A tragic backstory is pretty much par for the course when it comes to establishing a solid protagonist. If creators want their audiences to feel sympathetic, the quickest shortcut to achieving that goal is saddling a character with truly devasting history. Deceased parents, abandonment, abuse, or neglect are not outside the norm, and in the fiction genre, monsters, villains, demons, and curses tend to complicate things further.

RELATED: 10 Shonen Characters With The Most Tragic Backstories

But there are other ways to make characters endearing, and there are skilled writers who are less focused on the past than on the present. Some shonen protagonists are luckier than others when it comes to backstories.

10 Luffy Was Never Without Friends

young luffy

Luffy wouldn't describe his childhood as tragic, and so how could anyone else? While growing up with his grandfather, Monkey D. Garp, was certainly not easy, for the most part, Luffy led a sheltered life in Foosha village until Shanks and his pirates came to visit.

Afterward, when Luffy was sent to live with mountain bandits, he was fortunate enough to meet his brother-to-be and fan-favorite character, Ace, and later Sabo as well. While his early days were certainly scrappy, Luffy was never devoid of friends.

9  Maka Albarn's Parents Have Marital Problems, But That's About It

Maka Albarn ready for battle with soul on her back in Soul Eater

Maka Albarn is a great shonen protagonist, and no less so because she hasn't experienced any great loss in her youth. That isn't to belittle the struggle of having a disruptive home life or the trauma that divorce can wreak on children. It's just that on the anime scale, a dad who cheats and a mom who leaves are on the lighter side of debacles.

While viewers never see Maka's mother, they hear her described as stout and strong. And viewers certainly see plenty of Spirit Albarn, Maka's father. He's a womanizer and something of a loser, but beyond that, doesn't come close to being the worst dad in a medium that gave fans such jerks as Shou Tucker and Genji Ikari.

8 The Haikyuu!! Boys' Problems Are Mostly Volleyball-Centric

haikyuu and hinata

Haikyuu!! is an incredibly nuanced and realistic show. While this realism doesn't lower the suspense or impact the characterization in anything but positive ways, it does mean the entire cast boasts a rather mundane collection of backstories. Viewers don't hear about tragedies, apart from the daily tragedies all have experienced: a grandparent falling ill, an older brother making disappointing decisions, a parent's quiet absence.

RELATED: 10 Shonen Anime With The Most Meaningful Lessons

The brilliance of Haikyuu!! is that it feels no less evocative despite lacking any massive tragedies, and the author never relies on knee-jerk reactions to establish these characters.

7 Saiki K's Parents Are Very Much Alive, Possibly To His Dismay

Saiki standing in front of a house looking to the right in concentration

It's harder to think of shonen series that don't feature orphans than those that do. In the case of Saiki, he may be a bit jealous. He's undeniably accomplished when it comes to managing his psychic abilities but significantly more flummoxed by his oddball family.

RELATED: 10 Best Running Gags In The Disastrous Life Of Saiki K.

Even Episode 1 features a segment in which his parents fall in and out of love with each other in quick succession over a dinner table, and throughout the series, Saiki's father, in particular, expects his son to solve his problems. Later, when audiences meet Saiki's grandfather, he proves to be just as irritating and just as good at providing comedic fodder: a classic tsundere, he pretends to loathe his family only to step into another room and squeal with delight at their presence. If these are the only problems Saiki faces in his household, he's got it pretty good.

6 Senku Had It Pretty Good Before The Petrification

dr stone miracle

Dr. Stone certainly encompasses its share of tragedy. All of humanity has been petrified for millennia, after all, and the path to restoring life to what it once was is bound to be a long and bumpy one. But theres' nothing especially bleak about the series, which focuses primarily on the antics of Senku Ishigami.

Senku's upbringing may have been truncated by the apocalypse, and little is known about his birth parents, but he had a supportive adoptive father who nurtured his love for science. Senku took part in school clubs, communicated with NASA, and won science fairs. While the petrification meant inevitable loss would befall him, it befell everyone else, too.

5  Soma Yukihira Of Food Wars Copes Mostly With A Hot Kitchen

Food Wars: Shokugeki No Soma

It's fair to say that Food Wars doesn't partake much in darker themes, and why should it? This is a series about indulging in comedy and food especially, and too much trauma would certainly feel misplaced in a series with such a buoyant tone.

And while many shonen protags get kicked into action by the demise of a parent, for Soma it isn't so. Instead, his father announces he's closing his restaurant and sends Soma off to culinary school. As life-altering events go, it certainly beats a kick in the teeth.

4 Rimuru's Life was Pretty Dull Until He Was Reincarnated

Rimuru Tempest That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime

Life as a salaryman is certainly not glamorous, as Satoru Mikami knows very well. He's 37 and a bachelor, respected at work but seemingly doomed in romance, and for all intents and purposes, his life is pretty aimless. When he dies defending a coworker during a mugging within the first few minutes of the series, he's more disappointed than sad.

But Satoru's death is as unremarkable as his life was, and it's all uphill from there. Reborn as a slime in a fantasy world, Satoru is renamed Rimuru and finally begins to live a little. It's not the first series to start at the ending, but it is one of the best at rewriting a person entirely.

3 Light Yagami Is Angsty For No Good Reason

Light Yagami from Death Note laughing evilly.

Light is an annoyingly privileged young man. He has two parents who care for him and a little sister too, and he enjoys a decent if mundane upbringing. He goes to private school and a prep school, too, and he receives no shortage of support from those who care for him. How bothersome it is, then, that Light seems so stubbornly miserable.

But this is one of the perennial points of interest in the series; by all accounts, Light has no reason to turn into a homicidal maniac. But he does, which implies anyone could, and also can be seen as a commentary on the sort of entitlement that infects a person who's always been lucky in life. Light has no idea how good he has it and yet feels comfortable judging others.

2 The Yowapeda Cast Is Always Going Uphill

Yowamushi Pedal anime

Sports anime aren't always afraid to indulge in some trauma. Cases in point: Area No Kishi and Run With The Wind deal with all kinds of personal struggles throughout their story arcs. But in general, sports anime often rely on the sports themselves to provide suspense and drama, rather than character backstory.

Yowapeda falls into this category. Sure, the protagonist, Onoda Sakamichi, might be an otaku who struggles with confidence and making friends, but beyond that, his life is okay even before he joins the cycling team. But perhaps the show serves as a good reminder that even if things are okay, anyone who wants more from life should know that there are always new hills to climb.

1 Bakugo Is Spoiled Beyond Belief (But Don't Tell Him)

Katsuki threatens Deku

While Deku might be the central protagonist of My Hero Academia, from episode 1 onward it's clear that Deku's foil, Bakugo, is just as vital to propelling the story forward. Bakugo might be more of a deuteragonist, but he's central to the story and far from being a villain, despite his bouts of cruelty. Bakugo's loving parents are alive and, in the case of his mother, certainly kicking.

From early childhood onward, Bakugo's powerful Quirk gives him undue confidence that later becomes arrogance. Indeed, the worst of Bakugo's problems are of his own making, and his gradual development into becoming a better person is one of the series' core strengths. Bakugo can do better, and he will, in no small part because he knows Deku.

NEXT: Dr. Stone & 9 Other Unconventional Shonen Anime