Exploring the “Edgy” Character Trope in Anime
By Adinath Choudhury
Have you ever wondered about the cool, gray-haired, mysterious, reserved, and always slightly angry character in an anime? Yes, the ones mostly found in shounen anime, sometimes as a deuteragonist, and on rare occasions as a protagonist. For some reason, these aime are always considered the “best” shounen anime (yes, I am talking about Attack on Titan). This character trope, often referred to as the “edgy” character has been a significant marker of this genre for far too long. While doing some preliminary research on this, I found that this trope is often called the Byronic Hero, named after the English romantic poet Lord Byron . The fun thing is that these are characters we all love, maybe because of their pervasive nature in anime, or because something about them is appealing, especially to the teenage mind. Characters like Eren, Sasuke, and Bakugou are examples of such characters with huge fan following.
What these characters have in common is their dark and mysterious past. Characters like Uchiha Sasuke, Ken Kaneki, and Eren Yaeger fit the bill perfectly. Surprisingly enough, that is all you need to make a good “edgy” character in anime unless you fail to do even that or overuse the trope to the extent that it loses all its charm. There are shows which use this trope perfectly while staying committed to the genre and the audience it seeks to cater to, and these are shows like Naruto, Hunter x Hunter, Dragon Ball Z and even Attack on Titan. But then there are shows that kind of miss the point of this trope and go way overboard, like Demon Slayer. The unnecessary backstories make me lose interest in the plot and it becomes frustrating. Another example of a bad edgy character is Ken Kaneki. His development in the show is rushed and major plotlines are changed which fail to accommodate for the massive amounts of edge that Kaneki carries on his back.The manga is a piece of art, I love tokyo ghoul, however, plot inconsistencies are difficult to overlook. Thus, many new age shounen anime tend to overuse this trope or simply fail to understand how and why it works, making the characters shallow and unbearable. Why is it that people are obsessed with the genocidal Eren and not the sweet and cheerful young lad before the show went downhill? Yeah, maybe we went a little too overboard with this entire thing.
Well the trope doesn’t just end in shounen, it has rightfully found its place where it can uncover itself without constraints, like in the bigshot genres of seinen. Shows like Berserk, Vagabond, Tokyo Ghoul (the anime cannot be considered as anything because of its lack of quality), and Vinland Saga have perfected this trope and put it to good use. These shows, although in no way objectively better than the ones mentioned before, have managed to use the trope to its fuller effect, which is to get out of the edge. The characters here don't remain in the state of eternal coolness, shrouded in mystery and darkness, but rather the point of these shows and mangas is to follow the journey of the characters as they redeem themselves of their trauma and become better versions of themselves. Thorfinn from Vinland Saga, is arguably the best example of what a perfect “edgy” character should be like, as he manages to check all the boxes and embodies the best parts of both shounen and seinen characters.
Edgy characters generally have the same characteristics regardless of the genre of the show, apart from minor differences, like in the storylines and journey which are inherent to a genre. The easiest way to differentiate between a good edgy character and a bad one is just by looking at how the character ends up in the climax. Conventionally the edgy troupe is not a desirable trait, as it is based on the character’s dark past, and healing from that trauma should ideally be the final arc in the development of a character unless the show is especially pessimistic, where it would make sense. So Eren from Attack on Titan is a good edgy character in the initial stages of his character arc, but due lack of proper closure and given the type of show AOT is, he becomes a weak character as we approach the end of the series. Another way to make a bad edgy character is lack of exposition or details, and the perfect example of this would be Bakugo from My Hero Academia. Although he becomes an integral part of the show and there are some redeeming qualities in him, the lack of exposition to account for his edginess makes him a conventionally bad character.
So whether you like HxH, Vinland Saga, Naruto or Berserk, the dark edgy character is there to stay, and maybe they make the shows more fun? Although what’s fun is very subjective, one must admit that edgy characters have defined anime for a long time. There is some nostalgic value attached to it which makes it more entertaining, and regardless of what you think about any of this, don't forget to dye your hair gray.
