>>132874594Except I never said that.
The damsel in distress trope is still extremely strong in every single medium.
The only thing that changes is that it's not the sole or main driving force for the plot.
DiD was always a shitty trope that was just lazy writing.
Don't know how to create conflict? Make bad guy do bad things to loved character of the protagonist. Hell, not even that. There are a shitload of stories of the protagonist going through a shitload of stuff for some useless piece of meat without any real reasons.
DiD now changed from being the main driving force and main conflict creator to being an additional motivator.
We now have other shit that drives the main plot, but the damseling is still strong as a side motive.
Even in the freaking show you posted in the OP, the girl keeps getting her shit wrecked only for the MC to step in. But instead of her going full damsel, she will end up being somewhat useful with here "iie senpai, this is our fight".
All the useful character end up being a damsel at some point only to make the protagonist more useful despite the other character being strong.
Also Damsel in distress doesn't mean only a love interest. While damsel refers to female, the DiD trope isn't a female exclusive trope. It refers to any character becoming useless and in danger only to drive the point of how awesome the hero of the story is. It can be a brother, sister, mother, father, friend, boyfriend, girlfriend, dog, cat, even a fucking object can be the object of the DiD trope.
So no, we aren't seing more shows without DiD, we are seeing even more shows with that trop because it is, as saida t the start, the most abused trope because it excuses bad writing and anyone actually wanting the DiD trope back as the main driving force of anime should do the world a favor and an hero so that he can save his damsel.
