Anime has allowed us viewers the ability to explore worlds so unreal and yet so similar we lose ourselves in these places like we actually lived there. Heroes in the world of anime do something similar. Even if you have heroes like All Might from My Hero Academia or Saitama from One Punch Man, the ability to find inspiration in them is actually quite simple. They all possess a concept we can relate to. Many anime heroes come from simple beginnings that led them to become mighty. Saitama was a businessman who ended up realizing how powerless he was to fight monsters—in a truly comedic fight—and began training daily to push himself to the limits! In the world of Naruto, our main ninja Naruto Uzumaki was a lackluster ninja who would end up saving the world and his villagers despite them feeling as if he was truly a useless person. There’s an incredible feeling when you can look at a kid wearing an orange jumpsuit and go…wow that kid is so much like me.

Many of us here at Honey’s Anime once were those kids stared at for being different. Anime was less popular in the 80s and 90s and we endured a lot of bullying and rude remarks due to our love for the medium. Yet, that didn’t stop us from loving anime, manga, and all things otaku. Many of us went on to bigger and better careers/lives due to the inspiration of watching heroes endure being ostracized—like Asta from Black Clover—and understanding it was these characters that inspired us. Anime heroes push us to begin to overcome our own weakness, go past making excuses for them, and wanting to become stronger not to hurt others but to save those like us. Without inspirational anime heroes, some of us might have fallen victim to our pains and allowed the world to continue pushing into the ground with no means of escape.

Many of us frequent anime conventions and are mystified by a sight we’d never thought we’d see. Kids with anime cosplay on and not just any ordinary cosplay but anime hero cosplay! There was a time when kids would only seem to idolize Superman, Spider-man or Batman but now the times have truly changed! We’ve seen kids wearing Goku’s orange Gi from Dragon Ball Z and Deku’s bunny-like costume from Boku no Hero Academia. When we’ve asked the parents if these kids were just forced to wear the outfits—by their parents who obviously are fans of the series—they said no, the children knew these heroes and wished to be like them. Hearing that showed us that, nowadays, kids are growing up with the lofty goal of becoming powerful heroes from their favorite anime shows! For us who grew up in a different time when anime wasn’t anywhere near overthrowing Marvel or DC, it puts a smile on our face because we then know that one day, these children will allow their inner heroes to shine as some of us old school anime fans have and change the world once they grow up too.