

In shonen anime, there's a type of "ethics" that emphasizes on someone
reaching their potential, becoming the greatest, trying no matter what,
persevering, etc. But, whenever I've heard about modern Japan, it's always as
a very business oriented society that pressures people to work and things like
that, so I wouldn't expect that kind of ethics to be a part of actual Japanese
society (I don't know much about this topic, so if I'm wrong on that, please
tell me).

If that's true, how did that ethics end up in a Japanese medium? The only
answer I could think of is through older Japanese and Chinese literature, but
I just don't feel like that's good enough to fully explain the problem.


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culture
Where do the ethics of Shonen anime come from?


Anime is very derivative. But with each new iteration things change a little.
Some masterpiece comes along to redefine the genre and then everyone else
derives from the latest masterpiece.

The shounen genre is like that. So to answer your question, we have to trace
the genealogy back to the roots.

Let's start with some shounen anime that's relatively new: Boku no Hero
Academia (2016). It's about someone without a superpower in a world where some
people have superpowers and his journey to become the best hero or whatever.

It's clearly a derivation of that one anime about a somewhat talentless boy
attending a school with other kids who all have superpowers, while dreaming of
becoming respected by everyone from 2002 called Naruto. This older anime also
has the aspect of the hero wanting to follow in his fathers footsteps of
becoming the village head. Not to mention everyone is a ninja and the guy is
somewhat of a simpleton.

Which in turn is a derivation of that anime about this kid from some remote
village setting out to follow in his fathers footsteps by attending an exam in
the middle of nowhere to officially get the same job his father has.
Afterwards he also gets powers related to martial arts. I'm of course talking
about Hunter x Hunter (1999).

Or I guess the Naruto manga (1997 as a pilot) predates the Hunter x Hunter one
(1998). So let's take another step back.

Remember that anime about the boy with a special constitution that is kind of
an idiot, but really strong and sets out on an adventure but first makes a
stop to learn martial arts and then only gets stronger and stronger? I mean
Dragon Ball (1986).

Other than ripping off the ancient Chinese story Journey to the West from the
16th century it also was inspired by some anime. And since Journey to the West
didn't feature the desire of self-improvement within the protagonist, only the
idiot-protagonist part, we are getting closer.

Our next stop is that one anime about this delinquent guy who scams people,
but got caught by the police and is thrown into a juvenile prison, where he
learns how to beat everyone up using techniques from a sport that he should
become very proficient in. Getting better in this sport isn't necessarily the
driving force behind the story, it's more about life in general, but it's an
important part nevertheless. The sport I'm talking about is boxing and the
anime is called Ashita no Joe (1970).

Now we're still not at our destination, since Ashita no Joe was just a
derivation in itself and like with Hunter x Hunter and Naruto, Ashita no Joe
wasn't the only contender. Otoko Ippiki Gaki Daishou (1969) was very similar,
just without the sports aspect of the story.

If you go further back it's mostly baseball manga and after that manga didn't
even exist. Here's where my expertise on the topic begins to thin out.

But it's enough to answer your question. The strive to get better and better
originated from sports manga and anime. Baseball turned into boxing with
Ashita no Joe and later into martial arts with Dragon Ball. After deriving
Dragon Ball the sports aspect was fully removed and substituted with general
fighting, maybe throwing in a tournament again, like in Yuu Yuu Hakusho
(1992). But the spirit of having the protagonist not give up and become
stronger was kept over all these decades.


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