Warning: The following contains spoilers for Viral Hit episode #8!
Summary
The criminally underratedanimeadaptation of themanhwaViral Hithas now added yet another stunning achievement to its already long list of successes byimproving upon a classic shonen formula despite hailing from South Korea. Of course, the episode where it happens still delivers everything thatViral Hitis now beloved for, including its incrediblesatirical commentary of viral social media livestreams, but this adapted deconstruction of manga’s most popular demographic brings the episode to a whole other level.
In episode #8, Hobin is able to get back to his feet after ostensibly getting defeated during a fight in a bathroom against a former pro Taekwondo fighter turned delinquent bully. After redirecting the fight into a toilet stall, Hobin avoids a kick by grabbing hold of the stall’s upper frame and then tackles his opponent to perform a perfectly executed attack that wins the match.
This shocking development justifies shonen’s overused “plus ultra” mantra bycombining it with a literal translation of another successful shonen formula.
Viral Hit Combines A Shonen Cliche With The Genre’s Best Formula
Original series created by Taejun Pak & Kim Junghyun; anime adaptation produced by Okuruto Noboru
Shonen is both plagued by and celebrated for its heroes always managing to push themselves beyond their limits at the last moment to turn battles against stronger opponents in their favor. It’s so ubiquitous thatMy Hero Academiagave it a name that is now one of the characterAll Might’s most well-known quotes, the aforementioned plus ultra. Though the trope leads to some undeniably cool moments, the problem is that there’s rarely an explanation for this besides willpower or having something worth fighting for, such as friendship.
Although Hobin is motivated by something much more tangible, he ends up winning becausehe employs another shonen formula– when a fighter repurposes various mechanics of a technique to overcome an opponent after earlier attempts have failed conventionally. He might “dig deep” to get back to his feet, but Hobin would still have lost since he isn’t a superhero. In many instances, shonen employs this narrative device byrepurposing the understood mechanics of a fictional superpower. However,Viral Hitis mostly based on reality, so its effortsgive a realistic spinto how shonen repurposes supernatural abilities.
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Episode #8 does this two-fold.Hobin moving the fight into a bathroom stall is initially believed to so he can leverage his environment to prevent his opponent from kicking. While it does force his opponent to unleash his most powerful kick, the environment also lets him perform an exercise that viewers have already seen him train in real time and during flashbacks. However, Hobin repurposes this move since it was initially only meant to strengthen his grip to help him perform a completely different maneuver. He actually performs the benign exercise in the actual fight by a completely different means before delivering the finishing attack.
Hobin may have gone “plus ultra” to get back to his feet after receiving a blow that should have defeated him, but the reason why he wins isn’t because he somehow found newfound strength or power at the last moment. This is becauseCrunchyroll’sViral Hitsees Hobin repurposing numerous techniques in unconventional but easily digestible ways, just like in the best shonen anime.
