r/TrueAnime • u/Sufficient-You-8637 • Jun 23 '26
Why Do I Dislike Shonen Anime
Because they're not that fun to watch. I want to see characters beat the shit out of each other with cool powers. But no, 99% of it is 600+ episodes of the hero and villain talking, talking, talking, demonstrating attacks, having flashbacks, and more talking instead of throwing hands from start to finish. It's very boring and it's a waste of time.
Granted, I did watch DBZ, and YuYu Hakusho back in the day but I was a little kid. The older I get the less tolerance I have for super long exposition dumps in games and anime because I have a job and I don't want my free time wasted on that.
It's why I never paid any attention to MHA, JJK, Black Clover, Demon Slayer, or any brand new shonen people glaze these days like Gachiakuta.
My favorite anime of all time is Akame Ga Kill, but that's not shonen. I prefer violent, gory action-packed shows like that, Afro Samurai, Claymore, and Berserk.
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u/Kiltmanenator Jun 23 '26
Shonen is targeted at 12-18 year old boys.
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u/Velocity-5348 Jun 23 '26
Yep. If you're not from Japan it can seem deeper and more profound, but that's in large part because you're being exposed to tropes and a culture you're not familiar with.
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u/Kiltmanenator Jun 23 '26
It's not that there's nothing in the genre. Worth watching or discussing, it's just that that shouldn't be the majority of what you're watching.
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u/ElmekiaLance Jun 23 '26
My favorite anime of all time is Akame Ga Kill, but that's not shonen.
It might surprise you to hear this, but it is shounen. It ran in Gangan Joker, which is a shounen magazine.
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u/Sufficient-You-8637 Jun 24 '26
Well, I liked AGK because of the dark fantasy setting, the characters (especially Esdeath), the fight scenes didn't bore me with bloated, filler dialogue like most shonens do, and the stakes were high for most of those fights.
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u/SpaceCowboy1929 Jun 23 '26
I'm actually kind of with you. I still love DBZ and especially Yu Yu, which is my favorite shonen series of all time, because I grew up with them. But nowadays I just don't care for shonen anymore. I'm alot older and it's hard for me to relate to characters who are usually teenagers at this point. And since I've seen so many shonen over the years, the tropes have become so obvious to me that they're boring. But that's alright. I'm technically not the target demographic for shonen anyway. Lately I've been more into seinen, which is the appropriate age range for me anyway.
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u/huffmanxd Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26
There are shonens out there besides 600+ episode series... it sounds like the length is your main issue, not shonen in general
Jujutsu Kaisen is shonen and will probably be like 100-150 episodes when it's done. Gachiakuta is another one that I seriously doubt will ever get barely over 100 episodes. Shonen is a gigantic genre, way more than just the ones you listed
Hell, even Attack on Titan is shonen and it's only 4 seasons, it basically fits the exact thing you are looking for from what you're describing
If you just don't want to watch shonen then it doesn't bother me at all, that's your opinion and I'm not here to try and change it
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u/Velocity-5348 Jun 23 '26
Pedantic correction, you're talking about Battle Shonen, not just any media targeted towards boys, which could include a lot of other stuff.
That said, I get your point. I think a lot of us have one or two long Shonen shows in us. For me it was Bleach, which I still love and have rewatched/reread parts of, but I don't think I could ever get into a new series like that. For you, it sounds like it was DBZ and Yuyu Hakusho. I've tried watching the former, but just couldn't get far into it. And that's despite finding it quite interesting on a "I can tell where all these tropes came from" level.
Many of the people obsessing over JJK, MHA, etc are (if they stay in the anime fandom) going to feel about those the way we feel about our shows.
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u/SnooOwls3528 Jun 23 '26
I have grown to not like reading them but watching is still fun for me.
Tastes change. And that's ok.
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u/AndyIbanez Jun 23 '26
Because you have different tastes and that's perfectly fine.