In most (if not all) manga I've read the hero is just a victim of circumstance. He/she accidentally awaken some ancient evil they has to defeat, they has some power that they must use for the greater good of the universe or something like that (especially true in mecha genre, the main protagonist never decides to ride the super-powered-hero-mecha unless the fate of the world/universe is about to be decided or their friends/loved ones are about to be killed).
They almost never decide to become a hero on their own. (In some fantasy manga though they actually decides to be a hero almost without influence from the rest of the world... almost...)

And villains/antagonists almost always have some kind of sad heartwrenching past that I guess are supposed to make us feel somewhat sympathetic to his/her actions... Never works that way for me .

So, what I'm looking for is a manga (or something else for that matter) where the protagonist becomes the hero/heroine of the story just because they WANT to.
Or where the Antagonist isn't driven by his/her need to save someone close to them or something like that, just going about it a really twisted way. Just being evil for evils own sake.

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~4400 manga completed
~1700 ongoing...

"I want characters without character development." lol

Yeah... so?
It's just that if you look at the old legends and myths, it was common for the protagonist to set out on an epic journey just because he/she wanted to be a hero. Not so common in stories today.
Just curious to see if there is anything like that...

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~4400 manga completed
~1700 ongoing...

Try Kingdom

Oh and how could i forget.. Berserk

And... Horizon (OKADA Takuya)


Aaaand... One punch man *maybe*

Last edited by Accursed-kun at 4:00 am, Oct 21 2014

Rising x Rydeen comes to mind. Protagonist wants to become a hero because of his childhood dream. Just this reason only, no complications, no drama, just that.

Ratman is the same formula, Protagonist has a dream from childhood to become a Hero. Gets invited to a suspicious organization, turns to a "villain" instead. Discovers that the world is not so black and white, and that exists bad villains and bad heroes alike, get's a vendetta to defeat anything "bad". And turns to a heroic "villain".

Last edited by Samken at 10:03 am, Oct 21 2014

This.

Outside of maybe Kingdom (He wants to become a great general under the heavens, not a "Hero") and One punch man. I don't agree with the other two, especially Berserk, Guts is so far from hero, it's not even funny, he's a anti-hero no doubt of that.

Mahou Sensei Negima! - the kid want to be a hero because his father was a hero. he dont explicitely find a way to save the world, but he do want to complete his father's work. the villian is not really bad though

Metro Survive - the guy become a hero because he's just a normal guy that dont want anything bad to happen in an earthquake. however the villains are really villainous without any particular reason except being a dick.

ares - the protag is a hired mercenary, so he might not seem like a hero. but he is innocent like in the way he fight because he want to? the bad guy become bad because he just want to be famous.