It Started with One Piece and Naruto

Sometimes I wonder just how the trend started. The strange trope for shounen anime and manga that I don't know exactly how to classify it. I guess it's better to explain it. So, One Piece the manga/anime about Luffy the boy who wants to be King of the Pirates, and Naruto the boy who so desperately wants to be Hokage. 

It's this, the theme of a protagonist who wants to be more, they want to be in a position of power. I can name a few other anime that follow this trend, Fairy Tail, Magi: The Adventure of Sinbad, Blue Exorcist, Attack on Titan & Boku no Hero Academia to some extent and Black Clover as of recent.

These anime are popular shounen anime that follow that trope where the main protagonist is actually over powered, but has 0 skill. Or that can access their power for some reason, that or they don't know how to use it powered or to it's fullest potential. On top of all that because they are underestimated and looked down upon they have this urge to be in a position of power. Did I mention that they're almost always orphans or they have one parents or their parents die early in the show, what's with that? 

These anime thrive on the power of friendship, having self confidence by believing in yourself, and essentially never giving up.

The motif is so strong that it's sometimes so overwhelming it makes the anime corny. The attempt at making it relateable by having an underdog who has to rise up and doesn't know his true potential, and learn from his mentors and friends. That just becomes the whole anime with the plot kind of woven in there to give it subtext. They just throw it on there like "here's the plot, but it's really about friendship." Now I'm not saying that this makes the anime bad, but knowing this set up can sometimes make it boring because it can become predictable. Friends become villain, villains become friends. The protagonist is always awe inspiring, and revving his friends up for the give fight. These characters are most times loud obnoxious, and super overzealous.

Earlier anime, I can't really remember if they ever had this trend of the young boy wanting to be in a position of power.Those anime often had the lone wolf trope. The main character had their own demons they had to solve and even though they were surrounded by people they were always alone. It seemed like they purposefully isolated themselves to some extent. Some examples of the lone wolf types are Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, YuYu Hakusho, Rurouni Kenshin, and Beserk. Somewhere during Naruto that would be Sasuke, in Sinbad, Darkon, and Yuno would represent the sullen lone wolf in Black Clover. 

the late 90's and early 2000's there was a shift in the theme. I know that around the time of the lone wolf anime the 'cowboy' was a pretty big thing, especially with Clint Eastwood around, and thus the emergence of these types of characters. Though when the shift happened, the lone wolf became the secondary character within the new trope. In

It was almost as if the artist decided to stop focusing on the lone wolf type and instead on their funny friend who is sometimes comedic relief.

Now can i tell you why the trope changed so suddenly, not really, they were probably just moving with the times. I guess it's just that I'm waiting for it to end, that's assuming it ever will. The trope was one of the reasons why I couldn't finish anime like Fairy Tail and Naruto Shippuden. (Of course there are other reasons this is just one of many).

It's also why I struggled to watch Black Clover. It just seems so over done and played out. Of course this is just a personal opinion. Boku no Hero Academia is amazing though!

Anyway, I'm going to go watch anime!

Why You Need to Watch a Staple Anime

What is an anime staple? Ha, well, it's one of those anime that is a must. That shapes the way one ends up watching anime growing up... or not, but they are normally shows everyone should watch. They would be in the "anime starter pack" if you were trying to ease someone into their new life. I'd consider them to be important, they're often pretty big hits, and have more than 12 episodes. Oh, and sometimes get reboots, sometimes. 

Some anime that I would consider to be staple anime would be Yu Yu Hakusho, Sailor Moon, Cowboy Bebop, Cardcaptor Sakura, Inuyasha, Trigun, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Dragon Ball/DBZ, Pokemon (but not really, and I'll explain why later), Ghost in the Shell, Ruroni Kenshin, Berserk, Hunter x Hunter, and Mobile Suit Gundam. There are even some more recent anime I'd consider staples, like One Piece even though it came out in 1999, Naruto, Bleach, Death Note, and even Wolf's Rain.

In regards to Pokemon being a staple and yet, at the same time, not a staple, well, the thing is with this anime in particular, its target audience is young children and prior fans that have basically grown up. Even then the anime itself is really for the older fans. And I'd say they care more about the games than they do the show. So for someone who hasn't watched anime before, the last thing you'd recommend them would be
Pokemon, but because it had and still has such a large fan base with young children and prior fans because it was and still is such a big hit, it makes it staple, to some degree. 

I personally believe that a staple anime takes a while to become one for some years and that's why newer anime, regardless of whether they fit all the previous criteria I mentioned earlier I wouldn't classify them as a staple. Think of it as the criteria a place has to fit before becoming a national landmark. If you've never watched any of the anime mentioned above, don't worry that doesn't make you any less of a true anime fan. No one is gonna gate keep you. 

They're just highly recommended anime, the originators of the tropes. They've paved the way for other anime, and besides they're all phenomenal in terms of animation for their time, character development, and plots/concepts. Take Sailor Moon for example, I'm pretty sure it was one of the first, if not the first magical girl anime and now that genre is pretty huge. The clothes transformation sequence can be been in other magical girl anime and not even just that. Mobile Suit Gundam gave other anime like Neon Genesis and Gurren Laggan the opportunity to explore the mech genre as well.

Staple anime just have a way of always being relevant. Remember though all of this is just opinion based, and my ideas of what makes a staple anime could be very different from what yours or someone else's are. The staple anime I mentioned earlier are also subjective, if you have any anime you think should be considered a staple for the "anime starter pack" feel free to disagree in the comments below. 

I'm going to go watch anime now.