Why are the shounen lead protagonists usually shown to be stupid?


  * _One Piece's_ Luffy, 
  * _Naruto's_ Naruto, 
  * _Fairy Tail's_ Natsu, 
  * _Reborn's_ Tsuna, 
  * _Dragon Ball's_ Goku 

All of the above are shown to be simple-minded and foolish.

Why is it so common to depict the lead protagonist to be so stupid?




This is a [common
archetype](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IdiotHero) in many forms
of fiction, not just shounen anime and manga. for instance, many seinen
romance series have protagonists who are usually at or below average
intelligence, e.g. Clannad, Chobits, though seinen also has some intelligent
protagonists like those from Death Note or Ghost in the Shell. Shoujo series
also sometimes use this archetype. However, I suspect it is especially common
in shounen series and other series targeted at children.

One reason for this is that if the protagonist frequently spends a lot of time
deeply considering things, and comes up with complicated logical thinking to
justify his actions, it can easily confuse some of the viewers, particularly
younger children. In a mystery series, this might be acceptable, because the
viewer is expecting to have to think critically to follow what's going on, but
in an action series, it detracts from what most people are watching for.

Another reason is that for the protagonist to be a good hero (or arguably even
a good antihero), they need to be identifiable to the average viewer. It's
easy to identify with people who aren't as smart as you are, because at some
point in your life you were like that. Since some of the viewers will be
fairly young, to make this work you need to make the character at or below
their intellectual level, which makes them appear really dumb considering
their age. It's much harder to identify with someone who is far smarter than
you. Extremely intelligent characters are supposed to be impressive rather
than identifiable (e.g. Light and L from Death Note, who are identifiable in
other ways, but not in terms of their intelligence). Of course, it's also
possible to just make the character average intelligence and not put any
emphasis on that direction (and lots of series do this), but shounen
protagonists tend to be more like caricatures than real people, i.e. they have
exaggerated features and characteristics, and intelligence is often one of
them.

It's also worth noting that most shounen action shows were, at least
originally, marketed to young boys. Most young boys are far more interested in
being strong than in being smart. By making the character below-average
intelligence, but unbelievably strong, it makes the character simultaneously
identifiable and admirable.

There's also the comedy aspect. Almost all of these series involve comedy. For
whatever reason, many people find people doing stupid things to be funny. A
lot of these series exploit this by making the protagonist almost useless
outside of battle. In the traditional
[Manzai](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manzai) style of comedy, they play the
boke role, which is usually the more interesting role (hence fitting of the
protagonist). That isn't to say that intelligent characters can't be comical,
but it isn't as easily exploitable with little-to-no effort as it is if the
protagonist is unintelligent.

Finally, the protagonists in most of these series are idealists. Intelligence,
by and large, correlates with pragmatism, at least in anime. Pragmatic
characters make good generals, but typically not interesting ones. To put it a
different way, pragmatism wins wars, but idealism leads to epic battles, and
in an action series that's what counts. Dragon Ball wouldn't be nearly as
interesting if Goku resorted to some form of guerrilla tactics to win each
battle, even though it might make things easier. The protagonist usually has
some more level-headed allies who will pull out if they really are in a losing
battle (e.g. Nami, Piccolo), but these characters aren't the ones you're
supposed to identify with. Also, idealism is often portrayed as admirable in
these series, which further adds to the character's good qualities.

There's also the aspect of tradition, as kuwaly's answer points out. So I
think there are a lot of reasons why it works well to have an idiot hero in
shounen action series, so it's understandable why they are common.




This is a [common
archetype](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IdiotHero) in many forms
of fiction, not just shounen anime and manga. for instance, many seinen
romance series have protagonists who are usually at or below average
intelligence, e.g. Clannad, Chobits, though seinen also has some intelligent
protagonists like those from Death Note or Ghost in the Shell. Shoujo series
also sometimes use this archetype. However, I suspect it is especially common
in shounen series and other series targeted at children.

One reason for this is that if the protagonist frequently spends a lot of time
deeply considering things, and comes up with complicated logical thinking to
justify his actions, it can easily confuse some of the viewers, particularly
younger children. In a mystery series, this might be acceptable, because the
viewer is expecting to have to think critically to follow what's going on, but
in an action series, it detracts from what most people are watching for.

Another reason is that for the protagonist to be a good hero (or arguably even
a good antihero), they need to be identifiable to the average viewer. It's
easy to identify with people who aren't as smart as you are, because at some
point in your life you were like that. Since some of the viewers will be
fairly young, to make this work you need to make the character at or below
their intellectual level, which makes them appear really dumb considering
their age. It's much harder to identify with someone who is far smarter than
you. Extremely intelligent characters are supposed to be impressive rather
than identifiable (e.g. Light and L from Death Note, who are identifiable in
other ways, but not in terms of their intelligence). Of course, it's also
possible to just make the character average intelligence and not put any
emphasis on that direction (and lots of series do this), but shounen
protagonists tend to be more like caricatures than real people, i.e. they have
exaggerated features and characteristics, and intelligence is often one of
them.

It's also worth noting that most shounen action shows were, at least
originally, marketed to young boys. Most young boys are far more interested in
being strong than in being smart. By making the character below-average
intelligence, but unbelievably strong, it makes the character simultaneously
identifiable and admirable.

There's also the comedy aspect. Almost all of these series involve comedy. For
whatever reason, many people find people doing stupid things to be funny. A
lot of these series exploit this by making the protagonist almost useless
outside of battle. In the traditional
[Manzai](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manzai) style of comedy, they play the
boke role, which is usually the more interesting role (hence fitting of the
protagonist). That isn't to say that intelligent characters can't be comical,
but it isn't as easily exploitable with little-to-no effort as it is if the
protagonist is unintelligent.

Finally, the protagonists in most of these series are idealists. Intelligence,
by and large, correlates with pragmatism, at least in anime. Pragmatic
characters make good generals, but typically not interesting ones. To put it a
different way, pragmatism wins wars, but idealism leads to epic battles, and
in an action series that's what counts. Dragon Ball wouldn't be nearly as
interesting if Goku resorted to some form of guerrilla tactics to win each
battle, even though it might make things easier. The protagonist usually has
some more level-headed allies who will pull out if they really are in a losing
battle (e.g. Nami, Piccolo), but these characters aren't the ones you're
supposed to identify with. Also, idealism is often portrayed as admirable in
these series, which further adds to the character's good qualities.

There's also the aspect of tradition, as kuwaly's answer points out. So I
think there are a lot of reasons why it works well to have an idiot hero in
shounen action series, so it's understandable why they are common.

