It's not mutually exclusive with talent.
Summary:
- Fans often feel like shounen series emphasize the theme of "hard work vs talent."
- The commonly quoted examples do actually involve the importance of hard work, but the theme is still misunderstood.
- Hard work helps talent shine — both are equally important.
It's often said that shounen anime focus on the importance of hard work over actual talent. Examples given are Naruto, My Hero Academia (Boku no Hero Academia), as well as non-action series — like Bakuman.
This would be a good theme to explore, for sure — as the main characters of these shows achieve things through working hard and overcoming obstacles. However, the theme is largely misunderstood by many otaku: it's not just hard work that matters, as talent is equally important.
Naruto Is Not an Example of Character Carried Only by Training
A good example is Naruto, where Naruto definitely trained hard, but he also had plenty of talent. That refers to his chakra reserves, of course, but one can also argue that learning things fast is also a talent.
After all, he quickly learned and perfected the Rasengan, a technique that much stronger shinobi struggled to figure out.
Funnily enough, fans often feel that the theme of hard work versus talent is reflected in Naruto and Sasuke, with the latter being an example of talent.
Sasuke, however, worked incredibly hard to get where he was — we see his training sessions all the time. Both of the characters show how important both hard work and talent are.
In My Hero Academia, Everyone Works Hard
My Hero Academia is a similar case. Izuku Midoriya is an example fans often give when they talk about a character who trained a lot to achieve his goals. This completely dismisses the point that he was given the strongest Quirk out there.
Yes, technically, he worked even before that — he acquired information on the strategies of pro heroes — but this plot point is practically irrelevant.
Besides, everyone in My Hero Academia trains a lot. That's just the point of the show — they go to a school from which they graduate as heroes. Everyone is supposed to train and become stronger.
While hard work is important, it's not the only thing that matters, and it's definitely not the thematic counterpart to talent here, either.
Hard Work Is Important, but So Is Talent — They Go Together
In general, fans often misunderstand the theme of the importance of hard work in shounen anime. They feel like these series often try to say that hard work is more important than talent.
However, the actual idea a lot of the time is that both are equally important. Hard work helps talent bloom, after all.