Anime(more specifically Shonen) used to be about growth and overcoming ones' weaknesses by finding your potential and sharpening it through hard work and determination. The belief was that there is no such thing as talent, there is just people who train more and who are more determined, or who have bigger purpose
Now, anime reflect our current generation. We believe in genetic determinism, As a result, we do no effort and stay in mediocrity if we don't see any talent in us.
Compare Hajime No Ippo to One Punch Man. In old school shonen like that, the character starts off by being a weak guy without any friend, to become a world class fighter. Meanwhile in modern anime like OPM, the character is "just like that", there is no struggle, no growth, he is just genetically like that. It reflects our generation of losers who just stay in mediocrity instead of standing up and working. I think the transition between environmental determinism to genetical determinism in Shonen happened after Naruto. Naruto was the last anime of the environmental determinist genre.
Not quite, OP. One Punch Man did invest effort into become who he is today. The training simply unlocked his innate potential. If anything, One Punch Man shows how gene-environment interactions work. Before he started training he was an ordinary guy (with a head full of hair) with unknown innate potential. Then after his rather normal workout routine, his innate potential awoke. Do you know complex traits and complex diseases? They are the same. You have a huge innate genetic potential to get say, Crohn's disease. But you stay away from environmental triggers and can live your life without a distrurbed bowel. However, a single trigger can be enough to develop this horrible bowel disease.
At any rate, neither environmental not genetic determinism is healthy. Environmental gives hope to those who have little innate ability while genetic downplays what you can do yourself. It is best to study the cards that you were dealt with and then dedicate effort to something that you'll likely succeed at. I wanted to serve in the army to continue the family tradition, but my blood is pretty poor and I bleed worse than the average person. So instead I studied STEM because I was good at it. I can still draw my war machines and calculate if they'd be feasible.
Ayden Campbell
>Naruto was the last anime of the environmental determinist genre. Of course it's always the Narutard who always compare a joke character like Saitama to an actual MC....
