoning, usually) and get thrown down a cliff or stairway, or into a ravine, which he will slowly and painfully make his way back up from, for the final confrontation as described above. Like clockwork.
• Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei: Mr. Itoshiki is all riled up about some aspect of society. He lists a bunch of examples, taking the class on an impromptu field trip to do so. He declares that the aspect of society has left him in despair, possibly attempting suicide. Then, either Kafuka or Chiri shows up to show the positive side of the aspect of society or comment on the aspect of society's proper/ improperness. Then there might be some sort of punchline or something. This formula is followed all but the most surreal episodes, with the exception of some of the character introductions.
• 'Tis Time for "Torture," Princess establishes the basic formula early on: Tortura greets the Princess with "'Tis time for 'torture', Princess" and introduces that episode's "torture", which is usually a bribe of delicious food or some other Mundane Luxury. The Princess looks like she's going to resist, causing Ex to brag about her strict upbringing or accomplishments on the battlefield, only for the Princess to cave when Tortura introduces some twist to sweeten the deal. At the end Tortura reports to the Hell-Lord with what she found out, only for him to dismiss it as unimportant or for a really trivial reason.
• Yakitate!! Japan fell into this during the Yakitate 25 arc, with the basic plot elements of every match just repeating themselves after a while. This might be the reason it was eventually aborted to quickly switch to the final battle instead (and the anime version made it Yakitate 9 instead).

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