From Luffy to Naruto, male protagonists in shonen anime are often humorously inept at romance – but there are some surprisingly deep reasons for this.
Shonen anime is famous for many things, from its uplifting themes of courage, friendship and perseverance to its tendency toward PG-13 action sequences, as seen in the original “Big Three” and newer titles like Demon Slayer and My Hero Academia. On a more personal level, shonen heroes generally come from the same mold, being optimistic, proactive, friendly — and terrible at romance.
Many typical shonen male leads are inept at matters of the heart — excepting shojo-style shonen like Horimiya and Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie — for a variety of reasons. The likes of Naruto Uzumaki, Monkey D. Luffy, Izuku Midoriya and Natsu Dragneel are either unlucky or completely clueless when it comes to girls — but when it’s done right, this actually deepens the narrative a great deal.
When Shonen Male Leads Shouldn’t Be Good at Romance
There are no absolute rules on how shonen protagonists should handle romance. There are some general trends though, and the world of shonen has built-in reasons for its male leads to be weak in this area. Having a romantically dense or clueless MC can work wonders for the narrative, particularly for humor’s sake. Anime such as One Piece and Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun both exasperate and amuse viewers with how clueless their respective male leads are, even when attractive girls throw themselves at them.
It fits One Piece‘s tone and Luffy’s personality for him to be a total ahodere, generally failing to recognize Boa Hancock’s amorous feelings for him. Similarly, the lovable, innocent Iruma Suzuki simply cannot tell that Azazel Ameri is interested in him, and that’s actually the core of their relationship. Iruma is a total outsider at the Babyls school for demons, so of course he’s out of his depth when a girl like Ameri shows interest in him. She is alien to him in more ways than one.
Additionally, some shonen authors expressly don’t want their male leads to have a serious love story; it would be a needless distraction in certain franchises. It’s a matter of what the narrative needs (and doesn’t need) for its themes and entertainment factor, and romance shouldn’t be thrown in just because. Author Eiichiro Oda said as much about his famous protagonist, hence Luffy’s total lack of romance. In fact, One Piece has little on-screen romance, with the few actual love stories just being mentioned in passing to flesh out a character arc or flashback. Simply put, there isn’t room in Luffy’s adventure for pursuing true love, so it’s left out.
Romantically Dense Shonen Male Leads Are Relatable For Viewers
Most shonen manga and anime are written with young males in mind, so the protagonists are designed accordingly in many ways — including their love lives or lack thereof. A lead of any age, sex or gender identity will have relatable flaws for viewers to identify with, including the universal struggle to find true love. It never comes easily for anyone, so in shonen, the “main” romantic paradigm is a boy having tough luck with girls.
There are exceptions of course, but the default scenario assumes that shonen fans are boys who know what it’s like to strike out with girls, or to be too afraid or insecure to ask them out or say “I like you.” So, whenever shonen leads do find time for love, they’re bad at it so viewers can relate. If someone like Naruto, Luffy or Goku was a total ladies’ man, young male consumers might actually resent them rather than cheer them on.
Another factor is the contrast of obstacles to finding true love. True romances involve personal and external barriers alike that keep the two main lovers apart, such as differing social classes, physical distances and so on. A classic example is Romeo and Juliet belonging to feuding families and thus keeping their forbidden love a secret. The entire plot may be centered around such things in a true romance story, but shonen anime tales have other concerns.
At most, the male lead’s love life is made more difficult because of internal problems, such as being a clueless ahodere or a foolish bakadere in general. There is no Montague vs Capulet feud keeping Hinata Hyuga and Naruto Uzumaki apart — that’s not the sort of conflict Naruto‘s world and narrative are about. Externally, they each have shonen-style ninja adventures to worry about and battles to be fought, so their struggle to come together as lovers is purely personal.
It’s not the villainous Akatsuki or even a romantic rival keeping Naruto and Hinata apart — rather, it’s their own problems. Naruto’s romantic struggle as a bakadere is substantial but also purely personal, so it doesn’t come at the cost of warping the entire anime’s plot. That’s how shonen-style romance typically plays out.
Src: cbr.com
