Glorious Escapism Roleplay

Rabukurafuto · Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 7:13 am Post subject: What shounen manga needs

A friend once asked what I would like to see more of in shounen manga (that being the type he reads the most). When I thought about it, I came up with this:

1.) Gay male protagonists.
2.) Gay female protagonists.
3.) More nudity.
4.) Muscular, large-breasted female characters.
5.) Pretty, wispy boys.
6.) Scientist heroes.

What would you like to see?
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Phil the Time Wizard · Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 7:25 am Post subject:

Most of those things sounds like things you'd probably like to see in any manga, regardless of demographic.

Personally, I think shounen, and shounen specifically needs more manga with female leads. It just seems that shounen manga with female leads are far rarer than they should be. If there is one, there's usually a male protagonist of some variety as well. The target audience may be younger males, but that doesn't mean those young boys aren't capable of looking up to female protagonists as much as male ones.

And I mean not necessarily even female protagonists that are used for fan service. Just well developed, likable lead characters.

Homosexual characters that are more than one note stereotypes or comedy/fan service characters would also be appreciated.
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Toutaku · Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 8:12 am Post subject:

I think those are all good ideas.

One thing I'd love to see would be more romance. I'm annoyed that so few series have any love, when it comes to Shounen.
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Rabukurafuto · Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 8:18 am Post subject:

I suppose so. It is not vitally important to me, but many people complain about it. Yet authors such as Ei'ichiro Oda insist boys don't like to read about romance and refuses to have any in One Piece (the word "romance" is actually used often in One Piece, but in the original sense of "passion for something", not "matter of love").
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Where others are blind, I am futurely inclined
And you too could see, if you was widdle ol' me!

Toutaku · Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 8:19 am Post subject:

I can understand that, but they should realise that it wouldn't put young people off reading, and would attract a wider audience. It'd probably raise profits.
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Rabukurafuto · Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 8:23 am Post subject:

Exactly, especially since Oda keeps getting asked if he will feature romance. Clearly, readers are interested in that.
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Where others are blind, I am futurely inclined
And you too could see, if you was widdle ol' me!

Phil the Time Wizard · Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 8:29 am Post subject:

Considering there are a large number of shounen romance manga (usually romantic comedies of some variety) that have been wildly successful, I'm not sure how anyone could say that none of them want to see romance.
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Toutaku · Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 8:34 am Post subject:

I mean, I want to see some development between Ichigo and Rukia, or Naruto and Hinata. Pairings like that. It doesn't have to be a story arc, just a minute or two of an episode. Not even a page of the manga.
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Phil the Time Wizard · Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 8:41 am Post subject:

Ah, so you're talking about having romance in the action shounen series?

Yeah, more of that could be good. A show that can effectively blend a romantic plot and an action plot is rare and I'd certainly like to see it happen more often.

The dangerous part about wanting romantic developments to suddenly happen in the current series is that the authors might be just as likely to put in Ichigo/Orihime and Naruto/Sakura as they are the pairings you want.
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Toutaku · Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 8:55 am Post subject:

Ah, Kishimoto himself has hinted that NarutoXSakura will never happen.

By this point, I'd be happy whoever they go with, anyway. I just want there to be SOMETHING apart from fights and flashbacks.
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Phil the Time Wizard · Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 9:07 am Post subject:

I wouldn't know. Been years since i looked at Naruto.

Ah, I see. Well, that sort of thing might completely alienate parts of the fandom. Which makes it difficult for the authors, I would think.

For these action series fans can be oddly more obsessive about who should be paired with who than even in the actual romantic manga, it seems.
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Toutaku · Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 9:18 am Post subject:

Well, I can only hope!
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Rahkshi500 · Joined: 07 Jul 2010 Posts: 3230 Location: Unknown

Those are all good ideas.

Personally, I would like to see more trap protagonists. Like Phil with female leads, I don't think there's enough of that. It's another reason why I a trap protagonist for almost all of my manga ideas. Another thing I would like to see more are monster protagonists, and I'm not talking about monsters that look humanoid in appearance. No, I'm talking about monsters that look like monsters. In many different series that feature humans fighting against such forces, it would be more interesting to see it from the other side's point of view.
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Toutaku · Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 5:41 pm Post subject:

That's a good point, well made there Rahkshi.

We're expected to hate the monsters, so we always do. It would be a fantastic story if us humans were the enemies, for once.
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Rahkshi500 · Joined: 07 Jul 2010 Posts: 3230 Location: Unknown

Thank you, Toutaku. Though it doesn't necessarily have to be conflict between monsters and humans. We can pretty much have a setting where humans and monsters co-exist and still have a monster as a protagonist.
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