Shonen anime is incredibly popular and has been for a very long time. Nowadays, anime fans have become obsessed with My Hero Academia, Jujutsu Kaisen, and Demon Slayer. There is something about Shonen anime that captures the imagination. Not only are there a plethora of fun characters for fans to root for, but the stories being told are incredibly unique.
However, Shonen anime is far from perfect. Many fans look to Shonen anime with rose-tinted glasses and often ignore its weirder side. There are plenty of great things to say about Shonen anime, but every once in a while it's important to look at the parts that need improvement.
10 The Ones Saving The World Are Teenagers
The target audience of Shonen anime is often teenagers, so it makes sense that the characters are teenagers as well. However, suspension of disbelief is often stretched when the teenage characters are doing everything, even though there are perfectly capable adults around who can do it themselves. In My Hero Academia, the hero students are often expected to participate in fights with dangerous villains. Fans often forget that they are only a few months into their first year of hero school. It's hard to believe a group of 15 and 16-year-olds are given so much responsibility.
9 There Is Way Too Much Fan Service
Fan Service has existed in anime for a long time, and it refers to the writers adding material that's designed to please the audience. There are common tropes over-sexualizing female characters in several anime series, like Naruto and Dragon Ball Z. While Jujutsu Kaisen has done an amazing job with female representation, anime like Fire Force are still relying on the old tired trope. At this point, fans will simply drop an anime if the fan service is too egregious, which is unfortunate when an anime has a good story to tell.
8 Giant Weapons Are The Norm
Whether it's swords or guns, anime has a thing for oversized weapons. In real life, these types of weapons would be impossible to use, but the characters in Shonen anime make it seem all to easy. Sanosuke Sagara from Rurouni Kenshin is probably one of the only characters in Shonen who is beaten because his sword is too heavy. Most other characters like Ichigo from Bleach or Guts from Berserk wield their blades with expert precision.
One of the weirdest examples of an oversized weapon is Sui-Feng's Bankai from Bleach. Her sword is a tiny assassin blade but for some reason, it turns into a giant rocket launcher. Even the most hardcore Bleach fans couldn't explain what happened there.
7 Characters Learn New Techniques Without Training
Shonen anime is best known for its fights, which means there are a ton of different characters with their own fighting techniques. Most of the time, when a character wants to improve their fighting, they have to learn a new attack - aiding the character's development. However, some power-ups aren't as seamless. For example, during Ichigo's fight with Kenpachi, his sword becomes broken, but he somehow manages to come back with his sword intact. One Piece also did this too when Luffy suddenly introduced his new technique, Second Gear, during the fight at Enies Lobby.
6 The Power Of Friendship
Even shonen anime fans aren't afraid to poke fun at it. One particular punchline is how anime characters use their friend's support to win a fight. Fairy Tail does this the most frequently. Natsu will be bloody, beaten, and unable to fight, but suddenly able to fight again when motivated by thinking of his friends. When done wrong it can come across as corny, but when done right it is a great moment of strength for the characters.
5 There Is Way Too Much Filler In Shonen
While modern Shonen has improved in terms of filler, older series like Naruto and Bleach have a comical amount. The amount of filler in Naruto is so bad, fans tend to keep lists of which episodes they need to avoid when they rewatch the series.
There is an important purpose to filler - it's usually used when the anime catches up with the manga. However, Shonen anime often has dozen of episodes that don't contribute to the plot.
4 The Animation Is Only Good During Battles
Fans who start a new anime series and notice an increase in animation quality, it's pretty obvious something is about to happen. It's common for Shonen anime to have inconsistent animation across the series. For long-running series, it is often too expensive for each episode to have quality animation - so the good animation is usually saved for important episodes. More modern anime like Jujutsu Kaisen have found other ways to deal with this issue, but several Shonen anime still rely on this when making each episode.
3 All Shonen Protagonists Seem Dumb
In Shonen anime, the protagonist is often used to represent the audience - they ask questions so the audience can learn things about the world without it feeling like exposition. The downside to this is the characters often come across as stupid for not knowing anything about the world around them.
Manga creators often lean into this stereotype by making their protagonists airheaded and absentminded. It's common for characters like Naruto and Luffy to act first and think later. Even if a character seems book-smart, they still tend to act bullheaded during any given situation.
2 They Say The Names Of Their Attacks
Considering how often the characters are shouting the names of their attacks, it's common for fans to have the names memorized. On some occasions, shouting the attack names doesn't make sense, especially if it seems like the character is trying to surprise their opponent.
One example is during the Zabuza fight in Naruto. Sasuke uses a technique that allows him to hide a shuriken in the shadow of the first one. It's a smart trick but then he shouts the name of the technique, Shadow Shuriken, before throwing it. It probably isn't a good idea for Sasuke to shout out an attack when he needs it to be a secret.
1 Everything Happens In A Second
Shonen anime isn't the best when it comes to pacing, back-to-back action can frequently be stopped suddenly. Usually, this happens when the characters need to figure something out or explain a character's backstory. To the audience, the pause in a fight can take up an entire episode but to the characters, the break in the action may have only been a moment. Dragon Ball Z is infamous for this. Considering the fight between Freeza and Goku had a time limit of five minutes, the fight actually takes several thirty-minute episodes. Jujutsu Kaisen even pokes fun of this trope when Itadori and Todo are fighting Hanami.