Ja'aranMy experience when it comes to the "big three" is that I felt Naruto peaked early and then settled into comfortable mediocrity, One Piece as a whole is just wildly inconsistent with it's high points and low points, whereas Bleach was just bad.
Now, one of the things about shonen that I think works compared to a lot of American guff, is that there is no self-conscious irony. They're not going to snark their way past their own premise like it's in a Disney sitcom, it's sincere.
I will not joke. I will not self-deprecate. I will not hang a lampshade. I will play this completely straight. And that alone makes it worth coming back to every few months.
The problem with shonen, even in some of my favourites, is that they're so often overwritten, way overspoken, and boy howdy do these things love their flashbacks, lots and lots of flashbacks.
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Let's talk about Demon Slayer, which reheats a lot of Bleach's nachos, for example, like how it likes to give some of it's villains flashbacks before they die.
The difference with Demon Slayer, and why it's ultimately better, is that the audience at least knows about the villains and how they feel before their flashback. The villain was ether built up before the fight, or during the fight, only to use the flashback to show what made them feel that way.
This is more effective than throwing down a character with nothing else to their character other than their high rank. If you're not going to put any effort into your characters, then don't give them too much screen time, it only further highlights how shallow and uninteresting the whole thing is.
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SpringGnoll
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