Theanimemedium is one that’s constantly changing, evolving, and adapting to the world around it. If classic shonen tropes are all the rage at the moment, then a lot more shonen series are going to come out that use these same tropes, and so on. And, this is also the reason that most shonen casts feature characters between the ages of 10-18.
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A large portion of the manga-reading demographic tend to be on the younger side on average, so the characters are written to match that. That said, a lot ofseries would be more enjoyable overall if the characters were just a bit older, mature, and not in the same high school setting every time. In fact, here are some of the best examples.
7My Hero Academia
Imagine ifMy Hero Academiawasn’t constantly dealing with relatively safe concepts of schoolyard bullying, first loves, or characters getting babied by adults? What if, instead of the Academia being set in a high school, it was a college instead? Instantly, this would solve the pacing issues in the beginning of the anime, as Deku would get a much shorter crash course from All Might, being a legal adult and all. Not only that, they wouldn’t have to explain why the kids would live at school either, as its customary for college students to live in on-campus dorms. Just this simple change would lead to a lot of small fixes, such as:
This isn’t to say thatMHAisn’t a masterclass story as it is now, obviously it is, but if the ages were scaled up just a bit, a lot of the small issues with the series would be quickly fixed.
6JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders
Next up is an anime that needs older characters primarily just so that their visual design makes logical sense.JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders,the third part of the series, has Jotaro Kujo as its main character. And, somehow, this 6'5, 180-pound mass of muscle is canonically only 17 years old! It makes about as much sense as his hat does, to be honest.
Of course, this problem existed in Part 1’sPhantom Bloodwith Jonathan Joestar and Dio Brando, but not nearly to the same degree, and they were also in college when their proportions got to this similar level of absurdity. Honestly, the sheer difference between Jotaro and all the other high school girls around him in the first episode is just another part ofJJBA’sodd charm, so it doesn’t hurt the series much overall. But, if they had just said that Jotaro (and by extension Kakyoin) were college students, it would be so much more believable.
5Hitekkyo Hitman Reborn
No, this next anime isn’t only included because one of the main characters is a literal baby. Well, it partially is, but the series would also just be a lot more enjoyable if the characters were just a few years older. This anime/manga revolves around the world’s best hitman, known only as “Reborn”, training a lanky middle school student named Tsunayoshi Sawada into being the Tenth Boss of the Vongola Mafia family.
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Now, even if the characters were high-schoolers, this concept would still be ridiculous, but they’re in middle school! Not only that, to first get Tsuna used to using the “power system” of the series “The Dying Will Flames” Reborn literally shoots Tsuna with a gun constantly. Now, these bullets aren’t actual bullets but are instead “Dying Will Bullets” that still kill the person shot, but bring them back to life right after. Think about it, this is a series where a baby Hitman trains a middle-school student into using superpowers by shooting him with a gun, so he can become the head of a Mafia family. Now, wouldn’t that be even just a smidge easier to digest as a narrative if the characters were at least 16-18?
4Pokemon
This is a bit of an obvious inclusion, but a necessary one nonetheless. Ash Ketchum is stuck in a time loop of sorts and can’t seem to age more than a year or two at most. The boy has “technically” been 10 years old for 20+ years now. Even in the more recent seasons of the anime, there have only been little hints and references that a bit of time has passed since Ash and Pikachu have met, a couple of years at most.
The Pokemon Company really needs to age him up already. It’d be so easy to show fans his adventures as an 18+-year-old, traveling the world to battle legendaries and study more Pokemon mysteries. Because this is such a family-friendly IP, they wouldn’t even have to have Ash tackle more mature concepts either, so there would be no downside to this timeskip.
3Your Lie in April
While the animeYour Lie in Aprilis an incredible series with a complex plot and rabid fan following, most people would begrudgingly admit that it’s sort of silly that this series revolves around characters in middle school. This is an anime that deals with concepts around first love, death, trauma, childhood abuse, PTSD, and even chronic illness.
It’s a story that masquerades as a sort of romantic comedy but actually also has a lot of adult themes and darker aspects. And, while all the writing in this story works well, it would be so much more believable if the characters were just a couple of years older.
2Aldnoah.Zero
Aldnoah.Zerois another story that just needs a couple of years of experience added to its main cast. Basically, this anime is set in a world where a portion of humanity traveled to Mars via a “hypergate” and discovered advanced technology, and those who settled there eventually declared war against Earth or what they call “Terrans”. In it, the viewer is witness to Mars’s invasion of Earth and a whole cast of characters fighting back against the invaders using theseGundam-like Mech suits.
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But, the only problem is, the main cast is all 15-16-year-olds piloting mechs for the first time and somehow winning against trained veterans in their 20s and 30s! While it’s made clear early on that protagonist Inaho Kaizuka is a calm and collected genius strategist, that still only makes it a pinch less absurd. If instead, these characters were say…fresh out of college or even in their senior year of high school the lightning-fast progression from civilian to veteran soldiers would be so much more believable.
1Kill La Kill
And for the final entry, let’s talk a bit aboutKill La Kill. Now,Kill La Killis a fantastic anime and arguably one of Trigger studio’s most popular works alongsideTengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. And, in general, this show is fantastic all the way around both in its narrative and action scenes. But, a large majority of this show features characters either completely naked or in very revealing supernatural clothes called “Kamui”. And, while characters like Satsuki are canonically 18, MC Ryuuko is 17, a lot of the students at the school are younger than 18, and members of the freedom fighter-esque group “Nudist Beach” are teachers at this school who go around also barely wearing any clothes.
Why not set Honnouji Academy as a college instead of a high school? It wouldn’t fix the problem, absolutely not, but it would make it so that fans of the series could actually recommend it to their friends without the classic “it’s good…but watch out for this gross trope”.
