We all know most adult series are about sophisticated things like doing your taxes and budgeting, but occasionally there exist action series for lower class adults. How do you tell whether you are watching one of these or accidentally watching something made for kids? You can say seinen, shonen, or whatever, till the cows come home, but these are merely labels referring to the magazines they are shown in (Jojo instantly went from shonen to seinen simply by changing magazine). It might suggest content, but it certainly doesn't define it. Then how do you know and avoid the embarassing mistake of having stacey think you like a baby series?.It's real simple. Echi Oda once explained why Ruffy says Gomu gomu and why his characters shout their attacks. It's because if a kid aimed a punch through the air at another kid, the other kid wouldn't know how to react without an attack name to go off of. This shows perfectly why kid's action shows do this. It's because kids will be copying the moves on the playground and they therefore need to be named..The answer then is this: if you are reading an adult action series, then any time an attack happens it will not be named, and certainly no one will shout the name of an attack while performing it. If you are reading an action series for children, then the attack names will always be shouted out. This is a simple and reliable test which should put all shonen vs seinen debates to bed. Please end all such debates now.
