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How many shows can you name like this?
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this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2026
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It's exactly what EVA is calling out. Shinji gets a lot of hate in the fandom for not being your typical Shounen protagonist, but that is the point. He is a very honest portrait of a kid:
Shinji and Asuka not taking joy in killing aliens is the biggest unrealistic part unfortunately; there's lots of real kids ganging up and murdering homeless people, and those are human beings. Real Asuka and Shinji would be holding the aliens in a chokehold while the other gleefully stabs it, both cracking jokes while they do it.
Contrary to what you believe, most kids actually do not murder homeless people. Also, you are kinda ignoring the fact that the giant robot fights aren't one-sided acts of violence where the kids get to set a sleeping man on fire, but life and death situations where they go up against cosmic horrors that are in the process of flattenign a city, cause them excruciating pain, make them fear for the lifes of their friends and regularly lead to extended hospital stays to recover from the horrific injuries. Shinji is literally forced to strangle Asuka at one point. On top of that, he is constantly crushed by the pressure of having to save humanity. Please stop living up to your name and being completely callous about trauma and hurt children because you saw a news report once.
Ahh yes technically all of shounen belongs in it but are the adults sending in the 12 year old or does the 12 year old do it of their own accord though?
SAO is shounen for example but the adults didn't send Kirito to do it.
The adults do repeatedly send Kirito back into dangerous cyber-wars in the later books/seasons, it becomes his job because he's like the world's foremost cyber-melee-combat expert.
And in Naruto the adults send kids as young as 12 on dangerous military operations because once you get your headband you're pretty much considered an adult and a full soldier with all that entails. And this is a criticism, it's not an accidental worldbuilding artifact. Which makes it all the more frustrating that despite becoming a god and basically the ruler of the world, Naruto doesn't change this status quo.
Well Naruto is a show for 12-year-olds who wanna see kids their age do cool ninja stuff and own the bad guys. It'd be a bit awkward if the show ended with "now that I'm the president of Narutoland, 12-year-olds are no longer allowed to do cool ninja stuff and epically own the bad guys."
Oh yes that absolutely counts lmao
I think it certainly counts as an example of the trope. Gohan was by far the strongest thing in the known universe so it only made sense for him to have to save the world, even as a kid
Yes, but what makes it especially bad was Goku was prepared to let Gohan get pounded into the dirt until his full power was supposed to manifest
I haven't watched a lot of those but can I ask is this really a Shounen thing or just a media made for children thing? Like, Hunger Games, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, DC Comics and their sidekicks, etc. Content that is made for children star children. And yes, while many adults may watch it a lot of anime is made for children/teens.
Probably has a lot to do with it, yeah. I don't really watch shounen anymore. Kinda want to see if the new Jojo is any good, but that's about it. You just made me realise the only anime I've actively sort out recent years is Dungeon Meshi, so maybe I'm probably not the best to have an opinion on the trope lol
I don't know what that is so I'll just agree with your assessment lol
It was serialized in a seinen magazine so it was targeting young adults. FWIW I think you're generally correct re: children's media starring children thing.
Oh right, I didn't answer you properly, sorry. I should have said:
Yes, those were all kids anime I named, and now that I think about it other media aimed at around the same demographic has similar tropes, so I think you're right.
I wouldn't say EVA was satirizing it, rather that it was aware of what a premise like that would actually lead to and drew the logical conclusions by doing character development along the lines of each child soldier's trauma response.
I watched a news segment about a kid taunting a burglar he shot (no not the onion skit) and I am now convinced there are many kids who'd get a chuckle out of killing people (and aliens); none of the adults around him were fazed by it, and the cops wanted to give him an award.
A real life Shinji would shoot an alien with his mecha and taunt it while it dies.