Shounen Fightin' Anime [Shounen Protagonist Quest]
- Thread starter Pangolin
- Start date
- Original
RedV
Refuelling
- Location
- Right here
Even with the Parent background, you don't have many plot hooks. It deals with living up to a person casting a great shadow, and is a great source of motivation, but I'm not a fan of the plots it provides. The themes and ways it skews the story is inherently unappealing to me.
Pandemonious Ivy
Panties, Revolution. Big Drawers. Parachute.
Well, I'm looking at "Betterment + Parent" and trying to see how they'd combine (not only explicitly in the vote, but how Pangolin might blend them).
Someone who felt inadequate all throughout their childhood because there was something wanting within them, that their own mother couldn't stick around after birth. Someone who grew up watching others with their families and realizing that they were happy, they were loved, and they wanted and needed each other; so why couldn't they have that too?
I'm imagining this being the quest of someone who both wants to confront their mother and yell and scream at them Why didn't you want me?! but it's also the quest of someone who found what their mother wanted so badly, so much more than they wanted a child, so they set out to make their mother proud. To grasp at the embers of glory just to be able to show it to the one person they always wanted, always needed, but was never good enough for.
It has potential to be a twisted tale of loss, insecurity, and pain. It also has the same potential to be about triumph, growth, and self confidence.
A story about mourning someone who wouldn't mourn for you. And a story about learning to accept and appreciate the love that is given, rather than seeking it out from those who are unworthy.
Ah, the thematic potential is pretty dope, tbh.
- Location
- Britain
As Pangolin noted above, you're not meant to be considering each background in isolation, but as a pair. I've noted that I agree with you in regards to 'Betterment' as a sole motivation, but it's an interesting background when paired with Parental Figure.
You're a martial artist, heir to a tradition ranging back centuries, and your mother is the head of the school. Your mother has disappeared, and you want to find her...so that you can surpass her and become truly fit to challenge Heaven itself, as the style's founder once did.
You can't take backgrounds and concepts in isolation like that - it all ties together. Which leads neatly into my main issue with Revenge - more than any other background, it drastically alters the tone of the protagonist and her story. I'm entirely disinterested in SV/SB anti-heroism and I've seen where it tends to lead. And I don't want any of it, no thank you.
"Sorta-friendly".
Ryuutei hates them. Explicitly. I'm not a huge fan of having such a central relationship to the quest be so negative, especially when paired with a negative background like Revenge. It just leads to a dark-and-edgy background and story ("My entire village was killed, but the one person I hate survived and they're an asshole") that I'm strongly opposed to.
Elpis
Ostensibly Hope
- Location
- Berlin
Eh, to be fair, in a lot of ways it could end up like HxH where by the time he met his dad, he already had way more shit to worry about than that.
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[X] What do you look like?
[X] Parental Figure
[X] Betterment -
[X] Cyborg
[X] Methodical and precise, agile and fast. You have a talent for analyzing your opponent, identifying openings and fighting them according to your style
[X] Little Brother
[X] Childhood Friend
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[X] Plan: Obligatory Guts Expy
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[X] To Stand Against Heaven
-[X] What do you look like?
-[X] Parental Figure
-[X] Betterment
-[X] Pure Martial Artist
-[X] Methodical and precise, agile and fast.
-[X] Melee (Defensive)
-[X] Little Brother
-[X] Childhood Friend
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[X] To Stand Against Heaven
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[X] Revenge
[X] Alien Mentor (kinda)
[X] Energy Manipulation
[X] Little Brother
[X] Childhood Friend
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[X] Plan: Obligatory Guts Expy
[X] Apperance:
[X] Parental Figure
[X] Revenge
[X] Pure Martial Artist
[X] Melee (Offensive)
[x] Wild and powerful, grounded and enduring. You like to think that you can make your own openings, and rely on raw physical capabilities to break down your opponents, rather than taking them apart piece by piece.
[X] Childhood Rival
[X] Childhood Friend
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[X] Get a Job! -
[X] Esper -
[X] Melee (Offensive)
[x] Wild and powerful, grounded and enduring. You like to think that you can make your own openings, and rely on raw physical capabilities to break down your opponents, rather than taking them apart piece by piece.
[X] Childhood Rival
[X] Childhood Friend
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[X] Betterment -
[X] Parental Figure
[X] Mongrel -
[X] Balanced and fair, adaptable and well-rounded.
[X] Energy Manipulation
[X] Little Brother
[X] Childhood Friend
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[X] Plan Magical Showtime
[X] Destiny
[X] Parental Figure
[X] Favour of the Mighty
[X] Balanced and fair, adaptable and well-rounded.
[X] Energy Manipulation
[X] Little Brother
[X] Childhood Friend
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[X] What do you look like?
[X] Parental Figure
[X] Betterment -
[X] Cyborg
[X] Methodical and precise, agile and fast. You have a talent for analyzing your opponent, identifying openings and fighting them according to your style
[X] Little Brother
[X] Childhood Friend
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[X] Plan: Obligatory Guts Expy
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[X] To Stand Against Heaven
-[X] What do you look like?
-[X] Parental Figure
-[X] Betterment
-[X] Pure Martial Artist
-[X] Methodical and precise, agile and fast.
-[X] Melee (Defensive)
-[X] Little Brother
-[X] Childhood Friend
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[X] To Stand Against Heaven
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[X] Revenge
[X] Alien Mentor (kinda)
[X] Energy Manipulation
[X] Little Brother
[X] Childhood Friend
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[X] Plan: Obligatory Guts Expy
[X] Apperance:
[X] Parental Figure
[X] Revenge
[X] Pure Martial Artist
[X] Melee (Offensive)
[x] Wild and powerful, grounded and enduring. You like to think that you can make your own openings, and rely on raw physical capabilities to break down your opponents, rather than taking them apart piece by piece.
[X] Childhood Rival
[X] Childhood Friend
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[X] Get a Job! -
[X] Esper -
[X] Melee (Offensive)
[x] Wild and powerful, grounded and enduring. You like to think that you can make your own openings, and rely on raw physical capabilities to break down your opponents, rather than taking them apart piece by piece.
[X] Childhood Rival
[X] Childhood Friend
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[X] Betterment -
[X] Parental Figure
[X] Mongrel -
[X] Balanced and fair, adaptable and well-rounded.
[X] Energy Manipulation
[X] Little Brother
[X] Childhood Friend
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[X] Plan Magical Showtime
[X] Destiny
[X] Parental Figure
[X] Favour of the Mighty
[X] Balanced and fair, adaptable and well-rounded.
[X] Energy Manipulation
[X] Little Brother
[X] Childhood Friend
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RedV
Refuelling
- Location
- Right here
Revenge + Fame and Fortune would be best imo. We could have a fun, exgroverted braggadocio who loves to spread their name, while setting up their grand revenge plan through leveraging their newly acquired fame and fortune.
A charismatic avenger, like the count of Monte Cristo. We could start a fighting tournament to gather all the people we want to kill, like one of those final bosses.
RedV
Refuelling
- Location
- Right here
This is a shonen quest, and shonen is ultimately about making peace with even hated friends. It wouldn't be as negative as you think, we could reasonably play it like a better version of the Naruto-Sasuke dynamic.
- Location
- Britain
...You do know that Edmond Dantes is a tragic hero in the literary sense, right? He is completely unfit to be the protagonist of a shonen story what the hell.
notanautomaton
I've got 99 quests, I've finished one
[X] To Stand Against Heaven
RedV
Refuelling
- Location
- Right here
I was thinking about being the charismatic and wealthy person who uses their fortune to get justice, an that is not an innately tragic concept.
Edmond Dantes is simply the closest hero I could find to convey it with.
Ave Anathema
Ave Imperator
- Location
- Jacksonville Illinois
cyborgs done right. Cyborg(dc) Raiden maybe Genos(kinda fits in both cyborg and vengeance)
vengeance done right Guts Koinzel(ubel blatt) Batman, Blade, Laura Kinney(at first it was venegance against the facility), Ghost Rider, one has more done right then the other does that help
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- Location
- Britain
Man, you know that like, Dantes's quest for vengeance led to him never getting what he really wanted, right? He's a tragic hero twice over, because he chose revenge over the love of his life and is left empty at the end.
RedV
Refuelling
- Location
- Right here
I mean, shonen doesn't have to be innately anti-darkness. I presume you're using the average tropes that make up the average shonen protagonist, and they are essentially:
- Be a young person
- Be focussed on training
- Be involved in action (not always, but whatever)
- Show high stakes brotherhood situations
- Location
- Britain
Sure. And I'm completely uninterested in following this if it goes that route. Not that I think it will - Pangolin has already noted that the quest is 'near-parody' and won't be going near gritty seinen a la Berserk - but I remain opposed to a darker tone.
In addition, please don't ever actually use 'tropes' in an argument about literature. They're...that's not how they work. They're not things that people actively choose to use, but rather commonalities that emerge from similarly-themed works. Well, the useful ones are. A whole bunch of them are just useless.
RedV
Refuelling
- Location
- Right here
Why are you hung up over one example I used? The concept of 'newly rich person using wealth and means to achieve justice' is not innately unworkable, and I was merely referring to the way Dantes dealt with his revenge using his wealth, and not any other aspect of his character.
You know; like how 'inspired by Guts' does not necessarily mean 'share every detail with Guts'
Hyacinthium
Writing about sad cannibals as we speak.
- Location
- Bedroom
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Dgrayman is mentioned in the OP. It's dark as hell and very much a shouneny thing. It's all about what magazine you're serialized in tbh fam.
- Location
- Britain
Berserk was also mentioned in the OP. And yet...
RedV
Refuelling
- Location
- Right here
Tropes are common memes that many people who write a genre put in, and by using the word I meant that 'possessing of the generic qualities popularly but not always seen in shonen'
I couldn't find a better word for that other than memes, which is even worse at conveying a message. I am not using it in the context of tvtropes or such, but as a literal definition to communicate that as a 'shonen protagonist quest', we might have the generic 'ideas that are popularly seen in shonen' and how to subvert them if needed
Hyacinthium
Writing about sad cannibals as we speak.
- Location
- Bedroom
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Not what I was talking about.
- Location
- Southern Virginia
[X] To Stand Against Heaven
Since all the cool staff are doing it. Nah, just agree on tone. This doesn't really look like a good setup for a dark revenge story, and the parody elements are going to stand out like a sore thumb unless the revenge story goes full-on ludicrous edge. Which I guess might not be a bad idea, but it's something you have to really lean into, y'know.
Since all the cool staff are doing it. Nah, just agree on tone. This doesn't really look like a good setup for a dark revenge story, and the parody elements are going to stand out like a sore thumb unless the revenge story goes full-on ludicrous edge. Which I guess might not be a bad idea, but it's something you have to really lean into, y'know.
Adhoc vote count started by Crilltic on Feb 8, 2018 at 6:41 PM, finished with 122 posts and 40 votes.
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[X] Childhood Friend
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[X] Little Brother
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[X] Parental Figure
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[X] Betterment -
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[X] What do you look like?
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[X] Plan: Obligatory Guts Expy
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[X] Methodical and precise, agile and fast. You have a talent for analyzing your opponent, identifying openings and fighting them according to your style
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[X] Cyborg
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[X] To Stand Against Heaven
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[X] To Stand Against Heaven
-[X] What do you look like?
-[X] Parental Figure
-[X] Betterment
-[X] Pure Martial Artist
-[X] Methodical and precise, agile and fast.
-[X] Melee (Defensive)
-[X] Little Brother
-[X] Childhood Friend
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[X] Energy Manipulation
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[X] Balanced and fair, adaptable and well-rounded.
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[X] Revenge
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[X] Childhood Rival
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[x] Wild and powerful, grounded and enduring. You like to think that you can make your own openings, and rely on raw physical capabilities to break down your opponents, rather than taking them apart piece by piece.
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[X] Melee (Offensive)
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[X] Alien Mentor (kinda)
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[X] Get a Job! -
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[X] Esper -
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[X] Pure Martial Artist
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[X] Mongrel -
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[X] Apperance:
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[X] Plan Magical Showtime
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[X] Destiny
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[X] Favour of the Mighty
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- Location
- Ireland
Not really a fan of the defensive martial artist build. If your going to go full martial arts at least be Ranma.
[X] Betterment -
[X ] Get a Job! -
[ X] Inner Beast -
[ X] Wild and powerful, grounded and enduring. You like to think that you can make your own openings, and rely on raw physical capabilities to break down your opponents, rather than taking them apart piece by piece.
[X ] Melee (Offensive) -
[X ] Childhood Friend -
[X] Betterment -
[X ] Get a Job! -
[ X] Inner Beast -
[ X] Wild and powerful, grounded and enduring. You like to think that you can make your own openings, and rely on raw physical capabilities to break down your opponents, rather than taking them apart piece by piece.
[X ] Melee (Offensive) -
[X ] Childhood Friend -
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- Location
- USA
[X] To Stand Against Heaven
Manic Dogma
This, I can't deny.
- Location
- The far side of tired
- Pronouns
- Whatever
[X] To Stand Against Heaven
I cannot stand expies, especially ones that mistake DARRRRRK for interesting, and cyborgs don't really do it for me as protagonists. Ki-fuelled super martial arts tho?
Sign me the fuck up sailor, we goin on a TRIP.
I cannot stand expies, especially ones that mistake DARRRRRK for interesting, and cyborgs don't really do it for me as protagonists. Ki-fuelled super martial arts tho?
Sign me the fuck up sailor, we goin on a TRIP.
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