Hello. Justin here and welcome to the Otaku Mind. Hope everyone is having a good day and enjoying the summer special as well as my review of Food Wars. So this month I wanted to talk about manga and a certain genre of manga that has existed for many years. That genre is of course, shonen. When people think of manga the first genre that pops into their head is shonen and for a good reason. It’s where some of the best stories in manga come from. It’s been going strong for years and still continues to be going strong till this day. Through my years of reading I’ve noticed that while the genre continues to dish out great story after great story it has also evolved over the years. So for this month’s Otaku Mind we’re gonna take a look at shonen from its humble beginnings to today, see how its evolved through the years, and answer if this change is good or not? Let’s get started.
What is Shonen
Now before we begin, I think it’s best that we define what exactly is shonen? The word shonen loosely translates to young boy or in a literal sense, young person’s comic or boys’ comic. The age group for this particular genre varies depending on the magazine, but most if not everyone agrees that shonen manga is typically manga geared towards boys in middle (aka junior high) or high school. While there have been instances of girls reading shonen manga, the shonen genre makes boys their top priority. So naturally that means shonen manga will provide readers with high action, humorous plots, camaraderie, and a male lead. Although there have been instances of a female lead in shonen such as Yotsuba&!, but most times out of 10 its going to be a male lead.
Where did it Begin
So where did shonen begin you ask? Well if I were to ask you this question I’m sure some of you would say: 60 years ago. That is incorrect. Then you would say: 100 years ago. That is close but still incorrect. In truth, shonen has said to have existed since the 19th century with the first magazine featuring shonen stories published in 1895. So shonen has been around for approximately 121 years. Of course, in the early years the genre was more open to everyone and didn’t target a specific gender or age group. It was like what it is today. Whether you’re a kid, adult, boy or girl, this was a genre for everyone to enjoy and be entertained by. However, one man would come along and change the way shonen would be presented.
The Father of Shonen
So let’s jump ahead to the 1950s. It’s after WWII and Japan is now being occupied by Allied forces. This occupation had a significant impact on the male population of Japan who felt embarrassed and weak. They were defeated by their enemies, let down their country, and now had their enemies occupying their soil. It wasn’t the fact that they lost that had them upset, but rather the fact that they were forced to surrender. The young men of Japan needed something to lift their heads up, to take their minds off this hardship and give them hope. Enter, Osamu Tezuka. For those of you who don’t know, Osamu Tezuka is the Father of Manga, particularly shonen manga. He was the one who developed the tropes and core values that would define shonen manga to this day with his hit series, Astro Boy. The series would focus on a young boy in a sci-fi world of tomorrow, action, humorous moments, and the value of friends. Astro Boy would overcome trials and troubles presented before him and come out stronger and more mature than when he entered them. Osamu’s series was a big hit and would be the gold standard of manga throughout the 50s and 60s as other shonen manga followed the formula and tropes he had developed. Particularly overcoming trials and maturing part. Shonen mangas would often focus on a young boy going on journey or adventure, come across a hard time or obstacle, and overcoming it to become more mature and a better person from it. These trials resonated with the young male readers who would learn that pain and failure are a part of life. There will be times where you’ll succeed and there will be times where you’ll fail. The question is: what will you do after you fail? Stay in the ground sulking or rise back up learning from your mistakes and moving forward? Stuff like this was great and still holds true to the world today.
In The Years that Followed
After the 60s, manga was only growing in popularity and this gave rise to new genres in the years to come such as shoujo and later on seinen (which I’ll probably talk about in the future) and josei. During the 70s we got Lupin the Third which showed authors out there that manga can be made for adults as well as kids so we saw a lot more mature mangas which opened the door for senien and josei to be born and explored more complex issues and stories for readers to enjoy. Fast forward to the 80s where shonen was really hitting their stride thanks to the popularity of mangas like Captain Tsukasa, Fist of the North Star, and of course Dragonball. All of these mangas highlighted the core values of shonen. Captain Tsukasa showed camaraderie and determination in hardships and Fist of the North Star gave us a high level of action and violence that boys love, but it was Dragonball that really had the most impact on readers at the time. It had humor both for kids and adults. A creative world that fused the past, present and future. We got action and powerful moves from the characters that we got to know, love and see grow before our very eyes. At the time this was a revolutionary manga and it would go on to shape the minds of shonen authors for the next 30 years. Guys like Eiichiro Oda (One Piece), Masashi Kishimoto (Naruto), Tite Kubo (Bleach), Hiro Mashima (Fairy Tail), and Kentaro Yabuki (To Love-Ru) have all admitted that their works took inspiration from Dragonball and Akira Toriyama. Their mangas would present simple and easy to follow stories with characters we could identify with, watch them grow, and overcome their trials to achieve their goals and become better people from it. Throughout the 90s and early 2000s, shonen manga would be defined by these core values. Then the 2010s came and things started to change. The stories within shonen manga started to get more complex, darker, and present more mature subjects that you normally wouldn’t see in the manga from the 60s to the early 2000s. Don’t believe me? Well let me show you. The most popular shonen manga from my generation of manga readers which was around the late 90s and early 2000s were One Piece, Naruto, and Bleach. In today’s world the most popular shonen manga now is Jujustu Kaisen, My Hero Academia, Chainsaw Man, and Kimetsu no Yaiba. Four great mangas and all of them having complex stories, darker themes, and mature subjects that you wouldn’t see in manga from my generation until the early 2010s.
How Did This Evolution Start
So when did this change started to happen? Most people like to point to Death Note, but no, it goes back further, much further. Ironically, it all started with the Father of Manga himself, Osamu. With the success of Astro Boy, Osamu started to work on other projects and one of those projects was Dororo. Despite having a short magazine life, Dororo was unlike anything at the time. It presented a dark story about a boy whose dad sold his body parts to demons in exchange for prosperity and the boy going on a hunt to fight demons to get his body parts back. By today’s standards this story would be classified as a seinen series, but back then seinen didn’t exist. So Dororo was classified as a shonen series by default because there was nothing else it could be at the time. Moving onto the 80s, more instances of shonen manga not feeling like shonen appeared. The first one that comes to mind is Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. It presented a more complex storytelling as well as characters who weren’t young boys but instead young adults with adult themes. Over the years, this series would go on to be called a seinen which was the right genre for this manga. Even Fist of the North Star feels like a seinen series with its main character being a fully grown adult and taking place in a world that looks like Mad Max. In the 90s, we got Great Teacher Onizuka which follows the story of an ex-biker gang member turned teacher who was hoping to get laid and featured some rather risqué and sexual themes you wouldn’t normally see in a shonen series at that time. While Onizuka would go through his own character development this was still an unsavory character with bad morals. There was also Hunter x Hunter which walks the line between shonen and seinen. The most shonen series in the world often feels like a seinen series with its unexpected dark turns that nobody sees coming. Finally, the early 2000s gave us Death Note a story about death, betrayal, and a little bit of edgy culture which perfectly reflected the mindset of some teens at the time. However, the one series that I think changed the face of shonen manga forever was Fullmetal Alchemist. Fullmetal Alchemist took all the concepts of shonen and pushed them to the absolute limits. It showed how shonen didn’t always have to be bright and colorful to be popular. It could be serious but still have humor. It could have fantasy elements but still be based in reality. It could have intense action with tragic and dark moments you wouldn’t see coming. Finally, it could provide social commentary. Fullmetal Alchemist in my opinion set the bar for what a shonen could have in their story and ran with it, ushering in a new era of shonen manga in the years to come.
This now leads us to the 2010s where we got Attack on Titan. I know there are people out there who classify this as a seinen series, but this was published in a shonen magazine meaning that Japan considers this safe to be read by teenagers and has the core values of what makes a shonen manga. Attack on Titan ushered in the age of dark shonen. No longer did shonen have to take inspiration from Dragonball, it could now be dark and present dark themes about society such as death, dismemberment, prejudice/racism, and war. It showed that shonen shouldn’t be called a shonen because of its story’s content, but rather by the age of its protagonist showing that teens just like adults are mature enough to handle dark fiction. With this mindset, authors came to the realization that as long as they presented their main characters as young teens they could present mature subject matters that would normally be seen in seinen, but present it in a way that teens could understand. The 2010s to present day would still continue to see the popularity of dark shonen as we got the Promised Neverland, Jujustu Kaisan, and Chainsaw Man which are breaking the boundaries and presenting protagonists that are either younger, weirder, or monstrous than past shonen protagonists that we’ve seen and showing us just how far shonen manga has come and evolved to reach its audience. Even some inspirational shonen like My Hero Academia has presented some dark lessons. Nowhere was this seen better in the series than with Stain the Hero Killer. Stain was a guy who respected and loved All Might for what he represented and wanted to be a hero just like him. Only to see that the current state of heroes has become corrupted, and he takes it upon himself to hunt down every false hero out there who doesn’t live up to his standards of what a hero should be and kill them. This was the main villain in one of the major arcs in the manga that put the series on the map and the scary part is, he was right. While we have seen heroes in the manga fight for the right reasons, we have seen heroes who are doing this not because they want to help people, but because they want fame and fortune. A good example is Mt. Lady who is more concerned about her fame and popularity than she is about helping people and often overworks her sidekicks in her office for her own benefit.
Is This Evolution a Good or Bad Thing
So after seeing where shonen began and what it’s become today, we come to the main question: is this evolution a good or bad thing? Well, in my honest opinion, I think it’s a good thing. The world is constantly changing. The world isn’t the same as it was in the 60s. With every new decade and every new era, a new set of issues and walks of life appear and you must change in order to keep up with the times. Shonen is no different. In order to reach its audience while still keeping its older readers it must evolve to relate to them more and present new aspects or lessons of life that they have either thought about or never noticed. There are three good examples that I can think of. The first is Yotsuba&!, a comedy shonen that just focuses on a girl, her friends, and her fascination with the world around her as she tries to figure out how things work and why. It’s a series that honestly reminds me of my childhood of when I was alone and just tried to figure out life. I like to think that teens are a lot smarter than what we give them credit for. Even though they may seem like they’re not thinking in truth they are. The second comes in Kimestu no Yaiba where the main premise focuses on Tanjiro hunting down demons and killing them. The same demons who are responsible for killing his family and turning his sister into a demon as well. He has every right to hate these demons and show them no sympathy. Yet, he doesn’t. He shows no hatred to any of the demons he has faced and instead shows sympathy for them knowing that they were once human like him and lost their humanity. Just like he is a victim, so too are they and he tries to give them a peaceful death. Showing us that instead of breeding more hatred in the world, we should bring peace.
My final example comes from My Hero Academia and the hero, Endeavor. Next to All Might, Endeavor was considered the strongest hero in the world. However, he strived to be number 1 but could never reach All Might. This is the kind of hero that Stain despises the most. A man who only cares about himself and achieving his own glory. Since he couldn’t beat All Might, he would instead create a hero that would surpass him. He arranged a quirk marriage with an ice user and gave birth to children in the hopes that one of them would inherit his fire quirk and his wife’s ice quirk. Shoto would inherit these quirks and became the pet project of Endeavor. He isolated Shoto from his siblings, gave his wife a nervous breakdown so bad that she attacked Shoto and had to be hospitalized, and pretty much considered his other children aside from Shoto failures. Having little to no relationship with them and abusing Shoto all to achieve his ambitions. However, later on in the manga, All Might retires and Endeavor becomes the new number 1 hero where he changes for the better. He takes a step back and analyzes all the mistakes he has made with his family. He admits to his children that what he did to them was wrong and vows to become a hero that they can be proud of and their reactions are believable. They don’t forgive him right away and one of them doesn’t even trust him, but Endeavor swears on his life that he will change for the better. He even goes to the hospital to visit his wife. While he doesn’t go to see her face to face because of her psyche, he always makes sure to drop off flowers for her to let her know that he stopped by and that he is sorry for what he has done. Endeavor’s story can be seen as an abusive father trying to rekindle his relationship with his family in real life. Something that a lot of readers in the west took issue with for reasons I have no idea why. I mean, if you have a bad relationship with your parent/s I understand, and I’m sorry you’re going through that. However, Endeavor is showing that he’s making an effort to make himself a better person not only for himself but for his family. It’s not my place to meddle in the relationship between you and your parents, but I think everyone who shows they really want to change for the better deserves a second chance.
Shonen manga has changed throughout the years. It’s gotten darker and weirder as time has gone on, but at the same time it still maintains the core values of what makes a shonen manga. A male protagonist overcoming his problems and coming out stronger, great action, good humor, and camaraderie. Just like shonen manga in the past was meant to inspire young men and make them better so too is the shonen manga of today. The shonen manga of today shows us that no matter how dark, unfair, unjust, cruel, impossible and weird the world can be. If you still rise up and continue moving forward you’ll find the answers you seek, reach your goal, and overcome any adversity in front of you. And. . .I think that’s cool. That despite the many decades of evolution shonen has gone through to reach its audience, its core values that Osamu presented in the 60s are still alive and going strong to this day and inspiring a new generation of readers and writers to keep making shonen better.
Well guys, that’s going to do it for me. Sorry if I was starting to rant there near the end. Let me know what your thoughts are on the evolution of shonen. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.