Sword Art Online
While there is typically some sort of female interest in shounen anime, it’s not often that romance is actually a key driving point for the narrative as a whole. It’s even more unusual that the main female is just as much of a force to reckon with as the male protagonist. Kazuto relies on Asuna in multiple key moments just as Asuna is forced to rely on him. In fact, Asuna often surprises Kazuto with her sheer level of skill in the game. This is one element of Sword Art Online that you can’t help but appreciate, but it also stands as a mere cherry on top compared to the many other ways Sword Art Online manages to deliver quality content.
Kazuto is a protagonist whose development is reversed in a sense from what we usually see of a shounen protagonist. Rather than being a young hero with a lot of potential but an arrogance that steps in the way of his power, Kazuto is a young hero who is in control of his power but needs to find a better motivation for it all. He goes from being a devoted solo player inside a MMO game to being a young man who eventually has an entire family to protect. This complicates Kazuto’s personality by forcing him to think twice about putting himself in danger and actually adding new restraints to his own powers by unlocking new potential for his abilities as a whole once paired with the people he loves. Plenty of plot twists help keep the narrative fresh and a constant cycle of new players coming in and out of Kazuto’s life serves as a reminder of the severity of the situation all these players are actually in.
