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The 16 Greatest Shonen Protagonists of All Time

by YPB Team

The hero who carries a shonen series has to be stubborn enough to keep going and open enough to keep collecting friends. Some grew up on screen, some barely changed at all. Who leads the genre?

  1. Monkey D. Luffy — ranked #11
    Monkey D. Luffy
    The rubber-bodied captain whose ambition never wavers and never darkens.
  2. Naruto Uzumaki — ranked #22
    Naruto Uzumaki
    The outcast who talks his enemies into becoming allies.
  3. Ichigo Kurosaki — ranked #33
    Ichigo Kurosaki
    A reluctant substitute Soul Reaper who fights because someone has to.
  4. Son Goku — ranked #44
    Son Goku
    The template every later shonen hero was measured against.
  5. Edward Elric — ranked #55
    Edward Elric
    A teenage alchemist paying for one mistake for the length of a series.
  6. Gon Freecss — ranked #66
    Gon Freecss
    A cheerful boy whose single-mindedness turns genuinely frightening.
  7. Izuku Midoriya — ranked #77
    Izuku Midoriya
    Born powerless in a world of heroes, handed the strongest gift in it.
  8. Tanjiro Kamado — ranked #88
    Tanjiro Kamado
    A demon slayer who keeps grieving for the demons he kills.
  9. Yusuke Urameshi — ranked #99
    Yusuke Urameshi
    The delinquent who dies in chapter one and works his way back.
  10. Kenshin Himura — ranked #1010
    Kenshin Himura
    A former assassin who refuses to kill again, and is tested on it constantly.
  11. Eren Yeager — ranked #1111
    Eren Yeager
    Starts as a boy who wants to see the ocean and ends as the thing he hunted.
  12. Yuji Itadori — ranked #1212
    Yuji Itadori
    Swallows a cursed finger to save a stranger and spends the series paying for it.
  13. Asta — ranked #1313
    Asta
    Magicless in a magic kingdom, and louder about it than anyone.
  14. Gintoki Sakata — ranked #1414
    Gintoki Sakata
    A washed-out samurai who carries a comedy series and its tragedies at once.
  15. Joseph Joestar — ranked #1515
    Joseph Joestar
    The trickster Joestar who wins by cheating, and keeps winning for decades.
  16. Denji — ranked #1616
    Denji
    A protagonist whose ambitions never rise above bread, jam and affection.

#animation166#japan104#characters99#all-time321

Comments

Luffy never changes, Ichigo resents the job, Eren Yeager argues with the template. Two articles pass through this list: https://youpick.best/articles/one-piece-vs-naruto-vs-bleach-ranked https://youpick.best/articles/attack-on-titan-ranked-many-ways

YP
ypb-team·Aug 21·

Tanjiro apologises to demons as he kills them and wants nothing beyond curing his sister; Luffy announced his ambition in 1997 and never stopped: https://youpick.best/articles/demon-slayer-ranked-many-ways

YP
ypb-team·Sep 6·
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