Manga NOT featuring high-school or younger protagonists

The protagonist of Suisei No Gargantia is also pretty much treated as if he's not a teenager, but he still is 16 or 17 or something IIRC.

MMORPGs are serious business.

Anime, not manga, but there's Legend of Black Heaven

Tiger & Bunny has most of their male leads in their twenties or older.

Crest Of The Stars or more precisely the sequels. Technically the leads are in their late teens during Banner I but they're the equivalent of having graduated university.

'RUUUUUPAAAAAN!'

So clearly, there are a lot.

There's quite a few. That I've read/watched over half of them being only 25 means there aren't nearly enough.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

I don't think the real problem is in how there are too little of ones without high school or teenager or younger protagonists, but in how many do have teenager protagonists in high school, which also encourages others to do the same when making new ones.

Seriously, why is it always high school? Even middle school is relatively rare(still common enough but yeah) compared to high school. If it must be at an educational institution I don't see why they can't just set it to have a bunch of college hijinks instead.

edited 16th May '14 4:16:45 PM by KirigayaKazuto

MMORPGs are serious business.

Best way to dig up a big list of stuff is to ask the hivemind. There's always one or two obscure ones most people don't know about.

There's a lot of reasons for it, I imagine.

First off, having protagonists at that age helps with a similar demography. People like seeing things familiar to them, so it's easier to connect with a protagonist at around your same age. At the same time, older people don't usually find it difficult to place themselves in the shoes of younger people: after all, they've been through that before. The opposite isn't true, though, so it's easier to have younger protagonists.

And in most settings, characters of that age not going to school might be unusual, illogical or problematic, so naturally they must go to school or something of the like. As Ordinary High-School Student trope says, this kind of protagonist is the most common for teen-targeted shows.

Second, writing for a high school setting is easier than for many others. They're so often done that inevitably one gets a good sense on how they play out. It's the reason why High School AUs are so prevalent. Even if the school setting is just window dressing, it's easy to use them since they're so generic.

Third, and I'm not too sure about this one, it might be because people in high school are still teens - people considered to be in an in-between state, not fully child or adult, someone in growth. It's the perfect sort of character age to have a Coming of Age Story, or more generally, The Hero's Journey. There's many ways of playing that out, of course.

Fourth, it's because you can have a lot of variations on how to use the setting in different genres, like romance, comedies, slice-of-life or Urban Fantasy. The size or shape of the school can be subject to lots of modification - is it an Elaborate University High? An Elevator School? A Boarding School? Let's not even get into the dozens of variations of school in fantasy or sci-fi settings - consider the many subtropes in Extranormal Institute, just for starters.

Combine all these reasons and more and you have an extremely common setting, to the point that people get constantly tired of them.

It's kind of jarring and more wearisome for the Western audiences, since the overall American fandom for manganime seems to be a bit older than the average Japanese audience target, so there's that.

I doubt there's a low enough number of Japanese anime fans in their 20s.

Unless i'm underestimating the usual western fan age or something.

MMORPGs are serious business.

I think the real challenge is finding an anime about ordinary life, in a university. I've never seen an anime like that. So many animes about wacky, high school hijinks. How many show a rougher, more realistic side of growing up, roughing it through community college or busting one's butt through higher learning? On the other hand, if audiences get bored with that, I'm sure you can shove aliens, time travelers, and espers into the plot somewhere down the line.

I'M MR. MEESEEKS, LOOK AT ME!

Well, half of them are set in boarding highschools or the characters live alone, so it's basically like college.

Try the Under-the-Radar thread, I think there are a bunch in there.

edited 16th May '14 9:49:22 PM by kiukiuclk

The Japanese equivalent of Ph D Comics?

There was Say Hello To Black Jack, but that was a piece-of-crap Author Tract. Really immature. And weird.

edited 17th May '14 1:13:37 AM by TheHandle

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

there is way more to college than just virtually living at an educational institution (in fact i'm going there and i'm NOT living in a college dorm)

also for a while I was weirded out by the living alone high schoolers too

...until I made a friend of a real one

(basically her parents are farmers that wanted her to live in the city for a better education, and they weren't expecting her to help them out with what they do too)

I think people can get enough of that shit just living through it

edited 17th May '14 2:09:47 AM by KirigayaKazuto

MMORPGs are serious business.

<Sarcasm Mode>Yes, surely fighting supernatural entities in hidden dimensions, saving love interests from cackling villains, and living out a series of fictional worlds where The World Is Always Doomed in one way or another, going through the same Coming of Age stories or Hero's Journey over and over and over again makes for such relaxation. Why, I can't imagine how reading a story that casts their own existence in a fresh, unique, or insightful perspective could be seen as quality entertainment.</ Sarcasm Mode>

Counter-evidence:

• Item A: Slice of Life
• Item B: Literary Fiction
• Item C: Work Com. Of which I'd like to emphasize Fawlty Towers, Yes Minister, and The Thick Of It.

edited 17th May '14 5:04:24 AM by TheHandle

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Hmm...how about Sentou Yousei Yukikaze or Sanctuary?

edited 17th May '14 5:25:05 AM by Greenmantle

Keep Rolling On

Again, so much generalizing.

frankly I wouldn't find a realistic struggle about school to be relaxing either and I don't like Coming of Age stories in general (when I do it's because of something other than the point) first one is typically designed to not be dramatic or focused on any struggles to begin with (or if it is focused on a struggle it tends to be downplayed and used for comedic purposes)

no idea about the second one aside from like...Twilight and I think I shouldn't be basing it on that

the third one isn't a sitcom instead of a drama for no reason

edited 17th May '14 9:29:46 AM by KirigayaKazuto

MMORPGs are serious business.

Do I seriously need to get into all the professional drama out there? Lawyers, cops, doctors, firemen, ad men, fashion journalists, scientists... true, it tends to stay within the limits of certain specific jobs, fictionalzie and flanderize them to hell, not be about the job itself but about interpersonal relationships, and so on, but the point is, there's struggle.

As for Slice of Life, for fiction to have any traction at all, it needs Conflict in one form or another. That's, like, the basics of the basics. Generally such shows do have conflicts, they just tend to be low-key.

And you're right, I wouldn't read a story about the hardships of being a student for relaxation per se, but I'd love to see a protagonist I can relate to, whose internal and external struggles reflect my own, and I'd be especially interested in the casuistic of it all. Fiction is, like dreams, an "interesting situation simulator". e themselves, as autonomous individuals coming into their own, growing, and proving themselves.

And far-fetched stories à la Code Geass or Gurren Lagann are feeling less and less relevant to me as I grow older; even as Escapist Fantasy goes, they just have less and less appeal, and I tend to see the young characters as kids that need to be protected, rather than as they'd see themselves, as autonomous individuals coming into their own power, growing, and proving themselves. Adults Are Useless feels appalling now, rather than, as I once thought, the natural and even convenient state of affairs.

Heck, I remember the difference between watching Spirited Away when it came out and watching it years later: the first time, it was a fairly cool adventure story. The second time, it was a horrifying tale where I spent half the time wanting to jump through the screen and prevent that poor kid from getting eaten/burned/turned into a pig/drowning/falling down an impossible height. I'll admit that the second time was much more entertaining. When Coraline came out, I was already entirely on the Adult Fear side of the audience.

But, yeah, a lot of the Improbable Age stories have me going "A child has no business trying to save the world/starting a revolution/driving friggin' tanks!" "Look how they're bleeding! Somebody call an ambulance!" and "Not only is this Stripperiffic outfit look completely ridiculous on you, but you're going to catch a nasty cold if you keep wearing that in friggin January!"

Oh shit. I've been talking about it all along and I just realized. I've grown old!

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

every single one of these has a certain novelty to it to a significant number of people(although ad men, fashion journalists, and scientists aren't something i'm into either) since they aren't very likely to have those experiences unless they want to go be one of those (and sometimes it's just a convenient excuse for something completely different, like Indiana Jones)

whereas a fictional story about a realistic struggle growing up in college is kind of like sports video games, a lot of people would either rather play the sport itself or have had enough of it themselves

well, all I can say to that is that you shouldn't try to control your kids too much if you ever have them

it kind of shits on their abilities to achieve things by themselves later on and might even fuck them up more than if they were left alone

/asianexperience

MMORPGs are serious business.

Well, I'd be more the kind of parent who'd basically insist on buying his children's cigarette packs himself, and would teach them proper alcohol mixing and hangover management. "Daughter, if you're going to do something utterly stupid and self-harming, like adults allow themselves and each other to, at least do it well."

Though I suppose a parent who takes over your self-destructive rebelliousness and incorporates it into the system is even more infuriating than one who acts out the pure role of Moral Guardians defending the system with no compromise, but I'd guess both are better than being neglectful, or worse, indulgent.

But aren't we going a bit off-topic here?

edited 17th May '14 11:13:41 AM by TheHandle

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

If you can't prevent teenage rebellion, force it in a direction you're happy with. I like it.

Worthy of mention (obviously some characters are teenagers or younger): Lone Wolf And Cub, Samurai Executioner, Vagabond, Blade Of The Immortal, Black Jack, Buddha, Phoenix, Nana, Chobits, Welcome to NHK, Berserk, Space Pirate Captain Harlock, Sakuran, Yawara (the main character is a college student or older for most of the series), No Longer A Human, MW, Ode to Kirihito, The Book of Human Insects, Planetes, 2001 Nights, City Hunter, Golgo 13, Lupin III, Riki Oh, Satsuma Gishiden, Crying Freeman, Sanctuary, Strain, Hellsing, Blood Trinity, Basilisk, Trigun, Emma, Oh, My Goddess!, One Pound Gospel and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Not every series mentioned is equally good but I think most of them are really good.

Soble: How many live-action movies or tv series are really about that? There are a bunch of series, where the protagonist is a ronin and is trying to get to college at least in early parts of the series, such as Maison Ikkoku, Chobits and Love Hina. Maison Ikkoku becomes increasingly serious as it goes on.

edited 17th May '14 1:43:05 PM by harkko

There's a ton, if not a majority then at least about half of good live action shows, books, and films with adult main characters. It's really silly that a good 90% of manga artists and anime producers think that life suddenly ends or becomes completely unable to be interesting after high school.

Also, Hoozuki no Reitetsu and Space Dandy.

edited 17th May '14 5:04:38 PM by Ruise

Loves feel-good animation a whole lot.

Would Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro count?

Now's it's Shulk Time!