Why are villains almost always better characters than the heroes in Shounen?

Why are villains almost always better characters than the heroes in Shounen?

There's only a couple of ways of being good while there's a million different ways of being a villain.

because they have motivations other than "muh friends"

The demographic. Editors noticed a certain formula worked in regards to making kids pay their parents' pocket money to read these series; so editors pretty much force the mangaka to adhere to that formula. Ergo, if you've seen one Shounen MC, you've seen them all.

Because shounen is generally about the growth of the main character, and nothing makes a main character grow more than a badass villain.

I always like the villains over the main characters. Usually without villains there is no story. Plus they can do cooler stuff and not be bound down by muh honor or muh code of ethics assuming they're not lawfully evil.

>implying the Fuhrer President, who died fighting to protect his country from a coup, was a villain.

>Wrath
REEEEEEEEEEEEE
I HATE YOU
Why his death was not Gluttony/Envy(without the feels)/Raven tier? He deserved a much worse death yet he got pretty much a more "honored" death
Totally piss me off

Because everyone likes a villain. You can have way more fun with em.

It is already bad enough for MC to be just hot-blooded like 90s mech pilot or incorruptible pure idiot like Goku/Luffy, but nowadays MC is even completely castrated to be this bland generic nice guy self insert Mary sue who has absolutely no personality, in short a "Kiritoclone" just like how there are a lot of Reiclones and Tsundereclones. I know Kirito is not even the first instance of this archetype, but I think the term Kiritoclone does convey the meaning because he's the worst offender of them all.

This leaves you nothing but root for the bad guy, the sheer bland, boringness and indeciveness of your generic MC nowadays is just too much to take

he was based as fuck. Good choice of example OP, I approve of it

The Elric brothers are the best characters in FMA though

because writing a villain requires no fucking skill

Villains generally have more active and less nebulous goals than heroes, who tend to be passive and preserve the status quo by preventing villains from acting on their objectives. This makes villains more interesting to watch in action.

Based =/= likeable
He did a well job at being a villain, but his death needed to be more gruesome

This, specially in chinese cartoons. Nips can't write compelling MCs so they rely on edgy garbage that appeals to kids who believe being an edgelord equals being an interesting character.

>REEEEEEEEEEEEE
End yourself.

Because the writers aren't restricted to shoehorn fanservice, pandering or self insert into them.

>Nips can't write compelling MCs so they rely on fetishized unrealistic waifu and self insert MC to appeal to losers
Fix'd that for you

well he did have both of his arms blown off after being stabbed and shot

every character can be a self insert you ignorant faggot

They're adults.

Because writing a good MC requires talent whereas making a good villain doesn't really take much effort.

No need to fix anything. His post was spot-on. A character can be a self-insert and still be well written. See Woody Allen in Manhattan.

Yet he died with a smile on his face.

You didn't even post best homunculus.

He got off pretty light for a Sin. Everyone else got a pretty gnarly death and usually shit on for a little extra measure. King got to die intact and not like a little bitch.
Did anyone else not know his name was King? I always thought it was a title of Fuhrer-King

Daisoto did nothing wrong!

History is written by the victors.

Until your kids become lousy ungrateful hippies.

HA HA yeah. I miss when my niece was happy to talk to me. Why did she have to become a stereotypical tumblrite? ;__:

Because the hero is a self-insert for the viewer, like a player character in a video game.

They appear to always forget they're not making a video game.

>Because the hero is a self-insert for the viewer,
I swear, so many retards have thrown that phrase around now that it's lost all meaning.

The irony of those two characters sharing the same VA. I'm pretty sure he also has the lion's share of the roles your template describes.

This is not true at all.