I would be very happy if some glorious soul were to translate this.

I'm guessing that this is a Stage 3 boss joke in there...

EDIT: I was right! ...sort of. Anyways, thank you kindly translators!

I'm trying to come up with a good equivalent for the Japanese term "Neta chara". It refers to a character who always gets the same punch line or specializes in a so-called trope. These days, fans will often force this status upon a character because they are portrayed by a live actor or voice actor who has already played a neta chara, or because that character comes from a long-running series like Gundam or Kamen Rider, which is known to produce neta charas. Examples given on Pixipedia and Nicopedia include Muska from Laputa, Nekoarc from Tsukihime/Melty Blood, Iwark from Gundam AGE, and Luigi from Super Mario Bros.

I've considered "gag character", "cliche character", "quirk character", or "one-trick character", but I don't think any of those quite fit. I'm fairly sure there's a decent English-language equivalent, but I'm blanking on what it is, which makes it tricky to look up. Any suggestions?

Would typecast be what you are looking for?

"Typecast" is for the actors, not the characters; you're looking for a good term for what typecast actors are cast as.

Unfortunately, just "type" isn't enough on its own, and "stereotype" or "archetype" are probably a little too specific; "stereotype" is about the best I can think of at the moment, though.

How about 'quirky' rather than just 'quirk'? I don't think it's that out of place.

monhan said:

How about 'quirky' rather than just 'quirk'? I don't think it's that out of place.

No, that just implies the characters have some minor eccentricity, I feel.

What about "shallow", "one-note" or "walking punchline"?

Prime32 said:

What about "shallow", "one-note" or "walking punchline"?

As I said, I'd considered "one-trick" (akin to "one-note"), but it didn't seem quite right. I suppose it might work, after all. I'll give it a bit more thought, in case someone suggests or I think of a term that strikes me as more appropriate.

"Pigeonholed Character"?

All those are good though looking at the games

Meiling fits sadly due to the fandom's love of making her a buttmonkey, though she's grown beyond that. Though Rumia and Cirno are similar if not a bit worse. Though one could possibly say the rest of the cast is rather one note/gagish.

Alice while there's some things using her well, she will suffer the shadow of "marisa fangirl" (though I suspect it wasn't until IN that the fuel really got added. Letty is similar.

Keine has the CAVE gag, but it's not as dominant as the others (same with the milk thing) Mystia and Wriggle suffer more from one jokeness.

Nitori on the other hand seems to have adverted it unless you count the trait of "shy but friendly to humans" (something currently getting shot to hell in canon) the Akis being overlooked is their trait.

Yuugi doesn't really have a gag (beyond the western made Sake never drop), Parsee on the other hand fits the bill quite well.

Alas poor Ichirin and her status as "Unzan's hitbox", what made it hurt more was that she was rather popular at first. Not sure if one could call Kogasa a one gag character or not.

Yoshika averted this somewhat (she's generally shown as dim but either cute or creepy), Kyouko is similar (echo gags)

Now DDC? I would say Kagerou adverts it as there hasn't been real gags associated with her yet while Sekibanki's getting "Yukkuri head" gags.

As far this comic? I would say she does have more in common with Keine (considering how Rebecca made a cute wolf form picture of her)