This week's poll was suggested by Karonhioktha. There's no "no preference" choice, so make a pick. This is similar to a poll we did in 2012 which had you choose the preferred age of the protagonist relative to yourself, where the top pick (outside of no preference) chose the option "Approximately the same age as me".

You can submit poll ideas here
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=3903

Previous Poll Results:
Question: If you could choose which series world you would be isekaied into, which genre would it have?
Choices:
Romance - votes: 384 (15.7%)
Fantasy - votes: 620 (25.4%)
Harem - votes: 240 (9.8%)
Action - votes: 44 (1.8%)
Mystery - votes: 37 (1.5%)
Thriller - votes: 7 (0.3%)
Horror - votes: 11 (0.5%)
Adventure - votes: 156 (6.4%)
Comedy - votes: 147 (6%)
Sci-fi - votes: 141 (5.8%)
School life - votes: 62 (2.5%)
Gender bender - votes: 135 (5.5%)
Sports - votes: 19 (0.8%)
Martial arts - votes: 43 (1.8%)
Tragedy - votes: 8 (0.3%)
Mecha - votes: 54 (2.2%)
Something 18+ - votes: 336 (13.7%)
There were 2444 total votes.
The poll ended: December 16th, 2023 10:09am PST

No one wants the scary and sad stuff

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A just ruler amongst tyrants

21-30 years old

I find that most leads act like (or think like) there in their 20s so I would rather the author just have them in their 20s.

Its truly a skill to create a believable child or an immortal. And many authors just don't have those skillsets, trying to cop out by saying the child is a genius does not work.

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Internet Lurker At Heart

These kinda feel like bad age bands for this question. 11-20 covers everything from an elementary student to a young professional. Anything 40+ basically falls into the same category too, outside a handful of "Old Man waiting to die" stories I've run into.

But I see we have overwhelming votes for 20-something so I guess it doesn't really matter.

Last edited by kaloo at 12:24 pm, Dec 16 2023

I'm sort of surprised at how many votes are for 20-30, especially considering how much manga features teenaged characters.

Chose 41-50, but anyone over 40 will do so long as the writer is competent. I enjoy reading about the experiences (imagined or personal) of those older than me who have already "been there, done that". It gives me a better perspective on my own path in life and I usually end up relating to older protagonists more... at least the ones who aren't trying to hook up with teenagers.

I find young(sometimes very young) protagonists to be heartbreaking.
anyone under 16 shouldn't have to be sifting through the garbage heap of life
poor circumstances can ruin any entertainment I get from the storytelling
I think 21-30 is a great age for exploration and conquering

No preference! I refuse to choose!!!

I guess I could say ‘anything but young child’ since young children are usually quite boring. Other than that I don’t care, since different ages will better suit different stories.

I'll agree that the age ranges are weird. I prefer 15-25. As much as I like characters who act a little more mature, if someone is nearing 30 and they're just starting a fantasy adventure in life, there really aren't a lot of people they can take with them without it seeming really forced.

It's an issue of plausibility, at least for the kinds of stories I prefer. There certainly are stories that do well with an older protagonist, and I like a few a lot, but it's just so much easier to have a character explore something when their understanding of the world is still developing.

Last edited by LazyReviewer at 4:34 am, Dec 18 2023

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I'm a jack of all trades but master of none. Too many jars and not enough hands.

I mean, my favorite protagonist is Luffy, but that's in spite of his age, not because of it. Luffy's emotional maturity is way higher than it should be at 19 (or 17 when the series started). Naruto is a... more realistic teenaged protagonist and I thought he was a shithead (still a fun series, but definitely a shithead kid) up until he's basically ready to become hokage.

I would like more protagonists between the ages of 25-80, but like... so often these adults just end up acting the same as the teenage protagonists. While I understand that not everything about you will change when you turn 20 something, it's annoying when every way they react is like they've never emotionally matured past high school

Oh other pet peeve, when characters are like "you're so old" or "I'm so old" and then they're like. 28. Like hey man what. That's barely even old enough to have a QUARTER life crisis. There's something to be said about the general occupational culture in Japan that causes this to happen (and before people say the US and other places do too, Japan's is just especially bad to the point that people have made an entire fucking genre about how getting hit by a truck is better), but I was reading a manga and one of the senpais early on was like "I remember when I had that kind of youth and energy" and like dude you are literally only two years older than these high schoolers. That flashback to when you had that youth and energy was literally a year ago. What are you talking about.