My Hero Academia is one of the most popular anime and manga series today. While the primary characters are heroes, many important characters are villains. The series creator, Kohei Horikoshi is known to subvert common troupes in the shonen genre. However, it’s how he treats his villains that is most interesting. It has been noted that characters like Bakugo and Endeavor aren’t quite as heroic as expect. They can be considered to be anti-heroes. The true villains of the series have been given arcs of their own.
Currently, the Meta Liberation Army arc is focusing on the development of the League of Villains as they come into conflict with the Liberation Army. The main antagonist, Tomura Shigaraki is given a backstory, as he and his comrades train to become stronger. Why does Horikoshi focus on villains at all? Shigaraki story mirrors Midoriya’s, how’s that different from typical shonen series? Will focusing on villains in this manner result in readers caring about them more?
I am literally *so* excited to read this. I really like how Horikoshi makes readers question how heroic the "heroes" really are, since they're doing it as a profession in a capitalist society (which therefore devalues people who have no quirk, like Deku, or "unheroic" quirks, like Shinsou). All Might explicitly tells Deku he can't be a hero if he doesn't have a quirk. I really hope you touch on this false dichotomy of heroic vs. villainous, good vs. bad, good quirk vs. bad quirk, etc. and how the League of Villains is essentially a band of misfits whose quirks or upbringing alienated them from a pro-hero society. A buddy of mine runs a villains-centric blog that might have some useful discussion for you: codenamesazanka on Tumblr :) – Eden4 years ago
The protagonists of My Hero Academia are in short, fairly bland and one dimensional. they have one defining trait and are mostly left to that. Horikoshi seems to put so much emphasis on the villians because those are the characters she took the time to make interesting. – Aschneider2 years ago
Manhwa is a Korean term for comics, generally considered to be of lower quality than a manga, manhwa is starting to gain in popularity. Recently manhwa has become a source for adaption, with Tower of God being released and the God of High School coming up July (Both by Crunchyroll/MAPPA). Research and analyze the rise of manhwa as a source for anime adaptation. Can manhwa compete with manga? Is manhwa going to become a source primarily for American companies like Crunchyroll? Does the general quality of manhwa compare to manga matter?
As someone who mostly watches manga-adapted anime, this is an interesting topic. It could also delve into the key differences between manga (Japanese) and manhwa (Korean) or even, manhua (Chinese), whether that be in content, art style, etc. Then further explore its adaptations and what that means for the local industries and Western companies. – Lyka Cali3 years ago
Manwha as a source of soft power would an incredible topic to explore, in addition to how it would be able to harness that soft power in the process of transculturation. – curiosibri3 years ago
I can understand that they style character’s hair by their personality type and it makes more sense when trying to identify a character in high-speed action. Does anyone know the behind the scenes of why authors or anime professionals do this?
1. Young audience.
Now I will say that anime is not just for kids, Death Note is a prime example
but because of its young audience, they probably want to appeal to them with the crazy colours
2. Trademark
they want to separate it from other animation or comics.
3. Fictional Fun
they can do so because the world is fictional.
4. they use the hair colour to represent the character's personality a lot faster.
5. to break racial stereotypes. – Amelia Arrows3 years ago
It really depends on the show. A lot of the time the goal seems to be telling the audience something about the character (for example, Todoroki's red-and-white hair in "My Hero Academia"). It may also have something to do with the fact that there isn't a lot of variation in hair colors in Japan to begin with--such that, for example, a Japanese person, until relatively recently, would be about as likely to see someone with blue hair as to see someone with blond hair. So, giving a character strange-colored hair (as opposed to the typical brown or black hair) is a way of marking them as exotic and therefore, more interesting. The vampire horror anime "Shiki" gives its characters strange-looking hair to make them look even more eerie than they otherwise would. – Debs3 years ago
In addition of Amelia Arrows' comment, I'd suggest that colouring the hair of female anime characters in school based stories also serves as a subtle criticism of the 'no dye' policy still strictly enforced in some Japanese schools. – Amyus3 years ago
Well one of the older manga stated the reason was it was a sign of mutation for the next stage of humanity. They ended up being called Newtypes. – Rerednaw1 year ago
Shounen manga and shoujo manga have both been perceived as opposite ends of the spectrum, with shounen being seen as ‘for boys’ and shoujo being seen as ‘for girls’. Analyse how both demographics explore femininity and female empowerment, and how the stereotypes of both demographics can affect the way women are written or interpreted by the audience.
How are women often portrayed in shounen manga? How does this compare with shoujo? Where are the similarities, and to what extent are these similarities cultural? Is it fair to expect a shounen manga to emphasize female characters when the target audience is supposedly largely male? And are our stereotyped perceptions on these demographics even true anymore? Manga like Naruto, FMA, Sailor Moon and Akatsuki no Yona touch on these questions and may be good considerations
Perhaps a less philosophical topic, but I’d love to see just a short article analysing various light novel titles. I’ve noticed a trend in which many of them have excessively long titles, some overly descriptive, but some not so much? I’d love to know why, or even just read about some common themes in them. A lot of them, as a result of their overly-wordiness, also tend to have nicknames, which could also be interesting to look at.
There are plenty of examples to look at: Danjon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darō ka (DanMachi) (Is it Wrong to Pick up Girls in a Dungeon?)
Mondaiji-tachi ga Isekai Kara Kuru Sō Desu yo? (Mondaiji) (Problem Children are Coming from Another World, aren’t they?)
Ore no Nōnai Sentakushi ga, Gakuen Rabu Kome o Zenryoku de Jama Shiteiru (Noucome) (My Mental Choices are Completely Interfering with my School Romantic Comedy)
This sounds like an interesting article for the light novel enthusiast. Perhaps research popular and cultural trends within the Japanese publishing industry. Titles with more than a few words (books, film, TV, music) are exceptions in the West rather than the norm so it’d be cool to get an understanding of why the Japanese like long titles so much. – Tanner Ollo4 years ago
A trope I’ve seen quite commonly in manga is that of the ‘death game’. Usually, a group of students wakes up in some closed-off area, with mysterious instructions to either kill each other, perform acts that might end in death, vote people to die, etc.
I’d love to see an analysis of why this genre is so prolific. Perhaps a look at the themes it deals with, and how despite the large number of manga, there are still so many unique ideas.
Possible example to look at could be: Ousama Game, Jinrou Game, Tomogui Kyoushitsu, Doubt, etc.
As I am a Manga lover thats why I really like to have this topic on this site. All the Articles Published in this site in Manga Section are helpful and are really interesting to read. – soulmate2 years ago
The manga Hourou Musuko (Wandering Son) is about two transgender youths, and their struggles with adolescence. I’d be interested to read an analysis of the manga and how it handles these themes. Perhaps commentary on the influence of Japanese culture on the way the representation is handled, and also how times have changed in that respect too (as the manga began in 2002).
The art and storytelling in Junji Ito’s manga are very original in a peculiar sense. As a researcher interested in the concept of creativity and a fan of Junji Ito, I would be delighted to read an article about what makes Ito’s works creative.
