History Main / StockShonenHero

After the massive genre defining, global, and still ongoing success of Franchise/DragonBall, its hero Son Goku quickly became the codifier for a wave of young male spiky haired heroes in {{Shonen|Demographic}} shows around the world.

* Waku from ''Manga/{{Bokurano}}'' is eager to be FallingIntoTheCockpit. Out of the dozen main character he gets the most emphasis early on and has the most "stereotypical" shonen protagonist traits, despite the series being {{seinen}}. He's [[HotBlooded boisterous]], [[CallingYourAttacks shouts while attacking]], is BookDumb, and is happy to become a hero. [[spoiler:Waku is the DecoyProtagonist, as he dies before the first volume is done (episode 2 of the anime). This sets [[DarkerAndEdgier the]] [[KillEmAll tone]] of the series.]]

* ''Anime/BeyBlade:'' Tyson is on the route ToBeAMaster on a SeriousBusiness show, [[TheKidWithTheLeash has a powerful Bit-Beast]], and he is a contrast of the typical "ThePowerOfFriendship and HotBlooded sportsmanship will always defeat the 'heartless' type of TrainingFromHell and mindsets that make you a 'winning-justifies-means' [[AxCrazy psycho]]". What makes him an example of the IdiotHero is the fact that the celebrity gets to his head and he needs to relearn to be a proper team-mate ''OnceASeason''.
* Ginga from ''Anime/MetalFightBeyblade'' is a KidHero with a noticeable case of AnimeHair. He is a [[TheChosenOne Legendary Blader]], likes [[BigEater food]], and has some goals ToBeAMaster. He lacks the normal IdiotHero traits for the most part though.

** Most adaptations of Trainer Red give him some degree of this to make him more accessible than his[[TheStoic strong silent type]] game portrayal.

*** Red from ''Anime/PokemonOrigins'' hits somewhere between manga Red and anime Ash, with a little of the originals levelheadedness. InstantExpert applies more to him than any others besides the game canon, disbanding Team Rocket, becoming champion and catching 150 Pokemon in under a year.

* ''Manga//RealAccount'': Has Yuuma Mukai, an AllLovingHero, {{Determinator}}, strong, and a NiceGuy all around to the point of ChronicHeroSyndrome. [[spoiler:He's ultimately a {{deconstruction}} as he only cares about himself, and his girlfriend before she unfollowed him]] (he's trapped in a survival game where they need followers to survive) [[spoiler:who enjoys watching the carnage of others and doesn't care how many he sacrefices to get what he wants]].

** Ryouga from ''Manga/PokemonReBURST'' is a very HotBlooded {{determinator}} with spiky AnimeHair. He is MadeOfIron and has SuperStrength due to training (which is emphasised by the fact humans fight instead of Pokemon). Ryouga has IdiotHero traits and is ObliviousToLove.
* Gon from ''Manga/HunterXHunter'' is a compassionate KidHero with very spikey hair. Unlike other shonen heroes he has become something of an AntiHero over the course of the series and his bright-eyed personality has been [[AmbiguousInnocence called into question]]. He's more of a deconstruction than anything.

** Most adaptations of Trainer Red give him some degree of this to make him more accessible than his much [[HeroicMime more vague]] game portrayal.

* Yuna from ''Anime/YukiYunaIsAHero'' is a RareFemaleExample. She's a HotBlooded middle schooler MagicalGirlWarrior. Yuna isn't very motivated in school and is BookDumb (though she is very good at perceiving others emotions, though she [[ObfuscatingStupidity downplays that]]), has BigEater traits (but not on the league of CoolBigSis Fu), has a very strong sense of friendship, uses her [[GoodOldFisticuffs fists]] during combat, and is a PluckyGirl who enjoys being a [[MagicalGirl Hero]] even after [[spoiler:learning the truth behind it]]. She is {{oblivious|to love}} to the fact her best friend Togo likes her (and it's implied Karin does too). Yuna has red hair however it [[PowerDyesYourHair turns]] {{pink|heroine}} when she goes into Hero form.

* ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'': Undyne is one of the strongest fighters in the Underground and is a hero among monsters. She's HotBlooded, believes strongly in the PowerOfFriendship, and in a game where determination is a recurring factor, [[TheDeterminator she possesses ''a lot'' of it.]] She even discovered the wonders of anime through Alphys and thinks it's all true, so it can be assumed that she got at least some of her personality from it.

* ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'': Undyne is one of the strongest fighters in the Underground and is a hero among monsters. She's HotBlooded, believes strongly in the PowerOfFriendship, and in a game where determination is a recurring factor, [[TheDeterminator she is one of the strongest examples.]] She even discovered the wonders of anime through Alphys and thinks it's all true, so it can be assumed that she got at least some of her personality from it.

** Hareta (who is based on Lucas from ''VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl'') from ''Manga/PokemonDiamondAndPearlAdventure'' is a clear {{expy}} of Goku from the pre-Z arcs. He's a compassionate but ignorant WildChild who loves Pokemon battling and food.

Most franchises will start with a bighearted, [[HotBlooded energetic,]] KidHero. Intellectually he's nothing to write home about. But this average simpleminded boy is actually a cunning genius when it comes to the SeriousBusiness of choice. He's got a natural [[TheGift gift]] that blows others out of the water. On the rare occasion he loses, he'll [[TrainingFromHell train so hard]] that he catches up to and outsmarts masters of the craft one after the other.

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': Ichigo is a spikey orange-haired teenager who is determined to protect the vulnerable because he knows what it's like to be powerless. His mother was murdered in front of his eyes by a Hollow just before his ninth birthday and he doesn't want anyone to feel the way he felt about that. His genetic and spiritual inheritance means that his soul is made up of all four of the story's soul-types (Human, Soul Reaper, Hollow, Quincy) giving him enormous power. Soul Reapers can take decades or centuries to develop their power. Ichigo can surpass them after training for days. The villains keep "helping" him to power up because they want his power for themselves, but this just enables him to eventually defeat them. Unlike most shonen heroes, he actually gets good grades in school. He's very studious because he's conscious that the teachers are biased against him because of his odd-coloured hair. However, in battle, he fights [[HotBlooded instinctively]] instead strategically.

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* Ruby Rose of ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' is a RareFemaleExample who nonetheless fits the bill: she's a kind, energetic, if a bit ditzy youth with a gift for fighting and a dream of channeling that gift to make the world a better place.

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': Ichigo Kurogami hits all of the high points of this Trope except for one: he is shown early on to be ''very'' studious (enough to make the mid-to-low end of the high percentile of grades of his school), subverting the IdiotHero part of the description (if anything, it could be said that he is "[[BrilliantButLazy Brilliant But]] [[BloodKnight Too]] HotBlooded In Battle"). As TheHero of one of "The Big Three" of the 2000s and TheNewTens, he could also be considered a TropeCodifier of this type of hero on recent Manga.

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** Most adaptations of Trainer Red give him some degree of this to make him more accessible than his much more intense game portrayal.

* ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts'': Sora is an AllLovingHero who often gets into trouble because of his naivite. He's got the spiky hair, red color scheme, and strong sense of justice. He's constantly going out of his way and derailing missions to help everyone he comes across, and only grows stronger because of it. Despite being an UnChosenOne, he ends up as one of the most reliable and powerful Keyblade weilders.

* K.O. of ''WesternAnimation/LakewoodPlazaTurbo'' is an obvious {{parody}} of this type. He's HotBlooded, [[LargeHam hammy]], loyal, kind, and always ready to battle evil and learn a new fighting move. He's also very stupid, but luckily the world is {{Troperiffic}} ensuring his foes are ObviouslyEvil enough for him to succeed. As a bonus, he's voiced by Creator/StephanieNaldolny, who voiced kid Goku in ''Anime/DragonBall''.

* The eponymous WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse is something of a {{Shoujo|Demographic}}-esque take on the archetype. He's an excitable LargeHam AllLovingHero who wears his heart on his sleeve, tends to act without thinking, extends a kind hand to anyone, and cherishes his family and friends above all else. That said, his energy is more {{Keet}} than HotBlooded, he's InTouchWithHisFeminineSide, and is also TheHeart who prefers to make friends with his enemies rather than fight them, which works since the series places a lot of emphasis on love and understanding.
* Korra from ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', despite being a girl, fits into this archetype. She starts out as a HotBlooded ChildProdigy who learns of her status as the Avatar at the tender age of 4, and revels in the idea of combat, but not so much spirituality. However, she begins to humble as the series progresses as she becomes more and more afraid of being unnecessary and obsolete as the Avatar. At the end of each season, her fears are slowly realized, with the temporary loss of her bending in book 1, the loss of her ability to communicate with her past lives in book 2, and being handicapped in book 3, which forces her to leave all her work to the new airbenders. By the end of the series, she has matured and lost her zeal for fighting, and learns that the world doesn't need to rely solely on the Avatar anymore and can sort out its own problems, but she can still contribute to helping keep the peace.

* Korra from ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', despite being a girl, fits into this archetype. She starts out as a HotBlooded ChildProdigy who learns of her status as the Avatar at the tender age of 4, and revels in the idea of combat, but not so much spirituality. However, she begins to humble as the series progresses as she becomes more and more afraid of being unnecessary and obsolete as the Avatar. At the end of each season, her fears are slowly realized, with the temporary loss of her bending in book 1, the loss of her ability to communicate with her past lives in book 2, and being handicapped by the Red Lotus in book 3, which forces her to leave all her work to the new airbenders. By the end of the series, she has matured and lost her zeal for fighting, and learns that the world doesn't need to rely solely on the Avatar anymore and can sort out its own problems, but she can still contribute to helping keep the peace.

* ''Manga/{{Inuyasha}}'' from the series of the same name starts out as an AntiHero who wants to take the Shikon Jewel for himself and become a full-fledged demon, but as he starts to surround himself with friends he abandons that goal and starts fighting on their behalf as well. While he meets most of the criteria for this trope, he is ''definitely'' not ObliviousToLove, as he still retains feelings for Kikyo for much of the series, which creates BelligerentSexualTension between himself and Kagome.

* Edward Elric in ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' is a more complex version of this trope - he starts the series as TheAtoner due to past events in which his overconfidence and recklessness led to truly horrific results. His essential personality completely matches the description, though.

* ''VideoGame/Undertale'': Undyne is one of the strongest fighters in the Underground and is a hero among monsters. She's HotBlooded, believes strongly in the PowerOfFriendship, and in a game where determination is a recurring factor, [[TheDeterminator she is one of the strongest examples.]] She even discovered the wonders of anime through Alphys and thinks it's all true, so it can be assumed that she got at least some of her personality from it.

* The eponymous WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse is something of a {{Shoujo|Demographic}}-esque take on the archetype. He's an excitable LargeHam AllLovingHero who wears his heart on his sleeve, tends to act without thinking, extends a kind hand to anyone, and cherishes his family and friends above all else. That said, his energy is more {{Keet}} than HotBlooded, he's InTouchWithHisFeminineSide, and is also TheHeart who prefers to make friends with his enemies rather than fight them, which works since the series places a lot of emphasis on love and understanding.

A nearly OmnipresentTrope in the genre as of the late 80s and beyond.

** Luffy is pretty much ''the'' IdiotHero (as in people believe him to have become the TropeCodifier of the "new generation" of Shonen heroes of this type alongside ''Franchise/{{Naruto}}'') Is shown to be more like "[[BrilliantButLazy Brilliant But Too]] HotBlooded In Battle" and a LeeroyJenkins of a caliber so major that the rest of the cast tolerate him only because he is ''very'' good at fighting and TheHeart of the crew. Still, the ''only'' time so far that his incredible drive to keep on fighting and his [[IndyPloy on-the-spot inventiveness]] failed him was during the Marineford arc, which was a ''massive'' WhamEpisode.