I think that compared to a lot of western media

anime has a different relationship with like

signifiers

semiotics

here's an example of what I mean -

the Phantom Thief genre

in my head, what Phantom Thief means is

it's a story about a flashy thief who does over-the-top heists while taunting the police, as the protagonist

in anime, what Phantom Thief means as a genre is

the police get a signed index card from the phantom thief announcing that they're going to steal a specific diamond

then the main cop goes to defend it with 500 useless sub-cops, and then a bunch of spotlights all point up to on top of a skyscraper

where a person wearing both a cape and a domino masks announces their presence and they engage in a battle of wits

I say 'isekai', what I ostensibly mean is a story where a person from Earth is transported to a fantasy world to have adventures there

anime says 'isekai', it means "a teenager with a specific haircut is killed, probably by a truck, and god tells him that he's being reincarnated in a fantasy world, where he gets busted super stats, because the game runs on RPG logic, and five to ten girls fall in love with him, at least one of whom is a princess and at least one of whom is a child slave"

these genres get established and instead of just being focused on the core themes and ideas they also all share like fifteen really specific signifiers

genre copycatting/follow the leader is definitely more noticeable where you can See it

magical girls always have a little flying animal that does exposition at the protagonist and there's a really ostentatious transformation sequence where the girl is implied to get naked and then a more colorful outfit pops onto her to let her do her magic, which mostly takes the form of specific elemental attacks with english names

like not even as a creative laziness thing

many of these have lots of interesting and unique ideas in them

but they gotta have the signifiers so that you know what you're watching

Carmen Sandiego is a Phantom Thief

But she doesn't really do that shit

Carmen Sandiego is a phantom thief, but she's not a Phantom Thief

yes

it's just a different way for genres to cluster

Heck, DWRP does the same thing. You see a lot of the same sorts of setup beats in the average adventure city RP, for instance.

oh absolutely yeah

DWRP has a lot of Signifiers

Or, to bring up a genre you're not fond of with apologies, the reason murdergames are split into mass-ex and scapegoat is that both subgenres have very set formulas with signifiers that are very, very different from each other.

things that were associated with the genre during its rise and people keep adding, because they're the signifiers

nods

like characters respawning on death

superhero stories are also ripe with signifiers

This feels like a question I always ask, as in "why's it gotta have the specific tropes though"

Jisu spitting facts

Honestly USA live action TV has been a challenge for me for this reason

To like confirm small details