I mean wouldn't be more interesting if it was? Or would it

inuyasha -- inuyasha instead of his brother

naruto -- naruto instead of that other dude with the eyes (haven't read it in a long long time)

One piece -- luffy is awsome, but wouldn't shanks or law or white beard be more interesting?

most if not all the harem stories.

most if not all the sports stories

And so much more

There should be a few more that stars some one who actually knows what they are doing, rather than going from scratch.

Starter of Controversy.

It doesnt really matter whether the main character is the coolest or not because when they take polls or surveys who the readers like the most its usually the main character and not the "coolest" person in the manga.

And,I agree with what you said about the main characters knowing what they're doing instead of starting out without knowing a clue about it.Theres too much manga where the main character trains until he becomes the strongest.
But i kind of disagree because when the main character is already strong and knows his stuff,it kinda just kills it :/

For the reader to be able to relate to the main character.

It's as simple as that.

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I don't think a character has to be the strongest to be the coolest. It all depends on the reader. Everybody has their favorite type of characters. I do like some weaker main charaters, depending on the manga. Don't just think about the mainstream shounen. In broader genres and demographics of manga, sometimes being the coolest or strongest may not be that important anymore.

Quote from Dr. Love

For the reader to be able to relate to the main character.

It's as simple as that.

Lol.how come i didnt think of that?
but yeah,i agree :]

Quote from lemondude

One piece -- luffy is awsome, but wouldn't shanks or law or white beard be more interesting?

Hell no, Luffy is 80% of the reason I read One Piece. Besides you have to think of the target audience, it would be unacceptable to have the main character killing people, so someone like Law wouldn't work. If you want f'd up main characters read seinen.

Quote from Dr. Love

For the reader to be able to relate to the main character.

It's as simple as that.

Relating to silly idiots is always easy.
Though, I don't think I ever have.

I always remember myself liking the distant/killer support character more.
Though for a shounen, I must say that Luffy is a nice character.
Well, at least from what I've seen in 30-40 episodes of anime.

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If I had a fantasy self, it'd be a tentacle monster.

Perfect people aren't interesting, they do everything as you might expcet from perfect people. Scoring 100% on the tests all the time makes for a very boring person since that's about it.

If they're lame, they just need to score 100% every once in a while, but we'd still make fun of them when they score 50-60%. or less.

Of course this not cool main character thing happens more often in shonen than shoujo, at least from what I've come across. In shoujo almost all the main guys are perfect or cool or both and then some. In shonen they're more than likely to be lame and gets beaten up badly until the end, it's just a target audience thing.

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There's usually no other cool side characters in harems unless it's a girl. You rarely find important male characters in harems except the lame main guy. Nobody reads harems for the main guy or other male characters so they are unnecessary.

Well in normal mainstream Harem,ecchi mangas, the main guy character is a sore loser who's for no reason surrounded by late bloomers who is either a loli, tsundere, glasses, innocent etc etc 🤢

How can that be interesting? nope..not at all.

as for shoujo, well, what do you expect from the heroin? OwO;; All the bishies seem to outshine her in the manga.

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DoLL (Okado Tatsuya)
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I don't even find the stereotypes/archetypes of reverse harem males attractive at all. 🤢

If the main characters are the coolest, then the story would eventually die. I mean, cool gets girls right? And cool makes all these indifferent decisions. I think that the mangaka just wants the lead to be able to make decisions and have "integrity", though that may be too strong of a word (Hence the quotes around it).

Lalala~

Main characters need room for character development, which would be pointless if they were already perfect.

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The reason is obvious; Kakashi is just too cold to hold too hot to be stopped.

Quote from greydrak

In shoujo almost all the main guys are perfect or cool or both and then some. In shonen they're more than likely to be lame and gets beaten up badly until the end, it's just a target audience thing.

Well that's cause in shoujo the guy's often the shiny trophy the lead gets for beating all her trials, since often she's not saving the world. The girls are usually more pathetic than their shounen leads. The romantic interest in the avg. shounen story is usually the equivalent of the shoujo male. (The good shounens and shoujos have more complicated romantic leads.)

And I think Saexel hit the nail on the head:

Main characters need room for character development, which would be pointless if they were already perfect.

The whole point of crazy long coming-of-age mangas (pretty much any shounen manga worth it's salt) is to read about the character growing up (often with the target audience) so a character who's so perfect that he doesn't need to kind of defeats the purpose. I like the ultra-cool characters as much as anyone else, but the only reason they shine so well is 'cause of how they play against the lamer characters in the story. (Plus you just can't have a romantic comedy full of misunderstandings if your male lead is ultra suave, or a tournament manga where the lead starts as the strongest in the room, 'cause uh yeah, there'd be no conflict.)