The 4 rules to a perfect male protagonist in anime & manga

1) He must be weak (physically, mentally, or both) at the start of the story. He must not be strong in the beginning, otherwise the story is ultimately pointless since he has already reached the peak of personal development.

2) He must develop throughout the story in a linear curve. If it is a battle shounen, this will be through physical skills. If it is a romantic drama and he is autistic, then he must develop social skills to ultimately reach his goal of either making friends or getting a girlfriend. If he does not develop any personal skills throughout the story to reach his goals, he is ultimately a useless piece of shit protagonist that gets nothing done.

3) He must have some personal goal in life that moves the plot forward. If his goal is to be strong, then he must train himself to be strong. If his goal is to get laid, then he must socialize with girls. If his goal is to further his career, then he must study hard. If he does not have any goal in life and the anime is just Slice of Life Comedy, then ultimately his existence is pointless because the anime is pointless.

4) He must not be a bishie. His looks must be average or ugly, but never perfect.


refute this Sup Forums
.

nigga deku's not even the protagonist

he's the guy who will die to inspire the protagonist

mind fuck right? 120 chapters of a manga and it's just the prologue.

This. Mirio is inheriting OfA and is going to go on all sorts of adventures with his competent and quirky friends

1 Luffy starts out pretty strong but not crazy strong that he can solo anyone in his verse.

2 he slowly gets stronger and starts realizing he isn't strong enough to protect weaker crew members from the most powerful threats in verse and starts trying to desperately make up new ways to get stronger

3 his goal is to to become the most free person in the world and find adventure

4 he looks like a skinny kid who doesn't even seem that strong and kind of goofy

1. He's dumb and will forever be dumb
2. PIE END
3. PIE END
4. He's pretty good looking.

Deku is the worst part of BnA

>Gary stu

Boku no Hero would be a better manga in every way if Tintin was the protagonist.

I almost stopped watching because of him. I only continued because i had nothing else to watch. The show was going ok and the high points was whenever all for one's power was used. The rest is him crying and being a fucking bitch.

There should be a number 5 which is don't have a longer than necessary story

If you want to perfect a certain type of character, maybe. That sounds like an underdog-everyman. Not every series is going for that; not even all successful shonen manga have one.

I imagine being in a series that isn't total shit is also a key requirement for something described as "perfect." I'm not really concerned with perfection, but here's a current candidate for an excellent male MC.

No but he's incredibly bland

What's the problem with bishies?

Self inserting.

Goku alone refutes 2-3 of these.

Pretty much the first time Luffy was in a fight that he realized he couldn't win was against Aokiji. Before that he could defeat all his opponents if there was no fuckery on their part.

I'd rather insert myself into a bishie desu

1. Johnny starts the story of as a cripple who loss his fame
2. Johnny's Stand develops from being a finger gun to a Dimension piercing bullet , he also learns how to get back on his feet metaphorically

3. Johnny desires to get the Macguffin of the part so he can walk again and is willing to do anything to get it
4. He's a JoJo Character

I'd find it more believable if the girls fell for someone beautiful rather than the average-joe

I'd find it more believable if the girls had different tastes in men rather than falling for the same guy.

Reality is cruel, huh?

I would say maybe add one half step of
> He must have something in the first chapter/episode that makes us the viewer want to follow him
or something like that and 1 I say you can have a lead that is at his peak provided the series is basically watching the downfall of said main character.

But other than that, agree.

...

Is this Implying shinji meets this criteria or doesn't?

That is a very narrow minded approach towards character writing.

>Deku
>not bishie

Has there been a story where at the start the protagonist is the strongest and no one can touch him. but as the story goes on he becomes weaker (either physically or mentally) and becomes a shell of his former self?

he's cute but not bishonen

one punch man breaks all those rules, but the last one.

Actually. I don't think many break that first rule.

>he must be weak
Saitama, the most powerful mothefucker from the get go
>He must develop in a linear curve
Spike Spiegel, was Spike from Ep1 all the way to the end, his character arc in a way was in the past.
>He must have some personal goal in life
Shinji Ikari has no idea what he wants out of life.
>He must not be a bishie
Himura Kenshin is very pretty.
Rules set in stone for fiction are stupid.

Deku sucks shit though. You clearly have no idea what makes a great character.

>Kid Goku started off strong like a Gary Stu and solo'd everyone without any training whatsoever at the start of Dragonball

Wut?

You might as well call this 4rules to write a generic male protagonist in anime

>Kid Goku
>Gary Stu
Fucking kill yourself

>Saitama
>Spike
>Shinji
>Kenshin
All you did was prove his point by listing shit characters

>Actually. I don't think many break that first rule.
kenshiro, dark schneider, ryo saeba, onizuka, kenshin, arale etc etc

thread is retarded because different stories need different types of protagonists

I'm saying he's not a Gary Stu.

right...

>one punch man breaks all those rules
And OPM is shit. Concidence?

>citing pointless comedy gag manga with monster of the week like OPM

Kys.

deku is the one of the least likable protagonists in shonen, and literally ruined the first season of MHA by being so bad.

Hi

>Kenshiro
Is the least interesting character in HnK
>Dark Schneider
BASTARD is shit
>Ryo Saeba
Comedy
>Onizuka
Comedy
>Kenshin
RK is shit
>Arale
Comedy and isn't the protag.

So if anything breaking that first rule seems to be almost a guarantee that your show will be better than most everything else.

see

>city hunter is comedy
you're a complete mongoloid

I might argue with points 2-4 but you're terribly wrong if you believe in 1. Especially if it's not a shonen.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

?

Explain this

>Onizuka

His personal goal was to be a great teacher. He was not great at it in the beginning. OP's first rule probably implies that "strength" is relative to his goals. Not relative to physical power.

His first fight had him losing to a mountain bandit.

His goal is to lift at the gym and get girls.

Did you not watch the show?

Or even better, explain this

Yeah, but he is strong since the start, so the 1st rule would be broken

>perfect male protagonists
>uses BnHA

you forgot he must not be an insufferable cunt who cries at every turn. A situation where he would actually need to cry (losing friend or someone important) would lose its significance. Imagine how much better the show would be if he had Gon's personality. He ultimately made BnHA a show for teens

don't know why i lol'd but i did

...

He should be weak relative to his personal goals.

The idea should be that the protagonist should be improving. If he is not, the plot comes to a standstill.

It's hilarious how nobody gave a shit about Gon until the Chimera Ant arc and now he's the bet protagonist ever

>He must not be strong in the beginning, otherwise the story is ultimately pointless since he has already reached the peak of personal development.
What if he starts out strong and then gets kicked down a few pegs? What if he must get much stronger to survive (and what if he can't?)?

>He must develop throughout the story in a linear curve
I simply cannot conceive of anything more boring. Even getting bullshit powerups at dramatic moments is at least stupid enough to be amusing.

>His looks must be average or ugly, but never perfect.
>how to make a perfect protagonist
>he must never be perfect
woah

He checks out

Idk, Crocodile was pretty rough

it's hilarious how you think that is true

maybe stop basing your knowledge on the minority that is Sup Forums

>it's comedy so it doesn't count
You sure are fucking stupid.

Well, even with this perspective, he didn't improve anything in those two goals. He didn't got any girls and he is still a deadweight when it comes to running.

That was in a flashback which was over 600 chapters into the story

It is. Nobody cared about Gon before Chimera Ants

Cowboy Bebop's a great show, maybe one of the greatest animea of all time, and Spike is arguably its best character

Mob is so mentally weak that he doesn't need anything else to be a protag.

>Yusuke
>Goals

Nigga was a bum.

The linear curve is there to prevent things like the aforementioned picture. You have to show the audience some proof that the protagonist is improving and getting closer to his personal goals.

If he is stalling with no progress for 26 episodes, then it is a complete failure.

If he shoots upwards and achieves his goals immediately after 3 episodes, then the audience gets bored for the rest of the series.

Is this not reasonable?

>What if he starts out strong and then gets kicked down a few pegs? What if he must get much stronger to survive (and what if he can't?)?

It is fine, as long as his personal goal shifts and the protagonist wants to improve. The point is, if you are already strong relative to your personal goal and you don't want to improve, then the audience has no reason to care.

OP didn't say anything about being a comedy or not.
The rules applies to all sort of manga and anime (according to OP).

>Sup Forums
>good taste
Pick one

What does the genre have to do anything with it, you retard?

He wanted to be strong and that was his primary motivation through most of the series.

Fuck off Deku, your character is obnoxious and you made me stop watching for 2 months after the first 5 seconds of episode one before coming back.

Comedies are purposely overexaggerations and most of the "development" are non-existent since it always gets reset by status quo

to be fair east blue is the super weenie hut junior of one piece and the first grand line super villain was way stronger than luffy and beaten by fluke/overconfidence

But how can frog girl become the main character?

I'm gonna pick "good taste." Although I watch a lot of anime, I don't browse Sup Forums very often because it's a shit hole. I'm only in this thread because I saw it in the Popular Threads section on the home page and I thought it looked interesting.

So you're autistic?

But the idea of Shinji in Eva wasn't to made the perfect protagonist.

The idea was to show exactly what it shows, a weak person with no goals, or you could call it the worst protagonist

Deku has been the only likeable protagonist I've seen in years.

Ikoman from Kabaneri was a good protagonist. He was never weak, yet never overpowered at all either, and had a straightforward yet good goal in the show

>Ikoman from Kabaneri was a good protagonist
Nope.

>good protagonist
>never weak

>Ikoman from Kabaneri was a good protagonist
No

He was weak as shit and had to compensate with machinery, and even then he ate shit like a bitch and got infected in his very first fight.

Ikoma turned out to be a pretty dull screamer boy protag, but you're incorrect to try and refute that one particular point.

He couldn't even beat Biba

>then ultimately his existence is pointless because the anime is pointless
Just like any other.

Gintoki pretty much breaks all of these rules and he is a great protagonist.

>inb4 it's a comedy so it does not count!
The serious arcs still exist so I would say it counts.

I'm not familiar with the manga at all, but if his character doesn't develop beyond what has already happened in the anime, then this might be an example of a bad character then.

Mob is a strong psychic, this is true. But we've already established that his psychic ability has nothing to do with his personal goals.

First you must ask. What are the goals of this character? To go to the gym and get fit? Why? To get girls. To be more popular. To make friends.

It is clear that he has some sort of autistic personality and isn't a very social kind of guy. He wants to CHANGE.

You have to examine it from a mental perspective. Does it change at all? How is his life changing? Is that salesman guy a positive influence in his life?

If he has no visible changes and no character development, then yes, its a bad character. But considering that he already has gone through some small changes in the anime already, I think its not that bad.

>Literally barrels through a horde of Kabane just to spite the people on the train who left him for dead
>Weak

Which is why this motherfucker is the greatest protagonist of all time.

Refuted points 1,2 and 4 on every possible level.

If by perfect you mean boring and uninspired then yes this list is accurate

He's pretty great. The manga is 10x better than the anime tho

We can name hundreds of anime characters that defy the dumb ass constraints set by the OP and you'll simply say they're shit characters BECAUSE they defy those traits no matter the success or platitudes of the show.

Troll thread folks move along nothing to see here.