You don’t want younger anime fans to try and imitate the behavior of these guys!
Many anime protagonists, despite being interesting within their own series, are less than stellar people if you project their behavior onto the real world. Some are just villain protagonists. Some are not, and even if they aren’t terrible people themselves, you don’t want kids behaving like them.
Let’s look at 5 protagonists who you don’t want to be a role model for a child.
Goku is a good person at heart. He’s compassionate and heroic — traits of a true shounen protagonist. He also has many flaws, and while they make him an even better character, he’s not really a good role model. That’s fine, because most children won’t proceed to participate in martial tournaments where participants have the power to blow up the universe.
Goku is very naive and doesn’t understand responsibilities, a fact that puts some strain on his relationship with his family (he still loves them, of course). He also might get too obsessed with fighting strong opponents, a flaw that many members of the cast share.
Light is the protagonist of Death Note — and yes, he’s charismatic and fun to watch, but he’s also undoubtedly the bad guy of the series. He clearly has a God complex and believes in his justice only, which involves punishing the criminals himself.
He also doesn’t feel remorse after killing those who stand in his way. Death Note is a perfect example of a villain protagonist — and, obviously, you don’t want to be copying him.
Ayanokouji from Classroom of the Elite (Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e) is an underappreciated genius. His grades are average — but only because he intentionally scores average.
He isn’t really noticed by many at the beginning of the series, but that’s the exact position he wants to be in to get what he wants and manipulate people. While that might be incredibly interesting to watch, no one should be considering him a role model: he’s clearly a sociopath (and that’s why fans love him so much).
Satou is a depressed NEET with a lot of delusions and misunderstandings about the real world. The anime is about him learning to live a normal life once again — and is actually based on a novel of the same name.
The writer stated that Welcome to the N.H.K. (NHK ni Youkoso!) is based on his own experiences — and, obviously, nobody should be striving to be like Satou. If anything, you should want to be the opposite of him.
Yukiteru from The Future Diary (Mirai Nikki) is often criticized for being one of the worst protagonists ever. Being called whiny, gullible and weak, he is not liked by many. Such behavior is understandable — many middle schoolers would behave like that if put into Yukiteru’s situation.
What makes him a bad role model, however, is his apathetic, “observer”-like attitude to life, something Yukiteru admits himself.
You don’t want younger anime fans to try and imitate the behavior of these guys!
Many anime protagonists, despite being interesting within their own series, are less than stellar people if you project their behavior onto the real world. Some are just villain protagonists. Some are not, and even if they aren’t terrible people themselves, you don’t want kids behaving like them.
Let’s look at 5 protagonists who you don’t want to be a role model for a child.
Goku is a good person at heart. He’s compassionate and heroic — traits of a true shounen protagonist. He also has many flaws, and while they make him an even better character, he’s not really a good role model. That’s fine, because most children won’t proceed to participate in martial tournaments where participants have the power to blow up the universe.
Goku is very naive and doesn’t understand responsibilities, a fact that puts some strain on his relationship with his family (he still loves them, of course). He also might get too obsessed with fighting strong opponents, a flaw that many members of the cast share.
Light is the protagonist of Death Note — and yes, he’s charismatic and fun to watch, but he’s also undoubtedly the bad guy of the series. He clearly has a God complex and believes in his justice only, which involves punishing the criminals himself.
He also doesn’t feel remorse after killing those who stand in his way. Death Note is a perfect example of a villain protagonist — and, obviously, you don’t want to be copying him.
Ayanokouji from Classroom of the Elite (Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e) is an underappreciated genius. His grades are average — but only because he intentionally scores average.
He isn’t really noticed by many at the beginning of the series, but that’s the exact position he wants to be in to get what he wants and manipulate people. While that might be incredibly interesting to watch, no one should be considering him a role model: he’s clearly a sociopath (and that’s why fans love him so much).
Satou is a depressed NEET with a lot of delusions and misunderstandings about the real world. The anime is about him learning to live a normal life once again — and is actually based on a novel of the same name.
The writer stated that Welcome to the N.H.K. (NHK ni Youkoso!) is based on his own experiences — and, obviously, nobody should be striving to be like Satou. If anything, you should want to be the opposite of him.
Yukiteru from The Future Diary (Mirai Nikki) is often criticized for being one of the worst protagonists ever. Being called whiny, gullible and weak, he is not liked by many. Such behavior is understandable — many middle schoolers would behave like that if put into Yukiteru’s situation.
What makes him a bad role model, however, is his apathetic, “observer”-like attitude to life, something Yukiteru admits himself.
