Illegal Shonen Tournaments

So I'm not sure if this would be classified as a Deconstruction, but basically in some of the most popular shonen mangas, there is the tournament that would allow the main character to attain the rank of "master".

Now my twist IMO isn't really much of a twist in bigger perspective. The tournament is simply a bunch of illegal underground fight matches hosted by organized crime where the contestants are little more than young delinquents.

So are any works that explored such a take on the Shonen Tournament? If so I would like to know them so I can read up on how the author executed such a premise.

Oh and yes I know about Battle Royale and the Hunger Games, but this tournament mainly consists of willing contestants.

Pretty sure Genkai's tournament in YuYu Hakusho was not legal in anyway and was mainly made up of delinquents. I think Wolverine participated in an illegal tournament or five too. Blood and Bone was mostly about illegal fighting too. Thing is, I don't think most of these stories really push the idea of them being illegal and the consequences there of. (The first was in a remote location and the later two were probably too powerful to be taken down by the police, at least when Wolverine fought Puma)

edited 11th Mar '14 10:05:25 PM by IndirectActiveTransport

Do you mean Shounen as in the manga genre, or Shounen as in the age of the participants?

Illegal Shounen Fights are the bread and butter of the (school) delinquent manga genre, but they are at least middle-school aged and above. Illegal Shounen Tournaments are difficult to write - it's hard to justify all three of those words in the same sentence, especially as it's hard to structure a tourney when the police can come in and arrest everyone or the loser can shoot the winner dead without in-tourney consequences.

However. I recall Tiger Mask having some elements of what you're looking for, but a Fight Club for kids is just difficult to swallow morally.

If you're adding realism to illegal fighting tournaments, you end up in seinen territory pretty quickly, rather than shounen.

If it's run by the teenagers themselves as a local "all the gangs choose their best fighter and battle for king", then it might be sufficient realism to have it badly organized. People straggle in early or late, some people don't get the information on where the tournament is, there's not enough lighting, the guy who was supposed to set up a snack shop got sick and couldn't make it, that sort of thing.

I know seinen is the mature stuff, but the reason I mention the word shonen is because

1. The participants are rather young.

2. The participants have powers (like with many shonen works).

Organized crime are hosting these tournaments so as to get quality superpowered Child Soldiers to use against law enforcement.

edited 15th Mar '14 9:52:23 PM by Worlder

So... Shounen characters in a Seinen plot? It really depends on what readership you're trying to reach - making it too much of one will drive fans of the other away.

Organized crime wouldn't bother with the tournament and just hire on everyone who'd want to enter one, if they're just looking for an edge (that, I think, would be the deconstruction - the story builds up that tourney as a necessary thing, but it turns out that it's just a setup to get everyone in one room and offer them a contract). There's not much sense in trying to find a rocket launcher in a pile of rifles, by breaking everything until only the last one remains.

I wonder if I should include the possibility that the "troubled teens" industry would now be infiltrated by the Mafia and the like to recruit presumably troubled youth with powers sent to some far-away camp by misinformed and/or ignorant parents.

Oh, there we go. That's more of a Western thing than a 'Shounen' thing (and you'd be hard-pressed to find a Japanese industry that doesn't have some Yakuza money in it), but it's plausible.

Well different regions of the world could have different ways of getting those youth.

In Japan, the Yakuza might entice aggressive youth with the romance of being like a shonen hero.

In the US, like I said the "troubled teens" industry.

In Mexico, drug cartels kidnapping the child or threaten families into selling the child into a life of crime.

Now how to bring it all together into one story with one cast.

I can assure you that the yakuza will not bother with romanticism when enticing - they're more of a 'we know where and when you're on the crapper' sort - though the front business might.

Really, an international 'troubled teens' business with a proven track record, that has recently begun to rot and be infiltrated by organized crime, is enough justification. Thing is, you don't want to over-justify it. It probably shouldn't be in operation for long enough that law enforcement has reason to get suspicious (at most, one character could be the law's first mole), because something that questionable would cause a lot of public shock if it ever came out, realistically. On the other hand, it needs to have a reputation, so quality candidates come through it without too much hesitation.

The question being, where do you want to set it? I'd make it the country and culture you're most familiar with - it can always be translated with footnotes later - just for starters, until you've got enough research on other places. Someplace like the US, you wouldn't actually need the 'international' aspect of the business, and it's still big enough for people to slip through the cracks.

Alternately, you make the world fit the story. It doesn't have to take place in the here and now - there's nothing wrong with an Alternate Universe so long as it makes enough sense.

There's an old movie (and new video game) called The Warriors. Something like that, maybe, mixed with a bit of The Godfather? The world is clearly going to seed, and the gangs themselves are less corrupt than the police, as well as getting tired of their endless violence. So they hold a tourney to see who will be the city's new marshal. The idea is that you want one really tough fighter to lead the gangs' enforcers, who operate at the behest of the gang confederacy, or something?

Well the thing is that my main character is around 35 years old and early in the story she would essentially rescue some delinquent 14 year old who is actually 21 years old (but still delinquent) but due to a side effect of his powers he is afflicted with Peter Pan's eternal youth.

The initial friendship would start out kind of rocky but slowly tempered into something much stronger. But don't expect any Batman and Robin from my stories, I don't do that stuff.

Rescue from what into what? (There's honestly not enough info here to guess Batman and Robin - what sort of plot and story did you have in mind?)

Take underground fisticuffs boxing from a Victorian setting/ rigged matches from The Dirty Thirties. Add fire punches. profit.

edited 23rd Jun '14 11:37:44 AM by dvorak

Hmm, perhaps a better question is "how will super powered delinquents impact the creators of popular shonen manga in-universe?"

It is pretty much the same question as "how do people with superpowers impact comic book writers in-universe?"

edited 10th Aug '14 9:51:14 PM by Worlder

Oh, that's easy. The manga artists switch from tourney-type plots to pirate storyli- oh wait.

More manga like Atashinchi and Haken Senshi Yamada Noriko, perhaps?

"Well different regions of the world could have different ways of getting those youth."

This. Because in many areas of the world, the police are corrupt and no one cares about the children of the poor, or immigrants. Set this in a Brazilan Favela, or involve the Mexican Coyotes, or street urchins almost anywhere from Africa to Asia, and it will seem plausible.

So what is the standard shonen manga like? Young protagonist with mighty powers and epic battles with lots of environmental damage?

Something tells me the in-universe public isn't going find those stories quite appealing after thousands of kids think they could solve their life's problems through liberal application of superpowered punches, fireballs, lightning bolts, lasers, and telekinesis.

edited 11th Aug '14 9:33:31 PM by Worlder

More humorous material. You need a laugh, when your world's shit.