If You Were to Write a Shonen Battle Manga?

[Papasmurf]

Let's say you either got the chance to write or write and illustrate a Shonen battle manga. What would be the premise of the manga, and what would be your main characters, their motivations, and their endgame?

My story would be centered around the life of a Japanese-American boy in the US in the 1950's, only a few years after the interment of Japanese-American citizens. Although his father was once a professional karate champion who immigrated to the States as a child, he retired to help grow his family's strawberry farm shortly after his son's birth only to lose the farm and all their fortune when the Japanese were put into internment camps. In the ensuing chaos of WWII, and the heavy anti-Japanese sentiment that still lingered in the US after the family regained their freedom, the boy ends up losing his father at only 7 years old to a burglary which also took the life of his wife, albeit the perpetrator was killed as well in the father's counterattack.

Left with nothing but an offer to work nightly shifts at his father's old strawberry farm to keep food on the table while attending public school, the boy takes up karate in what little free time he has left in order to make his father proud, only to realize he seemingly has no talent for the sport whatsoever (on top of the fact that he has no teacher). He continues this arduous and tiresome lifestyle until one day, soon after his 12th birthday, he meets the son of a famous Italian-American boxer (an obvious parody of Rocky), a boy who transferred to the Japanese boy's school and displays immense talent in the sport. He seemingly has the perfect life - good looks, blessed with talent, and unlike the protagonist, he has the skills to back up his trash talk. The two immediately develop an animosity with one another and the Japanese boy challenges the Italian boy to a match on the school's roof, which drags on for 20 minutes but ends with the boxer kid's flawless victory. Refusing to accept defeat, the Japanese boy gets up one last time and manages to land a kick to the Italian boy's face, nearly breaking his jaw.

Following this event, the Italian boy takes note of the Japanese boy's surprising potential. A few days later, the Japanese boy calls the other boy to the roof to announce that he's dropping out of school to travel the country, vowing to be the world karate champion that his father couldn't become by the time of his 18th birthday. Just before the Japanese boy is about to head out with nothing but a pair of jackets and a little food the following morning, the Italian boy rushes to the Japanese boy's room at the strawberry farm and announces he's going to travel with him.

The series is then about the adventures the two boys embark on afterwards, and the real reason why the boxer boy joined the Japanese boy on his quest is revealed, and the series centers around the two boys' growing rivalry/friendship and their battles with other martial artists, gangs in the underworld, fascists and the ilk. I probably wouldn't turn either of the boys superhuman or anything (just great fighters and marksmen [for self defense]), but the series would be a lot more focused on the philosophical and the ethical. I'd also make concepts like racism, eugenics and the dangers those ideologies pose to the world something the boys would have to fight, and require the boys to have to make the choice to murder for the greater good.

I'll write out what would be the protagonists' endgame in the following post. What would be your idea of a battle manga?

 

[withheldforprivacy]

I would turn one of my novels into a manga.

 

[Captain Cadaver]

Bump because this is a pretty interesting thread. My go-to option would be to translate my ideas for the novel series I'm working on into a manga, but that wouldn't really work for the Shonen demographic due to differences in tone and focus from the typical Shonen of which make works not following the formula difficult to break into the market beyond the rare exception such as Death Note.

That said, I'll just brainstorm a few ideas:
- Satire of the hyperbolised nature of sports and games manga trying to make low-stakes competition seem like a big deal. Go the whole hog on that by making it something like Uno with the characters treating each game as though the fate of the world hangs in the balance. 2
- A manga about a mafia group. JoJo Part 5 tried to do this, though beyond the mercilessness of the main cast and the setting, it didn't really have much in terms of the mafia aesthetic. It can still fit into the Shonen demographic by making some of the more mature content implied and by perhaps having a protagonist that starts off very optimistic and innocent before their growth from experience. I guess you could go a superpower route with it if really wanting to cement that Shonen status too, as long as it's not overdone.
- A story about an old veteran of some sort coming out of retirement whilst reflecting on both the good and bad of his past. Such a plot line has been used heavily in other mediums, though it's fairly lacking within the Shonen demographic that mainly focuses on stories with younger characters and protagonists older than 30 tend to only happen if the series went on long enough for a protagonist to grow that old such as Goku. The success of such types of stories in film amongst even younger age ranges shows that empathy for a character isn't limited to a certain age range.
- The Legend of Gaslight. One lone man who has trained in the art of GASLIGHTNING people wanders the forum wastelands defeating many lolcows. Obviously, the Arc would be a fan favourite for the 3,000+ page climactic battle.

 

[Papasmurf]

Another idea I have for a shonen manga would be a combined parody of Devilman and Berserk, starring as a clueless, autistic teenager who's never experienced a woman (or man) in his life and is lured by his longtime best friend, DeVito into going into an underground bunker to store their white sperm inside a cryogenic bank to preserve the existence of the white race due to the impending doom signaled by the Black Panther Party's promise of white genocide. Once in the bunker however, DeVito knocks out with a whiff of carbon monoxide and then ties him up naked in chains and proceeds to him. Having become DeVito's cock sleeve, is just barely able to reach DeVito's supply of carbon monoxide and seemingly kill him, though when escapes to the surface, he finds himself arrested by the cops for attempted murder a few days later and is repeatedly sexually assaulted in jail. Soon afterwards, DeVito manages to use his family's INFLUENCE to GASLIGHT the police chief into resigning and giving him that position, and with his newfound power he unfairly turns 's rape accusations against him and has convicted for both attempted murder and rape.

vows revenge, swearing that he will get out of prison on good behavior and kill DeVito. Working out so hard that he ends up losing his right eyeball in a weightlifting accident, sheds his boatload of blubber and attains 's muscular physique, after which the rest of the story unfolds...

Will have his revenge? Will DeVito's limitless influence allow him to soar to such heights that he may forever be out of 's reach? Find out in the next exciting episode of The Gaslight Saga: DeVito arc...

 

[Pocket-Gog~]

 

[ahill1]

Would tell the story of 5 kids that live in the same neighborhood, are friends and each has an unique trait that meakes them stand out in some way. It'll last until their adolescence, at which point their priorities and adventures would change accordingly.