MrAnimeGeek23 said: Is it just me or do sooooooooooo many anime shows seem to have a teenage boy for their main character??? I feel like every one I've watched except for Erased are about a teenage boy! Not just shounen that I've watched either. Even seinen like Steins;Gate, Erased & parasyte are all about a teenage boy. Granted, I haven't watched any of the chick flick anime, but still... you must be... VERY VERY VERY new to anime... anyway, so what? no one wants to be old, is there a problem with kids as main characters? |
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| You need to make the MC something that the audience can project themselves into. |
MrAnimeGeek23 said: Is it just me or do sooooooooooo many anime shows seem to have a teenage boy for their main character??? I feel like every one I've watched except for Erased are about a teenage boy! Not just shounen that I've watched either. Even seinen like Steins;Gate, Erased & parasyte are all about a teenage boy. Granted, I haven't watched any of the chick flick anime, but still... you just said that erased has a teenage boy as a main character and doesn't at the same time. and yeah, a lot of anime have teenage boy's as main characters. But there are plenty without. |
| Does this character look like a teenage boy to you? |
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MrAnimeGeek23 said: Is it just me or do sooooooooooo many anime shows seem to have a teenage boy for their main character??? I feel like every one I've watched except for Erased are about a teenage boy! Not just shounen that I've watched either. Even seinen like Steins;Gate, Erased & parasyte are all about a teenage boy. Granted, I haven't watched any of the chick flick anime, but still... And? They're appealing to their audience. Either way I have seen quite a few animes with female leads, ya just need to broaden your horizons. |
| Fate Zero, 91 Days, Barakamon, Usagi Drop, Berserk, Cowboy Bepop, Hachimitsu to Clover, Welcome to the NHK, The Tatami Galaxy... yeah anime is full with teenage MCs. |
One Piece episode 914 & 915 & 1027 were a mistake and 957 brought the salvation - FMmatron |
| Every shounen does that Dingus. Like a DENSE MC in Nisekoi that I despise so much |
 "Think about that glowing dust That destroys the night sky's dream of Just being nothing"--  -- |
MrAnimeGeek23 said: EcchiLordMamster said: you must be... VERY VERY VERY new to anime... anyway, so what? no one wants to be old, is there a problem with kids as main characters? No problem at all! It's just a simple observation; not a compaint by any means. And yes, I'm very new to anime! I only started watching it in October last year. well if im not mistaken, the Japanese tend to praise youth (and who can blame them), and Highschool and College tend to be the best time of many of their lives, since work is so important to them |
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MrAnimeGeek23 said: a teenage boy for their main character well DUH! boys > girls (^u^) no h8 ladies |
| What is wrong with loving someone who doesn't exist ? Absolutely nothing. As long as you make peace with it. |
| yes this is the demographic of anime now better watch some 90s classics like LOGH when anime was a pasttime for men also, the main cast of steins gate are more like young adults |
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| Oh yeah, I think that guy sits next to me in History class. |
| OP, demographics are a thing. Look outside your own (shounen/seinen) and voila, the situation has reversed. Females are suddenly the norm for protags. Also, there are plenty of adult protags in any demographic. |
TripleSRankMay 2, 2017 3:23 AM
MrAnimeGeek23 said: I honestly don't mind it in the slightest. It's just strange how almost every one I've watched seems to be about it. 1) As general rule, a show's MC is like its "target audience", the people who the authors expect to watch the show. If an anime is about a little girl like Cardcaptor Sakura, it's meant for little girls. Pedophiles other people are welcome to watch it, because it's very good, but their enjoyment will be very different from that of little girls. Most anime we watch in the West are meant for male teenagers or young adults. With a healthy dose of anime meant for female teenagers. 2) For modern Japanese people, school is probably the only common experience they have. And it seems that many Japanese authors didn't even bother with higher education, and became professional authors right out of school. 3) Teenagers make good protagonists. They have stupid drama, first love and general unruliness. That is good for the author - whenever giant robot fights get boring, he can switch to romantic subplot, and have all the viewers cry out: "we want our giant robots back!" 4) Japanese consider teenage girls to be the most attractive kind of female. And like anywhere else, romance between two people of roughly the same age is considered the best, so the male lead has to be a teenager too. |
| Yup, that's why I'm trying to find new animes with a different age bracket other than the typical student-teenager norm. flannan said: MrAnimeGeek23 said: I honestly don't mind it in the slightest. It's just strange how almost every one I've watched seems to be about it. 1) As general rule, a show's MC is like its "target audience", the people who the authors expect to watch the show. If an anime is about a little girl like Cardcaptor Sakura, it's meant for little girls. Pedophiles other people are welcome to watch it, because it's very good, but their enjoyment will be very different from that of little girls. Most anime we watch in the West are meant for male teenagers or young adults. With a healthy dose of anime meant for female teenagers. 2) For modern Japanese people, school is probably the only common experience they have. And it seems that many Japanese authors didn't even bother with higher education, and became professional authors right out of school. 3) Teenagers make good protagonists. They have stupid drama, first love and general unruliness. That is good for the author - whenever giant robot fights get boring, he can switch to romantic subplot, and have all the viewers cry out: "we want our giant robots back!" 4) Japanese consider teenage girls to be the most attractive kind of female. And like anywhere else, romance between two people of roughly the same age is considered the best, so the male lead has to be a teenager too. This pretty sums it up~ |
| I guess you have got your answer. If you want to watch some anime with older protagonist try -Baccano! -NHK ni youkuso -Servant x Service |
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| It's like that to fit with the demographic so that they can somewhat relate. A few series with older protagonists that I recommend are: -Monster - a neurosurgeon -One Punch Man - everyone should have seen this by now -ReLIFE - it counts as the MC is 27 |
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| It must be because most people who see anime are around that age |
| No one really wants to watch an anime about a 30-40 years old person, that's why. So the main characters are usually in their prime. What if Naruto wasn't about a 16 years old kid, but about a 43 years old guy? Like Asuma would be the main character. Not that interesting anymore, right? + In Japan you are considered kinda old after 30 and even becomes harder to get any job after that age so you can imagine. |
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CynicalCycIops said: Oh yeah, I think that guy sits next to me in History class. Yeah same, now that you mention it... |
 "Even if your soul disappears, your wishes and curses remain in this world." |
xxxYaoiMaster said: No one really wants to watch an anime about a 30-40 years old person, that's why. So the main characters are usually in their prime. What if Naruto wasn't about a 16 years old kid, but about a 43 years old guy? Like Asuma would be the main character. Not that interesting anymore, right? + In Japan you are considered kinda old after 30 and even becomes harder to get any job after that age so you can imagine. That's an exaggeration. While some stories probably would not work with middle-aged people, other stories just would. A lot of older military anime have protagonists who are of the right age to be soldiers, that is, young adults. A number of anime are about teachers, and most of them have teachers of the right age to be teachers (I only know two kid geniuses who work as teachers in anime: Rebekka Miyamoto and Negi Springfield). Of the recent anime, Gate and Demi-chan have protagonists who are not young (33 years old for Itami, and around 30 for Takahashi-sensei). |
you know its always funny when you see a new guy point out something you've basically known of for several and several years  |
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| Congratulations you discovered shonen |
| Not all series, some the main character is a teenage girl, or some with tweens and kids.Series like Dragonball Z also have adults, with kids as main characters. Most anime series feature teens, though, because animators and manga artist like to draw the really fancy and colorful school uniforms, I think? |
| ....I found your comment very adorable. Thank you. |
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| its reasonable, still, it would be nice for an old/mid30's/unique face to show up every now and then to be on par in shounen shows |
| I preffer anime that the mc is at least 16-17 or something or at least has other characters that aren't kids. I'm ok with the characters being 16 or something but 14 or less not my style. |
| WHOA! I never noticed that! Also....has anyone ever noticed a lot of the girls in anime are teenagers too?! Amazing, huh? |
JustALEX said: and they are missing their parents!!!WHOA! I never noticed that! Also....has anyone ever noticed a lot of the girls in anime are teenagers too?! Amazing, huh? |
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| Yea, just the other day I learned that a lot of characters anime are Japanese. |
| What a great observation! That had been observed by countless users before. |
| That's because most anime shows are targeted at young adults, so they have protagonists at the appropriate age. Female protagonists aren't that uncommon, especially when you look at genres like SOL and Magical Girl. |
| WEAPONS - My blog, for reviews of music, anime, books, and other things |
MrAnimeGeek23 said: Is it just me or do sooooooooooo many anime shows seem to have a teenage boy for their main character??? I feel like every one I've watched except for Erased are about a teenage boy! Not just shounen that I've watched either. Even seinen like Steins;Gate & parasyte are all about a teenage boy. This isn't a bad thing by any means. Just an interesting observation. Granted, I haven't watched any of the chick flick anime, but still... I don't know what you mean by "chick flick" anime, but there are so many genres and stories within those genres, if you go in with such a narrow definition, you'll have a harder time finding good shows because they might not be the kind you're looking for. I highly recommend you check out mushishi on your watch list, it's a slow, very beautiful episodic supernatural series with an adult male protagonist. Death parade and hell girl feature different people each ep surrounding a main cast of mostly adults in stories surrounding the afterlife, lots of gruesome things happening to terrible people. Nichijou and lucky star are slice of life/comedy series which center on high school girls. Revolutionary girl utena and the princess tutu are excellent series focused on girls overcoming personal trials and their own perceived limits as girls. Gunbuster is a cool OVA about girls going into space. Haibane renmei is a surreal but beautiful story entirely focused on girls and young women. Madoka Magica, futari wa precure, tokyo mew mew feature teams of magical girls . Little witch academia is an entire cast of high school girls. Watch the short films then watch the tv series from studio trigger which came out this winter. And since I mentioned them, I'd also like to give a shout out to other series they made, space patrol luluco, kill la kill and gurren lagann. Mononoke is in a class by itself just for the visuals. For more teenage boys, see natsume's book of friends, mob psycho 100, and sakamoto desu ga. I can vouch for every one of these series being enjoyable and worth watching and recommending to other people. I don't know if you're looking for shows without teen boys or what, but I have a serious bone to pick with anyone who dismisses anime because it looks girly, or it's targeted at girls, or it features a lot of girls in the cast. There is way too much good anime out there to be using terms like "chick flick". |
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| >many anime >11 completed anime (according to MAL) I don't know about your definition of many, but you can't say "many" after only having completed 11 anime |
SomeEdgeLord said: I WILL report you from this forum if this continues. In real life, I am one of the coldest, unsympathetic, people you'll ever know, who's grown up in an even colder household, you really don't want me to break my persona, I know how to make people feel bad. YearnsforAttention said: hm who has 1656 friends on MAL that's right me bye bye YearnsforAttention said: I don't want your approval how many damn times do I need to say it I enjoy irritating you I am gonna do things MY way |
| Because anime are mostly for teenagers. |
But it's important to remember that a movie review is subjective;it only gives you one person's opinion. http://www.classzone.com/books/lnetwork_gr08/page_build.cfm?content=analyz_media&ch=30 It doesn't matter if you like LoGH,Monster etc.If you are a jobless or college/school dropout living in your mom basement, you are still an unintelligent loser. Taste in anime does not make you a better person.If elitist don't exist, casual pleb and shit taste also don't exist. |
| Target demographics, cultural things, a lot of things could be the cause but it really isn't anything new. |
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