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An Empty Shell of a Man

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HeartVivian:
I'm sure that most of you have experienced the outrageous amount of anime, or rather not completely outrageous, but the numerous anime, particularly harems, that feature a male protagonist that seems completely helpless and undependable until the very last minute. Not to note any particular body parts this character could be lacking metaphorically, the lead is often predictably fragile and weak. In the case of harems, it's actually a surprise to me how he has even survived so long to meet up with the countless female following that seems to cling to him like glue.

The article found here lists some notable reasons for this constant backstep to the classic weak male lead. The most interesting, although somewhat bias since I am female, was that he stated how women are growing into prominent positions of society and the overused weak characteristic for the male protagonist is indicative of that. However it's doubtful that this is the reason behind why creators make anime with this typical archetype. As ValenceS2 says in his post, it is similar to how many movies share a theme. Perseverance, bravery, determination. So even with the same character basis, the changes in story and plot make up for anime's lack of differing main character types.

Anime, with this archetype in particular, seems to follow Joseph Campbell's Monomyth perfectly.


The point of this thread, is to ask for your opinions on this topic, and if you know anime that fit (quite a few) this bill or anime that break this norm.

zherok:
I don't really see harems as fitting the monomyth. I think weak protagonists in them are meant to be avatar insertions, although that view has harem series creators with a rather low opinion of their viewers (or rather the eroge creators, since they're usually the source material.)

But plenty of shounen series where the main character is an idiot, or weak, or has a "null" power that essentially means he never quits. That fits the hero's call a lot better.

Mcgreag:
Brave Story fits fairly well. Maybe not every single stage but overall.

megido-rev.M:
Gintama and Mushi-Uta definitely do not fit.

Then we have Black Lagoon with Rock in it, and it doesn't really fit either.

Bob2004:

--- Quote from: zherok on February 16, 2013, 09:33:22 AM ---I don't really see harems as fitting the monomyth. I think weak protagonists in them are meant to be avatar insertions, although that view has harem series creators with a rather low opinion of their viewers (or rather the eroge creators, since they're usually the source material.)

--- End quote ---

I believe this is the case, yes. And although you say that means creators have a low opinion of their audience, I'd argue that actually in terms of their core demographic (so not us western pirates), it's not too far off in a depressingly large number of cases. If you think of the stereotypical Japanese otaku, it fits that character model quite well, and it's a stereotype for a reason. Obviously the majority probably don't fit perfectly into that mould, but a large proportion of hardcore otaku are close enough to be able to easily relate.

The other probable reason, in my opinion, is escapism. Viewers want to have the feeling that such a weak, pathetic character can have so many girls fall in love with him, get a girlfriend, etc - because then surely they can too. Again, this applies more to the hardcore Japanese otaku than anyone else.

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