My personal favorite for flawed reasons is Madoka because I was there for the live reactions to the infamous episode and it was magical watching everyone lose their shit. It was also my re-introduction to anime after being shamed out of it for liking sailor moon as a kid.

  • RedHelhest [they/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Hunter x Hunter is an amazing deconstruction of shonen anime if you are into that.

    • Gogoplata [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 years ago

      How do? I’ve seen a decent chunk of it and seems like a well done but normal shonen? I am only up to the battle tower.

      • RedHelhest [they/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        It gets really crazy once you get to the Chimera Ant arc. Its a really long arc but pays off big time.

        • Gogoplata [he/him]
          hexagon
          ·
          2 years ago

          Everyone mentions that as a big anti-war arc, I’m looking forward to it but so many episodes sad face.

          • RedHelhest [they/them]
            ·
            2 years ago

            It does some very interesting stuff with the normal shonen dynamics and the villain of the arc and a person they interact with are some of my favorite characters in anime, but yeah, it takes a long time to get through. For early stuff that feels a bit more like a deconstruction, I like viewing Hisoka and his world view as a portrayal of the shonen audience.

    • ElChapoDeChapo [he/him, comrade/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I'd also add Yu Yu Hakusho (also by Togashi) to some extent, especially the ending

      major spoilers

      Yusuke realizing that he has nothing to fight for and would rather go home to be a normal teenager than keep fighting in another stupid tournament just to be the king of demon world (which he never even wanted in the first place) is in many ways the ultimate deconstruction of the shonen genre

      It's kinda ironic how much of both of these manga were ripped off by Bleach and Naruto respectively considering how those 2 were considered part of the big 3 shonen series alongside Dragonball

    • geikei [none/use name]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      Its a great shounen, with better writting ,consequences and mature characters than the vast majority but its nothing near a deconstruction. Togashi himself would laugh at the idea that he was "deconstructing" the action shounen genre

      • RedHelhest [they/them]
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        I dunno, I feel like Gon's arc especially in the Chimera Ant arc is a big time deconstruction of the normal shounen character arc, but maybe I'm crazy.