1 That Golden Age of Japanese Manga Belonging to the Post-80s Generation
I believe that for a significant portion of the post-80s generation, Japanese manga can be said to be an inseparable and important part of their childhood. Those familiar characters, classic lines, and the experience of once holding a manga book and reading it page by page have become indelible memories in many people's lives.
Unlike today, where various works can be accessed at any time through online platforms, in that era, the dissemination channels of Japanese manga in China were relatively limited. Youths often could only access these works by purchasing, renting, or passing them around among classmates, making them seem exceptionally precious. It was precisely through this method of dissemination that these stories from Japan gradually entered the lives of the youths of that era, also becoming an important window for many to understand the outside world, heroes, and dreams.
Japanese manga of that period often had a very distinct story structure: a youth constantly challenges themselves for a goal, growing through repeated failures and battles; companions support each other to face difficulties together; and those seemingly powerful characters also often have their own beliefs and things they must protect. Whether the background of the work is a fantasy world, a future universe, or a real-life school campus and sports field,this clear and direct growth narrative makes it easy for readers who are in their youth to see their own reflection in the protagonist.
And for the Chinese post-80s generation, the influence brought by these manga often began with specific stories and characters. Many years later, we might not remember the complete plot of the stories, but we can still remember those shocking scenes we saw for the first time.
When that black-haired warrior surpassed his own limits for the first time in anger and turned into a golden warrior, countless Chinese post-80s felt for the first time the imagination created by Japanese anime and manga, and understood for the first time the passion and shock brought by “breaking through one's own limits” in shonen manga:
When that youth used his own body to shield Athena, countless post-80s understood for the first time the weight behind the word "hero"—true power is not just about defeating enemies, but also about choosing to sacrifice oneself to protect those who are important:
When that man standing in the wilderness threw his last punch toward the sky, countless post-80s understood for the first time another expression of power, belief, and destiny in Japanese anime and manga. At that moment, he completed the curtain call of a strong man in his own way—not all battles end in victory, but the truly strong, whether in success or failure, can face their own destiny without regrets:
When that problem youth, who once only knew how to fight, endured pain and fought to the very last moment on the court for the team's victory, we understood for the first time that youth itself is a challenge of never giving up:
Of course, the classic works belonging to that era are far more than these: in *City Hunter*, the seemingly cynical Ryo Saeba hides his sense of responsibility to protect others with humor; in *Captain Tsubasa*, Tsubasa Oozora always chases his football dream, constantly growing through repeated challenges; in *YuYu Hakusho*, the delinquent youth Yusuke Urameshi gradually takes on responsibility amidst battles and friendship, completing the transformation from a delinquent youth to a guardian.
Although these works have different themes—some depicting the universe and battles, some focusing on school and youth, and some telling stories of adventure and growth—they share one thing in common:They were born in an era that believed in growth, believed in effort, and believed that the future could be changed.
This spirit of the era also explains why these works were later able to generate such a strong resonance among the Chinese post-80s generation. For the Chinese post-80s who grew up after the reform and opening up, they also experienced a rapidly changing era. Society continued to open up, living standards steadily improved, and the possibilities for personal development were constantly increasing. “Changing one's life through one's own efforts” gradually became a very distinct experience of the era in the growth process of this generation.
Therefore, although the social environments of Japan in the 1980s and the Chinese post-80s generation were different, there was a subtle resonance of the era in the growth experiences of the two generations:Both once believed that the future would be better than the present, and both believed that individuals could go further through effort. This is perhaps one of the important reasons why Japanese manga could cross national borders and become a shared youth memory for the Chinese post-80s generation.
2 Why the Golden Age Was Born: The Japanese Social Environment and the Maturity of the Manga Industry
Looking back at those works in the first chapter, one will find that although they have different themes and different times of creation, most of them were concentrated in the period from the 1980s to the early 1990s:
| Serialization Began | Representative Works |
|---|---|
| 1981 | *Captain Tsubasa* |
| 1983 | *Fist of the North Star* |
| 1984 | *Dragon Ball* |
| 1985 | *City Hunter* |
| 1986 | *Saint Seiya* |
| 1990 | *Slam Dunk* |
The concentrated appearance of a batch of works that influenced an entire era during this period was not an accidental phenomenon, but the result of the joint action of economic, cultural, and industrial conditions after decades of development in Japanese society.
The 1970s was an important period when Japan gradually transitioned from rapid post-war economic growth to a mature consumer society. After the rapid development from the 1950s to the early 1970s, the income of Japanese residents continued to rise, middle-class families gradually expanded, and the improvement in living standards also drove the growth of demand for cultural entertainment. Television gradually entered ordinary households, the mass entertainment industry developed rapidly, and manga gradually evolved from simple children's reading material into an important component of youth cultural consumption. For children who grew up during this period, manga was no longer just cheap reading material encountered by chance, but had become an important form of entertainment in daily life.
At the same time, the Japanese manga industry also gradually established a more mature commercial operation model. In 1968, Shueisha launched *Weekly Shonen Jump*. Although it was not the absolute market leader at first, the serialization system, reader surveys, popularity competition, and long-term story development model that gradually formed afterward had a profound impact on Japanese shonen manga.
This model was particularly suited for telling growth stories: a youth protagonist could constantly face new challenges, growing through failure, gaining new strength in battle, and gradually finding their own value in the company of companions. The growth of the characters could in turn constantly push the story into new stages, allowing the works to naturally extend into long-form narratives.
By the 1970s, the Japanese manga industry had gradually acquired the foundation for stable development, and the generation born in the 1970s happened to grow up in such an environment. Upon entering the 1980s, this generation successively entered their youth, and industrial capability and reader demand began to truly converge, forming a special window of the era: manga was already able to continuously launch new works, while a generation of youth readers was looking for stories that could carry their youth, dreams, and emotions.
This convergence of industrial capability and reader demand also shaped the distinct spiritual outlook of the works of that period: passion, dreams, and heroism. What they depicted was not just battles between youths and powerful enemies, but also carried that era's imagination of growth, effort, and the future—believing that individuals could obtain greater power and go further by constantly breaking through themselves.
However, no cultural golden age lasts forever. With the changes in the Japanese social environment after the 1990s, the demographic structure, economic expectations, and social psychology that once supported the prosperity of hot-blooded shonen manga also began to gradually change.
3 From Heroic Growth to Self-Exploration—The Shift in the Spirit of the Era in Japanese Anime and Manga
If the golden age of Japanese anime in the 1980s was born in a society that believed in the future, then after entering the 1990s, this social atmosphere began to gradually change. And this change, in fact, had already begun to manifest in the mid-1980s.
After the Plaza Accord in 1985, the yen appreciated rapidly. Japan subsequently adopted loose monetary policies, leading to a rapid expansion of asset prices and credit, which eventually formed a bubble economy. Around 1991, the bubble burst, and the Japanese economy gradually transitioned from long-term rapid growth to a period of long-term low growth:
Changes in the economic environment do not immediately alter the values of an entire society. After the bubble burst, Japanese society still experienced a lag period, and the social expectations previously built on continuous economic growth did not disappear immediately. However, as economic stagnation persisted, the certainty that “as long as one works hard, the future will keep getting better” began to gradually weaken.For the generation that grew up in the golden age, that constantly expanding and forward-moving future also began to no longer be taken for granted.
However, what truly prompted Japanese society to begin re-examining its own state was a series of major events that occurred around 1995. The large-scale destruction caused by the Great Hanshin Earthquake:
As well as the societal shock brought by the Aum Shinrikyo incident:
It made Japanese society begin to realize that the past era of stability, prosperity, and confidence in expansion had changed. This change was not a simple economic issue, but a shift in social psychology.
Entering the 1990s, this shift in social psychology was gradually reflected in Japanese manga: as the belief that “power can change the world” began to waver, works were no longer satisfied with telling stories of how to acquire power and defeat enemies, but instead began to ask how one should use power once they have it, and what responsibilities they must bear.
This change was first reflected in Rurouni Kenshin. If the heroes of 1980s shonen manga often protected their loved ones by acquiring greater power, the question posed by Rurouni Kenshin was much more complex: how should someone who once relied on the sword to change an era, and even take lives, face their past in a new era?
The story of Rurouni Kenshin is set after the Meiji Restoration. The protagonist, Himura Kenshin, was once a swordsman known as “Hitokiri Battosai,” but in the new era, he chooses to cast aside killing, makes a ”vow of no-killing,” and protects others with a reverse-blade sword. What he faces is no longer just external enemies, but the conflict between power, guilt, and peace:
If Rurouni Kenshin contemplates “how those with power should choose,” then Neon Genesis Evangelion, broadcast in 1995, goes a step further to ask: when a young boy cannot even confirm his own self-worth, why must he bear the responsibility of saving the world?
When his father demands that he pilot Unit-01, his first reaction is not to accept this power, but to refuse to face this responsibility. For Shinji Ikari, piloting Unit-01 is not an opportunity to become a hero, but an unavoidable pressure—he longs to be needed, yet fears being used merely as a tool:
If Neon Genesis Evangelion focuses on “the relationship between the individual and the self,” then entering the 21st century, some works began to further contemplate “the relationship between individual power and the world.”
Among them, Death Note is a very typical example, posing questions completely different from traditional shonen manga—in past hero stories, power usually meant responsibility. Those with power should protect the weak and guard those who are important to them. But the question Light Yagami faces is: if an ordinary person suddenly gains the ability to change the world, is he qualified to redefine the world according to his own ideals?
Initially, he believes he is creating a new world free of crime. However, as his power expands, he gradually begins to face another question: when a person possesses the power to decide the life and death of others, where is the line between justice and desire? Therefore, Death Note is not a simple story of “a boy gaining power,” but a reflection on individual power, human nature, and absolute power:
Fullmetal Alchemist further demonstrates the 21st-century shonen manga's redefined understanding of “power.” The Elric brothers do not prove themselves by continuously acquiring power; instead, after making a wrong choice, they are forced to face the price behind power. The existence of the Gate of Truth symbolizes that there is no power without a price in this world—every gain means having to bear a corresponding loss.
They ultimately realize that true growth is not about having the power to change the world, but about still being able to take responsibility for one's choices after possessing that power:
Of course, the changes in these works do not mean that Japanese manga after the 1990s completely bid farewell to “hot-blooded” themes. In fact, hot-blooded shonen manga still maintains strong vitality, but works of the new era have begun to endow “growth” with more diverse meanings.
By the end of the 20th century, works like Hikaru no Go and Naruto continued the tradition of shonen manga, but the questions they focused on were no longer just about “how to obtain stronger power.”
Hikaru no Go showcases another way of growing. Hikaru Shindo's initial contact with Go was not because he had a clear goal, but through his interactions with Sai and numerous other players, he gradually discovered the charm of Go and found his own direction:
And Naruto in Naruto embodies this change even more clearly. Naruto's core issue is finding his own sense of self-worth; his initial desire to become Hokage was not just for power or status, but because he wanted to be acknowledged by others in the village. For Naruto, the greatest enemy is not a powerful opponent, but the long-standing feeling of loneliness in his heart:
From Rurouni Kenshin to Naruto, the narrative of growth in Japanese manga has gradually become more diverse. Heroism has not disappeared because of this, but has been endowed with different connotations under the context of the new era.
In this sense, the mid-to-late 1990s was not simply the end of the golden age of Japanese anime, but rather a period when a new cultural phase was gradually taking shape. Japanese anime still retained its traditions of adventure, friendship, and growth, but these works began to pose more complex questions and attempt to find different answers.
4 From National Resonance to a Diversified Ecology—The Formation of a New Era of Japanese Anime and Manga
If from the 1980s to the early 1990s, Japanese anime relied on a few works to form a national cultural phenomenon that crossed age groups, then after entering the 21st century, the biggest change in Japanese anime was not that a certain genre replaced the hot-blooded shonen manga of the past, but that the entire industry gradually formed a highly segmented ecosystem.
In the past, a successful manga work often needed to attract as wide a young readership as possible; today, however, Japanese anime faces a much more diverse audience—people of different ages, interests, and lifestyles can all find works that meet their needs.
Behind this change is not a single factor, but the result of multiple factors changing together.
First, changes in Japan's social structure have altered the anime consumer base.
In the 1980s, an important reason why Japanese shonen manga could become a national cultural phenomenon was its massive young readership, along with highly centralized communication channels such as manga magazines and TV anime. However, after entering the 21st century, Japanese society gradually faced the problems of a declining birthrate and demographic shifts—the shrinking youth population meant the anime industry could no longer rely solely on the traditional youth market to sustain growth.
At the same time, anime consumption gradually expanded from “youth culture” to “all-age culture.” Female readers, adult consumers, and groups with “specific interests” began to become important segments of the market. Therefore, Japanese anime no longer needed to rely on a single genre to cover all audiences, but instead began to create more segmented works targeted at different groups.
As the audience became increasingly diverse, the issues addressed by the works themselves also began to diversify. Shonen manga of the past often emphasized growth, competition, and changing the world, but after entering the 21st century, some works began to focus more on daily life, interpersonal relationships, and how individuals find their own way of living in reality.
K-On! is a very typical example. Starting with several high school girls forming a light music club, this work has no constantly escalating rivals like in traditional shonen manga, nor any grand goals that must be achieved. Instead, through school life, music activities, and the interactions between characters, it showcases youth, friendship, and the joy of daily life:
Second, changes in communication methods have further driven the diversification of Japanese anime.
In the era dominated by television and print media, anime works had to rely on limited communication channels to enter the public eye. Manga magazines, TV anime, and physical distribution systems determined how much exposure a work could get. Therefore, works like Dragon Ball, Saint Seiya, and Slam Dunk were able to become the collective memory of a generation, which, besides the excellence of the works themselves, was closely related to the highly centralized communication environment of the time.
However, after entering the internet era, the logic of anime dissemination changed. Video websites, online communities, and streaming platforms provided richer communication channels,Works no longer needed to first gain widespread attention in the mass market to find a sufficient audience; instead, they could directly reach niche groups with the same interests through the internet. Therefore, even genres that struggled to get enough exposure in the past began to have room for independent development, further driving the diversification of the Japanese anime market.
For example, Girls' Last Tour combines apocalyptic ruins, travel, and daily life, following two girls as they journey through a world where civilization has vanished. Such a work does not rely on traditional mass genres, but is aimed at audiences who like specific themes such as the apocalypse, travel, and philosophical reflection, building its influence by relying on a niche audience:
Third, the business model of the Japanese anime industry itself has also changed.
In the golden age, manga works were usually the core of the industry chain: manga serialization accumulated readers, and then anime adaptations expanded their influence. After entering the 21st century, anime gradually became a more complex IP ecosystem. Manga, light novels, anime, games, music, and merchandise together constitute part of a work's value.
This change meant that works no longer had to rely on national-level influence to succeed. As long as a stable fan base could be formed, a work with a clear positioning could also sustain development through multiple commercial channels.
Of course, diversification does not mean that traditional shonen manga has lost its vitality. In fact, the success of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba proves that core themes born in the golden age, such as passion, friendship, and growth, can still move a large audience today:
But unlike the era of *Dragon Ball*, today's hot-blooded works no longer naturally occupy the center of the entire anime market—they need to coexist with slice-of-life, romance, Isekai, and various other genres in a more segmented ecosystem. This is not the disappearance of traditional genres, but rather a change in the cultural structure of Japanese anime: in the past, a few top works could become the common cultural memory of an era; while today, works of different genres together constitute a more diverse anime ecosystem.
Looking back, from the passion and heroism of the 1980s, to the rethinking of power, responsibility, and self in the 1990s, and to the increasingly segmented genres of works after the 21st century, Japanese anime is not simply moving from one genre to another, but rather, in the process of continuous social change, constantly seeking new ways of expression and constantly responding to people's understanding of growth, life, and self-worth across different generations.