Actuallly, having the main character be a goodie-two-shoe pacifist who doesn't want to kill anyone is the most cliche'd type of hero. Even outside of the manga media this trope has been done to death. You'll have to read outside of the big 3 shounen to find these many instances, a quick example would be Vash from Trigun.
Well you'll have to reread my statement, What I said was that the heroes way of being a goody two shoes is unique. Vash is much different. True they both seem to run from violence, but the Heroes was is still much more direct, and more respectable. A goodie two shoes in the world were monsters and humans are conflicting and killing each other is also quite unusual.
I mean you don't truly get that same feeling.
But that's the thing, it wasn't sudden by any means. The story had two parts, Superior and Superior Cross, to build up the main characters personality and make them solve their inner conflicts. In their journey, they've seen the destruction Shelia did as the demon lord and all the terrible things Kagami has done. Yet in the end, nothing felt like it changed when they discovered Shelia's identity and found Kagami. They didn't criticize Shelia, let alone hate her, and they just accepted both of them after all they've done as if to imply it had no repercussions. And while this is typical of the average shounen, that's what disappointed me. This is not your typical shounen, at least not at the beginning. Kagami didn't neccssarly need to die, but at the very least he shoud've been punished and not trusted immidiatly.
I understand that the topic of the day was "forgiveness", but it's not realistic to show absolute forgiveness without regard to repercussions. Hero saved Kagami simply because he was a goodie-two-shoe, and did not confront him on his actual actions and simply threw them behind, for him to start anew. I wanted the hero to be more 3-dimensional then that. After this long journey, I wanted him to have changed like Shelia, to have grown more realistic.
You are being the one who wants an natural element incorporated. There is a reason why typical shounen (read on) and that is simply, it is more or less actually how it works... If a Person become part of a society and live with it for a long time, gets accepted by it. Then reveals a major fault they have made in their past. Of course the immediate reaction is a shocked one, but shortly after they are forgiven, the only societies that does not forgive this cause of action, is the ones with a strong moral sense of justice (I see all Justice as fake and imaginary but that's off topic). You can hardly say the hero and his friends are those who only accept certain types doing certain things, so it is highly realistic that Shelia was accepted in this instance. Now about Kagami, he was accepted simply because Shelia had familiy relations and loved him, so the moment he changed it should be obvious that he would be accepted. This only becomes so much more obvious when we add the fact that the hero and his team, composes of goodie two shoes who refuse to kill anything but the Demon Lord (one true evil).
Now for shounen, this is not even a shounen though it's seinen. But the fact that Naruto tends to forgive people is of a bit different reason. He simply refutes any moral but their own, evil is only evil and good is only good. In this story the only ''good'' ones are the hero and his team, as well as a few select side characters met on the way, and even they are always shown somewhat wrong. In Naruto it instead ends up everyone good is only good as well.. think about it when did a good character ever commit a true evil or selfish act. Hero did this, Shelia did this, pretty much everyone did this... otherwise they swallowed in self pity and followed the bright ones.
Any moral is not subjugated as pure evil, the reader is meant to even think from the evil perspective and see what right there and whats wrong, if you can't do that this story is not meant for you (not speaking to you here Kat ^^). I'm gonna move on
Also, not killing anyone because of the power of love/friendship is exactly what a typical shounen would do. It's not so much the act of not killing as it is the reason not to that bothers me. It had a unique take on the hero vs. demon lord old story from the beginning, and while relationship was hinted from the beginning, the fact that it was not meant to be was also hinted. But in the end, love conquers all. One of the oldest cliches in the book. It'd have been more consistent with the manga's quality to have gone for a more unique, somewhat bittersweet ending where they agree that a hero and a villain can't be together. Other great shounen have done this as well. Again, death is not the point nor it is neccessary, it is the reasoning behind it.
on the contrary I would say this story really differs, because it does not really stop the evil. it only stops one moment, and then lets the monsters and humans go at each other. It also represents love as a lost ideology, where typical shounen often have innocent people actually be innocent (the few innocent people in Superior is exceptions, the towns that accepts anything related to monsters are even more as we only saw 2, were one didn't at first)
It's not always about making new ways to tell a story, sometimes using old techniques in a new way is way more impressive.
I just say your completely wrong on this one thing here, it wasn't hinted that it would end up with the hero and Demon lord apart, the opposite was in fact hinted, I knew right from the start it would end up like this to be honest, anything else would be the story denying it's own philosophical rail.
I'll just say this one time again to be clear, had the story ended up with a bittersweet ending, I would have given superior 1 start and made a hateful review of it... Simply because the story wouldn't fit, and that I would be extremely pissed making my first mistake in predicting the end on this type of story xD
And that is exactly why the ending bothers me. From the get-go this manga was not a simple mindless comedy/drama, it presented an actual philosophy that a lot of typical heros have, the conflict it causes with them when fighting bad guys, and planned to take this conflict to its conclusion at the end of the series. If this was thoughtless entertainment or some rom-com or slice-of-life, I would have been fine with that ending. But after all that build up, a simple ending of love conquering all betrayed my exceptions. I expected more of this.
In conclusion, the twist on the old hero stories was very interesting, the comedy was funny when it hit the spot, the drama wasn't too overdone, and the characters for the most part were memorable. It's only the climax that I found disappointing.
And by the way, I have read both of Gantz and Claymore. Claymore is a shounen, by the way. Susprised? Well yes, that's what we call a unique shounen. 
I'm not surprised, it's just that Claymore is a borderline shounen-seinen, so that is why it can still be used as an example. the fact it tipped a bit more on the other side of the scale does not really matter that much.
and on the rest of it, I hope I'm not to arrogant when I say that I think I have answered it already. (my opinion on it)
But that aside, what character(s) did you guys enjoy watching develop the most?
For me, it was Kagami. At the beginning he seemed like just your typical demon lord's right-hand, an emotionless killer who will do all of the demon lord's bidding. But as the series progressed, he started questioning her, and betrayed his own master. Then we learned that he wasn't a simple right-hand, but a sort of parent to her. That fleshed him out more, and made him more 3-dimensional. As the series progress, even with the copy demon lord, he started slowly questioning his own actions, and at the climax he even showed emotions and cried. That was a very powerful moment.
it's interesting you say Kagami because this is already a give on why he was forgiven so easily, But yes all thing aside I think Kagami had the most well done development, were Shelia had the most development overall, Hero had the least.
Among the side characters there was a lot as well... but I personally would save that from when I get back from London (leaving in a while)... I'm not going to be able to give an imminent response on anything... I'll be back the 20. but I'm not sure I'll get the time to come on.
yep, and another thing, this is one of the few times I have had such a great discussion on a Manga ^^. Thank you for that
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