Thegoldenboy58
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What do you guys think makes a good shonen, seinen or light novel protagonist?
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What makes a good shonen/seinen/light novel protagonist?
- Thread starter Thegoldenboy58
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Thegoldenboy58
Making the rounds.
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Personally for Shonen protags, I think it's been proven that being simple is the best.
Just look at all the modern shonen at now, MHA, JJK, Black Clover, Chainsaw Man.
There protags are relatively simple, or have simple but understandable goals.
Like becoming the strongest, the best, the king. These goals are simple but incredibly hard to accomplish and we become invested in these characters because of their goals.
So my opinion is that for shonen protags simple is the best.
However, for Seinen and Light novels, I think it should be the opposite.
Look at one of the best seinen and light novel characters out now. Subaru Natsuki and Shigeo Kageyama.
Both of them seem simple but have a lot of depth and complexity to them.
Like compare Yuuji Itadori to Subaru Natsuki in terms of character depth, Subaru has a lot more complexity compared to Yuuji.
Not that Yuuji is a bad character and he does get development in the future but he is very simple. I believe the simpleness actually help shonen stories.
But these are just my opinions, you can have simple characters in light novels and complex characters in shonen. There are no strict guidelines in writing.
Just look at all the modern shonen at now, MHA, JJK, Black Clover, Chainsaw Man.
There protags are relatively simple, or have simple but understandable goals.
Like becoming the strongest, the best, the king. These goals are simple but incredibly hard to accomplish and we become invested in these characters because of their goals.
So my opinion is that for shonen protags simple is the best.
However, for Seinen and Light novels, I think it should be the opposite.
Look at one of the best seinen and light novel characters out now. Subaru Natsuki and Shigeo Kageyama.
Both of them seem simple but have a lot of depth and complexity to them.
Like compare Yuuji Itadori to Subaru Natsuki in terms of character depth, Subaru has a lot more complexity compared to Yuuji.
Not that Yuuji is a bad character and he does get development in the future but he is very simple. I believe the simpleness actually help shonen stories.
But these are just my opinions, you can have simple characters in light novels and complex characters in shonen. There are no strict guidelines in writing.
eager slacker
Versed in the lewd.
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What makes a worthwhile shonen, seinen, or light novel protagonist is the same thing that makes any other worthwhile character, you need to make the characters memorable and worth caring about.
A lot of the current isekai's and xianxia's are complete garbage because almost none of the characters are distinguishable from one another and they depend on numbers and powers to make their characters special instead of the person's personality itself. Take a look at Subaru, some people like him and some people hate him but if you took away his ability to come back from a bad end you still have a guy that's quite a screw up that has a mind mindbogglingly insane amount of loyalty that genuinely is trying to improve himself. His character is proven by his actions which show him fucking up tremendously and after a lot of hardship and trial and error he etches out a win. No one thinks he's perfect but if you mentioned his actions in the series without giving any names or a physical description people would eventually catch on to who you're talking about which is a HUGE advantage over cookie cutter characters.
That being said just because the character has some value that doesn't mean the character in good. That's up to the audience and how they work within the plot. Some characters that are good in one series would be absolutely unremarkable in another series and that's a whole other bag of worms.
A lot of the current isekai's and xianxia's are complete garbage because almost none of the characters are distinguishable from one another and they depend on numbers and powers to make their characters special instead of the person's personality itself. Take a look at Subaru, some people like him and some people hate him but if you took away his ability to come back from a bad end you still have a guy that's quite a screw up that has a mind mindbogglingly insane amount of loyalty that genuinely is trying to improve himself. His character is proven by his actions which show him fucking up tremendously and after a lot of hardship and trial and error he etches out a win. No one thinks he's perfect but if you mentioned his actions in the series without giving any names or a physical description people would eventually catch on to who you're talking about which is a HUGE advantage over cookie cutter characters.
That being said just because the character has some value that doesn't mean the character in good. That's up to the audience and how they work within the plot. Some characters that are good in one series would be absolutely unremarkable in another series and that's a whole other bag of worms.
TodaBruh
Fiction is life's spice <(￣︶￣)↗
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I actually hate the simple dumb brute of a protagonist that shonen defaults to quite a bit. I just can't take them seriously.
I like my protagonists with a bit of intelligence to them, they don't have to be geniuses just reasonably competent, and not dwell on hang ups too much for too long.
Otherwise my tastes are really wide, bit my favorite character, even if he's from a visual novel, is Yuuji kazami.
I like my protagonists with a bit of intelligence to them, they don't have to be geniuses just reasonably competent, and not dwell on hang ups too much for too long.
Otherwise my tastes are really wide, bit my favorite character, even if he's from a visual novel, is Yuuji kazami.