One Piece, Naruto, Bleach: The Big Three
The Big Three will be a term that sticks with me forever I'm afraid; no matter what the manga bestselling lists show currently or in the future. Though many different anime and mange are the ones responsible for someone’s introduction to the world, these three are still the gold standard when it comes to shounen anime and manga. Even if they don’t match people’s tastes, they also make for great ways to start things off.
I want to focus on the protagonists of The Three and make my own short observations on each of them and make some comparisons. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter too.
First things first: Kurosaki Ichigo, because Bleach is the best (100% not biased). Kurosaki Ichigo is a weird shounen protagonist.
Not only is he tall as heck (15 my ass!) his moodiness is not something that's just there as a gimmick. Though he's not a dark eyed poet lamenting the evils of the world, his frustration and despair can be shown more clearly than any other of The Three. His utter defeats too, are not as graceful as what other shounen protagonists go through.
His personality is familiar: Ichigo has the characteristics of a hero: Fighting for the downtrodden and unflinching loyalty to his friends. However it's not with the goofy eyed pep of someone who knows their world is forgiving; it's with a badass determination of a fighter in the ring. You’ll never hear him shouting about how he wants to be the Soul King or the Captain Commander – He just fights to protect.
Unfortunately it makes his character one dimensional when it comes to dialogue, but I really appreciate how Ichigo stands out on that front. Something that's nigh unforgiveable as well in his character to other shounen protagonists is his lack of interest in love or reactions on that front - He does get embarrassed when it comes up, but until the final chapter you'd really not get clues or tastes of that out of fan fiction (I know I'm going to be writing some *sob*)
What about his abilities? How is Ichigo in terms of his levelling up over the course of the series? Well, pretty standard - Fight, get beaten, train and power up, fight, get beaten, rinse and repeat. And boy have we seen some epic powerups from Ichigo. I'll always be ready to watch the first 54 episodes for that fact, and I really love his arrow-catching badassery in the 1,000 year blood war arc.
Except you don't ever know his real scale of powers. While other protagonists have a baseline by fighting not only amongst fellow companions and masters, Ichigo more often than not is the be all end all final solution to a battle. You have no idea how he'd fare against certain enemies with different abilities (Would he be able to match up against Barragan? What about Toushirou? What about Yama Ji himself? What about Haschwalth?)
While other shounen protagonists have had so many clashes with so many different characters you could play with the outcomes (Before they become their best, of course), Ichigo lacks a lot of that. And while one says plot hole, I say interesting.
How does Ichigo match up to Goku, then? Goku is arguably The Archetype for shounen protagonists, so I’ll be comparing all of The Three to him?
Well, Ichigo’s not the smart type. He doesn't seem to eat a lot, but he is someone more interested in battle than chasing after girls, so he's surprisingly Goku like in those aspects.
Unfortunately his one-dimensionality isn't as forgivable as it is in Goku, because Bleach begged for more interactions of some kind. You can tell how much story he had to be told from the length of the first chapters, and the constant awesome colour pictures that Kubo Tite makes for him and the other characters.
All in all I find him quite memorable and unique because of that. And you can never make me forget the epicenes of him going bankai that first time against Byakuya. I can still hear the music. I can still see the blue light. (If you wanna see some action…)
Naruto. It is sad that I need to remind myself that I like this manga quite a lot, and that I was OK with how it ended. However, the final war was so frustrating that I’ll always dock points off of him, even though Naruto was a pretty interesting character to follow.
He fits in shounen so well: He's a wimp, a loser, but has hidden talents that he develops over time. He's a loud ninja (Which at first was a fun insult to throw at him, but now I criticize him for it) who depends on power rather than subtlety. He shouts his convictions on the top of his lungs, and shows no respect for those more powerful than him. He's always been gutsy and headstrong, and the best thing is as far as his arcs go it's been a group of great mentors and great teammates that facilitate his way to victory. So, friendship power done right (I’m looking at you Fairy Tail!)
Until the final ninja arc, Naruto was very much human (ish) and relatable. He was part of the crew, but still the protagonist.
I like that he had a love interest that not only he chased after till the bitter end, but that he had an actual confrontation with (Well, Sakura tried to bait him but still, he responded with a serious face instead of embarrassment for once).
He's been down before, he's seen death before, and I felt a great respect for him when Asuma died and he was there quiet and in funeral garb comforting a crying Konohamaru. I just thought 'Yeah, Naruto has grown up, and is capable of being more than loud.'
I also did not miss the fact that he actually studies a lot! His hard work isn't just pummelling people and recovering from wounds, between the short glimpses of his room and the earlier chapter covers, you can see that Naruto forces himself to learn jutsus and the like. And I'll always enjoy his tree-climbing training.
It came as a surprise that his determination to have Sasuke as a friend was stronger than it seemed on the surface. That first bitter moment Sasuke tried to harm him on the hospital roof, the first fight by the waterfall and their final battle; I got shivers' down my spine every time.
Naruto coming to save the village in sage garb was also a grand moment too. There is a lot of strength in this deceptively simple shounen character.
I do find myself wishing that more consequences followed his ninja path, however. Between the resurrections and the all too convenient chance to resolve everything between his mother, father and his wayward best friend, it felt like he was handled with kiddie gloves the whole way. Jiraiya dying felt unfair in retrospect because of how much he was spared, but that's just my dark self speaking, and has nothing to do with what he is as a character.
Checking him up against Goku, he's pretty different in a lot of ways. From hair colour to struggling with every single power up, he's not like Goku at all. He did end up with someone he wasn't actively looking for. I suppose he does eat a lot too, but nothing compared to…
Monkey D. LuffyIt's funny how no one ever refers to Luffy by his surname. Not even the characters in One Piece. It's his first name or full name, never his surname. ("Hey! Monkey!" )
Anyhow.
Luffy is an idiot. Sometimes you think between those epic moments he beats someone down and declares his wish to be the pirate king, he's got some brain cells to rub together, but no, as merciless as the devil fruit is to someone's dreams of swimming, as hopeless as Zorro is in finding directions, his idiocy is legitimate grade A stone-headedness, and that's played to grand effect.
Unlike Naruto and Ichigo, Luffy refuses to look cool when he powers up. His rubber fruit powers facilitate not only the most ridiculous comedic moments, but are hard to respect - at first. Luffy makes up for his silliness for the truly desperate moments, and the moments where he is truly pissed. Then you see the veins and muscles in his fist and feel the pain of those unfortunate enough to cross him.
He's got willpower for sure, he's got dreams that he's actually more serious about than you'd think. For example his declaration that he'd quit being a pirate if Silver Rayleigh revealed what One Piece was, was quite impressive. His acceptance that Usopp should leave because he had disrespected the captain means he knows what sort of world he's in.
And it's quite interesting how he rarely fight's an enemies rhetoric with moral arguments - For him it's all about if you're hurting his nakama or not, if you're standing in his way or not. It seems quite cruel, but it's quite honest for someone who knows he's a 'bad guy' and is looking for his dreams. He even reprimanded Coby for not sticking up to himself.
Comparing to Goku? His appetite comes to mind first. Yikes, Luffy can eat! His bone headedness is a check too for the stereotype, and his sheer lack in girls is so strong it's god level. I mean how can he ignore Boa Hancock like that?! In any case, Luffy is truly a torch bearer when it comes to being a second generation shounen protagonist. He fits the stereotypes to a T, but has his own unique spin to things. That makes him quite interesting; no matter how foolish he looks at first glance. But then again, the entire manga is an acquired taste and often ignored as a result.
In closing, I've basically just rambled what should be obvious to everyone - The big three have a lot in common because of their demographic, but they do have their own special characteristics that make people life them more or less than the others. For his sheer badassery and difference from the mould I find Ichigo to be the boss of all, but I do appreciate the other two.
I want to shortly mention that my new hopes for big shounen - My Hero Academia and Black Clover have some great protagonists. Deku is the unique one - Weak-willed but quite intelligent, and rarely the most important in the story. Asta is a muscle-brained idiot who 'wants to be the magic emperor'. He parallels quite a bit with Naruto and Luffy, while Deku is like Ichigo in his strange unique yet familiar character mould. I have high hopes for them.
My two cents.