The protagonist is also “in the right place”

出典 : Amazon.co.jp

There is another element that Luffy, Gintoki, and Hanamichi have in common.
It’s that they embody the style of the work itself.

One Piece is an epic adventure story, an emotional tale with intense battles, sobering gags, and emotional episodes.
Luffy is another character who cries a lot, laughs a lot, and gets angry a lot.
His emotional expression is the color of One Piece.

Gintama is also a work that mainly consists of gags, seriousness, and battles, but this work is composed of a gag-mainly daily life episode and a serious feature length series alternating each other.
Gintoki is the same Gintoki who is usually a bad guy but becomes a good guy when he has to be.

Slam dunk is a passionate sport, so at the beginning of the series, there were depictions of superhuman skills such as the “Hoon Hoon Defense”, but gradually it became a basketball manga with a more realistic approach.
Hanamichi, who has a hot temper and easily loses his temper, is ambitious and practices steadily while complaining, and before long people say that he has become a basketball player, is the protagonist who embodies the style of this work.

In this way, the existence of a popular protagonist matches the style of the work.
It can be said that he is a suitable character for the protagonist.
And because they don’t waver from that point until the end, many people who like the work continue to like them as the main character.

This importance of “the right person in the right place” is also evident in the narou-kei series.

Most people who like narou-kei games sympathize with the main character who has been reincarnated into another world and is very active in it.
For this reason, they tend to have a high level of synchronization with the main character and do not like scenes where the main character gets into trouble or embarrassment.
In other words, the main characters in the “neru” series tend not to fall into such situations, and even if they do, they tend to be very happy and calm.

A good example of this is the main character Rimuru from “Reincarnated but turned into a Slime”.
In a popularity poll held by NicoNico Shizuga, the main character Rimuru won the first place by a huge margin over the second place.

No matter what kind of crisis he is in, Rimuru remains calm and does not get upset by the high praise he receives from the people around him or the positive comments from the women, and he always has an optimistic attitude.
On the other hand, he has a human touch to him, such as showing anger and impatience when his friends are in trouble, which is exactly what Nawarou-kei fans are looking for.

Even though he is the main character, he has a certain position in the work.
Whether or not the character is the kind of character that is sought after is a very important factor in gaining popularity.

Characters other than the person in question are also important

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Another feature of the Narrowcast series is that the characters around the main character praise the main character constantly.
The evaluation of the protagonist by other characters, not the protagonist himself, is one of the factors that determine the appeal of the protagonist.

However, in recent years, protagonists who receive too much praise are increasingly looked at coldly.
Too much of anything is not good.

On this point, the pattern of Tatsuya Shiba (Hiba Tatsuya), the “Big Brother” of “Magic High School’s Inferior Students” is not all praise, but rather praise from a bad review, so it can’t be said to be excessive if you look at the work as a whole.
He’s also the most popular character in the film, but if the praise from the people around him had been too much, he wouldn’t be as beloved as he is now.

The reputation of the people around you is important for the protagonist of any work, not only in the “narou-kei” series.
If a character or enemy is ranked higher than the protagonist, the protagonist’s reputation will rise not only in the work, but also among the readers and viewers.

A prominent example is Hanamichi.
He calls himself a “genius” and is actually a figurehead, but he is still a beginner, so his play is coarse and many characters see him as merely a confident player.
On the other hand, however, he has earned the respect of some of the strongest players in the game, such as Sendo of Lingnan, Maki of Kainan, and Brother Kawada of Sanno, so he has been able to maintain a balance between praise and praise.

His charm, abilities, and coolness are of course important, but what the characters around him think of him and the balance between them also play a role in the popularity of the main character.

Does your popularity rise and fall with the story and “afterwards”?

出典 : Amazon.co.jp

The protagonist is, of course, a character that is closely related to the story.
Therefore, it can be said that the popularity of the main character is more easily influenced by the story than other characters.

During the course of the game, Eren in “Shinki no Kyojin” becomes a completely different character due to the development of the storyline, and he has lost all trace of his former self.
The third annual popularity contest was greatly affected by this and she fell to fourth place.

Another character whose popularity has fluctuated is Jotaro Kujo, the main character in Part 3 of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.
In the third part, he was cool, overwhelmingly strong and dependable, and his popularity is undoubtedly one of the highest in the series, with famous lines such as “ora” and “do it”.
He is still one of the most popular characters in the JoJo series.

However, his image has changed a lot since he reappeared in parts 4 and 6.
The character who appeared in Part 4 was not the main character, but rather a chaperone for the main character, Honorable Guardsman and Koichi Hirose.
In Part 6, he played a supporting role as the father of the main character, Xuranin.

In Part 4, Jotaro became an older and more dependable character after becoming an adult, but at the same time, he also became an “interruption to the performance of the characters in Part 4, including Josuke,” and “a person who always praises Koichi.
In the 6th part, the cool and invincible man who was once an invincible character becomes a “father who dotes on his daughter” and even loses in the end.
Some people may have felt like a different person, especially in part 6, due to the influence of the very different picture.

As mentioned above, there is absolutely nothing wrong with having flaws and weaknesses, and in fact, that’s preferable, but it’s considered “character blurring” and not well-liked when an already established character changes by appearing in another work, another part or chapter.
As for Jotaro, some people say they like him more because he has become more human, while others feel that he has become less invincible and less appealing.

It’s quite difficult for a main character to remain the most popular because circumstances other than the character himself can affect his popularity.

Summary

It’s easy for the main character to be the most popular because of the amount of time he’s in the show and the amount of time he’s shown, but it’s quite difficult for him to keep his position.
Even so, the protagonists who have remained No. 1 for a long time are truly charming and their characters are consistent.
These are the protagonists who will surely be talked about forever in the future!