What is your favorite character? For most it would usually be the main character of the show, whether that be Superman, Homer Simpson, etc. That makes sense since it is usually the main character that the viewer will see the most; the stories are focused around the main characters, and they often times experience the most change. While I feel it can be implemented well, and is done so most of the time, there are some series where I feel that the side characters could stand out more. I will be using Boku No Hero Academia as that test study. Boku no Hero Academia is a story about a world where everyone has quirks or superpowers, and it focuses on a boy named Midoriya Izuku under the tutelage of the top hero who enters a hero school to become a hero.
For clarification when I say minor character, I mean supporting cast of characters who aren’t the main cast.
Side characters are known to be used as a foil to the main character or basically the opposite of the main character to highlight certain parts of the main character. This is seen in Boku no Hero Academia, where Shinso, a minor character with a mind-controlling power, tries to control Izuku who has little to any control over his own powers. But since they usually act as foils that means they can usually have very different personalities and even different backstories than the main character. This means minor characters can be unique and diverse, as seen in Boku No Hero Academia where the cast is full of unique characters all with their own special superpowers and appearances, including characters that grow mushrooms, to characters that shoot a beam out of their belly button. (This is even seen in the background art with the block guys.)
However, one pitfall of most shows is that they often fail to use these characters; Boku No Hero Academia often doesn’t use its cast of characters because it spends so much time developing and creating the main cast. The main cast follows the standard main character archetype, which is seen in many other characters and can be done well, but it leads to relatively the same story being played over and over again. However I understand reasons why the author may not want to do this, as these archetypes are established because people like them, and while it may not fit my taste, it does so for many. I would argue that it is worth it for authors to try new things, and instead of spending so much time with a standard archetype or having a story fall on one character, they should give more depth to unique characters to gauge audiences’ responses to these new techniquest. Kohei Horikoshi, the author of Boku No Hero Academia has been shown to respond to fan enthusiasm regarding certain characters by bringing them back with an increase in popularity. I argue that is not enough, since it doesn’t give characters enough time to shine when they seem stuck on the plot instead of interwoven in it. This is due to production since by the time a character becomes popular, they have probably planned out the rest of the series which makes it hard for them to give such a character a big role.
Minor characters also solve the problem of there being too much of an emphasis with main characters. It helps to fix the filler problem versus spending unnecessary time with the main characters. Many series, especially long running series run out of plot for the main character so they often start filling up that space with minor characters’ backstory. I did enjoy this, and it felt like a shortcut to integrate such a large group of people into one cast. Also it was better than revisiting a main character backstory again. For most, it may feel half-baked, where it was somehow fitted into the plot at hand, and then totally forgotten for the rest of the series. I would like it if the character was more of an integrated part of the story, so it felt like they had a stake in the story before developing into it. Boku No Hero Academia tries to do this through Iida, a supporting character, by introducing conflict in which his brother was harmed badly by a villain and he strives for revenge. While this was interesting for the author to trigger Iida’s own side quest, it unnecessarily added the main characters and I didn’t feel like I got enough time spent with Iida to understand his reaction to the scenario. In all, I would argue for more buildup and involvement for minor characters in these stories.
Minor characters can help to tell different and more unique stories and improve a story by better exploring the world these characters fill up.
Spoiler Alert is an Opinion culture column used to give reviews for movies, television shows, or other related media.
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