Good villians are not the ones in terms of design - it´s the ones that make you think, re-conicder many things that went without saying to you and maybe make you put yourselfes in their shoes. :)
Great villains are flawed 3 dimensional characters. Plot device villains are utterly lane and dull, along with just being evil for evil's sake and characters that are there to be hated only.
I always found that the best villains are the ones that consider themselves the good guy. Some would say the Joker is evil to be evil, but his relationship to Batman is a yin/yang relationship that shows the inter-workings of just how far gone Batman's psyche is. That at the end of the day, what separates them is their own personal belief.
I'm french and I really love your drawing style I think bought Volume of Apple Black 1 but I'm not very good at English but I go take it for the drawings and to support you! Good luck men !
In a story I'm writing, the "villain" is a monster-hunting priest in a horror-filled medieval world. He's spent years hunting a demon-possessed girl, and while we may think that's evil, it is actually for the greater good. He's protecting the people under his care, who view him as the hero, and for good reason. The conundrum for the reader is that while we view what he does as heartless and cruel, it's a heartless and cruel culture that he lives in, one that let his father sell him off to a group of traveling cultists. As a person, he is actually trustworthy, considerate, and even kind to the right people.
That sounds dope. I'm actually also writing a story and most of the villains I have have very fucked up or sad and relatable backstories which makes sense for their character and why they are the way they are. Like one of my villains is my MC's brother whos backstory is basically that his father died before he was born and both him and his brother grew up without a dad. However, the villain took it much much harder than his brother and he runs away, wanting to fill the hole in him that is missing which is having a father. Ultimately, endlessly trying to fill his emptiness turns him over. All of his depression and sadness and pain is never overcome and it turns him into a villain. He mostly does what he does as a villain out of anger. He even kills his own mother and blames her for having him be born into this world knowing that he wouldn't have a father. In my head, it's very very sad. And very relatable for those of us, like me, who grew up or are growing up fatherless. He is also the first person that my MC actually kills.
The most intresting anime villain I have seen is Harime Nui from the anime Kill la Kill. The reason I like her so much is because in many peoples eyes she's just mad. And that's how the anime presented her, as a mad cute girl who kills to right and left without any doubt. But there were actions she took, the things she said that made me realise that it was inaccurate. She's not only mad but she has her whole own story herself. I don't want to spoil alot, but she's really a character you start to think about and then you could never stop. Because she is misunderstood. I think those villains are really cool, when the creators gives hints about them and you have to realise their version of the story by yourself.
I think a good villain is either someone you can relate to or someone who makes it easier to relate to the protagonist. I mean, sometimes people are clearly on the "bad" side of the moral compass simply because they enjoy it. Whether it's because they enjoy the suffering of others or some other benefit they get from it. Like wealth or power. Anywho, great video, but you might want to look into finding a way to balance out the audio. It's kind of irritating having your voice only come through one earphone.
I have to admit Whyt Manga after seeing your work, it makes me think back to how I'm going to refine my story, develop the characters, perfect my own original art style, etc. You're an inspiration :) PS: If anyone checks out my channel, don't expect any appealing art content yet (I have yet to upload digitized versions of my artwork) but, do expect original music themes for... The Unfinished Story!
Whyt Manga Thank you soo much for these tips! I am a young artist (young teen) and I have a comic elective at my school this gives me so many tips on how to bring a story and character plots to life. I have a project to finish by the end which is a comic! I am so excited to see more video's in the future.
I think what makes a good villain is someone you can relate too on some level. The reason for this is two fold- 1st: If that villain has commonalities with most people but they are perverted by extremism then you can kind of understand what brought them to that point- you can find common ground with them and their motives. For instance a person who goes around killing pedophiles because they may have been taken advantage of as a child- We can all agree that pedophiles are bad, so we have that in common with the villain, but the villain has taken it to the extreme by taking the law into their own hands and ignored justice and fare punishment. 2nd: A relatable villain seems more true to life, you can understand what brought them to the point of being so heinous. As opposed to just a evil mad scientist who wants to destroy the world for the sake of just destroying it. In short- A good realistic villain is one where there motivations are described and they have been driven to extremism because of their experience and fundamentalism. Personally, I don't really care if it's someone I can feel bad for but that, again, usually helps with relatablity but isn't necessary if the motivation is described. My favorite villain is the Joker from The Dark Knight because of the reason I stated above. He has been brought to misanthropy by his experiences of people being hypocrites and only out for themselves.
I think you should write villains as the heroes of their own story. Give them motivations that seem close to what you would give a protagonist, but perhaps warp it in some way to show that they're not totally a good person. For example, Yoshikage Kira is the antagonist of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable. His motivation in the story is to live his life in the same comfortable way he has been when we pick up with him. His main "evil" trait is that he severs the hands of women and takes them on dates. We learn about his preferences and little intricacies of his character throughout his debut episode, which aren't plot relevant, but serve to make him feel more like a person. He's morally reprehensible, yes, but he has qualities that make him feel like someone you could talk to. An example of a villain with an interesting moral compass is Meruem from HunterXHunter. He starts off as a basic DBZ style villain, but over time he learns the value of human life and ultimately has an internal conflict over whether his species is superior to humans, and as a result comes off as one of the most nuanced villains in Shonen. I didn't say anything too specific because I feel you should watch HunterXHunter, since it also has great examples of how to write characters (there are hardly any truly basic villains), but that's the basic gist. Don't make your villain two dimensional, give them something that makes them relatable or an interesting motivation.
my top 4 villains would be shinobu sensui from yuyu hakusho, hisoka and meruem from hxh, and Dio Brando from jjba. The writing for these villians are very complex. But I think the reason why I like them is the design, how they stand out among other villans, their beliefs, and the swagger. I also think that how simple the villain is can be enough to make them great depending on the level of quality they are written at.
My favorite type of villian is one that you typically wouldn't think as one. I like it when a story makes you second guess yourself on their ideals and reasonings.
First, you have to want to be the best. Ah, shonen. 90% of anime exported to America falls under this category. If you want to market your anime/manga/whatever to young guys, read this... ...after you read So You Want To: Write A Story, of course. Necessary Tropes Well, you've probably got a young man, right? And he probably wants To Be a Master of whatever his universe deems Serious Business. At least, that's the motivation of The Hero. Other characters will have other motivations. But that'll be the core of your story. Before you do anything, though, read the description for Japanese Spirit, as well as its analysis page, to understand why Shounen uses the tropes it does. Choices, Choices Even with the To Be a Master plot, you've got a few choices to work with: Motivation: Why does The Hero want To Be a Master? To please his parents? To get everyone to notice him? To win the heart of his love interest? Or is it a more selfish goal, like fame or fortune? What will he have to sacrifice To Be a Master? How does one become a master? Will he encounter any potential rivals? To make your fights even grander and epic, give your hero and his enemies Stock Superpowers, related to said Serious Business that he wants To Be a Master of. Choose wisely what kind of powers each character gets, as they must reflect their personality and background. More on the way... Pitfalls Alright, rule number one of shonen is simple: say no to the Spotlight-Stealing Squad. Yes, you would assume The Hero gets a vast majority of the spotlight - but that's okay, he's the main character. Sure, we all know you want to focus on that angsty, brooding Lancer...but give him some time out of the spotlight, too. (This is especially true if the story has Loads and Loads of Characters.) Other tropes to avoid: Arc Fatigue. Shounen is often mocked for having very slow pacing, and with good reason. Going through your plot points too fast is bad, but going through them too slowly is deadly. (Especially if it looks like you're trying to draw out the story for no good reason, which is a good source of Narm.) Also, decide early on if your series will be episodic, or if it'll focus on Story Arcs. Gary Stu/Mary Sue. Just don't. Give your hero a realistic flaw. Shoot, maybe even two... dozen! (Don't overdo this, though; see Failure Hero and This Loser Is You below.) On a related note... Invincible Hero. A hero who wins most or all of the time gets boring fast. Even more so if all his fights follow the same formula of the hero receiving a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown until he's finally able to use his signature technique, which he will always use in the same way with little or no variation. (See One Trick Pony below.) Little kids might not mind as much, but older audiences will get bored quickly. Invincible Villain. Using more than one Big Bad over the course of the series is a good idea. Having your heroes fight the same villain too often can lead to Arc Fatigue. Failure Hero. If it's bad to have your heroes win too often, it's also bad to have them lose too often. If they continually suffer The Worf Effect, then your show will wind up as Snark Bait. And if you establish your characters as competent fighters, only to have them start losing battles they should have won as the story progresses, fans might start complaining about Character Derailment. Faux Action Girls. Oh, boy. Here's a tip: if you want to establish a female character as a competent Action Girl who can kick ass alongside the guys, show her doing it and justify the times when she's not as competent as she's said to be. Show, Don't Tell is the main problem with Faux Action Girls. Demoted to Extra/Out of Focus. Beware these tropes, especially if your story has Loads and Loads of Characters. Granted, if you have a large cast, you can't give every character a major role in every episode. However, fans of a particular character won't be happy if they think their favorite is getting slighted, especially if he or she was introduced as a major player in the story. Of course, one way to avoid these tropes is to keep your cast fairly small. This may lead to... The Only One Allowed to Defeat You. If you want your hero to be the only one who can beat the Big Bad, make sure to justify it via Only I Can Kill Him. One Trick Pony. If your hero has only one technique which he uses over and over, your series will become repetitive. You can avoid this by letting your hero discover multiple uses for his technique. Example: early on, Naruto only used his Shadow Clone Jutsu to have his clones Zerg Rushing his opponents. As the story continued, Naruto began using the clones for The Rasengen, training, collecting information, etc. Idiot Hero. Not ABSOLUTELY taboo, but this trope has been way overused. A cool, calm, intelligent shonen hero would be an interesting subversion and likely well received by fans. Case in point: Ichigo Kurosaki from Bleach. Not always calm, and not incredibly intelligent, but definitely cool. New Powers as the Plot Demands. Power Creep, Power Seep is inevitable in a shonen plotline. Fans expect and even want the hero to keep getting stronger, and in turn face stronger and stronger enemies, on their way to becoming the master. The trick is to keep your world internally consistent and believable. Take a break from the battles to do a little Foreshadowing or World Building. It will go a long way towards explaining the latest super power the hero has decided to use at the last second to defeat their newest foe. In addition, don't power up your characters too fast. Sure you want to make it clear that they are The Chosen Ones, but if they quickly outpace every other character in the show it will become apparent that you're just making up new abilities and enemies as you go. A well placed Chekhov's Gun in an early episode that comes back in season four will impress shonen fans, who are all but resigned to writers having no idea what happens next. This Loser Is You. Surprisingly, audiences will often find it difficult to identify with a jerkass idiot who never learns anything and no one likes. Ass Pull and The Untwist: If you want to have a good Wham Episode, make sure you used Foreshadowing beforehand. Otherwise, audiences will feel cheated. However, do it in light proportions, as too much foreshadowing may make the planned twist TOO obvious. Adapting The most common way to avoid the vast majority of the work and pitfalls mentioned above and below is to adapt a pre-existing manga series to an anime. This comes with its own pitfalls, however, and the biggest one is time. If you're adapting a manga that's currently running, you're going to Overtake The Manga sooner or later. Your average episode is going to take up the same events as two or three chapters, and as such the anime will be moving two or three times as fast as the manga does. This leads to some specific problems: Gecko Endings. Trying to continue or finish the story on your own. If you're not working with the original author, this may not end well. On the other hand, the author may not want to work with you, in which case you may end up resorting to... Filler. Good Lord, Filler. It killed Rurouni Kenshin and gave Fan Haters a lot of ammo regarding Naruto. Filler in itself isn't terrible - you're just trying to give yourself a little more time to write the main story. But for crying out loud, at least make it interesting! Delve deep into the back-story of a Satellite Character. Develop a subplot that hasn't gotten a lot of airtime. Stuff like that. If possible, see if the manga-ka has any ideas that they don't have space to put in the manga, a la One Piece. Flanderization. Romance Romantic relationships are rarely done well in Shonen. In some works, they're not done at all. While it might be best to leave it to Shipping, here's some ideas if you think you can make it work: The Battle Couple: Your main audience is guys. If there's one way to suck them into the relationship of a pair, it's to have them both be on the front lines, as equals. Give them powers that complement one another better than the rest, or have it so they can't do as much unless they're together. (The Nirvash from Eureka Seven, a Humongous Mecha which the two main characters could only pilot together, is a good example of how to do it right). The Chick barely getting involved in the fight is overdone; the Lady of War who saved The Hero's ass again while working on the bet they made to see who's on top tonight will be a few metric tons more interesting. And of course, you can always make your hero's Love Interest a full-fledged Action Girl. Keep in mind that there's a difference between romance and sexuality. The young male readers who might gag over a mushy kissing scene will have no problem with panty shots, girls undressing, and general PG-13 nudity. Even if your hero might never confess feeling anything for a girl, you can still have him try sneaking a peek of her naked, so long as he never gets to see anything too good. You can also have him beaten up by the girl he was drooling over, although this trope has Unfortunate Implications. And not all Fanservice must be female, either. A few pretty boys can help get you some rabid fans from the other side of the chromosome pool. Just be careful with how pretty you make those boys, otherwise you can wind up with some very confused fans. And don't be afraid if the male fan-service can venture into Ho Yay, heck feel free to play around with if you like (even do a good-natured gag or few about it). But if your worried that the Ho Yay might be too much of a Turn off to male viewers, some well-used Les Yay can help even things out. It might come off as Everyone Is Bi, but hey, a little equal opportunity fanservice never hurt anyone huh? However on the concept of Ho Yay and Les Yay you might want to be careful about how their "official love life" will go. If their Canon romantic status is either a case of Strangled by the Red String or a overly Designated Unrequited love, then this might be a good case of Fan-Preferred Couple. Unrequited love is not a flat out bad idea but if the romance in the story is a case of All Love Is Unrequited, this can make the concept feel a bit... enforced, to put it mildly. Fans sometimes complain about certain characters (often female) who exist only to be perpetually unrequited love interests. (And if one of your male characters is a Celibate Hero or Chaste Hero, then you might want at least one female character to follow suit; otherwise, chances you'll be accused of a Double Standard.) Basically, if you don't want to do romance, you probably shouldn't do it. Lack of romance certainly hasn't hurt One Piece... Speaking of Celibate Heroes and Chaste Heroes: If you want one of your characters to be one of these, then you might not want to have any of the other characters holding unrequited feelings for them. Having a character to be a Celibate Hero no matter what will often make his/her unrequited love interests either be Flanderized because of this unrequited love or at least appear to be. (And this will be especially deemed annoying if said unrequited love interest is an otherwise appealing character.) Fans are generally more forgiving towards these characters if they are not used as a reason why one of their favorite characters will never be in a good relationship. If you want one of your cast to be the most common form of Tsundere, a girl who's angry on the outside but is sweet on the inside, then please remember the "sweet" part. Otherwise, you'll wind up stuck with just a Jerkass who engages in Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male-and all the trope's Unfortunate Implications. You should also avoid making this character a Faux Action Girl, or else she'll just become The Scrappy. Be careful when writing a Patient Childhood Love Interest, as there are plenty of fans whom would sympathize with her and make her part of their Fan Preferred Pairing. If you're determined to include such a character, then make sure to justify the relationship. Potential Subversions As noted, shonen already has too many Idiot Heroes, so this is a good trope to avoid. And no, we're not talking about making The Hero a Book Dumb character. Make a hero who's genuinely intelligent both inside and outside the classroom. Also, The Hero doesn't have to be the only one to win major fights. Let The Lancer or The Big Guy go up against the Big Bad once in a while...and win! If The Hero has just been thrashed by said villain, it makes for some interesting drama. Make The Hero a boyish girl. Not necessarily The Lad-ette, but a Tomboy, a Bokukko, or an Otaku Surrogate. It's not like it hasn't been done before. For a Cherry Tapping, you get an endless supply of fanservice right there on the front lines. Gender-flip some traditional shonen character roles. Make The Lancer or The Rival an Aloof Dark Haired Action Girl. Make The Chick a cheerful Non-Action Guy. Or just go with the above suggestion and make the hero female. Instead of The Chick, why not give the role of the hero's Love Interest to, say, The Lancer? It could make for some interesting relationship development, especially if The Lancer also doubles as The Rival. Writers' Lounge Suggested Themes and Aesops To quote Shonen Jump: Hard work, friendship, victory! A shonen hero is someone who never, ever gives up. The deceitful and treacherous might appear to have the upper hand at first, but their downfall is as certain as the rising sun... unless they too learn the error of their ways and embrace shonen ways themselves. It's a common trick to give the hero some special power or talent that makes them unique, but heaven help the writer who leans too much on that device. Nobody will respect a hero who doesn't sweat blood to earn their victory. Potential Motifs Shonen means POWER! STRENGTH! GLORY! Your audience doesn't have any patience for abstraction or allusion. They want the real stuff. The juice. Characters themed after powerful animals, beasts from myth, deadly natural phenomena. Heroes who lay it all on the line for love and justice. Battles where everything is at stake: the character's courage, their soul, the soul of mankind! Even a simple game of Mahjongg or Go can be made epic by likening the participants to gods or demons. Suggested Plots The Tournament Arc is a favorite of shonen. It gives you a chance to introduce a whole lot of new characters in a short amount of time. Usually, you'll encounter the following there: The reigning champions, who will face the main team in the finals. The team that cheats to win, and usually gets away with it until they, yes, face the main team. The team that has an incredibly strict training regimen, but loses to the easy-going main team and learns to lighten up. Any number of teams containing people from the main team's past. Finally, note that any of these teams can overlap. If the first episode features The Hero winning a tough battle against a fairly tough rival, the second episode should feature him being absolutely owned against an even tougher rival. If you are using Stock Superpowers, you can make a lot out of them: At the beginning, give The Hero some superpower (possibly, accidentally) and let him rampage around with it for a few episodes, defeating the smaller fry. What he doesn't know yet is that his power is in no way unique to him and is, indeed, the weakest of them all... ...so you introduce new enemies with stronger superpowers stemming from the same source, who inevitably hand The Hero's ass back to him at first, until, through hard work and dedication, he lives to see the Time to Unlock More True Potential. After that, you introduce even more characters with even stronger powers and the cycle repeats itself endlessly... At some point, consider introducing a Badass Normal rival who kicks The Hero's superpowered butt without any powers of his own. Bonus points if your hero later defeats him on his own ground or if the rival is amicable enough to coach him in the fine art of muggle-fu (or both). For the Grand Finale, pick the Final Boss carefully: he must be Large and in Charge and slinging superpowers of cosmic proportions that only The Hero's can (barely) match. However, defeating the Shōnen Big Bad never, ever happens through superpowers alone but instead, primarily through Hot Blood and The Power of Friendship. Departments Set Designer / Location Scout Everything must be HUGE, EPIC and UNPRECEDENTED. The laws of physics are a low priority here. When in doubt, take a real world landmark or natural feature, make it ten times larger and fill it with ninja. Props Department Anachronism Stew is your friend. Only wusses restrict themselves to a single time period. A REAL MASTER knows that atomic ninja are better than regular ninja, steampunk pirates beat ordinary pirates, and Everything's Better with Dinosaurs. And of course, the Katana is a tasteful adornment to any time period. Costume Designer Do your characters go to school? Well, they'll need their uniforms. They probably won't change out of them too terribly often, either. Japanese schoolchildren love fighting evil in their uniforms. Also, if you're so inclined to do a Beach Episode, you'll need bikinis and trunks. Of course, you could always subvert it and have the hottie show up in a demure swimsuit. Casting Director At the core of every Shonen show is its Five-Man Band: The Hero: Wants To Be a Master. Usually Book Dumb. The hero gets all the Next Tier Power-Up items, and is generally the only one able to defeat the Big Bad. He (it's usually a "he") will win his battles by lots of Heroic Resolve, because he's such a Determinator like that. The Lancer: In terms of motivation, The Lancer usually wants to kill or defeat someone from his past. If this is the case, there's always an episode early on where they meet said person, and are absolutely destroyed. The Lancer is usually the second strongest member of the team. The Chick: A difficult character to do well, often making her The Scrappy. If she's there for simple eye candy then maybe it's best to let her stay in the background looking pretty, or if you're feeling a little braver she might do well with a wacky personality. Giving her useful skills can help; maybe she has Healing Hands, or you could make her a Wrench Wench or a Waif Prophet. And she could always be an Action Girl who joins fully in the fights. The Big Guy: This character is really strong, tough and powerful, powerful enough to lose repeatedly against all the major enemies (when that isn't The Lancer's job). Generally physically bigger than the other characters and more heavily muscled, their brute strength often comes in useful even if their fighting record is somewhat less impressive. This character is often a good choice for your Token Minority or Captain Ethnic. (Chad from Bleach is a textbook example.) The Smart Guy: Usually doesn't get much screen time, unless he can show some Awesomeness by Analysis of his own. He is usually stays back while others fight and comes up with new ways how to overcome the newest obstacle or empower The Hero even more. Stunt Department It's hard to depict a punch to the face that is as painful as actually being punched in the face, but we try. Exaggeration and externalization are your watchwords. Never tell what a character is feeling - show it! A chess player doesn't just realize he's mate in five: he falls to the floor in agony, haunted by terrible visions of shattered swords and slain kings! A quarterback doesn't just go beyond his limits to score the winning touchdown: he literally becomes a demon, bulling his opponents off their feet! A ninja doesn't just throw his enemy to the ground with a well-timed reversal: he SLAMS them down from three different angles, with rushing speed lines in the background and a resounding KABLAMMM! Extra Credit The Greats Fist of the North Star JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Saint Seiya Dragon Ball: Due to its huge popularity, the Trope Codifier for many classic shonen tropes and a major influence on the genre. YuYu Hakusho Hunter × Hunter Rurouni Kenshin One Piece Fullmetal Alchemist Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann Soul Eater Claymore Note: This edges into Seinen territory. NOT for the young and the squeamish! Gintama Naruto Eureka Seven Bleach Yu-Gi-Oh!
Great video. For me the villain has always been more appealing than the main character, a good villain is what keeps me interested in a story. A good example for that is Madara Uchiha, if it wasn't for him i wouldn't have enjoyed that much the last arc of Naruto. Also Aizen is one of my favorite villains of all time.
bru u really help me ,I'm a comics creator, i love drawing manga , you just told stuff i would never had learn about draw. bru u the best i really got some help from ur videos .
You are amazing. You provided a lot of clarity and made it very interesting to listen to while drawing BOMB illustrations. Also, I'm inspired to get your book. I'll order it soon. You've also gotten yourself a new subscriber.
I think there are two types of villains ones that are relatable and ones that are disturbing both are hard to write but for different reasons. For the first you to justify the acts of the villain in some way and for the second. You need to make the world relatable enough so that when your disturbing villain violently murders a family the reader actually feels disturbed.
Great video Whyt :0 my favorite villain has to be Meruem from Hunter x Hunter, his development was crazy and tragically beautiful, that's all I can say about him without spoiling stuff haha, again I really enjoyed the video and the ideas you brought up :) I have to order Apple Black soon!
I know this video is old but had to share the villain that hurt my soul in the best way possible. it's the architect from dragon age origins: awakening. his goal is commandable, his methods twisted due to his nature, but what got me was the knowledge that despite his "good" intention (freeing his kind and a form of coexistence with surface species), it's simply impossible. If the players decides to spare one darkspawn in particular, the epilogue reveals that despite helping people, his very nature as a darkspawn caused the disease/corruption they carry to spread. in my run I decided to kill the architect but truly, I didn't want to. and to me that's a good villain, a villain I didn't want to kill and I wished I could have helped. thanks for the advice you shared here !
My favorite villaina are Harley Quinn (from the animated series) and Rumplestiltskin from Once Upon a Time. Great villains that you find yourself rooting for.
Ha! That makes so much sense now! Maybe that's why I can't write (draw) my manga. Thanks, I think i know how, now, to get it started. It would explain a lot on why I can't seem to be happy with what I have drawing and written out.
My fav villain is the joker because he exists for the sake of being evil for batman. If there were no batman he would leave but simply because batman is doing good to keep things like the death of his parents of happening the joker exists to do bad simply because he can.
@Whyt Manga, I find the villain that is an honorable man "on the wrong side". I based a villain on Erwin Rommel -an honorable man doing his duty in a war, but deeply conflicted about the side he is fighting for. Patton often referred to Rommel as a "magnificent bastard". Perhaps Warlord Xaviyeh Manta's defining quote in my graphic novel: "I'm a soldier and a patriot. I serve the good of my country and follow orders --no matter who gives them."
I’m writing a villian who also shares a common power with the hero, but the villian wants to destroy the world to pioneer beyond the recesses of the universe and maybe even multiverse. He tries to capture the hero to fulfill his wish. He was a cosmologist before developing his ability and can reverse time travel for a limited time while the heroine can run at the speed of light for a limited time- maybe even at a shorter span than the villian. His rare tarot is called “the end” while the hero is the “creator”. Greek elements also come into play which I’ve used as an influence for their abilities, and a lot of astrophysics are used as a communicator and key to open portals even for other dimensions or a general domain to stand-off. He mastered astronomy communication due to the fact that the hero’s abilities relates to astronomy- his is nether-based yet hones similar capabilities. He has crazy healing abilities and can pretty much soul snatch, and morph living things at an unnatural state- occasionally he’ll use the victims of his alterations as totems for a battle or out of entertainment. He and the heroine both can’t die unless the cells in their body have aged with time or have been reduced to atoms. There’s a lot of refining I’m doing, but I’ve been inspired to make a story for a while and seeing your manga definitely pushed me to!
Favorite Villain currently is probably HABIT from the webseries EVERYMANHYBRID. Primarily because he's one of the few cases where a villain is cruel and evil for the sake of being cruel and evil, and yet still works as a compelling villain (given, the fact that he's litterally a force of nature that possesses people helps in that regard, but I digress).
Hear is my perspective. There are no vilains or heros or the good and bad guys. Humans are not simple and as such the human nature for simplifying things uses uselt such themes as black or white etc. As mentiend I think characters should be written in a way that doesn't lead to either perspectic. A good exempel might be a anime called Legend of the Galactic Heros. It has a huge varaity of characters and everyone acts to their own belifs, even if its by some concepted as evil he/she might think so other wise. I especialy like the portrayal of respect between the characters be it enemys or allies.
One of my favorite villains is Genkaku Azuma from Deadman Wonderland. It goes to show that even if you have good intentions, you can take the wrong turn somewhere and end up a villain. Plus he was also through a lot of shit that made him twisted, but well. He made the choices to become the way he is lol.
Favorite Villain... idk I'll just say that priest dude from hunchback of notre dame because I've been listening to hellfire today but it's someone else I just can't think right now.
I usually hate villains because I they're stupid. Like in Danganronpa the person behind monokuma is just stupid in my opinion. They're just like "Despair despair. I love despair. I want the ultimate despair." I lost at the whole wanting despair. It's one thing wanting others to feel despair and another to want it for yourself. If you want despair for yourself you won't get it because despair is getting the opposite of what you want. So that character would be better if they never achieved their goal for ultimate despair upon the world because that's what they want and another thing they want is despair a.k.a not getting the other thing you want. It would be better if that character saw their plan crumble in front of their eyes and having to live that than what happened with them spoilers dying like they wanted.
Yes, agreed! Frollo is one of Disney´s greatest villans of all time. He was evil to the core in terms of his actions, yet his human flaws - uncontrollable lust - made him way more realistic than any other villan. Also, shouout to Esmeralda for being the best female protagonist Disney ever had - imo
my favorite villains are Dio brando, Sephiroth and Darcia from wolf rain. I like Dio because he know he's an asshole and he know it, he has grate charisma and when things don't go his way he flips out XD. Sephiroth is a fallen hero with a dark past. when he was sane, he cared for his friends,a good role model and he had a heart of gold and when he snapped, it was sad to watch him turn into a monster. Darcia is a guy that I love to hate. his wife died but he didn't have to be a ass and kill a whole pack of innocent wolves who were just trying to find paradise.XD
I agree with your choice of Zabuza, he was a darn great villain. his character arc was a closed circuit as well. his timing for the show was perfect as well. along with kakashi's monologue of the way of the world. everything down to his death was well written. I'd like if the rest of the show was written as in depth as his arc
Zabuza was the best of that lot... he let the protagonists shine through his antagonism, while keeping himself as a visible and relatable character. Doflamingo is an example of how a villain may overshadow the protagonists of his arc, even without much character development, with just an excess of personality - similar to the Joker in the Dark Knight, who did the same to Batman in my opinion.
In the story that I'm working on, the protagonist is actually more evil than the antagonist because he was the reason that the villain became a villain. I really like these revenge stories and I also find it interesting when the protagonist isn't really good either or was evil before.
I have to say the greatest villains I've ever scene were Lord genome and the antispiral from gurren lagann. there characters were so complete and extremely relatable. I can honestly say, in each of there positions I'd had done the same thing they did. the only issue I had with gurren lagann is, Lord genome and the antispiral were in the same mindset. which is why they are equally as good. but I love how the antispiral gave a reasonable explanation to what he was doing during there fight.
The Phantom Troupe is really undeveloped and is only in one arc. Their motives are just to steal and make money too. Hisoka himself is an amazing villain, but the whole troupe is pretty poorly written
The first half you were explaining that our villain should be complex, i was thinking "yeah. I know its important to make them special, that why i don't know how to write my villain." heh
my favorite kind of villains are villains who are smart, who knows what situation and what kind of situation is coming up, sort of like tacticians.And another kind of favorite villain are the ones who just want to watch the world burn, like the Joker.
Whyt Manga when working on very beginning chapters, should you have the whole story planned and written out COMPLETELY. Or is it ok to work in the plot points and build as you go along to the pre planned ending?
Both methods could work, its all about execution sometimes. I don't have my whole story written out completely but I know it all ends summarized-ish. I recommend using points as things may change moving forward.
Oda the One Piece creator... his method is that he already know how One Piece will end... so what he does is creating arcs that start building up that final. So it is like a labyrinth... you start moving forward to your goal
so you have a story which you have planned out all the way through? same here except for some reason it is really hard to come up with a beginning to my story as I know the ending I just wanted to say that so yeh
From what I've seen from One's One Punch Man web comic, Garo is a well written character. You almost feel sorry for him and the way his overall arc becomes complete isn't a clear cut case at all.
Villains cna work either way. They could be Monsters, Tragic villains, villains with good intentions but evil acts, but you could also have a villain like a demon. Or a being that is evil incarnate.
when i write a villain i try to make him human as possible so you can understand his side of the story, because in the real world there are no such thing as villains just people and people with a bad mentality
How big is your scanner? I'm just worried because I only have an a4 scanner that comes with my printer and is deleter paper bigger that a4 or normal document paper?
my favorite villian was Madara SPOILERS he tried to make the tsukyomi happen and once it was successful he was happy there was no more pain suffering and wars then he got betrayed by zetsu all Madara wanted was eternal peace
@@ricaardogarciavelez885They wanted to stop madara because everyone in the world should have a chance to live out life even with pain and suffering because it helps them grow as it did with naruto
So in my manga series, the first two major protagonists will only be villains from a perpsective. Their motivations will good, but their methods will be in direct opposition to the protagonist and his team. I don't want all villains to be pure evil in my series. I would think saving the pure evil ones for the late-series would be more appropriate.
How do you write someone... My english isnt my first langauge but that doesnt sound right... writing about someone i get creating someone i get by writing someone... that ugh idk im probably wrong.
There are many types of villains, but my personal favorite are complete madmen. Take Betelgeuse for example, personally my favorite villain, he's so psychotic it's funny. Something about unstable characters makes them unpredictable, unsettling, and creepy. Perfect for a villain. A villain has to get shit done, I hate when a villain talks a big game but loses to the dum luck of the hero. This happens so often that I start to root for the villain because he's the under dog. No no, I'm supposed to root for the hero and hate the villain. Betelgeuse gets shit done! He kills people, he beats Subaru multiple times, he accomplishes his goal! And I hate him for it, but love him as a villain becomes there's proof that he's dangerous. A villain should have a backstory like any other character. Betelgeuse wasn't always a crazy bastard, although it wasn't explained in the anime yet, there is reasons for everything he does. From his madness, to his goal, everything has a purpose. Characterization, they're characters too and so they should act like one. Betelgeuse is supposed to represent the Sin of Sloth, but he repents against his slothful nature with the Virtue of Diligence. But he has perverted this heavenly virtue to such an extent that he punishes himself every time he makes a mistake calling it Sloth, and punishes others who partake in Sloth.
Not necessarily. An anti-hero isn't just a villain that's a main character, it's a hero that does things that are unconventional towards the plot, morality, or characters (including themselves), or maybe they don't want to be the hero but they have to be, but they're heroes nonetheless. Deadpool is an anti-hero, Winston from 1984 is an anti-hero. But a villain is the one causing issues towards the plot itself, causing the driving force of the story in a negative way. Yagami Light is the villain. L is an anti-hero. Being the main character does not change what kind of character a villain is.
Whyt Manga hey man,do you have any advice on how to develop a plot that has multiple protagonists, like, i dont want to give the feel that one is better than the other one or more important and i cant find the way to give each one his own spotlight. nice work btw.
![Creating Characters From Scratch [Design Process] Ep. 1](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/eeYTur583jU/mqdefault.jpg)
![Creating Characters From Scratch [Design Process] Ep. 1](/img/tr.png)
> Draw your villain with their tongue sticking out in _every_ panel, regardless of circumstance.
> Ergo, good villain.
+Donquixote Doflamingo LOL.
I thought about dolflamingo when you said that. Then I saw your pfp.
Good villians are not the ones in terms of design - it´s the ones that make you think, re-conicder many things that went without saying to you and maybe make you put yourselfes in their shoes. :)
Great villains are flawed 3 dimensional characters.
Plot device villains are utterly lane and dull, along with just being evil for evil's sake and characters that are there to be hated only.
And they are not always the first that you expect to be the villain.
Pain from Naruto is an absolutely incredible example
Wow, ich finde dich einfach in jedem 10. Video was ich gucke ._____.
Wusste gar ich dass du ihn auch schaust
I like those villains who plan far ahead.
They have a plan after a plan after plan after a plan.
Then it's fun to see it all unravel.
Aizen from Bleach
Madara from naruto
Zantique CHM the emperor from Star Wars is a good example of that
He had a backup plan for a backup plan for his plan
@@TNA-Aylin OROCHIMARU IS CLEARLY THE BEST!!!!
you're humble and a great artist god bless you
I always found that the best villains are the ones that consider themselves the good guy. Some would say the Joker is evil to be evil, but his relationship to Batman is a yin/yang relationship that shows the inter-workings of just how far gone Batman's psyche is. That at the end of the day, what separates them is their own personal belief.
That and compassion
I really like those as well. If I had to give examples, I would give Enrico Pucci and Funny Valentine from jojo’s bizarre adventure '
Handsome Jack from Borderlands, is a good example
Homelander
I love sadistic villians.
I'm french and I really love your drawing style I think bought Volume of Apple Black 1 but I'm not very good at English but I go take it for the drawings and to support you! Good luck men !
Merci beaucoup, versions traduites du livre sera disponible un jour. lol :)
Funny Valentine from JJBA is one of the greatest examples of a villain.
Pyrofruit And Pucci
@@Polomanart Most of them are pretty cool. JJBA is really really diverse
Johan from Monster! Haven’t finished the manga yet, but Johan is so interesting!!
In a story I'm writing, the "villain" is a monster-hunting priest in a horror-filled medieval world. He's spent years hunting a demon-possessed girl, and while we may think that's evil, it is actually for the greater good. He's protecting the people under his care, who view him as the hero, and for good reason. The conundrum for the reader is that while we view what he does as heartless and cruel, it's a heartless and cruel culture that he lives in, one that let his father sell him off to a group of traveling cultists. As a person, he is actually trustworthy, considerate, and even kind to the right people.
Like Mozgus?
Awesome! I have a similair character, the plot thread of having a character that creates a safe haven for others is always a great idea :>
Like Mozgus? x2
That sounds dope. I'm actually also writing a story and most of the villains I have have very fucked up or sad and relatable backstories which makes sense for their character and why they are the way they are. Like one of my villains is my MC's brother whos backstory is basically that his father died before he was born and both him and his brother grew up without a dad. However, the villain took it much much harder than his brother and he runs away, wanting to fill the hole in him that is missing which is having a father. Ultimately, endlessly trying to fill his emptiness turns him over. All of his depression and sadness and pain is never overcome and it turns him into a villain. He mostly does what he does as a villain out of anger. He even kills his own mother and blames her for having him be born into this world knowing that he wouldn't have a father. In my head, it's very very sad. And very relatable for those of us, like me, who grew up or are growing up fatherless. He is also the first person that my MC actually kills.
The most intresting anime villain I have seen is Harime Nui from the anime Kill la Kill. The reason I like her so much is because in many peoples eyes she's just mad. And that's how the anime presented her, as a mad cute girl who kills to right and left without any doubt. But there were actions she took, the things she said that made me realise that it was inaccurate. She's not only mad but she has her whole own story herself. I don't want to spoil alot, but she's really a character you start to think about and then you could never stop. Because she is misunderstood. I think those villains are really cool, when the creators gives hints about them and you have to realise their version of the story by yourself.
I think a good villain is either someone you can relate to or someone who makes it easier to relate to the protagonist. I mean, sometimes people are clearly on the "bad" side of the moral compass simply because they enjoy it. Whether it's because they enjoy the suffering of others or some other benefit they get from it. Like wealth or power.
Anywho, great video, but you might want to look into finding a way to balance out the audio. It's kind of irritating having your voice only come through one earphone.
Sephiroth/Vicious. They're really the same person. Former respected best friend goes nuts and starts to tear down the world. Cool idea.
It's interesting that you refer to Apple Black as a show sometimes, see into the future haha. Great video man!
I have to admit Whyt Manga after seeing your work, it makes me think back to how I'm going to refine my story, develop the characters, perfect my own original art style, etc. You're an inspiration :)
PS: If anyone checks out my channel, don't expect any appealing art content yet (I have yet to upload digitized versions of my artwork) but, do expect original music themes for...
The Unfinished Story!
dam bro
Finally managed to get my hands on your book! Love every bit of it and it inspires me to keep trying to get one of my own published
Code Geass does villainry so well.
Yup and Death Note
Whyt Manga Thank you soo much for these tips! I am a young artist (young teen) and I have a comic elective at my school this gives me so many tips on how to bring a story and character plots to life. I have a project to finish by the end which is a comic! I am so excited to see more video's in the future.
I think what makes a good villain is someone you can relate too on some level. The reason for this is two fold-
1st: If that villain has commonalities with most people but they are perverted by extremism then you can kind of understand what brought them to that point- you can find common ground with them and their motives. For instance a person who goes around killing pedophiles because they may have been taken advantage of as a child- We can all agree that pedophiles are bad, so we have that in common with the villain, but the villain has taken it to the extreme by taking the law into their own hands and ignored justice and fare punishment.
2nd: A relatable villain seems more true to life, you can understand what brought them to the point of being so heinous. As opposed to just a evil mad scientist who wants to destroy the world for the sake of just destroying it.
In short- A good realistic villain is one where there motivations are described and they have been driven to extremism because of their experience and fundamentalism.
Personally, I don't really care if it's someone I can feel bad for but that, again, usually helps with relatablity but isn't necessary if the motivation is described.
My favorite villain is the Joker from The Dark Knight because of the reason I stated above. He has been brought to misanthropy by his experiences of people being hypocrites and only out for themselves.
Light from Death Note is a very good example of how the main protagonist can also be the villain of the story.
I think you should write villains as the heroes of their own story. Give them motivations that seem close to what you would give a protagonist, but perhaps warp it in some way to show that they're not totally a good person.
For example, Yoshikage Kira is the antagonist of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable. His motivation in the story is to live his life in the same comfortable way he has been when we pick up with him. His main "evil" trait is that he severs the hands of women and takes them on dates.
We learn about his preferences and little intricacies of his character throughout his debut episode, which aren't plot relevant, but serve to make him feel more like a person. He's morally reprehensible, yes, but he has qualities that make him feel like someone you could talk to.
An example of a villain with an interesting moral compass is Meruem from HunterXHunter. He starts off as a basic DBZ style villain, but over time he learns the value of human life and ultimately has an internal conflict over whether his species is superior to humans, and as a result comes off as one of the most nuanced villains in Shonen.
I didn't say anything too specific because I feel you should watch HunterXHunter, since it also has great examples of how to write characters (there are hardly any truly basic villains), but that's the basic gist. Don't make your villain two dimensional, give them something that makes them relatable or an interesting motivation.
my top 4 villains would be shinobu sensui from yuyu hakusho, hisoka and meruem from hxh, and Dio Brando from jjba. The writing for these villians are very complex. But I think the reason why I like them is the design, how they stand out among other villans, their beliefs, and the swagger. I also think that how simple the villain is can be enough to make them great depending on the level of quality they are written at.
6:01 did anyone else think of Light Yagami???
me
My favorite villain is Crowley from "Supernatural". Just because he's a douche in every single way, but he's sometimes good...ish.
My favorite type of villian is one that you typically wouldn't think as one. I like it when a story makes you second guess yourself on their ideals and reasonings.
This came out on my birthday 1 year ago
This is helpful because in my comic (in progress) there are a lot of villains based on elements like water and such. P.s. keep up the great work!
favorite villain and very inspiring for a great manga i have in mind is none other then Klaus Michaelson from Originals/Vampire Diaries
my favorite villain : Pain ,was so ...real
i agree. he and naruto had the same motive and goal, but they both went down completely different paths.
malik okosi It was literally just Hanzo's fault lol, that's it. And maybe Obito's but that's counting the one filler, which I don't. Lol
It wasn't Hanzo's doing in fact it was Danzo who was responsible for Hanzo's mistrust of the Akatski
First, you have to want to be the best.
Ah, shonen. 90% of anime exported to America falls under this category. If you want to market your anime/manga/whatever to young guys, read this...
...after you read So You Want To: Write A Story, of course.
Necessary Tropes
Well, you've probably got a young man, right? And he probably wants To Be a Master of whatever his universe deems Serious Business. At least, that's the motivation of The Hero. Other characters will have other motivations. But that'll be the core of your story.
Before you do anything, though, read the description for Japanese Spirit, as well as its analysis page, to understand why Shounen uses the tropes it does.
Choices, Choices
Even with the To Be a Master plot, you've got a few choices to work with:
Motivation: Why does The Hero want To Be a Master? To please his parents? To get everyone to notice him? To win the heart of his love interest? Or is it a more selfish goal, like fame or fortune? What will he have to sacrifice To Be a Master? How does one become a master? Will he encounter any potential rivals?
To make your fights even grander and epic, give your hero and his enemies Stock Superpowers, related to said Serious Business that he wants To Be a Master of. Choose wisely what kind of powers each character gets, as they must reflect their personality and background.
More on the way...
Pitfalls
Alright, rule number one of shonen is simple: say no to the Spotlight-Stealing Squad. Yes, you would assume The Hero gets a vast majority of the spotlight - but that's okay, he's the main character. Sure, we all know you want to focus on that angsty, brooding Lancer...but give him some time out of the spotlight, too. (This is especially true if the story has Loads and Loads of Characters.)
Other tropes to avoid:
Arc Fatigue. Shounen is often mocked for having very slow pacing, and with good reason. Going through your plot points too fast is bad, but going through them too slowly is deadly. (Especially if it looks like you're trying to draw out the story for no good reason, which is a good source of Narm.) Also, decide early on if your series will be episodic, or if it'll focus on Story Arcs.
Gary Stu/Mary Sue. Just don't. Give your hero a realistic flaw. Shoot, maybe even two... dozen! (Don't overdo this, though; see Failure Hero and This Loser Is You below.) On a related note...
Invincible Hero. A hero who wins most or all of the time gets boring fast. Even more so if all his fights follow the same formula of the hero receiving a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown until he's finally able to use his signature technique, which he will always use in the same way with little or no variation. (See One Trick Pony below.) Little kids might not mind as much, but older audiences will get bored quickly.
Invincible Villain. Using more than one Big Bad over the course of the series is a good idea. Having your heroes fight the same villain too often can lead to Arc Fatigue.
Failure Hero. If it's bad to have your heroes win too often, it's also bad to have them lose too often. If they continually suffer The Worf Effect, then your show will wind up as Snark Bait. And if you establish your characters as competent fighters, only to have them start losing battles they should have won as the story progresses, fans might start complaining about Character Derailment.
Faux Action Girls. Oh, boy. Here's a tip: if you want to establish a female character as a competent Action Girl who can kick ass alongside the guys, show her doing it and justify the times when she's not as competent as she's said to be. Show, Don't Tell is the main problem with Faux Action Girls.
Demoted to Extra/Out of Focus. Beware these tropes, especially if your story has Loads and Loads of Characters. Granted, if you have a large cast, you can't give every character a major role in every episode. However, fans of a particular character won't be happy if they think their favorite is getting slighted, especially if he or she was introduced as a major player in the story. Of course, one way to avoid these tropes is to keep your cast fairly small. This may lead to...
The Only One Allowed to Defeat You. If you want your hero to be the only one who can beat the Big Bad, make sure to justify it via Only I Can Kill Him.
One Trick Pony. If your hero has only one technique which he uses over and over, your series will become repetitive. You can avoid this by letting your hero discover multiple uses for his technique. Example: early on, Naruto only used his Shadow Clone Jutsu to have his clones Zerg Rushing his opponents. As the story continued, Naruto began using the clones for The Rasengen, training, collecting information, etc.
Idiot Hero. Not ABSOLUTELY taboo, but this trope has been way overused. A cool, calm, intelligent shonen hero would be an interesting subversion and likely well received by fans.
Case in point: Ichigo Kurosaki from Bleach. Not always calm, and not incredibly intelligent, but definitely cool.
New Powers as the Plot Demands. Power Creep, Power Seep is inevitable in a shonen plotline. Fans expect and even want the hero to keep getting stronger, and in turn face stronger and stronger enemies, on their way to becoming the master. The trick is to keep your world internally consistent and believable. Take a break from the battles to do a little Foreshadowing or World Building. It will go a long way towards explaining the latest super power the hero has decided to use at the last second to defeat their newest foe. In addition, don't power up your characters too fast. Sure you want to make it clear that they are The Chosen Ones, but if they quickly outpace every other character in the show it will become apparent that you're just making up new abilities and enemies as you go. A well placed Chekhov's Gun in an early episode that comes back in season four will impress shonen fans, who are all but resigned to writers having no idea what happens next.
This Loser Is You. Surprisingly, audiences will often find it difficult to identify with a jerkass idiot who never learns anything and no one likes.
Ass Pull and The Untwist: If you want to have a good Wham Episode, make sure you used Foreshadowing beforehand. Otherwise, audiences will feel cheated. However, do it in light proportions, as too much foreshadowing may make the planned twist TOO obvious.
Adapting
The most common way to avoid the vast majority of the work and pitfalls mentioned above and below is to adapt a pre-existing manga series to an anime. This comes with its own pitfalls, however, and the biggest one is time. If you're adapting a manga that's currently running, you're going to Overtake The Manga sooner or later. Your average episode is going to take up the same events as two or three chapters, and as such the anime will be moving two or three times as fast as the manga does. This leads to some specific problems:
Gecko Endings. Trying to continue or finish the story on your own. If you're not working with the original author, this may not end well. On the other hand, the author may not want to work with you, in which case you may end up resorting to...
Filler. Good Lord, Filler. It killed Rurouni Kenshin and gave Fan Haters a lot of ammo regarding Naruto. Filler in itself isn't terrible - you're just trying to give yourself a little more time to write the main story. But for crying out loud, at least make it interesting! Delve deep into the back-story of a Satellite Character. Develop a subplot that hasn't gotten a lot of airtime. Stuff like that. If possible, see if the manga-ka has any ideas that they don't have space to put in the manga, a la One Piece.
Flanderization.
Romance
Romantic relationships are rarely done well in Shonen. In some works, they're not done at all. While it might be best to leave it to Shipping, here's some ideas if you think you can make it work:
The Battle Couple: Your main audience is guys. If there's one way to suck them into the relationship of a pair, it's to have them both be on the front lines, as equals. Give them powers that complement one another better than the rest, or have it so they can't do as much unless they're together. (The Nirvash from Eureka Seven, a Humongous Mecha which the two main characters could only pilot together, is a good example of how to do it right). The Chick barely getting involved in the fight is overdone; the Lady of War who saved The Hero's ass again while working on the bet they made to see who's on top tonight will be a few metric tons more interesting. And of course, you can always make your hero's Love Interest a full-fledged Action Girl.
Keep in mind that there's a difference between romance and sexuality. The young male readers who might gag over a mushy kissing scene will have no problem with panty shots, girls undressing, and general PG-13 nudity. Even if your hero might never confess feeling anything for a girl, you can still have him try sneaking a peek of her naked, so long as he never gets to see anything too good. You can also have him beaten up by the girl he was drooling over, although this trope has Unfortunate Implications.
And not all Fanservice must be female, either. A few pretty boys can help get you some rabid fans from the other side of the chromosome pool. Just be careful with how pretty you make those boys, otherwise you can wind up with some very confused fans. And don't be afraid if the male fan-service can venture into Ho Yay, heck feel free to play around with if you like (even do a good-natured gag or few about it). But if your worried that the Ho Yay might be too much of a Turn off to male viewers, some well-used Les Yay can help even things out. It might come off as Everyone Is Bi, but hey, a little equal opportunity fanservice never hurt anyone huh?
However on the concept of Ho Yay and Les Yay you might want to be careful about how their "official love life" will go. If their Canon romantic status is either a case of Strangled by the Red String or a overly Designated Unrequited love, then this might be a good case of Fan-Preferred Couple.
Unrequited love is not a flat out bad idea but if the romance in the story is a case of All Love Is Unrequited, this can make the concept feel a bit... enforced, to put it mildly. Fans sometimes complain about certain characters (often female) who exist only to be perpetually unrequited love interests. (And if one of your male characters is a Celibate Hero or Chaste Hero, then you might want at least one female character to follow suit; otherwise, chances you'll be accused of a Double Standard.) Basically, if you don't want to do romance, you probably shouldn't do it. Lack of romance certainly hasn't hurt One Piece...
Speaking of Celibate Heroes and Chaste Heroes: If you want one of your characters to be one of these, then you might not want to have any of the other characters holding unrequited feelings for them. Having a character to be a Celibate Hero no matter what will often make his/her unrequited love interests either be Flanderized because of this unrequited love or at least appear to be. (And this will be especially deemed annoying if said unrequited love interest is an otherwise appealing character.) Fans are generally more forgiving towards these characters if they are not used as a reason why one of their favorite characters will never be in a good relationship.
If you want one of your cast to be the most common form of Tsundere, a girl who's angry on the outside but is sweet on the inside, then please remember the "sweet" part. Otherwise, you'll wind up stuck with just a Jerkass who engages in Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male-and all the trope's Unfortunate Implications. You should also avoid making this character a Faux Action Girl, or else she'll just become The Scrappy.
Be careful when writing a Patient Childhood Love Interest, as there are plenty of fans whom would sympathize with her and make her part of their Fan Preferred Pairing. If you're determined to include such a character, then make sure to justify the relationship.
Potential Subversions
As noted, shonen already has too many Idiot Heroes, so this is a good trope to avoid. And no, we're not talking about making The Hero a Book Dumb character. Make a hero who's genuinely intelligent both inside and outside the classroom.
Also, The Hero doesn't have to be the only one to win major fights. Let The Lancer or The Big Guy go up against the Big Bad once in a while...and win! If The Hero has just been thrashed by said villain, it makes for some interesting drama.
Make The Hero a boyish girl. Not necessarily The Lad-ette, but a Tomboy, a Bokukko, or an Otaku Surrogate. It's not like it hasn't been done before. For a Cherry Tapping, you get an endless supply of fanservice right there on the front lines.
Gender-flip some traditional shonen character roles. Make The Lancer or The Rival an Aloof Dark Haired Action Girl. Make The Chick a cheerful Non-Action Guy. Or just go with the above suggestion and make the hero female.
Instead of The Chick, why not give the role of the hero's Love Interest to, say, The Lancer? It could make for some interesting relationship development, especially if The Lancer also doubles as The Rival.
Writers' Lounge
Suggested Themes and Aesops
To quote Shonen Jump: Hard work, friendship, victory! A shonen hero is someone who never, ever gives up. The deceitful and treacherous might appear to have the upper hand at first, but their downfall is as certain as the rising sun... unless they too learn the error of their ways and embrace shonen ways themselves.
It's a common trick to give the hero some special power or talent that makes them unique, but heaven help the writer who leans too much on that device. Nobody will respect a hero who doesn't sweat blood to earn their victory.
Potential Motifs
Shonen means POWER! STRENGTH! GLORY! Your audience doesn't have any patience for abstraction or allusion. They want the real stuff. The juice. Characters themed after powerful animals, beasts from myth, deadly natural phenomena. Heroes who lay it all on the line for love and justice. Battles where everything is at stake: the character's courage, their soul, the soul of mankind! Even a simple game of Mahjongg or Go can be made epic by likening the participants to gods or demons.
Suggested Plots
The Tournament Arc is a favorite of shonen. It gives you a chance to introduce a whole lot of new characters in a short amount of time. Usually, you'll encounter the following there:
The reigning champions, who will face the main team in the finals.
The team that cheats to win, and usually gets away with it until they, yes, face the main team.
The team that has an incredibly strict training regimen, but loses to the easy-going main team and learns to lighten up.
Any number of teams containing people from the main team's past.
Finally, note that any of these teams can overlap.
If the first episode features The Hero winning a tough battle against a fairly tough rival, the second episode should feature him being absolutely owned against an even tougher rival.
If you are using Stock Superpowers, you can make a lot out of them:
At the beginning, give The Hero some superpower (possibly, accidentally) and let him rampage around with it for a few episodes, defeating the smaller fry. What he doesn't know yet is that his power is in no way unique to him and is, indeed, the weakest of them all...
...so you introduce new enemies with stronger superpowers stemming from the same source, who inevitably hand The Hero's ass back to him at first, until, through hard work and dedication, he lives to see the Time to Unlock More True Potential. After that, you introduce even more characters with even stronger powers and the cycle repeats itself endlessly...
At some point, consider introducing a Badass Normal rival who kicks The Hero's superpowered butt without any powers of his own. Bonus points if your hero later defeats him on his own ground or if the rival is amicable enough to coach him in the fine art of muggle-fu (or both).
For the Grand Finale, pick the Final Boss carefully: he must be Large and in Charge and slinging superpowers of cosmic proportions that only The Hero's can (barely) match. However, defeating the Shōnen Big Bad never, ever happens through superpowers alone but instead, primarily through Hot Blood and The Power of Friendship.
Departments
Set Designer / Location Scout
Everything must be HUGE, EPIC and UNPRECEDENTED. The laws of physics are a low priority here. When in doubt, take a real world landmark or natural feature, make it ten times larger and fill it with ninja.
Props Department
Anachronism Stew is your friend. Only wusses restrict themselves to a single time period. A REAL MASTER knows that atomic ninja are better than regular ninja, steampunk pirates beat ordinary pirates, and Everything's Better with Dinosaurs. And of course, the Katana is a tasteful adornment to any time period.
Costume Designer
Do your characters go to school? Well, they'll need their uniforms. They probably won't change out of them too terribly often, either. Japanese schoolchildren love fighting evil in their uniforms.
Also, if you're so inclined to do a Beach Episode, you'll need bikinis and trunks. Of course, you could always subvert it and have the hottie show up in a demure swimsuit.
Casting Director
At the core of every Shonen show is its Five-Man Band:
The Hero: Wants To Be a Master. Usually Book Dumb. The hero gets all the Next Tier Power-Up items, and is generally the only one able to defeat the Big Bad. He (it's usually a "he") will win his battles by lots of Heroic Resolve, because he's such a Determinator like that.
The Lancer: In terms of motivation, The Lancer usually wants to kill or defeat someone from his past. If this is the case, there's always an episode early on where they meet said person, and are absolutely destroyed. The Lancer is usually the second strongest member of the team.
The Chick: A difficult character to do well, often making her The Scrappy. If she's there for simple eye candy then maybe it's best to let her stay in the background looking pretty, or if you're feeling a little braver she might do well with a wacky personality. Giving her useful skills can help; maybe she has Healing Hands, or you could make her a Wrench Wench or a Waif Prophet. And she could always be an Action Girl who joins fully in the fights.
The Big Guy: This character is really strong, tough and powerful, powerful enough to lose repeatedly against all the major enemies (when that isn't The Lancer's job). Generally physically bigger than the other characters and more heavily muscled, their brute strength often comes in useful even if their fighting record is somewhat less impressive. This character is often a good choice for your Token Minority or Captain Ethnic. (Chad from Bleach is a textbook example.)
The Smart Guy: Usually doesn't get much screen time, unless he can show some Awesomeness by Analysis of his own. He is usually stays back while others fight and comes up with new ways how to overcome the newest obstacle or empower The Hero even more.
Stunt Department
It's hard to depict a punch to the face that is as painful as actually being punched in the face, but we try. Exaggeration and externalization are your watchwords. Never tell what a character is feeling - show it! A chess player doesn't just realize he's mate in five: he falls to the floor in agony, haunted by terrible visions of shattered swords and slain kings! A quarterback doesn't just go beyond his limits to score the winning touchdown: he literally becomes a demon, bulling his opponents off their feet! A ninja doesn't just throw his enemy to the ground with a well-timed reversal: he SLAMS them down from three different angles, with rushing speed lines in the background and a resounding KABLAMMM!
Extra Credit
The Greats
Fist of the North Star
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
Saint Seiya
Dragon Ball: Due to its huge popularity, the Trope Codifier for many classic shonen tropes and a major influence on the genre.
YuYu Hakusho
Hunter × Hunter
Rurouni Kenshin
One Piece
Fullmetal Alchemist
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
Soul Eater
Claymore
Note: This edges into Seinen territory. NOT for the young and the squeamish!
Gintama
Naruto
Eureka Seven
Bleach
Yu-Gi-Oh!
Rave Master is pretty good at Villians too, They have cool Designs.
I would like to discuss with you about anime idea what is your email or social media.
berniemacsgreatesthi you forgot to credit Tropes where you copied this from.
Man I enjoyed reading this even if it was copy/paste.
Copypasting TvTropes doesn't make you smarter...
Great video. For me the villain has always been more appealing than the main character, a good villain is what keeps me interested in a story. A good example for that is Madara Uchiha, if it wasn't for him i wouldn't have enjoyed that much the last arc of Naruto. Also Aizen is one of my favorite villains of all time.
bru u really help me ,I'm a comics creator, i love drawing manga , you just told stuff i would never had learn about draw. bru u the best i really got some help from ur videos .
you deserve more views than this. Your videos are really entertaining and helpful, the work you put on them shows. keep it up!
more mangastudio tips man,you are a master at that .
You are amazing. You provided a lot of clarity and made it very interesting to listen to while drawing BOMB illustrations. Also, I'm inspired to get your book. I'll order it soon. You've also gotten yourself a new subscriber.
this vid realy helped me i figured out the major turning points of my characters which completed the biggest prob with my story
I think there are two types of villains ones that are relatable and ones that are disturbing both are hard to write but for different reasons. For the first you to justify the acts of the villain in some way and for the second. You need to make the world relatable enough so that when your disturbing villain violently murders a family the reader actually feels disturbed.
Great video Whyt :0 my favorite villain has to be Meruem from Hunter x Hunter, his development was crazy and tragically beautiful, that's all I can say about him without spoiling stuff haha, again I really enjoyed the video and the ideas you brought up :) I have to order Apple Black soon!
I really agree with you on this I really like the tragic villian and villian by proxy I'll make sure to purchase you book I want to support you.
I know this video is old but had to share the villain that hurt my soul in the best way possible. it's the architect from dragon age origins: awakening. his goal is commandable, his methods twisted due to his nature, but what got me was the knowledge that despite his "good" intention (freeing his kind and a form of coexistence with surface species), it's simply impossible. If the players decides to spare one darkspawn in particular, the epilogue reveals that despite helping people, his very nature as a darkspawn caused the disease/corruption they carry to spread. in my run I decided to kill the architect but truly, I didn't want to. and to me that's a good villain, a villain I didn't want to kill and I wished I could have helped.
thanks for the advice you shared here !
Will be doing all these videos again soon!
I love villains that have a real good reason for what they’re doing
My favorite villaina are Harley Quinn (from the animated series) and Rumplestiltskin from Once Upon a Time. Great villains that you find yourself rooting for.
Ha! That makes so much sense now! Maybe that's why I can't write (draw) my manga. Thanks, I think i know how, now, to get it started. It would explain a lot on why I can't seem to be happy with what I have drawing and written out.
Orochimaru is my favourite villain and i dont even know why ^^
Sadly we know almost nothing about his past
i am currently working on a manga and your videos really help continue this thank u
My fav villain is the joker because he exists for the sake of being evil for batman. If there were no batman he would leave but simply because batman is doing good to keep things like the death of his parents of happening the joker exists to do bad simply because he can.
@Whyt Manga, I find the villain that is an honorable man "on the wrong side". I based a villain on Erwin Rommel -an honorable man doing his duty in a war, but deeply conflicted about the side he is fighting for. Patton often referred to Rommel as a "magnificent bastard". Perhaps Warlord Xaviyeh Manta's defining quote in my graphic novel: "I'm a soldier and a patriot. I serve the good of my country and follow orders --no matter who gives them."
I’m writing a villian who also shares a common power with the hero, but the villian wants to destroy the world to pioneer beyond the recesses of the universe and maybe even multiverse. He tries to capture the hero to fulfill his wish.
He was a cosmologist before developing his ability and can reverse time travel for a limited time while the heroine can run at the speed of light for a limited time- maybe even at a shorter span than the villian. His rare tarot is called “the end” while the hero is the “creator”.
Greek elements also come into play which I’ve used as an influence for their abilities, and a lot of astrophysics are used as a communicator and key to open portals even for other dimensions or a general domain to stand-off.
He mastered astronomy communication due to the fact that the hero’s abilities relates to astronomy- his is nether-based yet hones similar capabilities.
He has crazy healing abilities and can pretty much soul snatch, and morph living things at an unnatural state- occasionally he’ll use the victims of his alterations as totems for a battle or out of entertainment.
He and the heroine both can’t die unless the cells in their body have aged with time or have been reduced to atoms. There’s a lot of refining I’m doing, but I’ve been inspired to make a story for a while and seeing your manga definitely pushed me to!
Favorite Villain currently is probably HABIT from the webseries EVERYMANHYBRID. Primarily because he's one of the few cases where a villain is cruel and evil for the sake of being cruel and evil, and yet still works as a compelling villain (given, the fact that he's litterally a force of nature that possesses people helps in that regard, but I digress).
Hear is my perspective. There are no vilains or heros or the good and bad guys.
Humans are not simple and as such the human nature for simplifying things uses uselt such themes as black or white etc. As mentiend I think characters should be written in a way that doesn't lead to either perspectic. A good exempel might be a anime called Legend of the Galactic Heros. It has a huge varaity of characters and everyone acts to their own belifs, even if its by some concepted as evil he/she might think so other wise.
I especialy like the portrayal of respect between the characters be it enemys or allies.
One of my favorite villains is Genkaku Azuma from Deadman Wonderland. It goes to show that even if you have good intentions, you can take the wrong turn somewhere and end up a villain. Plus he was also through a lot of shit that made him twisted, but well. He made the choices to become the way he is lol.
Favorite Villain... idk I'll just say that priest dude from hunchback of notre dame because I've been listening to hellfire today but it's someone else I just can't think right now.
Does Itachi count? I mean he did kill his family.
I usually hate villains because I they're stupid. Like in Danganronpa the person behind monokuma is just stupid in my opinion. They're just like "Despair despair. I love despair. I want the ultimate despair." I lost at the whole wanting despair. It's one thing wanting others to feel despair and another to want it for yourself. If you want despair for yourself you won't get it because despair is getting the opposite of what you want. So that character would be better if they never achieved their goal for ultimate despair upon the world because that's what they want and another thing they want is despair a.k.a not getting the other thing you want. It would be better if that character saw their plan crumble in front of their eyes and having to live that than what happened with them spoilers dying like they wanted.
Yes, agreed! Frollo is one of Disney´s greatest villans of all time. He was evil to the core in terms of his actions, yet his human flaws - uncontrollable lust - made him way more realistic than any other villan. Also, shouout to Esmeralda for being the best female protagonist Disney ever had - imo
my favorite villains are Dio brando, Sephiroth and Darcia from wolf rain. I like Dio because he know he's an asshole and he know it, he has grate charisma and when things don't go his way he flips out XD. Sephiroth is a fallen hero with a dark past. when he was sane, he cared for his friends,a good role model and he had a heart of gold and when he snapped, it was sad to watch him turn into a monster. Darcia is a guy that I love to hate. his wife died but he didn't have to be a ass and kill a whole pack of innocent wolves who were just trying to find paradise.XD
My favorite villains are the ones who point out hypocrisy regardless of how monstrous they may be, they always have a point
Ι believe that Crocodile , Doflamingo , Zabuza , Meruem , Phantom Troupe as a whole are some of the best villains.
I agree with your choice of Zabuza, he was a darn great villain. his character arc was a closed circuit as well. his timing for the show was perfect as well. along with kakashi's monologue of the way of the world. everything down to his death was well written. I'd like if the rest of the show was written as in depth as his arc
Zabuza was the best of that lot... he let the protagonists shine through his antagonism, while keeping himself as a visible and relatable character. Doflamingo is an example of how a villain may overshadow the protagonists of his arc, even without much character development, with just an excess of personality - similar to the Joker in the Dark Knight, who did the same to Batman in my opinion.
As far as villain looking like a villain. Mine looks like Tinkerbell but she has the mentality of a deranged mayuri kurotsuchi.
Johan liebert is my favorite villian. Simple style I like to go for.
yay Moonlight Sonata!
I love the Video btw
one rule ive noticed and can agree with is the villain has to be the most interesting
My favourite villain is Asch from the tales of the abyss although the he became good
My favourite villain is, Crocodile from One Piece.
i liked and favorite every video of yours dude i love you
I love the art style.
In the story that I'm working on, the protagonist is actually more evil than the antagonist because he was the reason that the villain became a villain. I really like these revenge stories and I also find it interesting when the protagonist isn't really good either or was evil before.
Bethoven's moonlight sonata 1st movement fits perfectly with the video.
My favourite is also pain and obito.. pls could you do another how to draw sketches video. i love them :) or how to draw a head
I like the psycho pathic villians the most. They are fun to watch
I have to say the greatest villains I've ever scene were Lord genome and the antispiral from gurren lagann. there characters were so complete and extremely relatable. I can honestly say, in each of there positions I'd had done the same thing they did. the only issue I had with gurren lagann is, Lord genome and the antispiral were in the same mindset. which is why they are equally as good. but I love how the antispiral gave a reasonable explanation to what he was doing during there fight.
If I saw the character you're drawing in a dark allyway, I would have a heartattack!!!
you should do a tutorial or an intruction which can help people to develop their own drawing styles
best villain, phantom troupe hunter x hunter hands down
But what about ants?
Eric Felix Jack/Cracker from One piece are better
The Phantom Troupe is really undeveloped and is only in one arc. Their motives are just to steal and make money too. Hisoka himself is an amazing villain, but the whole troupe is pretty poorly written
Meruem>>>Phantom Troupe But there are far better villains out there than Meruem and the Phantom Troupe.
I like crazy sadistic villians
I think the best villains are individuals that look like heroes when you look at it from their point of view.
The first half you were explaining that our villain should be complex, i was thinking "yeah. I know its important to make them special, that why i don't know how to write my villain." heh
my favorite kind of villains are villains who are smart, who knows what situation and what kind of situation is coming up, sort of like tacticians.And another kind of favorite villain are the ones who just want to watch the world burn, like the Joker.
AYE
WHERE DO I FIND MY MAGIC WAND TOOL IN MANGA STUDIO 5?
I DONT SEE IT
AYE
I’M 5 YEARS LATE!
@@charlesrodriguez7984 lol
a good villain for me is someone with a sinister plan and story-line
not to op a purpose for being evil and a good plot to the entire manga
Very well-said. I'll take this into consideration.
Whyt Manga when working on very beginning chapters, should you have the whole story planned and written out COMPLETELY. Or is it ok to work in the plot points and build as you go along to the pre planned ending?
Both methods could work, its all about execution sometimes. I don't have my whole story written out completely but I know it all ends summarized-ish. I recommend using points as things may change moving forward.
Whyt Manga Ok, Thanks for replying.
This has been holding me back from drawing chapters and getting my comic rolling.
Oda the One Piece creator... his method is that he already know how One Piece will end... so what he does is creating arcs that start building up that final. So it is like a labyrinth... you start moving forward to your goal
so you have a story which you have planned out all the way through? same here except for some reason it is really hard to come up with a beginning to my story as I know the ending I just wanted to say that so yeh
Thanks for this video!
From what I've seen from One's One Punch Man web comic, Garo is a well written character. You almost feel sorry for him and the way his overall arc becomes complete isn't a clear cut case at all.
Yo whyt If it doesn't trouble you, mind making your next video on story plots? (unless you've already done so.) thx
Villains cna work either way.
They could be Monsters, Tragic villains, villains with good intentions but evil acts, but you could also have a villain like a demon. Or a being that is evil incarnate.
when i write a villain i try to make him human as possible so you can understand his side of the story, because in the real world there are no such thing as villains just people and people with a bad mentality
Really helpful stuff
Not to brag but I think we have minds that think alike and i totally thought the exact things you said of a villian
If i may add:
If you want to make a villian that you want readers to be feared by, make him appear as less as possible.
Quick question how long did it take u to get so good at drawing manga?
How big is your scanner? I'm just worried because I only have an a4 scanner that comes with my printer and is deleter paper bigger that a4 or normal document paper?
my favorite villian was Madara
SPOILERS
he tried to make the tsukyomi happen and once it was successful he was happy there was no more pain suffering and wars then he got betrayed by zetsu all Madara wanted was eternal peace
I actually never knew why they were trying to stop him. He was just looking for peace and to everyone to live in a dream-like world
@@ricaardogarciavelez885They wanted to stop madara because everyone in the world should have a chance to live out life even with pain and suffering because it helps them grow as it did with naruto
dude he was a giant hypocrit
I want power tips!
A tips video on making powers for characters
So in my manga series, the first two major protagonists will only be villains from a perpsective. Their motivations will good, but their methods will be in direct opposition to the protagonist and his team. I don't want all villains to be pure evil in my series. I would think saving the pure evil ones for the late-series would be more appropriate.
#1 madara uchiha OG as hell.. alive or dead still kicked nigga ass..
How do you write someone... My english isnt my first langauge but that doesnt sound right... writing about someone i get creating someone i get by writing someone... that ugh idk im probably wrong.
There are many types of villains, but my personal favorite are complete madmen. Take Betelgeuse for example, personally my favorite villain, he's so psychotic it's funny. Something about unstable characters makes them unpredictable, unsettling, and creepy. Perfect for a villain.
A villain has to get shit done, I hate when a villain talks a big game but loses to the dum luck of the hero. This happens so often that I start to root for the villain because he's the under dog. No no, I'm supposed to root for the hero and hate the villain. Betelgeuse gets shit done! He kills people, he beats Subaru multiple times, he accomplishes his goal! And I hate him for it, but love him as a villain becomes there's proof that he's dangerous.
A villain should have a backstory like any other character. Betelgeuse wasn't always a crazy bastard, although it wasn't explained in the anime yet, there is reasons for everything he does. From his madness, to his goal, everything has a purpose.
Characterization, they're characters too and so they should act like one. Betelgeuse is supposed to represent the Sin of Sloth, but he repents against his slothful nature with the Virtue of Diligence. But he has perverted this heavenly virtue to such an extent that he punishes himself every time he makes a mistake calling it Sloth, and punishes others who partake in Sloth.
Afro Ninja approved 🥷🏾🤙🏾
When I create a antagonist I like to look at Hisoka from hxh. I feel like he was executed almost perfectly.
You mean antagonist?
@@blacklikethesun idk do i
@@junobi653 ...idk. do you?
and favorite vilain is either pain or dark knights joker
Very imformative video, thank you.
Yagami Light is my favourite villain :)
He's an anti-hero. He's still the hero of the story, but since he's actually the villain, that makes him an anti hero.
Not necessarily. An anti-hero isn't just a villain that's a main character, it's a hero that does things that are unconventional towards the plot, morality, or characters (including themselves), or maybe they don't want to be the hero but they have to be, but they're heroes nonetheless. Deadpool is an anti-hero, Winston from 1984 is an anti-hero. But a villain is the one causing issues towards the plot itself, causing the driving force of the story in a negative way. Yagami Light is the villain. L is an anti-hero. Being the main character does not change what kind of character a villain is.
Actual Cancer not an anti hero, straight villain. Hero doesn't mean main character. He is a protagonist not a hero.
Whyt Manga hey man,do you have any advice on how to develop a plot that has multiple protagonists, like, i dont want to give the feel that one is better than the other one or more important and i cant find the way to give each one his own spotlight. nice work btw.