The 16 Greatest Shonen Protagonists of All Time

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

The rubber-bodied captain whose ambition never wavers and never darkens.

2

Naruto Uzumaki

The outcast who talks his enemies into becoming allies.

3

Ichigo Kurosaki

A reluctant substitute Soul Reaper who fights because someone has to.

4

Son Goku

The template every later shonen hero was measured against.

5

Edward Elric

A teenage alchemist paying for one mistake for the length of a series.

6

Gon Freecss

A cheerful boy whose single-mindedness turns genuinely frightening.

7

Izuku Midoriya

Born powerless in a world of heroes, handed the strongest gift in it.

8

Tanjiro Kamado

A demon slayer who keeps grieving for the demons he kills.

9

Yusuke Urameshi

The delinquent who dies in chapter one and works his way back.

10

Kenshin Himura

A former assassin who refuses to kill again, and is tested on it constantly.

11

Eren Yeager

Starts as a boy who wants to see the ocean and ends as the thing he hunted.

12

Yuji Itadori

Swallows a cursed finger to save a stranger and spends the series paying for it.

13

Asta

Magicless in a magic kingdom, and louder about it than anyone.

14

Gintoki Sakata

A washed-out samurai who carries a comedy series and its tragedies at once.

15

Joseph Joestar

The trickster Joestar who wins by cheating, and keeps winning for decades.

16

Denji

A protagonist whose ambitions never rise above bread, jam and affection.