One thing I’ve noticed over the years is that anime and manga as a whole has developed this habit of every shonen series is secretly a philosophical masterpiece. Every movement or a character’s development has to symbolize existentialism and that every villain has to represent capitalism, facism or the human condition and they all become some massive graduate thesis.

But over time, after actually divulging my reading of manga since 2005, I’ve come to the correlation that it is not that deep. And no it’s not an insult.

Shonen Manga literally is the demographic for young boys, most of these stories that we find out are adventure, excitement, competition, friendships, cool fights, and larger-than-life characters. Which usually means that they focus on secondary deep and serious ideas, which doesn’t mean they can’t be explored but it’s really secondary nature if anything.

But here’s the thing most people often confuse themes with philosophical work, but every story has themes. A sports movie has themes. A superhero movie has themes. Even Johnny Quest has themes, that doesn’t make them profound.

Perfect example is Naruto, yes, we discuss loneliness, revenge, inherited hatred, forgiveness and the cycle of violence. Those are legitimate themes, but the story can’t spend hundrends of chapters and time dissecting these systems, psychology, or ethics with the level of complexity you find in older manga.

Instead it presents those ideas in a digestible way through action scenes and emotional character moments. That’s great storytelling.

But it’s not deep. It’s shallow. The same for Dragon Ball.

Everyone loves to paint Goku as this buddhist monk, and self-actualization and yeah you definitely state those influences came from somewhere. But Toriyama was famously straight forward about his writing process. He’d focus on comedy, pacing, memorable characters, and exciting fights over talking about intricate pilosophical allegories.

But there are absolutely shonen manga that do more than this, Hunter X Hunter, talks about the ambuiguity of good versus evil in increasingly complex ways. Fullmetal Alchemist talks about militiarism, imperialism, grief, sacrifice, ethics in science and the cost of ambition. One Piece actually breaks the mold for addressing systemic oppression, inherited injustice, slaverly, authoritarinism, corruption, discrimination, and freedom.

So honestly, the problem in’t really recognizing Depth, the problem is acting like every series occupies the same place on that spectrum. Dragon Ball isn’t trying to be Berserk. Naruto isn’t trying to be Crime and Punishment. And they don’t need to be, every story chooses it’s priorities, some prioritize spectacle, emotion, philosophy and some manage all three but most really don’t.

And that’s fine.

I think at the end of the day, we forget that depth isn’t a meter or a ruling, it’s a spectrum.