*May include spoilers. All media credits go to their owners.*
I've been a fan of Japanese culture - and especially anime - since I was a little girl. I believe I might have been around 6 or 7 years old when Sailor Moon was teh l33tzor for me. While others ran home to watch Mexican soap operas or hang out with friends, I just had to be home by 4 pm so that I could see my very favourite girl with buns on her head waving her magic wand around in the faces of some very peculiar monsters. Did I ever stop and think "Hey, wait, what is this show about exactly? How is it logical, that EVERY TIME they just happen to meet the people that get in trouble later on?" No, sir! What mattered was that evil could never win against the purity of the soul and good intentions! ... Who am I kidding - I just wanted to see Usagi and Mamoru kiss.
Over the years I've seen quite a few animes. Some of them were good, some were great or even magnificent - and some were so idiotic that I'd caught myself wondering how the hell I'd even start watching them. Although there wasn't one particular genre or theme that I'd watch, I usually tried to avoid pure shounen animes - mainly because it confused me when softer emotions were purposely left out of the picture. What bothered me was just that: "How can it be that such powerful heroic men don't want to claim their princesses in the end?" (Ok, it was actually more like: Y U NO wanna get laid :S?)
Now don't get me wrong - I'm not a fan of that drooly-blushy romance BS that some of the shows are focused on. Love Hina, Chobits, Negima and so on just leave me thinking "Right, whatever." What I do love are battles and mind games and sword techniques and magic and power-ups and supernatural beings and monsters and... you get the drift. Of course, being into the named themes, I ended up watching shounen animes anyway. And I really like them too - except that I still get ticked off by the lack of honest emotions from time to time.
Naturally in time I realised that romantic emotions were never really left out, just a bit concealed so that they wouldn't scare off poor insecure teenage boys. Just a few examples.
Bleach. I sincerely doubt a man would go rampaging through a combat oriented society if he had no deeper feelings than debt of gratitude on his mind. I mean sure - Ichigo would definitely save any other friend of his just the same. But even if he didn't have any deeper feelings at first, the constant reminding of why he was on his quest is bound to generate some sort of deeper emotions - in anyone. Not to mention the obvious Renji-likes-Rukia, Ishida-maybe-likes-Orihime, Orihime-likes-Ichigo, Ichimaru-Matsumoto, Hitsugaya-Hinamori. Yoruichi lives with Urahara, for goodness sake.
Naruto. Now here, on the other hand, they've gone and made a complete mess out of the display of romance. The constant reminder of how Sakura loves Sasuke and begs him to take her with him when he leaves the village - and Naruto always wishing the best for Sakura. I agree, it does show a higher form of commitment to be looking out for the happiness of the person you love. Except that they were, what, freaking 12 when they "fell in love"? Then again, one of the best usages of romance also comes from this anime. The story of Minato and Kushina was very captivating and the way they finally managed to deliver their feelings and wishes to their son was truly moving.
So why does it even anger me at all?
Because the main characters are usually shown as if they have no other feelings than "Protect my nakama! Got to win and be the best! Everyone is equal!"
And because there are several shounen oriented animes that achieve showing this important piece of life very naturally and I do not understand why it has been made into such a taboo or embarrassing thing in the rest of them.
Fullmetal Alchemist (I'm thinking mainly Brotherhood). Edward wants to protect Winry. They marry in the end. No mushy talk about feelings or confessing etc. Still has epic battles, abilities, strategies and lots more going on. GG well played.
Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal. Ok well this one might be categorised as romance on it's own, even if the main thing is shounen. Still - simple, clean, no retarded yapping. Kenshin wants to protect her, Tomoe is his sheath. They even threw in sort of a sex scene for the dummies.
Ao no Exorcist. Well bit of a love triangle (rabutoraianguru, ne) there but in general pretty well done.
Even Berserk managed to do it rather tastefully - well up to the point where everything went mental and newly awakened Femto starts raping Casca... like seriously, was that really necessary?
I guess what I'm trying to convey here is:
More honesty regarding male lead feelings in an environment of serious action is very welcome and does not ruin the entire genre of shounen. In fact, it adds a little something for people who don't find action and friendships to be the only part of life. Why is it not okay to have a certain someone you really care about?
I do understand that shounen is a bit of a shelter for boys to hide under, when the rain of 'y u no has gurlfriend' pours down. They can say: 'Hey, look, Luffy and Ichigo and Natsu and Naruto are so awesome and they don't have girlfriends!'. But who knows - maybe if there was more sincere romance in animes, those poor otaku who find it hard to even talk to women would manage to pull themselves together and live up to their hero's standards.
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| Natsu and Lucy |
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