Though they frequently don’t last, “classics” continue to be better despite their flaws. Their renowned reputation is immortalized by directly transforming their particular demography. This is particularly accurate for shonen, the largest and most cherished segment of the anime audience.
Even the vengeful march of time can thwart the sacred trio of Shinto. Fortunately, when it comes to classics, even a dozen components that don’t hold up well don’t diminish the show’s overall appeal. Element of classics aging poorly don’t tarnish their long-standing repute, whether it is due to actual masterpieces, plain ol’ prejudice, or simple nostalgia of traveling down memory lane.
10/10 Death Note Perpetuates Misogynist Beliefs
Despite being released in 2006, Death Note’s mistreatment of its female characters is completely inexcusable. The show heavily focuses on its male characters, and Misa’s sheer presence in the anime is straight-up distasteful.
Misa is a stereotypical “dumb blonde” obsessively infatuated with Kira. Even at Kira’s beck and call, blindly doing everything he asks, no matter how vile, she does little to affect the storyline. In fact, her poor characterization and insatiable need for Kira’s attention obstruct the flow of storytelling as a whole. Death Note’s standing and impact in anime are significant, but the misogynist tropes evident in Misa are too problematic to ignore.
9/10 Bleach Makes the Most of Shonen Symbols
From damsels in distress to never-ending monologues, Bleach has it all. During the height of Bleach’s popularity, a villain’s pompous jabber and a protagonist’s overdramatic declaration of victory can be attributed to healthy sportsmanship. Decades after its release, the anime scene has shifted and evolved. With less tolerance for the overused trope, Bleach’s villains’ monologues sound like cheap empty threats better skipped over.
Damsels in distress is still a pronounced archetype in shonen. Competing with a whole army of anime women unable to fend for themselves, Bleach only having Rukia and Orihime as defenseless accessories falls on the better end of the spectrum.
8/10 Fairy Tail’s Storytelling Elements Are Weak.
Competing in today’s standard of storytelling, Fairy Tail falls a tad short of exceptional. Abiding by true shonen parameters, Fairy Tail executes its plot in a rather infantile tone to deliver a light-hearted yet semi-action-packed show. This appears to be its reckoning because, despite shonen’s intentions on paper, the anime community is full of adults who expect the highest standard.
Both characters and worldbuilding fall a little flat, as if not fully explored to their best potential. In retrospect, by 2009’s standards, Fairy Tail did an excellent job of delivering an effective shonen. The anime still provides a decently enjoyable watch, but to compete with modern anime would simply be insolent.
7/10 Unsuitable Representations of Minors in Dragon Ball
Large proportions of Goku’s childhood in the wild include a stark-naked baby Goku. Though a tad awkward in the modern context, the innocent undertones of a mischievous child prancing around in nature isn’t as problematic as the blatant sexualization of young Bulma.
Bulma is a mega-genius scientist capable of innovations that far supersede contemporary science. Yet, her extraordinary brilliance takes a backseat to her sexuality, lusted over and constantly objectified, undeterred by her young age. Bulma’s superhuman intellect is reduced to getting peeped by the hormonally slimy Yamcha and sold by the egregiously lecherous Master Roshi. Fortunately, the Dragon Ball franchise continually improves its flaws with each release, keeping its reputation in the shonen community as radiant as ever.
6/10 Due to time and predictability, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Loses Its Special Premise
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood begins with a freak alchemy accident and a new catastrophic reality. On paper, this is still an interesting enough premise to survive the fantasy genre, but contending with overarching plots and drop-dead animations of dystopian worlds, Fullmetal Alchemist falls short of perfect.
With timeless classics, fans often adore rewatching their favorite scenes to re-live the heavy dose of nostalgia. Unfortunately, in a rewatch, Fullmetal Alchemist hasn’t aged very well. The anime’s pacing problems become glaringly obvious, and major plot twists become far too predictable. Regardless, viewers are too emotionally attached to these characters to criticize the anime harshly.
5/10 Supporting Characters From Naruto Disappear
By today’s political standards, Naruto has a myriad of problematic tropes. From Naruto’s Sexy Jutsu to Orochimaru’s experiments on children and even Sakura’s lack of winning without a man’s help, Naruto has an abundance of questionable values.
Though unwelcomed, misogyny and objectification are unsurprising for an anime from that era. What is surprising, though, is Naruto’s poor character upkeep. With an overwhelming surplus of characters in the franchise, some characters don’t receive proper closure. Individuals with riveting potentials, such as Tenten and Yamato, blip out of existence instead of receiving a full ending. For one of the shonen holy trinities, Naruto is held to higher standards, and sporadic plot holes should be avoidable.
4/10 Hunter X Hunter’s father, Ging, is an awful man.
Ging’s unconventional parenting style wouldn’t fly if Hunter x Hunter was a modern shonen. He wants Gon to fulfill his potential, but in doing so, he constantly puts the latter in danger of imminent death. By Ging’s command, Razor has personally been responsible for a handful of Gon’s near-death experiences. Even when Gon was dying in the hospital, Ging refused to visit.
Hunter x Hunter has a plethora of seinen elements, the aforementioned included. However, the light and casual approach to its dark storyline doesn’t work with such a sensitive topic. The shonenized could-be-seinen made pivotal story arcs come off underdeveloped. In Ging’s case, it feels like an incredibly problematic issue was being shoved under the rug.
3/10 Inuyasha Presents Love As Toxic
Inuyasha and Kagome’s power imbalance has some serious issues. There’s a double standard to Kagome’s possessiveness. Whenever the titular Inuyasha gets jealous, the anime portrays him as a petty idiot. Yet, when Kagome gets jealous, Inuyasha is the jerk who doesn’t know how to keep it in his pants.
The imbalanced power dynamic may be rooted in the Osuwari command. The moment a command leaves Kagome’s lips, the beads around Inuyasha’s neck force him to comply. Yes, Kagome often does this to save Inuyasha’s life. Regardless, her petty track record ruins her credibility, rendering the Osuwari command astronomically manipulative and borderline abusive instead.
2/10 The Female Character Designs in One Piece Are Absurd
Unfortunately, the over-sexualization of female characters isn’t anything new in anime. Not even underaged anime girls are safe from the inappropriate epidemic. However, while most anime stop at too-little clothing, One Piece takes it further by designing nonsensically proportioned female characters.
Women are subjected to unrealistic beauty standards no matter the medium, but One Piece’s depiction of women progressively gets worse. Across the 1,000+ episodes, Nami’s waist continually shrinks in size while her breasts inflate to absurd levels. The outrageous portrayal is then accentuated by her skimpy, teeny-tiny outfits that hide virtually nothing. Even after fans aggressively criticize the pervy “fan service,” none of the asinine representations seem to have improved.
1/10 Attack On Titan Wastes Screen Time On Irrelevant Characters
Attack on Titan is one of the greatest anime ever created, even conned a “cultural phenomenon.” Yet, just like Naruto, it falls victim to an abundance of characters the overall plot can indefinitely do without. In fact, some characters have only gotten in the way, obstructing the flow of the epic story.
Fans have openly voiced their annoyance at the waste of screentime spent on characters like Connie. Being one of the anime’s main heroes, Connie has a copious amount of screen time. Despite this, he’s utterly useless to the Scouts, only creating more trouble than he’s worth. Though Attack on Titan arcs are written to near-perfection, Connie felt like an unnecessary filler that would’ve boded well from an early exit.
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