When you think of shonen protagonists you tend to imagine energetic, hot-headed youngsters with big dreams that they’ll stop at nothing to achieve as they fight every obstacle that comes their way. Just as important as this unfaltering determination is the fact that they tend to stop and help people whenever they see trouble. Walking past those in need is unthinkable and they’re always ready to take down anyone who is hurting or oppressing others. 

Kohei Horikoshi’s My Hero Academia has adjusted the shonen protagonist quite a bit with Izuku Midoriya being more emotional and less hot-headed than his manga predecessors, but he’s still a strong-willed youngster with an unwavering dream. It’s this dream that serves as a fantastic shakeup of the shonen and superhero media the series takes inspiration from. Rather than having a dream and stopping to help people on the way toward that dream, Deku’s dream is to help people. It’s what motivates him.

The Formula 

Shonen manga and anime have a lot of shared elements. That’s what makes them shonen. They all align on most traits and tend to follow a common series of tropes and arcs, with one of the most powerful aspects being their protagonists.

Specifically, one trait that has affected me is that even though these heroes are unwavering in their aspirations, they always detour to help others. Monkey D. Luffy from One Piece is perhaps the best example of this; he wants to be King of the Pirates and fight for freedom so he hates when that freedom is taken away from others.

RELATED: A Beginner’s Guide To My Hero Academia

This setup makes for its own unique theme — helping people is the default, not the exception. It’s a powerful statement on how we should all help each other when we’re in need. For Deku, he literally has to jump in and help people. In combining the tried-and-true nature of a shonen protagonist with a true calling to help, the genius of Deku’s motivations opens up new possibilities for the genre.

The Shakeup

The concept of aspiring to help, rescue and protect others is pulled straight from superhero comics, but isn’t always common to shonen anime. Yes, shonen protagonists do help people, but again, it’s in addition to what they really want. Goku wants to be a great martial artist. Luffy wants to be King of the Pirates. Naruto wants to be the next Hokage.

RELATED: 6 Anime Characters That Remind Us It's OK to Cry

But for Deku, he wants to help people, to be a true hero. It’s his dream and he’ll train nonstop to achieve it. It’s a smart and subtle subversion from other shonen, even though most of the aforementioned dreams also lead to helping a lot of people. It’s this shakeup that takes My Hero Academia‘s American superhero influence beyond its visuals and setting, offering a new meaning to the training trope and deepening this idea that kindness should be a given.

Saving With a Smile

Typical superhero narratives involve someone experiencing trauma or a motivating event that pushes them to fight bad guys. In My Hero Academia, Deku is motivated by his desire to do good. He aspires to be a hero out of his own personal drive, inspired by All Might's larger-than-life presence not because of his power, but because of his ability to do good. Even starting the series out Quirkless didn’t stop him from moving toward his dream!

It’s a nice twist to the “choosing to be a hero” aspect of superhero media, adding a dash of shonen aspiration for something truly special: Deku not only wants to do good, but he also wants to be the best at it.

RELATED: A Brief History of Superhero Anime, From Astro Boy to My Hero Academia

This then changes the training trope from a need to get stronger, to a need to adapt and grow to get better at helping people outside of fighting. It’s not just about pure power and fighting ability, it’s also about reaction time, minimizing collateral damage, having a rapport with the public, comforting those in peril... simply put, he has to sharpen everything to become a true hero.

In its quest to bring together the power of shonen and the heart of superhero comics, My Hero Academia makes Deku a hero like none other before. Deku wishes to do good like a superhero and goes through shonen training to be the best at it, inspiring all of us to do good and to always try to be better at doing good.

This article written by Sean Aitchison was originally published on the Funimation blog on October 20, 2021.

Sean Aitchison is a writer and researcher from LA who watches too much anime and knows too much about Sonic the Hedgehog. Follow him on Twitter @Sean8UrSon for his work and listen to his podcast, Sonic Podcast Adventure (@SonicPod).