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Actually this isn't really an observation, more of a sudden realization...XD
Okay...using the points from a review I will explain what I've noticed.
Oh! These are observations on popular shounen manga. Why it is popular.
First off (before I get to the details). Since it's shounen manga it obviously appeals to BOYS. And by BOYS I mean little kids...no offense. It's just for the kinds of people who like action and magically cool stuff (y'know what I'm getting at, dragon balls etc.). This is why some girls like that kind of stuff and most of us when we were little or still getting into anime liked it...or still like it. Because lots of people like action, even if it's mindless. I'm not bashing anybody or anything, I'm just saying that shounen equals 'cool' action, if you know what I mean. Of course, there are a lot of deep shounen manga...but the most popular ones seem to be barely scraping the surface of deep.
Deep as in Monster deep. And by deep, I also don't mean poetic deep, I mean complex story deep.
Okay lets get to the details.
PLOT:
Most of the popular manga have lots of adventure. They also follow a pattern like a video game. The beginning, the climax, the first boss, second beginning, the climax, the second boss, and on and on in that pattern. Popular shoujo manga does that, too (*cough* Sailor Moon *cough*). Shounen manga has a RIDICULOUSLY wide range of plots. From a kid playing with some skates to pirate with stretchy arms...O.o; It's some crazy stuff...So shounen manga can have any kind of plot. The most popular ones seem to stick to a few traditional japanese things (this is why Big O didn't get off the ground in Japan so well because it seemed very American and low-stream, not all crazy) but have pretty original concepts (concepts, I say, most of them follow the same kind of pattern above, which isn't bad, Jpop follows a pattern, too, but it doesn't really get old, does it?)
CHARACTERS:
I think this is the MAJOR reason why popular manga becomes popular. Their characters are too lovable and they create battles with fans and so much fandom. Naruto's characters...I mean, come on, Naruto looks like a fox or at least like a cat. LOTS of people like kitty boys/girls, so he was obviously popular for that, even if it was unconsciously (that's the first thing I noticed...he was like a kitty boy). One Piece, the characters are so wild that they're too catchy! Zoro is a RIDICULOUSLY cool guy and Luffy is too fun! They're very unique (not original, I say, unique! Zoro is obviously like Zorro...>3>). The characters for Bleach...I'd say they're you're typical shounen manga characters, but they're drawn more seriously, but they're still pretty diverse and stick out. The point that most of them are all in organizations is probably what gets most people. Sports of very popular because they're team sports while things like swimming etc. you don't hear about everyday.
DRAWING STYLE
I think this is one of the least important ones...however the artist does have to have at least a catchy style. They also need to be able to clearly draw certain scenes and I don't know of any shounen mangaka who's art is very stiff looking.
That's all I got for that...
I want to write a shounen...but I don't know exactly what I want to do....I might fix my JUSTICE OCs to be more consistent with the setting...but they're kind of serious characters...I don't know...hrmmm...
My dream manga is either a seinen or shounen...
Shoujo and shounen ai are for fun...except...maybe a jpop shoujo manga could be a dream manga...but I really want to write either a seinen or shounen...
Shounen are really popular, and I could adjust some things to make it not as mature...BUT I like the seriousness of seinen...>3>
I'm gonna play around with anime daydreaming....liike choosing voice actors for my manga and openings and endings for it...I feel like if I do that the manga will feel more whole and more fun. I always seem to get attached after I do that...XD
So you'll probably see my post some time next of my ideas for if my manga was an anime! XD
(I need to do some seiyuu research)
