Favorite age for the main male character in a shonen?
16 years ago
Posts: 12
I voted for 18+, since actually I prefer the somewhat matured characters, not those stupid shounen cliché protagonists, but perchance 16-18 may be better, since the mangas with 18+ heroes tend to be "mature" mangas ('mature' meaning nothing else than including massive sexual or violent content - honestly, that's not what being mature is about).
Member16 years ago
Posts: 3342
I don't care.
Age doesn't matter to me.
Although 21+ can add alcoholic comedy.
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16 years ago
Posts: 23
Since it's about shonen and not exactly seinen, I ended up voting for 16-18.
Of course I like 18+ characters better, but I don't think it fits for me to have a shonen main character being an adult...feels not really usual with my vision of "what's a shonen"
And well, this 16-18 age is an age full of problems thanks to the puberty ending so it's often interesting (but okay it won't beat a good ol'seinen with a mature charcter...)
16 years ago
Posts: 1353
Shounen doesn't specify the character's age. It only specifies the target audience's age. Hopefully an older main character can teach the audience some things (though it's not always the case) and doesn't have to be put into adult or controversial situations, which could be good though, if used properly. For example, a shounen/shoujo manga with sexual situations can have older main characters, which seems more proper to me, compared with the current 15-16 ones who have sex all the time (in shoujo mangas). I never saw the appeal of a main character necessarily having to be of my age if I were a teen. Even seinen and josei have younger main characters.
A classis shounen example with an older main character is Black Jack, which worked perfectly well.
16 years ago
Posts: 23
Ah, I know the nuance, I didn't meant for it to sound that shonen can "only" be young main characters.
Just that, if I'm to talk about shonen, the first thing that comes to my mind is a high-schooler guy.
After that, just taking for example a shonen everyone knows, Goku in DragonBall is an adult after some volumes and it's not a problem at all~
(A sad truth, even if I know of Black Jack from the great Tezuka I never read it T.T)
But considering what I think is "usual" I do prefer a not yet "adult" main character (though, I haven't thought about sexual situations...but with characters more than 16 it would't shock me since I think it's natural...and anyway, I don't remember everything I read just now, but there isn't lots of shonen I can think with sexual situation...maybe it's because my mind is blurried by the smut shoujo >.<)
16 years ago
Posts: 1353
Black Jack has adult and mature situations, I believe. Since they are all adults, it's proper to me and those situations are handled seriously.
But adult characters can be an idiot no matter how old they are. The guy in City Hunter is an example. There are sexual situations but they are all adults, though the mood of the manga is mostly silly and not serious. 🤣
16 years ago
Posts: 140
An older main character attracts older readers, thus the whole story leaves room to touch serious topics younger readers might not fully understand yet.
The older one becomes, the more past can be revealed as well, which makes the character more interesting.
Therefore I'd go with 18+, since manga about older people tends to be less idiotic (as long as it isn't comedy or harem etc.).
But: children live in a niche that is very different to that of an adult.
Life seen through the eyes of a child can be very fascinating if the story is created for an older audience, for it gives us the possibility to look at ourselves from a different angle.
"Tekkon Kinreet" is a very good example. (Thanks for the info, Methaniel)
16 years ago
Posts: 23
Quote from Isara
An older main character attracts older readers, thus the whole story leaves room to touch serious topics younger readers might not fully understand yet.
The older one becomes, the more past can be revealed as well, which makes the character more interesting.
Therefore I'd go with 18+, since manga about older people tends to be less idiotic (as long as it isn't comedy or harem etc.).But: children live in a niche that is very different to that of an adult.
Life seen through the eyes of a child can be very fascinating if the story is created for an older audience, for it gives us the possibility to look at ourselves from a different angle.
"Tekkonkinreet" is a very good example, although it is an animated movie.
Well, in terms of shonen, there is lots of time when young characters have quite some past and background behind them despite their young ge (though, they may have not the same vision of things as an adult >.>)
But I just wanted to say one thing regarding your post...since you seem to like Tekkon Kinkreet (which, let's be honest, is one of the rare movie I bought since it's just so good), just so you know, it is a manga firt before being a movie (manga that I couldn't help but buy as well >.<)
16 years ago
Posts: 1310
I like a growing character, that begins in the 16, and you can see the progress and maturity with each passing year (in the manga)
So yeah, Naruto FAILS....
16 years ago
Posts: 29
Usually, for kid's stuff like shonen, I don't mind if they're older than 15, but younger than that is a little too immature for my tastes. Older than 18, I usually prefer seinen.
