The reason vagabond, berserk, and vinland saga are often considered "the big three" of sinen IMO is because they talk about "what's next"... what comes after standing firm for your ideals, overcoming difficulties and achieving your dreams... They show how boys grow to become men. The stories, despite still showing much suffering and nearly insurmountable obstacles, have some serenity to them. They explore what happens when the hero mellows out and drops his edge and seeks to build a deeper understanding of the world beyond his idealist mindset. The perpetual "hero's journey" is actually bad for emotional maturity. If all the stories men are exposed to are of a super-hero they'll just become perpetual teens. As people grow, the kind of stories they hear should grow with them and become more nuanced and grounded, or at least more philosophical and of substance. While these three stories are by no means a deviation from the hero story, they're a good next step for a teenage boy trying to find new characters to look up to I think. Now I wonder what's the next step from that.