Shonen anime protagonists generally follow the same formula, even if some leads such as Death Note's Light Yagami shake it up and become villains in their own right. Shonen heroes are expected to undergo intense training, learn new techniques and fight the strongest villains to save the world, but sometimes the fight can get more personal.

A shonen hero is much more compelling when they are fighting for more than the world's fate or to protect the innocent masses from harm. When it grows to involve saving a friend or family member, such as Demon Slayer's Tanjiro Kamado and Fire Force's Shinra Kusakabe, the shonen quest takes on a new and far more intimate meaning -- and it nearly always works.

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How Shinra & Tanjiro Lost Their Sibling To The Darkness

Demon Slayer's Tanjiro and Nezuko close together and looking at the viewer

Many shonen heroes don't have a sibling, which means their battles against evil are rarely personal. Naruto, for example, is an only child, and Izuku Midoriya has no known brothers or sisters. By contrast, Demon Slayer's Tanjiro was once the oldest of six brothers and sisters in the humble Kamado household, and Fire Force's Shinra had a much younger brother named Sho. As the eldest brother, Tanjiro and Shinra are sworn to defend their younger siblings from any and all harm, but they tragically failed. Now it's up to them to make amends for their failures and save those siblings once again, either by training as a demon slayer or joining the fire soldiers' Company 8.

Nezuko Kamado was forcibly turned into a demon by Muzan's hand, while the Cult of the Ashen Flame kidnapped Sho as one of the eight Pillars and trained him as a deadly knight who fights for the Evangelists' cause. The tragedy isn't the physical deaths of these siblings, but their psychological deaths. Nezuko is now a flesh-eating monster who has no place in society, while Sho is a powerful villain who opposes all the good things his older brother Shinra stands for. In a way it's even more painful for Tanjiro and Shinra than seeing their siblings die -- but at least they have a chance to fight and turn their younger brother or sister back to the light.

All this drives the emotional stakes of both Demon Slayer and Fire Force, with Tanjiro and Shinra risking their very lives to restore Nezuko's humanity or return Sho from the folds of a doomsday cult. The heroes have more at stake than sheer survival or victory over the villains, and merely killing Muzan or destroying the Cult isn't enough. These protagonist brothers are determined to restore their broken families, and that makes them highly relatable and sympathetic as action heroes -- even with the supernatural elements involved. This gives fans many more reasons to cheer Tanjiro and Shinra on than just "beat the bad guys!" and it adds intense drama and stakes that don't exist with more traditional shonen quests.

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The Benign Selfishness of Tanjiro & Shinra

Fire Force - Shinra fighting with Sho

This personal quest is what sets Demon Slayer's Tanjiro and Fire Force's Shinra apart from anime heroes who fight almost entirely for the world's sake, such as Midoriya, Naruto and Edward Elric. While those heroes do believe in the power of friendship, they always look at the bigger picture while Tanjiro and Shinra keep things personal. At first, it may seem selfish for those two heroes to prioritize their lost sibling's needs over those of the masses, but as shonen stars, Tanjiro and Shinra found a way to balance their personal quests with their duty.

Fortunately their personal missions and external duties are intertwined, and Tanjiro and Shinra rarely have to choose between them. For Tanjiro, defeating Muzan and the Moons is actually a part of restoring Nezuko's humanity, and for Shinra, redeeming his brother Sho is one step of many toward defeating the Cult of the Ashen Flame.

This keeps the story cohesive and streamlined while also avoiding making Tanjiro and Shinra seem too selfish as heroes. The protagonists are free to focus primarily on their younger brother's or sister's needs while also saving the world, and that makes for an exciting and compelling narrative in any shonen story.