#shonen battle manga

[hastings727]

Dandadan and its Ability to go Outside the Standard Shonen Battle Manga Tropes:

I love Dandadan for many reasons: insanely good artwork, wild situations, beautifully choreographed fight scenes, its ability to drop my jaw in some way every chapter.

But something that set it apart from most shonen battle manga is how it adds characters to its roster, and how it develops relationships between its characters through the use of Harem tropes.

After Aira's initial introduction into the manga, we see the first use of "comical misunderstanding" or "unlucky timing", where Momo sees Okarun on top of Aira outside the school. In most harem settings, this would be used to set up a love triangle, and keep the main pairing away from actually developing romance. But Dandadan instead uses it as a springboard into another action filled arc: the Serpo Arc that happens in their school. More supernatural hijinks ensue, and so many wild and crazy "even in context this is insane" situations occur that wouldn't be outside of a wild Harem manga situation. But what makes Dandadans use of these tropes different is how it subverts them: By the conclusion of the arc, Momo asks for an explanation of the initial situation that kicked off the arc, and Okarun speaks honestly: He was trying to train to become stronger for her. And Aira herself, instead of sticking to her popular girl schtick of talking smack about Momo, admits to an entire group of classmates that *she* was the one who made up the lies about Momo. Dandadan subverts the harem tropes and uses it to develop their characters relationships.

At the end of the Serpo arc we meet Jiji, Momos childhood friend and "first love". The tone of everything in Jijis debut makes the audience assume that this will AGAIN be the introduction of a love triangle that stunts the growth of the main pairing. Except this time it will be Okarun and Jiji fighting over Momo. But the well already begins to be poisoned in the next chapter: Jiji is a huge goofball. Its not out of the well of possibility that a love triangle might happen, but it subverts tone and establishes Jijis personality. The next few chapters continually set up the potential triangle, and starts up the events of the Cursed House arc. We see Okarun clearly uncomfortable with Jiji and Momos relationship, and is rapidly falling for Momo. But during the bus ride to the Cursed house, we see Okarun and Jiji begin to become friends. And their interactions together when Momo leaves to relax at a hot spring deepen their friendship, and everything culminates upon the fight between Okarun and Jijis transformation: the Evil Eye. Okarun is not only enraged that Evil Eye for hurting Momo, but for taking Jiji away from them.

"give him back! Give me back my dear friend!"

And then Okarun proceeds to double-fisted uppercut the Evil Eye 20 times into submission, capping off one of the best fight scenes in manga. But all of that was just to subvert the love triangle, at least initially. After the arc, Jiji is a part of the group, and Aira comes back to help with dealing with ANOTHER harem trope: multiple personalities that trigger from hot/cold water, a classic trope started by Ranma 1/2. Specifically, the Evil Eye that is inside Jiji. This entire arc serves to deepen character relationships, and drive character development. But while it simmers the love triangle, its never diminished: Okarun still feels nervous that his friend will overtake him as Momos male love interest. But as always, it serves to deepen the relationship between Momo and Okarun instead of stunting it. It always struck me how relatable all of this was. Throughout all of these wild and crazy "it could only happen in a manga" situations, the solid foundation of character relationships always shines through as a driving factor to the manga. These teenagers actually act like teenagers, they interact as teenagers. And its the main reason I'm still so attached to these characters.

[calvincell]

Finally got around to reading the first volume of ONE’s new manga “VERSUS” which is drawn via a new art collaborator: Azuma Kyoutarou! So far it honestly continues to confirm that One Punch Man & Mob Psycho 100 weren’t just flukes & ONE truly is just that good at original writing.

Basic 1st Chapter Spoilers:

VERSUS is a worldbuilding masterclass where multiple distinct human civilizations of different worlds facing varied extinction-level events/threats collide in an isekai-like fashion & must strategize & collectively work to resolve their doomsdays by pitting those threats against one another. As several readers have pointed out, the truly special thing about it is how each & every one of the so far revealed 13 worlds has a distinct setting that could easily work as a stand alone series which exponentially makes the whole series more compelling & fresh. Of course it has great fight scenes & character/creature designs & ONE’s particular brand of comedy that entertains but rarely takes away from tone & tension. One of the funniest wrinkles of the series is how the different humans, despite being desperate refugees of mid-apocalypse worlds often bicker like fanboys over the strength & danger their particular world’s threat is in the style of fandom arguments like: “Are you joking! Goku could totally beat the Hulk!”

So far the only issues I have with the series are:

A) The manga deserves a much more distinctive title than “VERSUS”. Hell, just from a search optimization standpoint the name completely kneecaps the series’ penetration into the mainstream/zeitgeist.

B) 11 chapters in & it sort of feels like the pacing is a bit off in a way I can’t quite explain. It feels slightly too fast but it might just be my own personal brain chemistry making it feel that way.

C) Somehow ONE has managed to create a much more annoying floating mascot character than MP100’s Dimple in the fairy character PanePane. It ruins each and every panel it’s in 😭

Besides all that though, I absolutely HIGHLY recommend giving the series a read for any manga fan but especially to anyone who already loves Mob Psycho or OPM

[stuff-of-legends]

Penny Blood x From the new world crossover idea.

Matthew from Penny Blood gives off Riku vibes.

Penny Blood is the spiritual sucessor to Shadow Hearts.

In its 3rd entry "From the new world", the protagonist Johnny gives off Sora vibes. So doing a crossover where Matthew was Johnny's rival turned friend when they were teenagers would be interesting.

Prequels work better when they are additive and its a fun play on shonen battle manga tropes.

the Kairi counterpart is up for grabs and probably a new character.

[derseprinceoftbd]

You know something? I've *never* seen a gender-equal Shonen popularity poll top 10 before!

[gontesblog]

TWINROVA (OFFICIAL MANGA TRAILER)

Visit the New Generations website for more info on TWINROVA!

NEW GENERATIONS: https://www.new-generations.com/ WEBTOONS: https://www.webtoons.com/en/canvas/tw...

DISCORD:   / discord   X: https://x.com/NEWGENERAT10401 INSTAGRAM:   / _new_generations__  

[spinji]

Talking abt Kiri in a bkdk context is funny to me, bc like yeah. If this was a romance manga Kiri would be the goofy friend trying to set up Katsuki with his crush and be the supportive wingman that usually comes up with bad ideas (give or take he also has a side romance bc he's popular with readers) bc that's basically what he already is in bnha lol.

My Hero Academia is a harem anime and Bakugou is the tsundere.

[aight-griffin]

Idk if it’s specific enough to actually count as a trope, but I do love those anime fights where someone is getting the absolute shit beaten out of them, but not only do they keep fighting, they're grinning the entire time.

[chiarrara]

the core idea i'm working with concerning the jjk finale discourse is that people are mad about the wrong things.

I have had serious problems with the writing in jjk since at least shibuya, and I even found criticism in the hidden inventory arc and the sister school exchange arc (though the main problem there is that it was boring pre-disaster curses and the characters suck).

Similar to Game of Thrones, some people were criticizing the broken writing choices as far back as seasons 3 and 4 while most people were glazing the series until the cracks in the foundation caused the entire story to crumble right at the end, leaving most of the fanbase confused how it "suddenly" got so bad.

The commonly held sentiment is that JJK fell off after Shibuya. I disagree. I think it fell off during Shibuya where the entire worldbuilding, power system, and plot broke irreparably.

HOWEVER where JJK never fell off was in character writing, relationship writing, and the overall themes of the story which were all consistent, had strong throughlines, were well integrated into the action (another strength), and were in my opinion, the core appeal of the the entire project.

And yet, most of what I hear people complaining about is either a) missing or dissatisfying character moments and a lack of satisfying exploration of the themes, or b) contradictory outrage over plot and worldbuilding elements not lining up as if these issues haven't been there from the start.

I know a lot of people don't operate this way, but when there are fundamental problems with the storytelling, but there are other parts of the story that I find incredibly meaningful and impactful, I find it really easy to glaze over those problems and even justify and rewrite them in my head so they make more sense. When good character writing shows up in JJK, I stop caring that the plot sucks.

The finale chapters of JJK had amazing character writing, delivered on the main themes of the story, and made literally all the broken plot elements, lack of focus, and shoddy worldbuilding secondary concerns for me. They don't break the important parts of the story, I don't care that they aren't wrapped up because I didn't like them in the first place, and their lack of exploration just cedes more ground to fan creation allowing the story to thrive for years into the future.

If you were reading JJK for the complicated plot, complex scheming, or intricate worldbuilding, I can see why you're upset, but you made a mistake a long time ago because that stuff has sucked for ages. But I know most of you fuckers on this website were reading for good characters, impactful themes about love, and yaoi bait, so why are you mad????? I really don't get it.

Who cares that the shittily written American Military subplot didn't come back? The fucking basis of the power system doesn't make any sense and isn't well thought out, so how was it ever going to deliver on the solution/potential for cursed energy? You're mad that the random New Shadow School subplot was randomly thrown in at the end, I've been mad since that random fucking grasshopper showed up in the fucking subway!

And some of you are literally admitting YOU DIDN'T EVEN READ THE TRANSLATED CHAPTERS so how would you KNOW if the story themes and character writing had been delivered on? based on summaries? that is the absolute worst delivery system for a story, you have to know this. you're getting mad at machine translations of out of context pages like WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT.

In conclusion, most of you are mad at the wrong things and none of what I wrote up there is really about what the things you should be mad about are, because they don't matter. The point of a story is to mean something and JJK did. It was always good at what it was good at, and I wish people were engaging more with the story in it's own domain instead of being mad it wasn't exactly what they wanted it to be. The finale delivered on everything that made me care about this story. It made me love it even more, and I'm never going to regret spending so much time on this series. Everything else is just criticism for fun.

[etrosgate]

the second readthrough of world trigger is where it really kicks in

[lavenderjewels]

kenjaku benefits a lot from being closer to the classic evil mad scientist than just an evil mastermind

[sabrinahawthorne]

A Call For Artists

As you may or may not know, I've been working hard on JUMP! Shonen Battle Roleplay, a game about fights, drama, and rivalry - a game whose prototype you can download for free Here.

I, however, am a humble author, and any game that advertises itself as an appropriate representation of shonen battle manga needs one thing above all else: great art, which as of now I cannot provide.

I, however, am a humble author, and any game that advertises itself as an appropriate representation of shonen battle manga needs one thing above all else: great art, which as of now I cannot provide.

Given that I'm a small-time designer who can't promise any revenue from the completed game, I want to make clear that I'll be paying out-of-pocket for any and all pieces commissioned, regardless of whether they end up in the final product. If you are or know an artist who might be interested in this work, please reach out to me at sabrinahawthornegames@proton.me. Below the cut is all of the nitty-gritty regarding what kind of work I'm looking for.

Here's the rundown:

Between 10-20 black & white character illustrations, in a shonen style (main style inspirations being Masashi Kishimoto, Eiichiro Oda, and Hiromu Arakawa).

Between 1-2 full-color illustrations in the same style as front & back covers for the book. These covers will be inspired by the covers of Shonen Jump! Magazine, and will include multiple characters featured in the black & white illustrations.

All artworks featured in the final product will be credited to their respective artists, under whatever name they prefer. In addition, all artists will retain the rights to the work they produce. It's your work to do with as you please, and I'll be honored to be allowed its use in my own work.

[animelga]

kagura bachi made me cave under peer pressure in record time (approx. 30 minutes) and ive now read the first chapter twice

its fucking COOL!!! you can see the influences everywhere from a bunch of diff sources, the plain expressions remind me a lot of Mob Psycho wheras the action screams Bleach and Chainsaw Man. this series has immense potential as a full-on Slasher series and already has some amazingly well done action scenes like the one above. the swordplay has a super dynamic "circular" feel to it thats really impressive to follow

[doedipus]

idk how to dunk screenshots underwater on desktop but pretend I did

first of all, azumanga is shonen! a lot of harem anime/manga are also shonen! shonen is a publishing demographic various magazines aim for akin to the way american publishers talk about the "middle grade" or "young adult" demographics rather than being a genre. if you see manga listed as shonen anywhere, that doesn't mean that it's a battle-adventure-whatever naruto-like series, it just means that it's published in a magazine that's primarily aimed at middle school and high school aged boys.

azumanga daioh was published in dengeki daioh, one such magazine.

love hina is a harem manga that was published in weekly shonen magazine, which one might gather is another shonen magazine.

jojo's bizarre adventure is a battle manga that used to be published in jump, a shonen magazine, but is now published in ultra jump, a seinen magazine aimed at the next age demographic up. it's not shonen because it's aimed at young men of college age and up

also, what is the point of a graph if one extreme is just shrugging anyway??? are we making a clear statement here or just pointing out obvious flaws in a way that feels weirdly suspect? like, the layout of this thing implies that it's safer to assume any given shonen series is going to be especially misogynistic than not, which is kind of a weird thing to say!

[lesbianbadbitch]

What I’m supposed to read now that Teppu is done, it was like the ultimate lesbian martial arts manga but the author is too sick to make any more for now.

[iris-nonsense]

Your dream of what gojo? Of having strong allies to change the system? The system of which you killed all of the leaders? That dream?

[characterswithcolorsnamesfight]

Best character with a color name

Round 1 Poll 9

From the submitters : *Gin in his name means silver, shiro in his nickname means white.