When viewing anime often one’s mind wanders as to the thought process of the writers. Sure, it’s easy to be impressed by the new anime Sabikui Bisco’s creative use of War Hippos, but often it is the mundane that is more puzzling. One of the main questions I ponder is why, oh why, is the Shounen Hero so common.
The Shounen Hero is a narrative trope occurring most often in, you guessed it, Shounen Anime. This wide-eyed young individual is as native as he is powerful, rushing headfirst into danger and destruction while somehow always overcoming astronomical odds with the power of “heart”, and thus we began the laundry list of tropes for the Shounen Hero. Seriously, no one can tell me with a straight face that they ever genuinely expected Naruto to die during any of the 500 Naruto Shippuden episodes. The blessing (or curse) of the Shounen Hero is that he or she will always succeed in the end, making the whole heroic journey seem trivial to seasoned Anime veterans.
Another Shounen Hero™ special is the “dialogue attack. ” Shounen anime can’t help but explain exactly what they are doing, whether as an expositional dump before the big fight, or as the Shounen hero is explaining exactly why they were able to defeat the villain. Entire episodes are devoted to the narrative explanations of heroes’ powers on My Hero Academia (Boku No Hero Academia), and Dragon Ball famously had multi-episode arcs for narrative powers to be developed. While many might be a fan of unique and interesting powers like those seen in Dragon Ball and My Hero Academia, few want to be inundated with exactly what the hero will do with said power. One of the markers of exceptional storytelling is the ability to “show” instead of “telling” in a story and to this, the Shounen Hero disappoints.
Shounen Heros serve a greater purpose though, and if 100 mediocre shows had to be made for masterpieces such as One Punch Man to be created, so be it. Saitama, the hero of One Punch Man, defeats his opponents in a single blow but struggles with the repercussions of being a Shounen Hero. Saitama realizes that nothing can defeat him and the show goes deep into the philosophical meaning of being unbeatable, and what the reality of such a trope would look like as Saitama struggles with relationships, meaning, and duty.
Shounen Heros might be overused and played out, but chances are that they are here to stay. Just like any other trope, the creation can be used for great narrative hits but only if, like in One Punch Man, writers go above and beyond to create engaging and dynamic stories.