The Sol of Shonen
To Win at Life, You Must Fight.
Shonen is a demographic term for manga and anime for early to late teen boys. I am nowhere near a member of the intended target demographic, but I resonate with the spirit of the stories told. To me, the soul of Shonen is the courage it takes to face life [adversity, evil] head-on. From difficult childhoods to dire training experiences toward a destined path, it’s about embracing the struggles experienced without surrendering to suffering. I named this Substack’ The Sol of Shonen’ because I believe a spiritual thread is woven through manga and anime stories that resonate deeply with people. There is a heart and soul component to every attempt at creating art that explores ethics, morality, friendship, belonging, loss, enemies, and love.
I first conceived of Shonen’s spirituality when I watched Naruto Shippuden in college.
As a clinical psychology major, religious studies, and creative writing double minor, I watched Naruto’s painful childhood experiences of being orphaned, rejected, and abandoned by his community for being born. He did not know what demon lay locked in his belly, holding his body hostage as a prisoner and vessel of imprisonment. I felt his sadness and loneliness in his studio apartment and on the swing tied to the tree. I saw his struggles in school and the mocking he endured from his peers, and it made me wonder if other people were witnessing it. Could people see how early childhood trauma was impacting his personal development?
Were other people noticing how believing in cultural and spiritual beings and transferring those demonized superstitions onto innocent children negatively affected their sense of safety and belonging? It seems to be a tale as old as time, no? But then I remembered what drew me in with Dragon Ball Z and Sailor Moon when I was younger. These complex and layered experiences of feeling alien to the world you exist in, not knowing any other way to be in the world but as yourself, being rejected for it, looking for the right family through friends for you, but still wanting to be to others what very few seemed to be for you.
That’s the soul of Shonen.
Even more, the Spirit of Shonen embeds a relentless refusal to be overcome by one’s demons, like Tanjiro and the Demon Slayer Corps (among many others). It’s the belief that you are stronger than the things and forces set out to kill you. They are not stronger than your will to live, survive…to fight. Energetic and dynamic, the soul of Shonen sits at the center of the sun—passion, ego, leadership, drive, drama, and divinity. Slow-burn storylines full of constant action and controlled chaos are explored through character and plot developments that rival even the most extraordinary epic fantasy novels.
I think of Hunter x Hunter’s Greed Island and Chimera Ants arcs or One Piece’s epic battle-worn, emotionally charged arcs like Water-7, Ennies Lobby, and Impel Down. These stories are an intensity, intimacy, and inspiration onion of our heroes’ tales of adventure. These stories of striving, sorrow, struggle, and situational victory…until the next problem…remind us that solar energy is consuming and combustible. Fire ebbs and flows in a playful dance, and in these animated worlds full of life lessons and dreamlike imaginations, how that flame grows or embers out is up to the MC.
In your shonen journey, you are the main character.
But what about when you start to feel burned out by the obstacles in your way? What about when you experience the scorching betrayal by the people who were supposed to be your ally? Those times when you were so constrained by other people’s expectations, limited by life circumstances, that you felt like you’d combust? I appreciate that physical strength and might are often central to a protagonist’s character development and overall hero’s journey because it’s essential to see how much work and effort is needed to become the person still standing against all odds. As a visual art form, Shonen gives us the blueprints of the transformations our souls and Spirits need to go through to overcome our adversities.
I often reflect on how I internalize my heat in the middle of life’s hot seat. Back when I was a child bullied, and even the one bullying, I never knew how to weigh the risks of my self-defense properly until after someone stepped up as an opponent and flattened me on my face…or I blacked out from the sensory overload of rage. As I grew into adolescence, I noticed the physical threats were seasonal winds, but the social and psychological battles were looming nimbus clouds of danger. In adulthood, the stakes are life or death, failure versus success, light versus darkness—on multiple levels, in various ways because I don’t want to be consumed by the fear of those who oppose me and my dreams. It reminds me of God’s promise to the Prophet Isaiah:
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, Nor shall the flame scorch you. -Isaiah 43:2
Things in life that we hate and wish never happened will happen to us. It is unavoidable because life itself is unpredictable, borne out of chaos. God never denied that. But, I need to remind you that, though shit will happen and hit the fan when you least expect it, you are not alone. And if you withstand the raging waters, the consuming fires, and the turbulent winds of life, you will be the strongest; like Luffy, you will be the most free. So, I turn to Shonen to help me imagine a way forward out of the valley of the shadow of doubt and death.
In a previous newsletter, I wrote about how much I appreciate Sōma Yukihira’s creative spirit as a Shonen protagonist. One of the reasons I love Food Wars! Shokugeki no Sōma is because, though the stakes are not life or death, they are high in social and psychological terms and speak to the human condition under stress and pressure to perform and succeed. In storytelling, this is called a status genre. When Yukihira Soma arrives at Tōtsuki Culinary Academy, he enters the fiercest, most competitive world imaginable.
I believe Gin Dōjima when he told Soma that he was warning him of the pitfalls of underestimating your opponents and the present situation you face. Call it my autistic need for correctness, but facing the facts and reality is essential; that is not a denial of faith. But Gin’s wisdom never stopped Soma from believing he could be at the top. You must know what you’re up against to know you can defeat and overcome it. Failure is inevitable and necessary—but it is never the end. The soul of Shonen, the spirituality of this art form, is that the fights for our lives are always worth the hassle.
As a token of appreciation to my readers, I want to share this new resource from The Sol Gospel with you first! I designed this spiritual anime coaching program to help Neurodivergents of Color practice spiritual and mental fighting through the Anime as Experience Group Coaching Cohort. Click the hyperlink to learn more!