I guess this one could get controversial.
I’ll try my best to think of a good safe answer here…
Well, I feel like no matter what answer I give there will be disagreements from someone, but that’s just how these sort of questions go.
My answer is maid outfits. At a glance it may seem like you’d only encounter them in ecchi anime, but in reality they’re pretty common in all sorts of slice of life and other anime. Especially in school anime, as there is often the inevitable maid cafe during the school’s cultural festival. It’s actually quite difficult to avoid seeing the maid outfit in anime, when you think about it.
And the reason why I’d like to see less of it is simply because I’m not really a fan of it. You don’t really see an outfit like that in reality. Personally the only place I’ve ever seen a girl wearing the “French maid” outfit was in Akihabara, due to all the girls on the sidewalks trying to pull guys into their sketchy maid cafes for overpriced food and drinks (and embarrassment, I’d think). Just being called “Nii-san” by one of them as I walked by made me feel embarrassed, haha.
But yeah, it just seems like a bit of a fetishized outfit or whatever. I know there are others, like the bunny outfit, which you also never see in real life, or at least I haven’t. There’s also the female gym class bloomers which I know for a fact girls don’t wear anymore, thank goodness. And the school swimsuit also, which is much more conservative now (and some schools are apparently even switching to unisex swimsuits) compared to the past.
Anyways, my answer is maid outfits, but you really could make the argument for some other outfits.
Sorry if you’re a fan of the fan-service outfits, and in ecchi anime, I don’t have any issues really. It’s just that a lot of fan-service outfits find their way into pretty much all other anime, and I’m not the biggest fan of that. But you know, it really does ultimately depend on the anime and the situation.
Now I was thinking of this question through the lens of school / slice of life / ecchi, but there are probably other outfits in other genres that I hadn’t thought of. Just to give you ideas, so that I can hope that you give an answer I hadn’t thought of!
What outfit would you like to see less of in anime?
Until next time,
Thanks for reading.
Umai Yomu Anime Blog 
Hmm, this is a tough one! I asked my roommate (a non Otaku) what they thought about it, and he said he would like to see less ninja outfits! When he described the outfit he was talking about, he means specifically the Naruto outfit. That got me to thinking, what would Naruto look like if all the characters wore regular modern clothes? It was an interesting conversation, so thanks for the fun talking prompt!
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Funny, I know ninjas are a thing but when you think about it they’re not that common outside of certain shonen anime. I feel like exorcists are just as common, if not more so.
Never watched Naruto but there are a lot of anime where characters always wear the exact same outfit. Personally, while I don’t mind it, I do like some variety!
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I tend to agree with anything fan-servicey, these days it just seems too overblown and in fact there are better ways to grip a viewer’s attention (thought-provoking themes) than say, a beach episode which basically does the same thing as literally everything that came before it. Other than that, I’d love to have less main protagonists that come from a secluded/introverted lifestyle – granted it makes for interesting character development if done right, but honestly an extroverted one would definitely make things more interesting with a strong confidence and self-esteem from the get-go, as opposed to the “no-social-life-skills” tropes.
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Agreed. The fan-service stuff just seems so shallow most of the time, and often detracts from the story because of how forced it can feel.
And yeah, that introverted / isekai protagonist topic has come up a lot recently here haha. In Fred’s words:
It allows some poor dweeb to fantasize, “This could happen to me!”
And yeah, makes sense cause those types of characters are often so one-dimensional that it’s almost frustrating to watch at times. Like the protag might be super strong and whatnot, but he’s a total wreck when it comes to socializing or common sense, so it allows the viewer to think “If I were in that situation, I’d do a better job than him” or whatever and feel superior.
My favourite characters are the ones who are unapologetic / confident to a fault, even if they’re wrong, because it’s so rare in anime (and Japanese culture). Like Speed o’ Sound Sonic, for example, is a really fun character because of that personality trait. Another example is Izayoi from Problem Children.
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Any outfit from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure (Part 5). They were just too exposing. Luckily they were worn by males, but they just throw the wrong idea.
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