Ask John: Will Tiger & Bunny Lead to More Adult Anime Characters?

Question:
With the success of Tiger & Bunny and the popularity of its main character, Kotetsu, do you think that the anime industry will see more adult main characters? In a broader scheme, do you think Japan’s aging population will lead to more grown up characters?

Answer:
Adult characters have always been something of a rarity in anime, partially for good reason. Not only do child and adolescent characters appeal to young anime viewers, young characters are naturally more impulsive, active, emotionally fragile, and psychologically vulnerable than adults. So children are naturally, in many cases, more dynamic and flexible characters than adult characters are. And as much as adult viewers may occasionally want to watch adult anime characters, young characters are frequently more enjoyable leading characters.

There are two different types of leading adult characters in anime. The most common type are adult characters who are merely or largely overgrown teens. Characters like Spike Spiegel, Kotetsu T. Kaburagi, Tatsumi Saiga, Roger Smith, Ryo Saeba, Ureshiko Asaba, Masane Amaha, Yomiko Readman, and Levy, to name a few, may be older than teenagers, but their actions and roles are little different from ones typically performed by teens. Then there are adult lead characters in anime including Kacho Ouji, Hataraki Man, Ristorante Paradiso, Salaryman Kintaro, Ai no Wakakusayama Monogatari, Planetes, Monster, Master Keaton, Mousu Dairinin, Mouryou no Hako, and Jin-roh, to name a few, that actually seem like psychologically and physically mature and responsible adults that aren’t trying to recapture their youth, or aren’t kids in adult bodies. The later variety of adult character stars in anime even less frequently than the former. If anime viewers really wanted to see more of this later variety of anime character, we’d see more domestic, dramatic chamber piece anime like Hataraki Man, Ristorante Paradiso, Mouryou no Hako, Master Keaton, and Victorian Romance Emma. But we don’t see an upswing in that variety of anime because that sort of character really isn’t what average otaku want. Teens are the most popular variety of anime protagonist, and occasionally otaku enjoy seeing teen roles played by adult characters, like Tiger & Bunny’s Kotetsu T. Kaburagi, Rurouni Kenshin’s Himura Kenshin, Witchblade’s Masane Amaha, and Black Lagoon’s Rock & Levy. The periodic transitory popularity of overgrown teens may be exemplary of an otaku mental justification. Shows with adult protagonists may seem more respectable, less juvenile, even if the story, action, and characterizations are little different from typical anime that star teens.

The average age of Japan’s population may be gradually increasing, but the population aging isn’t occurring so rapidly that viewers are likely to see any paradigm shift in the characteristics of anime any time soon, nor is such a shift ever really probable. At least since its golden age, anime has thrived on a philosophy of opposition to adulthood. With only infrequent exceptions, anime has lionized youthful idealism and rejected the pragmatism of adulthood. Even most adult anime characters act more like teens than adults. The majority of anime stars young characters because the majority of anime viewers are adolescents or children, but even adult anime viewers seem to predominantly prefer young or young-at-heart leading characters. Adult protagonists like Lupin III, Son Goku, Kenshiro, Ryo Saeba, Himura Kenshin, and Spike Spiegel have been popular before but not ushered in a prominence of adult characters. I don’t see any reason to believe that the Tiger & Bunny anime series will drastically vary from the traditional pattern and revolutionize the defining characteristics of anime.