i was having thoughts this morning about naruto and how. early days naruto was so different from the other loud spiky ‘underdog’ shounen heroes we get these days
a lot of underdog characters in current shounen manga that ive been reading are underdogs because they are timid or socially awkward or clumsy somehow (haikyuu, yowapeda, that baseball anime, bnha)
but naruto was genuinely obnoxious. he was gross and rude and clingy. he was loud and disruptive and ruined things.
he was affection starved and had little positive socialisation. he was from an extremely tough background with very very few good role models. he was grubby and wasnt fed well at home. he didnt quite know how to tone himself down, in fact hed never had a reason to try–hed do anything for attention, even negative attention. he was just like so many kids ive known, that i knew in school myself, that i see now as an adult.
that was such a great layer of realness. no matter how much i might enjoy other similar ‘underdog’ characters, i dont think ive ever seen another one come close to that level of nuance
Bart Simpson?
bart simpson, the greatest shounen anime character of our time
Hyde (from “The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) and Adam (The creature, from Frankenstein) weren’t described as ugly by their authors, they were just uncomfortable to look at.
AND HYDE WAS TINY, HE’S NOT A HULK-LIKE CREATURE.
hyde is basically dennis from sunny in Philadelphia
sombra: lol gabe do you like this puppet i made of u
reaper, in tears: nno. no. its stupid. its fucking dumb. his little guns are–fucking dumb. him and his polished tiny mask with all of the perfect little details are–dumb as shit. his hand sewn trenchcoat makes him looks like a licensed miniature *grabs 3 tissues in rapid succession* idiot. or whatever. i have to leave
