So what exactly makes "battle shonen" a distinct genre instead of just being lumped in with the martial arts genre? Adding magic or superpowers to the mix doesn't change the fact that it's martial arts.
>>281512263 (OP)
I’d say it’s the other way around where “martial arts” is a subgenre defined by influence from chanbara, kung fu movies, etc. Dojos, xth generation head of the y school, emphasis on “technique,” interschool duels, tournaments.
I was thinking about how Fist of the North Star exactly fits that “stoic master wanders around slaughtering every bandit and dark master in sight” genre and then I realized, Trigun is the same way too, as appropriate for the syncretism in Westerns. Vash is a master of the school of the gun.
