Breaking away from the old shounen

There’s something special about modern anime protagonists.

If you think I’ll be talking positively about Sung Jin Woo from Solo Leveling, please close this tab.

As of writing, I have finished rewatching the entirety of Dr. Stone up to its latest ongoing season, which will also be its last. I’m coping with the sadness by writing this TT.

Okay, so, I still remember being a lonely teenager during the pandemic when I first heard about this anime. Around that time, I took on my first freelance job, which was to write a recap for an anime chosen by my American client. And, as you probably guessed, that anime was Dr. Stone — the very series that helped me gain experience as a freelancer in the anime niche.

Long story short, I have a special connection with this anime. The first time I watched it, I did so purely for work. As grueling and painstaking as it was to summarize the entirety of Season 1 into a single video, I approached it more as a job (literally!) than something to genuinely enjoy. This time, however, on my second rewatch, I found myself completely in awe. I felt a sense of admiration that I never experienced during my first viewing.

Senku is a fascinating shounen protagonist to watch and process. If you love Dr. Stone, I’m sure part of you feels the same way. To be honest, I haven’t been able to finish many of the shounen or seinen anime that have come out over the past five years. Some seem designed primarily for self-insertion (Rent-A-Girlfriend), while others are painfully boring (Solo Leveling, Eminence in Shadow).

Don’t get me wrong — I love protagonists like Naruto, and I grew up watching Naruto. I understand the appeal of these hot-headed, cocky (in an endearing way), and pure-hearted heroes. Characters like Okumura Rin, Deku, Luffy, Tanjiro, and even Itadori Yuji all fit into that tradition. If you know what I’m talking about, then you’re probably familiar with that classic shounen protagonist template. They fight for the common good, believe in the power of friendship, and are driven by an unwavering sense of justice. Their personalities may differ, but the core remains the same. It’s like that “God making humans” potion meme where there are different vials, which in this case: loudness, intelligence, then power. Each protagonist gets a different mix, but the vial of “sense of justice” is always filled to the brim.

Then there’s Senku.

Humanity’s leader btw

Watching Dr. Stone gave me flashbacks of Code Geass, when I would just rewind the same scenes all over again because of a glimpse of Lelouch in a rare goofy scene. I faintly remember him carrying a Pizza Hut box. (That’s goofy to me. You could tell I’m easily pleased.)

I like Senku as a protagonist for many different reasons, but I could just probably boil it down to just one: he’s not loud, and he’s not afraid to lose aura points. (Sorry, I failed at keeping it at one.)

Okay, but let me just say this: I’m tired of these MC boys screaming at me from left and right in every scene. (I’m looking at you, Asta.)

I could probably tolerate that type of protagonist when I was a teenager, but now I realize how annoying they can be. They scream at every new discovery and every emotional moment.

“I’ll never abandon you! That’s what comrades are for!”

You can probably hear that line in your head already. The protagonist is desperately holding onto a crew member dangling from the edge of a cliff, or maybe he’s redeeming some random NPC who used to be a spy but is now one of his lackeys because he got saved once. I can’t remember a specific anime off the top of my head, but I’m sure you’ve seen this trope a hundred times before.

Of course, you could argue that their loudness is just a symptom of their enthusiasm. Stories would be boring if protagonists never showed any excitement, right? So maybe I’m just getting older and finding loud characters less charming than I used to.

Still, I’ve noticed that many of the protagonists I enjoy nowadays tend to be much chill. Frieren is one example. Tanjiro from Demon Slayer is another. He’s not necessarily loud all the time and he’s the calmest of the main trio. It’s the other two who are destroying my eardrums.

Going back to Senku, he does get excited, but he’s never as loud as Chrome. In another universe, Chrome would probably the protagonist because he fits the archetype almost perfectly. Maybe that’s why Senku is kind of subverting that trope as a protagonist. His level-headedness replaced the hyperactivity that many shounen protagonists rely on to express passion.

What I like most about Senku, though, is that while he can be (just a bit!) cocky, he’s never egotistical. When he fails, he acknowledges his mistakes and apologizes for his oversights. I think a fundamental part of science and research is recognizing when you’re wrong and pursuing a better understanding of the truth. Senku consistently does exactly that. So that’s why it feels realistic for an anime scientist!

Take the scenes where the crew has to assign roles. If they need a pilot, it’s obviously Ryusui. If they need a fighter, it’s Tsukasa or Kohaku. If they need a scientist, everyone naturally looks to Senku. Yet he never feels the need to loudly declare himself the best candidate. Gen always points this out. But I wouldn’t call him humble exactly; it’s more that he’s secure in his abilities. He knows what he’s good at, and everyone else knows it too. If Xeno volunteered to be the astronaut instead, I doubt Senku would object. He would step aside if it made sense. He knows his worth, but he isn’t obsessed with proving it. He doesn’t have an inflated ego, nor does he suffer from low self-esteem. He simply understands both his strengths and his limitations. (Sigh. Where can I find a guy like Senku?)

Maomao from The Apothecary Diaries is written in a surprisingly similar way, which is probably why I enjoyed that series so much as well. Like Senku, she’s competent without being performative about it. She doesn’t need constant validation because her confidence comes from her expertise rather than from other people’s praise.

Okay, you’ve probably figured out by now that this is a character analysis and that I’m glazing Senku a little too much. But I appreciate him in a way that also makes me learn from him.

For context, I’m dumb at anything that involves a number or ends with “-ic.” (Hydrochloric? Nitric? Fantastic?) If I were in Dr. Stone, I’d be cooked and probably be just one NPC in the background during their outdoor meetings speaking “Wow” and “Oh.” I wish I were the Stanley to a Xeno, but I have the stamina of a sloth.

I’ve never met someone exactly like Senku — someone whose life mission is to pursue the unknown, disprove himself, and attract comrades along the way. As someone who wants to pursue a career in academia, Senku inspires me to never be afraid of what I don’t know and to be “excited” about it instead. That mindset genuinely changed my attitude toward the mountains of literature I expect to read, which would otherwise seem daunting. And speaking of “attracting” comrades, I prefer that term instead of “seek.” Although Senku literally seeks out help from different people throughout the show (and revives them for that purpose), the reason they gravitate toward him is because of this personality and his willingness to be goofy with them too.

On the topic of overpowered protagonists, there’s also the fact that Senku is supernaturally smart — or realistically smart, if you interpret it that way, because 99.99% of the time I have no idea what he’s talking about. But the writing is structured in a way that the story’s progression doesn’t depend solely on that intelligence.

Sure, there are Eureka moments — like the one involving the drone — but the solution never works immediately. It helps that the mangaka knows how to create tension without giving the audience instant gratification. Senku’s comrades (especially Ryusui, my beloved) also actively move the story forward alongside his knowledge. No matter how smart Senku is, the anime doesn’t progress without the help and actions of the other characters. They’re not just accessories whose only purpose is to highlight how overpowered the protagonist is, like a bunch of cheerleaders.

That’s another reason why Dr. Stone is brilliant. Its cast is incredibly diverse, and every character contributes something meaningful. Most of them can stand on their own as characters rather than existing solely in relation to Senku. (Except Ginro, probably.)

What a peak anime cast looks like.

There might be a contradiction here considering that I also enjoy Tanjiro as a protagonist. Senku may not be as overtly and intentionally kind as Tanjiro, but I love how you can genuinely feel Tanjiro’s innocence and purity through the way he speaks and interacts with other characters.

Although, admittedly, his talk-no-jutsu can be pretty cringe sometimes. You’d never catch Senku pulling that cheap trick. You can trust him not to.

It’s the same way I trust Maomao not to pull off some cliché shoujo move in The Apothecary Diaries. I love Maomao so much that, if there’s one thing I wish the series borrowed from Dr. Stone, it would be the way it handles romance.

(Spoiler alert!) By the end of Dr. Stone, Senku doesn’t end up with a definitive romantic partner, even rejecting Kohaku’s unserious marriage proposal. Don’t get me wrong — I enjoy Jinshi and Maomao’s chemistry. I gush over their slow-burn moments and even caught up with the light novel because of them. Still, part of me feels that The Apothecary Diaries had the potential to become the ultimate feminist anime.

Then again, dare I say it would lose part of its appeal if it weren’t a slow-burn romance?

I honestly think I would enjoy The Apothecary Diaries just as much if it were simply a palace politics anime, as long as Maomao remained the protagonist. But I don’t think these ideas are mutually exclusive. A woman can be strong without needing a man, and she can also fall in love.

What I appreciate about Maomao is that her strength feels grounded. She’s unlike your typical otome isekai protagonist who’s somehow plotting to overthrow an entire kingdom — a patriarchal one at that — which ends up stretching the definition of what “strong” means. Other stories solve this by making the female character physically powerful, but that’s not really what strength means either.

Maomao acknowledges the patriarchy within her world’s setting and learns how to navigate it. That may not be as immediately satisfying as the power fantasies many otome isekai stories offer, but it feels realistic. More importantly, it resonates with the way people still navigate these systems in real life, even today.

As for the romance, the story never frames Maomao as dependent on Jinshi, which is why I find it funny whenever people call him her trophy husband. Society is truly evolving!

Anyways, sorry for going off on a tangent. I hope I got my point across. And hopefully no one steals this post and turns it into a YouTube video essay without crediting me. (Unfortunately, that’s happened before.)

If you’re interested in hearing similar perspectives, you might want to check out these other video essays. I think they make very elegant points as well~!

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I’m grateful to you if you’ve read this all the way through. Ten billion points to you!