What Does Nietzsche'S Overman Symbolize In Manga Characters?

2025-09-02 18:25:02 326

3 Answers

Max
Max
2025-09-05 22:49:39
I’ll toss in a quick, more playful take: to me, the overman in manga is a flavor — think 'spiky-haired, morally messy, destiny-pushing' — not a template. I see it as three shorthand moves creators use: one, a character rejects ordinary values and faces loneliness (Eren from 'Attack on Titan' vibes at times); two, they undergo literal or psychological metamorphosis (Tetsuo in 'Akira' is the classic example); three, the narrative forces readers to ask whether their transcendence is liberation or catastrophe (watch 'Monster' or parts of 'Vinland Saga' for that slow-burn moral critique).

I enjoy spotting the trope because it reveals what a story cares about: power, responsibility, creativity, or the void left by achieving one’s goal. Sometimes it’s tragic, sometimes sardonic, and sometimes it’s a mirror, making me question what values I’d keep if I had that kind of agency — which is exactly the kind of thought experiment I read manga for.
Uriah
Uriah
2025-09-06 21:02:02
On another evening, curled up with a sketchbook and a battered copy of 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra' on my shelf, I thought about how the overman functions as a narrative device in manga — not as doctrine but as tension. The core symbolic elements I notice are creation of values, radical self-overcoming, and an embrace (or rejection) of fate. Manga dramatizes those through transformation scenes, moral isolation, and the aftermath of 'success.' Characters who truly resemble the overman are often isolated: they either transcend society or are destroyed by it.

I find this particularly evident in works like 'Akira' or 'Fullmetal Alchemist', where power forces characters to choose what to prioritize: the self, humanity, or a new set of morals. 'Akira' shows the catastrophe of sudden ascension without ethical grounding, while 'Fullmetal Alchemist' uses ambition and sacrifice to ask whether creating new values is ethical or hubristic. There’s also an important caveat: far-right misreadings historically twisted Nietzsche, and manga sometimes explores that corruption neatly — power without reflection becomes monstrous. When creators borrow the overman trope, it’s usually to explore the costs of self-creation, not to endorse domination. That ambiguity is why I keep re-reading these stories; every revisit surfaces a different moral puzzle and a different emotional payoff.
Marissa
Marissa
2025-09-08 01:31:22
I get a little giddy thinking about how Nietzsche’s concept of the overman sneaks into manga, because it’s never literal — it’s always a mood or a problem that a character wrestles with. For me, the overman is less a superhero and more an attitude: someone who breaks from the herd’s moral checklist and tries to make their own values through struggle. In practice that shows up in characters who reject received morality, who create rules out of pain and choice, or who push themselves into monstrous growth. Look at 'Berserk' — Griffith preaches destiny and becomes a horrific godlike figure, which reads like a perversion of the will-to-power; Guts is the flip side, embodying relentless self-overcoming without pretending to be a ruler of values.

Manga often dramatizes Nietzschean themes through tragedy or irony. 'Death Note' lets Light Yagami play at being judge and creator of values until hubris and reality eat him alive; 'JoJo's Bizarre Adventure' gives us flamboyant individuals — Dio or later protagonists — who insist upon their singular destiny and sheer force of will. Sometimes it's more subtle: Saitama in 'One-Punch Man' captures the ennui of someone who’s achieved unbeatable power and now must find purpose, which is very Nietzschean in a melancholic way. Mostly, though, I see manga using the overman to question: who gets to define 'higher' and at what cost? Those gray moral zones are the juicy part for readers like me — it’s less about supporting tyranny and more about asking how a person becomes themselves in a world that punishes uniqueness.
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