Favorite Shounen Tropes? Best and Worst Examples in your opinion!

[Kurokoi]

So Im a gigantic sucker for dumb shounen nonsense. Yelling and screaming to power up, crazy super-hairstyles, ridiculous OP power sets, all that jazz! Being someone who loves these tropes (when done well) and want to emulate them in their own story, I was wondering what other people enjoyed or didn't enjoy the most when it comes to these tropes! In your opinion what is your favorite Shounen trope, and what woudl you say is a good AND bad example of it?

As for my favorite... I'd probably say the "super angry last minute power up" trope is so thrilling for me! A great example would probably for me be Gon against Neferpitou in Hunter x Hunter. Just the raw emotion in those scenes is amazing. Super Saiyan 2 Gohan in the Cell Saga of DBZ is a pretty good one too! A really bad example is.... basically anything Natsu does in Fairy Tail. For example when he ate the Etherion (after Erza is incapacitated yet again, begging for big strong Natsu to save her) against Jellal and powers up. No real build up or emotion, and the characters motivation is really bland outside of "nakama power".

[AliceHoffmannArt]

I like watching shounen anime every now and then.
You can watch them for hours and there's still a lot left. Sometimes they feel like you yourself grow because of all the training etc.
As long as the themes are strong, I like finding out about character's powers. What I don't like is a random collection of powers just because there are many characters.

Shounen tends to have fairly differently designed characters, it's less prone to same faces & bodies (except for women oftentimes...).
Sometimes the crankiest designs are the ones I like most.

What puts me off is most though is the typical pacing in long arcs.
Too damn slow imho. Especially the narration choice of Hunter x Hunter (2011 version) starting form episode 210. I was so glad when it was over. Most of the time it was just stating the obvious, slowing down the plot unnecessarily... I would have liked that arc a bit more without that. But even then I'm quite conflicted about the Chimera arc in general tbh.

Yeah, Fairy Tale is a weird case for me. I like some characters a lot (Erza and Juvia! <3) but the plot just never seems to reach its full potential.

[greatpaperclip]

the destruction of food that always seems to occur

[WhatAHero]

My favorite shounen trope is when a character yells out how they'll continue fighting for the sake of their hopes and dreams. It's REALLY dumb and yet endearing to say how you'll never stop fighting even when your opponent can just knock your teeth in but for some reason they have the decency to let you finish your monologue.

[serverpanda]

I like all of them. XD Well, that is to say, as long as I take it with a grain of salt and can at least get a giggle from it. Sometimes I watch them seriously and sometimes I watch them for a laugh! It's healthy to be able to laugh at the things you like too. :'D

[Aspie_Gamer]

Favorite Shonen trope? Uhh...the fight scenes I guess? Some of them look really really cool.

Least favorite? Pretty much everything else about the genre. Like we get it, you fight for your friends/love, peace, and justice/to be the strongest there is. Yeah I'll be honest. I've never been big on shonen manga even when I was younger.

[shazzbaa]

I never watched much shounen, but when I watched a One Piece movie with a friend (the one with the guy with the carnivorous plant), I was REALLY impressed with the way the over-the-top powers were taken to their logical conclusion -- something western superheroes tend to be really bad at? Like, superhero-type characters are so often very uncreative, and only use their powers for the one obvious thing they can do --- One Piece characters don't just have a couple of video game abilities, they actually have superpowers and push them to their limits. I thought it was really cool that Luffy could be doing the most ridiculous things with his body and yet it felt dramatic and awesome instead of dumb; it felt perfectly natural for him to do whatever he could with his powers to try to save his friends.

I feel like there's a lot there that all kinds of stories could learn from.

[Kurokoi]

I agree! I say that all the time about the medium. For example, again in One Piece, they lead up to and fight this supposedly super strong lightning badass. Luffy is rubber. Conclusion? Luffy gets pummeled by lightning but just kinda stands there and takes it completely unaffected. Meanwhile, Captain Atom's biggest problem is trying not to make himself explode. Riveting.

[Kurokoi]

Yeah I can totally get behind you there. While I think the Chimera arc was fantastic, I do think it suffered from major shounen pacing issues.

[Kura]

The eating thing.

Where character will just eat a whole lot of food and everyone will be staring at them in shock or with wtf expressions.

I don't know why it amuses me so much.

[60Six]

I love when my favorite character coughs up blood after he's been injured.
I don't care how illogical it is. I don't care if said injury would never cause such bodily reaction. Fuck logic. I love it.

Least favorite? Eh. Honestly, I'm shonen trash and overall really like shonen no matter how big of a cheese fest it might be become. However, the one that will forever disappoint me is when cool or neat creature turns into sexy lady. =| Boring.
Example:

Oh cool, a talking black cat in Bleach! It's been done but, hey I love ca-

Oh never mind she's a sexy lady.......

By FAR the worst/best example though was this charming little manhwa (Is it still shonen if it's Korean?) called Witch Hunter that I thought was really cute and interesting the first few chapters


Wow this thing's adorable AND awesome, and it's a main character! Sign me the fuck up, this is aesthetic up the ass! I lov-

Oh.... Never mind... Cool pumpkin thing is actually a fucking Loli.
Bye

[NickRowler]

I sort of like the whole "good doer" aspect of them. Like a character setting out to fight wrong and evil. And I guess this might explain why I never cared for anti-heros like Light from Deathnote. I guess I really like characters who are good and kind and do things to help and save others. I can't really think of bad examples, though I feel when it comes to me hating a series, it is mostly because I dislike the villains. Or that the whole conflict started in the first place because everyone was just really stupid (in a story that is not a straight up comedy)

Also crazy shonen hair.

[Doubtcent]

The best kinds of tropes, I would say are the awesome moments of pushing oneself to their limits. Although Shounen does it to the point of ridiculousness, it's still very fun to see. Also, considering I'm a total One Piece fanboy, I love when characters have a ton of silly moves in their arsenal, especially when they make it up as they go along. It's just clever to me, mostly because it feels like the creator is doing the same. Most silly move that Luffy has made up on the spot? "Gum-Gum Space Out!"

As for the worst kind of tropes... It's pretty obvious. A lot of people, including myself, does not like the excessive fanservice. Or any fanservice for that matter. Whenever it pops up, it's out of nowhere, it's annoying, and it provides nothing for the plot. It makes me ashamed of Shounen anything.

[TrialAndError]

Shounen Tropes!

Favorite - The "Flashy entrance from the main character after being away training" trope is my favorite. Naruto arrives in Sage Mode to take on Pein, and Goku arrives to take on Nappa/Vegeta/Frieza still get me. Even Luffy's arrival at the base trying to save Robin... awesome

Least favorite - The "Girl in love with the emo character because it's considered cool" trope. It's in 90% of shounen, and more often than not, that character is a social outcast and a jerk for no reason.

[Kurokoi]

Fffuuuuccckk I'm glad I stopped reading Witch Hunter after volume 1. That's probably one of if not the worst example I've ever seen.

[TheVoidchildProject]

I am a sucker for the "last-second-rescue"-trope, regardless of how it happens. You can usually see it coming a mile away. But I still usually jump up and down when it happens. =D

The worst is fanservice. Seriously, bugger off with that. It's ruined so many promising female characters... But fanservice, as it relates to just throwing in stuff to be tittilating in general falls under this category. It just cheapens the material.

[Kurokoi]

I feel like fanservice has its place, but not when its escessive and in your face constantly about it. Plus, I feel it needs to be stretched out between both male and female characters. Too often its just female characters getting plastered all over the MC's oh-so-shy face.

[almondjoy445]

The same one @WhatAHero said. I always really liked that sort of thing.

My least favorite would be the fanservice. It's often annoyingly shoehorned in and it just focuses on a girls big boobs or panties. One of the few times I can think of fanservice done right was with Yukina in Kabenari of the Iron Fortress:

Hot damn!

[Kurokoi]

DUDE
YES
That's the kind of fanservice any creator should dream of producing.