Shonen Action Anime (Like it or Hate It)

[OceanBlue]

Ehh, if anything, it's not "slice of life" that's considered more mature. Whenever I see people who claim that anime like Bleach or Naruto or whatever are immature, they're generally always comparing it to shows like Samurai Champloo, Ghost in the Shell, or some other anime that touches on more mature themes. I can't imagine ever thinking that people need to grow up because they're watching Naruto and I'm watching K-On .

It has to do with people thinking that they have a more refined taste or regard their own opinions about something as superior to others', which means it really isn't worth caring that much about. Especially in media, it's never about one genre having more cliches than the others. For the most part, it just boils down to which set of cliches you can stand the least. For a lot of people who are just beginning to expand their library, they're already really accustomed to shonen action cliches and will see that genre more negatively than a genre they're new to.

I definitely agree with what a lot of people are saying about feeling that others have to "grow up" because they associate action cliches with stuff that they've seen in their childhood.

[C.A.]

Because Shounen action is such a huge genre, the competition has brought out some of the best mangakas who come up with really amazing stuff.

The sheer imagination and creativity in mangas like One Piece, Jojo and Toriko are hardly found in many other genres of manga. Fantasy is always a big part in Shounen action and it allows experimentation with less bounds to realism, often leading to very unique, unusual or even bizarre stories.

We should really thank the kids for being the target audience as they allow mangakas to stretch their imagination in less adult ways and instead in the more wondrous and fantastic ways a child would think.


EDIT: Childishness


Actually people who watch so called 'mature' stories don't realise that what they're watching are alot of times extremely childish.

The good thing about Shounen is that it doesn't try to hide its 'childishness', like I said, it is one of the reasons why Shounen is so imaginative.

[Guernsey]

I am more or less indifferent to the shonen action genre but soem fo the tropes to annoy me to extent. What amazes though is the character designs, worlds, powers and all of the other things they ut into the action series. What also amazes is that shows like Death Note, Gundam, Claymore and even Evangelion are considered to be shonen.

[Haladflire65]

There're shounen shows I like and there're others I don't, just like for any other genre of anime. I personally really enjoy lots of anime of the genre though - I also love many shows that are slightly out of the ordinary for shounen, such as Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood with its very deep story and strong adult supporting cast or Gintama with its unconventional way of doing things and its adult protagonist. Another reason I like shounen is probably because of my more boyish tastes in anime, I'm a girl but shounen and seinen are pretty much the only genres that I watch regularly.

There's a reason why shounen's so popular, I guess. It's really appealing. It's conventional, but conventions are often comforting which is a part of why people still watch predictable shows. But I agree that it does annoy me that a lot of newer anime fans - or non-fans, even - seem to think shounen is all there is to anime. Shounen and Ghibli, actually But as C.A. said, it's a huge genre with lots to uncover, IMO, so it's unfair to generalize.

[Random32]

I am more or less indifferent to the shonen action genre but soem fo the tropes to annoy me to extent. What amazes though is the character designs, worlds, powers and all of the other things they ut into the action series. What also amazes is that shows like Death Note, Gundam, Claymore and even Evangelion are considered to be shonen.

Shounen is a demographic and has a lot of things. Stereotypical Shounen Action is only one genre aimed at the demographic.

Other notable shows from shounen sources that most people aren't aware are shounen are Lucky Star, Haruhi, and Toradora.

[Kimidori]

Originally Posted by Random32

Shounen is a demographic and has a lot of things. Stereotypical Shounen Action is only one genre aimed at the demographic.

Other notable shows from shounen sources that most people aren't aware are shounen are Lucky Star, Haruhi, and Toradora.

what people talking about here is action shounen as the thread title is "Shonen Action Anime (Like it or Hate It)"

Lucky star is all about girls and Toradora more of a romcom than shounen

and look like people also like to bring up Death Note, but it is an philosophical shounen, not an action one

[Archon_Wing]

Originally Posted by Kirarakim

Suggesting to someone that there is more out there is not the same as ragging. Certainly I am thankful that I was exposed to many different things anime could be.

If I thought it was just shounen action I might have gotten tired of anime by now. Instead I still like shounen action but I have broadened my horizions as well.

Yea, but I feel that a lot of times when people do it for others to broaden their horizons, it turns out patronizing and they're looking down on them for their tastes. Not always, but I don't know, I just feel a condescending tone a lot from some people. One just has to accept that a lot of people approach anime really casually and only go after the more popular titles as a diversion.

It's just needed to avoid dismissing someone's taste. And TBH a lot of people's tastes are a lot more varied than you'd think.

I mean I like making fun of people for failing at logic, but taste is another thing.

[gsilver]

I think that for me, my problem was that I just got into anime too late (late teens), by which point I didn't have much tolerance for shonen action shows. I've since grown more accepting of them and have even started watching One Piece, but back in the day, I was just put off by how slow they were. Something like the long stare-downs of DBZ, villains talking about their powers at great length in Kenshin, and long tournaments in Flame of Recca were hard for me to sit through.

[hyl]

I agree with the people that say that shounen is not a genre but rather a demographic target. Because otherwise the genre shounen is way too broad.

Originally Posted by C.A.

The sheer imagination and creativity in mangas like One Piece, Jojo and Toriko are hardly found in many other genres of manga. Fantasy is always a big part in Shounen action and it allows experimentation with less bounds to realism, often leading to very unique, unusual or even bizarre stories.

Jojo doesn't target the shounen demographic anymore, but the seinen audience for many years though. That's why it's published in the Ultra Jump instead of the weekly shounen jump.
While i agree that there are good imaginative series out there , however most of these "shounen series" are prone to the standard cliches that we see in other "shounen series". That's why some people think that they are less innovative than the other genres.

[totoum]

Originally Posted by Kimidori

what people talking about here is action shounen as the thread title is "Shonen Action Anime (Like it or Hate It)"

Lucky star is all about girls and Toradora more of a romcom than shounen

and look like people also like to bring up Death Note, but it is an philosophical shounen, not an action one

Well you're right in that the thread title is "Shonen Action Anime" so Lucky Star and Toradora aren't the topic however even if they're not action shonens they're still shonens.

[Paranoid Android]

Generally, I don't like action shonen. I give most of them a chance but it's more of a 'how long does it take before I can no longer stand the cliches and repetitiveness'.

I think 13 episodes is the general extent of that for me. Or if it's got some good foreshadowing, until the end of the first main arc.

[MisaoFan]

If we are talking about the newer trend of action shounens, pretty much many of them are 2-cour shows which pretty much focuses on the cool action side and the bishounen fanservice at the same time.
I guess these kinds of action shounens are generally drawn by female artists, but it's very annoying to see 90% of yaoi fangirls squealing for these shows only by judging their covers (bishounens generally).

[Shock T]

I love Shonen anime. I think one of the reasons that some people give it a bad rep is because some aren't very deep. Well, I don't even really think that's true, sometimes. Quite a few of Shonen anime shows have a good deal of depth within its story and characters. Some people don't recognize this because they think most Shonen anime are too similar, which isn't true. Shonen anime are usually epic, in fact. If you don't think so, you probably haven't gave Shonen anime a good chance.

[Echoes]

Shounen action is likely my least favorite genre of anime. I rarely watch it, and when I do, I usually end up disappointed or simply bored. Shows like Bleach, Naruto, One Piece, Toriko and Dragonball simply never appealed to me. Unlike many others, they're not what drew me into anime to begin with, and having sampled some of them, they just don't appear to be what I'm looking for at all at my age. It is a bit of a shame, since shounen action comprise so many of the most popular anime titles, I'm often forced to be contrarian in any anime-discussion I have IRL, as it's the only thing most people I encounter know and like. The sheer length of many of the most popular ones is also a huge deterrence. (I might actually like One Piece, who knows, most people seem to tell me it's the better of the big shounen titles, but I'll likely never want to begin watching anything that's over 500 episodes long. That's far, far too big of a time-sink. I could watch 40 one-cour shows in that time. )

Although it's my least favorite genre, I still make exceptions if something looks particularly interesting. Some shows simply transcend their genre, and I'd never dismiss a show on being a shounen action alone. if I did, I'd miss out on wonderful shows like Full Metal Alchemist, which is still one of my favorites, and whose remake, Brotherhood, was just about as good (discounting any nostalgia), proving to me that the genre still has something to offer me every now and then.

[Haak]

I generally like shonen action so long as it's fairly creative and isn't doing the same tired things all the time in the exact same way. And it doesn't take much for me to consider something creative enough to not feel cliché. Accel World is something that's currently airing that's pretty shoneny but it's interesting and doesn't feel like it's something I've already seen before even though it's still fairly predictable. Another shonen action currently airing is HunterxHunter which feels more like a shonen puzzle than a shonen action show, so it's pretty atypical which something you can applaud (The story has it's own problems but not they're not typical problems). Another shonen that's currently airing is Zetman which is of the far more cynical and grimdark variety of action shonen. I rarely have problems with these in terms of "clicheness" because the cliche of shonen action come from their idealistic tendancies and overreliance of Rule of Cool and power levels. (e.g the power of determination or defeat means friendship), which darker shows avoid because their appeal is in their edgier storylines. However not all darker shonen action shows avoid these problems (e.g Deadman Wonderland)

But from a personal point of view, I generally consider shonen action shows to be a step below where my absolute favourite tastes lie. An 8/10 is about the best it can possibly achieve, even if it's the perfect shonen (The only exception so far has been Fullmetal Alchemist which I gave a perfect 10. XP [EDIT] Unless Casshern Sins counts. I gave that a 9. Both of those are of the darker variety).

[ahelo]

It's like a passage in being an anime fan. You get pulled in by long-running shounen shows then you start scratching in.

Most fans forget though on what they started with and tend to bash the shonen genre because they now realize that it's very cliche. This is one of the pet peeves for me in the anime community: Hypocrites who bash on shonen like Naruto/Bleach/One Piece when the same exact show was probably the reason they are fans in the first place. I'm not saying I think those series are good but forgetting why you enjoyed them and outright bash it in a way that it you didn't enjoy it anymore feels very elitist to me. Well I guess not everyone started by shonen but the general majority did and the majority that do become more intense fans forget their roots.

[Flawfinder]

It depends on your definition of shonen action. Under my definition, I would say Samurai Champloo, FMA Brotherhood, and Future Diary (okay, this one is debatable) are shonen action anime, so yes, I do like Shonen Action. The typical SJ action stuff isn't really my thing though (with the exception of One Piece, but I wouldn't go out of my way to see that) due to my hatred of the bland Yuji-everylead characters that seem to populate them.

[Qilin]

The shounen action scene is plagued with flaws. There's the slow pacing, lack of character development, and the overreliance on the "coolness factor" to sell. But despite all that, it's fun. Sometimes, we just want to find something enjoyable to waste our time with. One Piece will forever remain as one of my favorite manga of all time whatever the case.

[Haladflire65]

Originally Posted by Qilin

The shounen action scene is plagued with flaws. There's the slow pacing, lack of character development, and the overreliance on the "coolness factor" to sell. But despite all that, it's fun. Sometimes, we just want to find something enjoyable to waste our time with. One Piece will forever remain as one of my favorite manga of all time whatever the case.

I think that's true for every other genre... I can't stand shoujo, for instance, cause it's riddled with cliches. And doesn't shoujo have its bishies to sell? Like everything else, shounen has its merits and flaws, and some shows manage to break free of those better than others.

[Qilin]

Originally Posted by Haladflire65

I think that's true for every other genre... I can't stand shoujo, for instance, cause it's riddled with cliches. And doesn't shoujo have its bishies to sell? Like everything else, shounen has its merits and flaws, and some shows manage to break free of those better than others.

Whether it applies to other genres or not, my point was that it is quite possible to enjoy a story while, at the same time, acknowledging that it is a highly flawed work.