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Shonen Love-Ins: Can We Find a New Plot Device Already?

Posted by Nadia Oxford

I recently watched my husband finish Mega Man Star Force for the Nintendo DS because I can't be bothered with it; the series is just to far removed for me to associate it with the franchise.

See, Mega Man is a little robot warrior boy, but I am okay with his spinoffs. I'm okay with him being a brooding refugee from Blade Runner. I'm okay with him being the crazed overlord of a dystopian society. I'm more than okay with him being a miner with a sinister past. I'm even okay with him being a dead baby. But Mega Man as a generic energy-form alien gives me a major case of the blahs.

Anyway. Watching husband finish Star Force.

I don't know if there's some kind of virus going around Japan that dulls the senses of game developers, manga-ka and anime producers, but I wish someone would take some Dayquil and realise that shonen love-ins, also known as anime love-ins, lost their impact many, many years ago. In fact, when I am Queen of the World, any storyteller from any nation who dares to pen the line "Lend me your power!!" as part of a tale's climax will be drawn and quartered with their own ballpoint.

Just in case anyone tries to claim ignorance of the law: the standard anime love-in involves the hero (or heroine, since the love-in is very common in the shojo genre, too) in a showdown with an all-mighty evil. The bad guy typically has the power of Jesus, Buddha and Allah combined and will slap around the hero a bit to prove it. Just as the evil one gets ready to finish things off, the hero calls upon the power of his friends and/or his family and/or nature and/or the goldfish he overfed last month. This power flies to the hero in a whoosh of shiny energy and overwhelms the bad guy, who bellows something about how he had no idea this kind of power could exist in humanity, etc etc, he dies. Popular anime love-ins include Goku's Spirit Bomb in Dragon Ball Z and Sailor Moon's final stand-off against Queen Beryl. Imitators include everyone, especially Mega Man Star Force.

Shonen manga and games (what U2 might refer to as "Stories for Boys") typically have heroic themes that extend across all stories in the genre. That doesn't excuse the overuse of love-ins. At the risk of saying something spoilerish, Earthbound's climax was typical--but also different. For starters, Ness and his friends were not up against a boasting enemy clad in the typical suit of dark armour (what happens when these dudes need to take an emergency dump?): they were up against oblivion itself and producer Shigesato Itoi made sure the player felt helpless and trapped with no other alternatives. Not only was Earthbound's love-in far from typical, it stirred the heart.

Capcom, manga-ka, everyone: it's okay to do things differently. Kids appreciate change a lot more than us cranky adults.

Related Links:

Mega Man 9 Trailer: I'm Drowning in my Childhood
Earthbound and Back Again
Emergency Rescue!! Super Joe!!

+ DIGG

+ DEL.ICIO.US

+ REDDIT

Posted Aug 12 2008, 05:01 PM

Filed under: earthbound, shonen, mega man star force, sailor moon, dragon ball z, cheap plot devices

Comments

Roto13 said:

I can't really think of anything to add except the fact that I agree. :P

August 12, 2008 6:16 PM

Derrick Sanskrit said:

These have bothered me for many years. Its high time we had a new cliche to overuse.

Also, and this may just be me, but I wouldn't worry about "spoiling" the conclusion to a game that came out over thirteen years ago. That's like spoiling that Super Mario 64 features Mario fighting Bowser in a three-dimensional arena. WHOOPS! Sorry, kids!

August 12, 2008 6:34 PM

John H. said:

Agreed on all points.

Especially about Earthbound, and I think it deserves a bit of elaboration. In order to win the last fight, Paula must use her Pray command, which has been practically useless the whole game. Each use of the command doesn't just produce extra power, it provides its own cutscene, some of them quite touching. One of the last ones is Ness' mother (which calls back to the series' theme).

But best of all, the last one, the one that does Giygas in, is <i>the player himself</i>, who can be written into the battle because the game oh-so-cleverly asked him for his name earlier on. Each of the prayers from the other characters in the game does damage to the enemy, but the player's does insane damage, hundreds of thousands of points' worth.

Also, while I wouldn't say that Giygas is "oblivion," it's worth noting that it's not surprising that you'd think that. Giygas from this game is supposed to be Giegue/Gyiyg from Earthbound Zero/Mother, a character with a definite history. Yet for most of the game (in both games) the character is only alluded to. By the end of Earthbound, the character seems like it must be nearly evil incarnate, but when he's revealed, it turns out he's been driven mindless by his own hate, an amazingly tragic end if the player knows about his origins, and George and Mary from the original game.

August 12, 2008 11:01 PM

Demaar said:

The Japanese seem to love this theme because it emphasises everyone versus an evil individual. As in, it's good to go with the crowd, not stand out. I'm surprised this theme isn't used in US entertainment more often. Well, other than in horror movies :P

August 17, 2008 11:32 PM

about the blogger

John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Hooksexup, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.

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