Shonen is Spiritual
Shokugeki no Sōma and the creative spirit of Shonen storytelling ablaze in you.
Creativity is a spiritual energy. The triple-braided through-line of beauty, inspiration, and creation connects the material to the immortal, the material, and the divine. The creative spirit is an energy unlike any other, for God, the One Creative Source of consciousness, inspires it. It cycles through its vessel as a total-body and outer-body paradoxical experience because creativity must be energetically transmuted.
Picture it encircling through the heart and blood vessels as the spark of a brilliant idea, filling an empty mind with the sudden rush of a new dream, or inspired musings bleeding out of every orifice at the sight of a beautiful person or thing. Creative expressions and experiences make us feel like anything is possible. They force us to surrender to a greater power within us creatively. Our imaginations and dreams exist in a vast, endless oceanscape full of living images and ideas, all for creative pleasure and exploration.
A powerful energy flows through you.
So, what do we do? We escape into the fantasy of books, games, manga, and anime—worlds crafted by the impossible on purpose. Lands and tales where magic and quirks, superhuman capacities, and disabilities/special abilities are expanded into developing lived experiences—sometimes to a character’s advantage, deemed a curse by all, in an alternate reality, other times in their natural worlds. These worlds are places with problems that can be solved somatically and spiritually by characters boldly armed with various forms of power based on what makes one unique, even when they don’t feel extraordinary compared to anyone else.
Or when it feels that no one else can understand what it means to be you.
The creative energy of the soul flowing through us requires us to create things that matter.
The spirit of creativity is charged with beauty, struggle, and justice. All three can be found in Shonen manga and anime. When I begin a Shonen series, I prepare for nuanced life lessons at the same speed as the action. I know these characters I’m being introduced to will embark upon a life-changing journey and are ready to show up wherever the adventure leads. Depending on how someone shows up for their life, be it for themselves and for others, the partnerships, pacts, or even friendships that form will eventually become trail angels, arch-rivals, or mortal enemies along the way. Through dramatic irony, the audience gets an inside look at the human condition through authentic connections, gripping dialogue, and relationships with people similar and different going after the same dream.
Shokugeki no Sōma resonates with this aspect of Shonen’s spirituality.
Meet our MC*, a young teenage chef with fiery red hair and a distinct scar through his left eyebrow, Yukihira Sōma. Cooking is Sōma’s passion and his gospel. As a confident, free spirit, he knows that is how he will change the world in his way. Though his sun is in Scorpio, he is a reckless fire sign at heart. To him, there is no feat insurmountable or obstacle too difficult to overcome. To Sōma, the fight is in the courage to show up for oneself no matter how great the odds or how few believe it is possible…or believe in him.
Sōma is a wild card; a renegade focused on his special interest in cooking and beating his father in their father-son cooking battles. This paternal bond of iron sharpening iron through trial by fire creates a wall of difference between him and his neighborhood peers. His focused drive to own his family restaurant is the story’s central theme, but he is extroverted and friendly, so he seems like nothing more than a teenage boy with his head on straight, on a different path than his age mates. In the first three episodes, the audience thinks Sōma will never fit in; he’s a risk-taking, rules-breaking chef from a small diner compared to the elite and wealthy families that cycle through the prestigious culinary academy. This energy follows him from his high school transfer exam at Tōtsuki Culinary Academy to his school-wide address at Tōtsuki’s opening ceremony.
But Sōma Finds His People.
As soon as he enters the Polar Star Dormitory, to the audience’s shock and (at least my) relief, he finds himself in an inviting residence in the center of a cutthroat atmosphere. As he meets his dorm mother and dorm mates, he realizes he’s surrounded by the genuine interest and support of like-minded peers who see his talent as brightly as the new day’s sun. This group of friends, and the rest he eventually wins over by his pure heart and courageous spirit, supports Sōma throughout his inspiring Shonen story. Sōma is a rascal and rebel, disciplined in his craft, and loyal to his friends. They cheer for him, believe in him, and try their best to drag him back to shore when it seems he’s gone too far into the tide—they have his back. All because of the optimistic and blazing self-confidence and the desire for others to succeed radiating from Sōma
The spirit of Shonen will attract real friends, various rivals, and several foes.
Sōma’s creative spirit is activated into overdrive the day he meets his future love interest, Erina Nakiri. Like with Nausicaa*, the princess of Scheria whose beauty simply astonishes Odysseus when he washes ashore and first lays eyes on her, Erina’s physical beauty, divine gift, and culinary prowess forces Sōma to pursue a creative dream more significant and demanding of him than what he could’ve fathomed when he first arrived at the cooking academy.
But no unimaginable journey can be without enemies and the obstacles they erect. This is an essential life truth that Shonen brings to the forefront of our awareness with each episode and in every new arc. As we move closer to our dreams, there will always be those among us who do not want us to reach our respective summits. Out of jealousy, envy, competitiveness, or tokenism, there will be foes of our fortune, enemies of our progress, and frenemies who lurk with glints of betrayal in their eyes. For Sōma, the list of rivals is endless—developers, established restauranteurs, peers and seniors, the never-ending Shokugeki challengers, explicit enemies of his progress, and implicit saboteurs of his potential—but to Sōma, those challengers are not foes but stepping stones advancing him towards his ultimate goal.
Nevertheless, just as if life is a Shokugeki—an official cooking duel known as a Food War in English, held between students of Tōtsuki Culinary Academy—you must always be up for a challenge. You must have the indomitable spirit between you and those who seek to hold you down and back from your Highest Self and Good. Like Yukihira Sōma, adopting a courageous and hopeful self-belief in your spiritual journey is the best way to make it across the endless wilderness of life and its infinite possibilities. That is how your creative spirit is enlivened to pursue, overcome, and overtake the impossible and turn it into an abundant reality. Trusting in the light within you to lead you towards people and experiences that prepare you for your ultimate good is how your soul is encouraged to keep moving forward.
Food Wars [Shokugeki no Sōma] is my favorite anime. Sōma is one of my top two Shonen MCs. Heck, I even named my puppy after him. He’s the type of person you want on your side. He takes life on, but not too seriously. He teaches without guilt, learns with joy, and fails without shame. His spirit is rooted in loving his neighbor through food. A spiritual concept is met through an essential and tangible need. His soul is in his cooking and the tenacity that he approaches those who can teach him a thing or two. Yukihira Sōma’s ability to be confident and ego-free is a rare gem representation of what spiritually guided leadership should look like. He believes in what he’s doing and sparks that aliveness in others. He’s brave and daring and learns from his lessons. People believe in him because Sōma doesn’t give up. He shows up fully present, authentic, and keen in mind to make a difference.
Even when all hope is rightfully lost, even when the whole team is down, and the hero of your story’s journey has little to nothing left, the spiritual power that Shonen portrays is the unwillingness to quit. The spirit of Shonen is a reminder that you just have to keep chasing your dreams, pivoting when reality brings something different to the forefront, but never relenting from achieving your goals of value with integrity. As cliché as it sounds, that’s the only way to pursue happiness effectively. To be relentless in spirit and willing to gird your mind to fight, to stand on business, to hope and believe, and most importantly, to know you’re powerful enough to win even when you lose—that is the spirituality of Shonen.
