Needs more love: Chaste Teens

Chaste Teens is written as if it only applies to anime, and has only one example outside of that genre, but I don't see any reason why it just be so limited. Tweak the description?

The one non-anime example isn't even valid, and at least one of the Anime ones doesn't fit the description either.

edited 5th Dec '10 3:50:04 AM by Zyffyr

Well, does it exist ouside of anime?

I really can't think of any examples.

Sure it exist outside of Anime.

However, it is a Values Dissonance thing. It used to be that romance was not the center of a teenager's world. Older works (that tropers don't watch or read) are more likely to have this.

It's far more noticeable in anime since it is a current thing and thus seems strange. The reason for it is because a large segment of anime fans want to fantasize about a pure virginal girlfriend, and anime producers have discovered that the easiest way to provide this is to simply deny their female characters any romance.

There is also the possibility that there is some Truth in Television to this, as polls have shown that Japanese society seems to be dividing between those that starting dating and having romantic relationships early- and so have a lot of relationships, and those that never have a romance.

I know I've heard women complaining about the lack of romance here in America. There was even a study done showing that that amount of dates in college have drastically decreased in the last couple decades. (Basically guys are going for the "hook-up" girl, leaving girls who want an actual date without any invitations).

Part of the description reads that the girls point out the lack of romance. There's plenty of western stuff that doesn't feature romance, because it's not romance. It's just not part of the work.

Honestly though, is this even a trope?

Basically would there be a trope for sober teens? I doubt it.

edited 6th Dec '10 1:51:50 AM by VincentGaribaldi

Sober teens? No.

A cast full of Teetotaler Teens? Yes, if it would happen, that could be a trope.

These aren't teens who choose to not be involved in romance though, these are just teens where it just happens to never happen (because it's not the focus of the story). Sometimes this is lampshaded.

Exactly. This isn't a bunch of teens saying, "Hey you know what's cool? ABSTINENCE!" It's just a lack of romance and whatnot in the plots. Maybe I'm wrong, but from the current description it doesn't seem like a trope to me. At the very least then I think the description needs to be rewritten.

I think we should bring it to YKTTW, Needs More Love indeed.

I agree that modern works tend to include at least some hint of romance (Ship Tease, BST, UST, Ho Yay / Les Yay, Incest Yay, hell, we have Toy Ship for preteen ones).

Chaste Teen are rare, and that's why this is indeed a trope, maybe some description overhaul?

Props for the subject line, by the way, even if I'm not sure whether the joke was intentional.

(Yes, I suppose they do.)

In order to fill out the non-anime examples, think of most American TV shows that are aimed at kids and star teenagers. Although it's rare now, a show like Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide wouldn't have had the Ship Tease that the 2000s show had. (Even the first episodes or so played it pretty straight). It would require some research, but looking into cartoons and sitcoms from the '80s and '90s might help come up with examples.

Yeah, I'm with Vincent Garibaldi here. A mere lack of romance in a kid or teen-oriented work just doesn't seem like a trope to me, it seems kind of normal for that demographic (at least in Western works; I'm not very familiar with Japanese works).

Plus, per this discussion about Chaste Hero and Celibate Hero, the use of "chaste" here might not be entirely correct anyway.

edited 23rd Aug '11 6:43:07 AM by Jeysie

Apparently I am adorable, but my GF is my #1 Groupie. (Avatar by Dreki-K)

Well, if you go back to the Family-sitcoms of the fifties and sixties, even when the kids were supposedly high school age they didn't date or talk about dating. Even into the Seventies, with shows like Welcome Back Kotter, that was set in a high school and had a main cast consisting of four high-school guys, only Barabarino was interested in girls at all, and he only had a "girlfriend" for one episode in the first season, and then again in the fourth.

I think there is a trope here, but it isn't limited to anime. I think that it could be stated as "If a show is not a 'teen-romance' show, any teens will have virtually no interest in romance or the opposite sex at all."

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

The way the description is written, it sounds like this is just No Hugging, No Kissing applied to specific types of manga/anime. So unless the description is changed so that the trope is about teens who choose to be chaste, the whole thing seems superfluous.

I can see something worth noting here, but it's trivia. I keep seeing things like anime reviewers speculating or manga artists themselves stating that romance is either kept out of works entirely or downplayed leading to absurdly long Will They or Won't They? scenarios (technically - the trope isn't in focus, of course) in works aimed at boys, since boys are expected not to be interested in romance*

. That way, the story can include pretty girls in the cast without running the risk of having the audience reject it for being "girly".

So what we see is No Hugging, No Kissing, Will They or Won't They? and similar tropes, but (from a Doylist point of view) that can because of the above.