An often over looked trope in anime is the art of "Earning your happy ending"; this is where the main character goes through hard ships around some of the most mean spirited people imaginable constantly wanting said main character to leave or give up, there's a right way and a wrong way of doing this.
Case Study 1 - Kaleido Star
Sora Naegino dreams of being a great star on the Kaleido stage but her boundless optimism doesn't work with the professionalism displayed by the troupe, one by one she has to earn the respect of each character as the series goes on culminating in one of the best finales in anime with season one's final episode but the mean spiritedness continued when May Wong shows up along with Leon.
With the exception of May, Kaleido Star has the right balance to make all the mean spirited moments worth sitting through, there's a big difference between being fired and being told you should leave which is present through out the whole series but it's for Sora to ultimately decide to balance passion and professionalism, feelings ain't enough in this business.
Case Study 2 - Sakura Wars TV
Sakura Shinguji enters a fairly hostile environment at the Imperial theatre both in performing at the theatre and combat;
She has to earn the respect of her peers individually, she even played as Cinderella for one of her performances which isn't very subtle.
The issue is that it's too mean spirited, the official canon of the games suggests that Sakura initially has trouble fitting in more to her own lack of confidence rather than anything the rest of the cast put her through, the TV series which is loosely canon just makes her out as worthless, Sakura's situation is way more complicated than Sora's as her case is more living up to a legacy she hasn't quite grasped rather than a dream of being a star, there was no reason to be this horrible to her.
Case Study 3 - Smile Down the Runway
A series that I'll be reviewing by the end of the week features a designer and the model trying to break into the industry.
Ikuto the designer has potential but quickly finds out how high the bar is to get to the top.
Chiyuki the model is disadvantaged by her height which is too short for being a super model but try telling her to stop and she becomes insufferable.
It's two contrasting characters journeys, one is the right way, the other is the wrong way.
Ikuto is forced to learn that just because he's good at making clothes doesn't mean it's a free pass into the industry, it's pretty cutthroat but Ikuto learns quickly enough to adapt.
Chiyuki on the other hand doesn't really earn her happy ending, she does take things seriously and works hard to achieve her dream but came across as really patronizing at times.
I'll go into more detail on the review.
Case Study 4 - Love Live
Constantly having boundless optimism and pretty much recruiting all of your detractors makes the original Love Live the worst example of this, Honoka Kosaka barely made any effort to reach the top and only through forced drama bombs that she even had to do anything other than just being an insufferable flower child.
Case Study 5 - Shonen Anime
It's not the same for your Narutos, Midoriyas and Luffys, granted Midoriya would fit more into this category and season 1 Naruto definitely has shades of this but the ebb and flow of a typical shonen anime quickly makes the hardships associated with this trope more redundant as they climb the hierarchy.
