The Nostalgic Resurgence of Shounen Anime

 

A lot of millennials grew up watching anime. As a result, anime became part of our identities. A lot of us may have possessed Dragon Ball or Pokemon paraphernalia. This is how influential otaku culture is to this generation. The problem is that the shounen formula became tiring as we grew up. Shounen anime is targeted at young boys, and the shounen formula always includes some form of struggle and solving challenges through camaraderie. Popularly known as the power of friendship. But it gets really annoying. Talk-no-jutsu is another anime trope that becomes terrifyingly dull. The protagonist literally "talks" the villain into defeat by signalling some virtue the mangaka wants to extol. In any case, lots of young people lost interest in following shounen anime that keeps running. Yes, we're looking at you Dragon Ball. 

I loved One piece. It has stellar world-building, lovable characters and a marvellous story-line. The only problem is that One Piece has reached about a thousand episodes, and there are still major plot points yet to be revealed. The youngsters that grew up watching anime are becoming disinterested, just because life happened and we just don't have enough time anymore. That is why the world was lit up when Demon Slayer was aired. The standalone movie aired recently beat Studio Ghibli's Spirited Away at cinemas in Japan. All this occurred whiles we are in a pandemic. 

Demon Slayer is a very good anime. It manages to revive the shounen formula but does it in a vastly unique way. You may have noticed that the older you get, the less anime you watch and the more manga you read. Most of us are looking for new anime to hype.  We are constantly looking for a new anime so satiate our desire for what we grew up watching. That is why we got anime like Fire Force, which has a really really good art style but with a mediocre story hyped. Black Clover was also hyped, but the voice acting was so bad most of us stopped watching. I still read the mangas but I don't see myself watching any of them.

I asked a friend to recommend new anime to me, and he suggested I watch Jujutsu Kaisen. Usually, he would just recommend a webtoon or manga, but he actually insisted I watch Jujutsu Kaisen. I'd seen it a few times on Social media, but it never stirred up any interest. I'll just go ahead and admit it, Jujutsu Kaisen is insanely good! I've never gotten chills watching an anime except for when Gohan defeated Cell. The closest feeling to that moment was the scene in SnK where Eren calls upon the power of the founding titan. But I don't classify Snk as shounen so you can scratch that. Jujutsu Kaisen gave me chills in episode 7. That episode is not really up to the level of what defined anime for most of us, but when Gojo utterly flexed on Volcano-head guy, I knew this anime is going to be amazing. It's safe to say that Jujutsu Kaisen was influenced by previous shounen. It's so obvious, but I really don't mind because it manages to be unique enough. I think Jujutsu Kaisen screams Bleach and Naruto. Yuuji's character design closely resembles Ichigo,  a great evil that seeks to destroy the world is sealed inside Yuuji. A power system that relies on the characters innate abilities. I could go on and on but you get the point. Personally, I'm willing to look past all of these similarities provided they've been done uniquely. Jujutsu Kaisen redefines the battle genre by inserting hit or miss edgy humour, and at the same time, it introduces a lot of moral dilemmas. The introduction of characters like Gojo-sensei in Jujutsu Kaisen and Kanao Tsuyuri in Demon Slayer reminds us of Rukia's relationship with Ichigo and Kakashi mentoring Naruto. The reintroduction of shounen mentors is a huge factor in the resurgence of shonen anime. The anime adaptation by Mappa is so good, I've decided not to read the manga, contrary to my earlier point. Jujutsu Kaisen does basically what all other good recent anime have done, the adaption to the manga is so accurate you don't miss anything watching the anime. The action scenes in Jujutsu Kaisen are intense, but it still manages to be humorous and that's what I love about it. 

I weigh certain elements in anime a lot more than others and for me, the original soundtrack is very influential. I recently tried rewatching Bleach, and Number One gave me the nostalgic feeling of how OP Ichigo's Vasto Lorde form was. It's not a kind feeling that is drawn out from me very often. I could hate the plot overall but absolutely love the soundtrack. Awesome soundtracks have come to define the battle shounen genre. Listening to Vogel Im Kafig tells you that things are about to go down. I've come to expect this from anime. Deca-dence is a really cool sci-fi anime that consistently subverts expectations in a good way. However, the soundtracks are not top tier and I believe that is one of the reasons why it never went mainstream.

 A lot of household name studios like Ufotable continue to make absolutely stunning anime. It's not fair to compare other animation studios to Ufotable. Yet still, most modern anime has some beautiful artwork. Anime purists chafe at the idea of using CGI in anime, but shounen anime like Beastars manages to be beautiful and also visually stunning, despite the clunky movement of the CGI models. In summation, I really like the direction shounen anime is heading towards, and I think if anyone chooses to resume watching long-running anime, it'll be worth it.