There’s something I find really funny about the current state of shounen anime and manga fandom.

On the one hand, you have an online fandom that loves battles and action scenes. “Who comes out on top in a 1v1?” is a perennially popular question, and I understand the appeal. You have all these powerful warriors around, be they awe-inspiring heroes or dreadful villains or something in between, and you want to either support your favorites or genuinely think through the question of who’s superior. Beyond the immediate domain of Shounen battle manga, there’s an entire cottage nerd industry built around exploring this idea: Who would win a Death Battle?

On the one hand, a lot of the big series in recent years, particularly the ones that have been finishing up, have emphasized themes surrounding group effort. While “the power of friendship and teamwork” is a longstanding staple of shounen anime and manga, titles like Demon Slayer and My Hero Academia feel more about collective action and understanding that even if you’re not the strongest, your contributions matter. What makes someone the greatest isn’t how hard they hit or how many foes they can take down single-handedly, but conviction and a desire to help.

You end up having this combination of fans who care a lot about who’s the biggest badass around trying to mine stories where that’s of diminished importance. It would sometimes make more sense to ask who wins in a 1v1 between romance manga heroines. Certainly not all shounen fans think this way, and even those who love the big fights aren’t necessarily obsessed with ranking characters in a tier list. But just the fact that these two aspects exist, and they are almost in direct conflict with each other, both amuses and frustrates me.

PS: Who wins in a fight between Sawako from Kimi ni Todoke and Hachi from Nana?