Your current 'Shonen' taste?

PirateHasan said:

I haven't watched Ashita no Joe. You must have read/watched Ippo too?

Mirabem said:
My ideal one can be described in two words: Dragon Ball.

My taste in general depends on the execution. For example, I'm not a fan of the two you mentioned as dark and gritty, but it doesn't mean I dislike that kind precisely because I love Death Note and Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan, both truly dark and gritty in my opinion.

Also looking forward the current Shaman King (2021) as it's one of my favorite Shounen manga. I'd say it's filled with adventure and heavily character-driven, which allows fights and conflicts to be meaningful.

mramirezh said:
I've watched Hajimme no Ippo, but it's not as good as Ashita no Joe

notsoirishmonk said:
Does Fate/zero count as a shonen? I dont think it does but I do love beastars and it is a shonen though it doesn't go in any of the categories u listed.

Also I love JJK as well.

PirateHasan said:

I'm not sure if you know, but the Manga of TPN is great, you should be reading that. Lots of content from the manga has been skipped for Season 2, that's why you'll be seeing tons of negative reviews for TPN s2.

AwokenStroken said:
My all time favorite is One Piece, it's actually really hard to find ones that could capture the same feeling I had while watching it.

AwokenStroken said:
My all time favorite is One Piece, it's actually really hard to find ones that could capture the same feeling I had while watching it.

Ingenate said:
I've been loving Gintama. Jujutsu Kaisen has been pretty entertaining.

SgtBaitMan said:
Now to me no shounen shit can be compared to Aria, except for those legendary ones.

AddaeAkono said:
Recently I've been into darker Shounens like JJK and KnY because I think that is the trend as far as WSJ is concerned along with anime adaptations of Chainsaw Man and Spy X Family. Light-Heart Shounens don't really do it for me anymore since I simply out grown them and I find most of them boring. I like Sci-Fi Shounens like Dr. Stone and I still watch battle shounens like My Hero Academia.

I guess my ideal shounen would be something Dark and Battle oriented like Bleach.

Craftys_List said:
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. It's the anime that has refined my taste the most. 2nd favorite is attack on titan, 3rd mob psycho 100.

PirateHasan said:

I haven't seen it.
The synopsis of Aria looks interesting.
Thanks for the recommendation.

NearTheRiver said:
Good thread OP. You got me thinking about it and I noticed as I've gotten older that I prefer more darker Shonen series. I've watched a lot of Shonen series through my time and I can say without a doubt that JJK and KNY are my current favorites and it's not close

_Ako_ said:
damn, imagine having shounen taste. Like, arent most/all of them pretty much the same? It's like you have isekai taste.... Dude.... They're at the fucking same....

Craftys_List said:

I'm not sure whether Mob Psycho 100 is classified as shonen or not but AoT isn't shonen though.

_Ako_ said:
damn, imagine having shounen taste. Like, arent most/all of them pretty much the same? It's like you have isekai taste.... Dude.... They're at the fucking same....

Adampk said:

no offence, but if all shonen are same then as generalization follows all other demographic genre are same. Even ur favorite light novel adaptations are also same too. Every genre has common troupes that doesn't mean they are all same.

how much similarity do u consider Naruto has with beastars or fullmetal alchemist have with Astra lost in space or detective conen with demon slayer???

it's all in ur head

PirateHasan said:

I do get what you are saying but Isekai MCs are already battle ready once they get transported in their respective world, while the shonen protagonist usually dedicate their entire lives in training to stand somewhere (even through the power of friendship lol).
Shonen protagonists have more heart and determination than the Isekai protagonists.
Some isekais also depict extreme violence above shonen standards.
That's why they are different.

Jbril said:
Saint Seiya is the perfect one for me.

Yu-Gi-Oh is a close second.

PirateHasan said:


Mob Psycho 100 won the 62nd Shougakukan Manga Award in the shounen category.
source: https://myanimelist.net/manga/60783/Mob_Psycho_100
I guess this is enough to classify it as shonen

Also AoT is in bessatsu shonen magazine so I think it can be classified as shonen. it feels like seinen to me though.

Adampk said:
I like most shonen. most of my favorite are shonen too. Whatever looks good to me I like it.

Though i don't get how u classify them as such. Most series are mixed of many genre according to me. Eg - one piece is a adventure at the same time its also a battle centered shonen too or Dragon ball is battle centered at the same time its light hearted too. Plus the "dark and gritty" or "light hearted" is weird to be considered as a type/ genre or whatever eg - Naruto was gets very darker and gritty with passing seasons. So I don't really get the type of classification u are aiming at.

I have actually seen some other guy doing similar kind of weird classification for senien in a discussion. Then some other person inspired by it again doing a weird classification thread for shojo too. No hard feeling, but those kind of classification don't make sense to me tbh.

If I simply choose based on genre without repeating series then. (all of them are 8-10 for me)
Action - Dragon ball,
adventure - one piece, hxh or fairy tail
slice of life - silver spoon
Comedy - Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun
Sports - hinomaru sumo, baby steps or Hikaru no Go
cooking - food wars or Chūka Ichiban!
supernatural - ushio no tora or The Ancient Magus' Bride
Romance - inuyasha
fantasy - magi
Dark fantasy - demon slayer
Drama - beastars
military - full metal alchemist
psychological - Future Diary or Kakegurui
scifi - Astra Lost in Space or The Promised Neverland
School - Baku no hero academia or assasination classroom
post apocalypse - Dr stone or Seraph of the End
mystery - detective conan
there are many more....
If this is what u are asking, then this is it I guess.

_Ako_ said:



since when did I reject the notion that LNs are not the same? Have you seen the beta JP fuckbois in these fucking WNs/LNs? God riddance it's incel tilting.





How can you weigh a character's determination when one pride on plot armour on top of plot armour on top of plot armour to a character that pride itself on being a degenerate beta MC transported to world of his fantasies?.... Not trying to be rude but shounen lack the the fundamental aspect that makes a good story... good and that's the pattern of expanded on this so-called "milking the series to its fullest"


I dont hate shounen.... I just hate how I need to watch or see 100 chapter when I can just read Overlord and the arc of 1/2 vol is pretty much the 2000 chapter of a battle shounen.... I dunno... I just dont have the brain capabilities to allow myself to sit in this grueling grind of this so-called HYPE HYPE Overarching PLOT for the MC to get gud. I just want.

Does that mean I like self-insert MC? No..... I'm getting more and more into slow life WNs and I did binge like 30 CN josei/romance WNs and I'm already fangirling for my CEO daddy to fuck my boipucci but well...

I guess we have to start somewhere.... and umm the easiest accessible demographic is shounen... I guess...

Xsadersadd said:
My current favourite is oddly enough Blue Lock, I didn't think I would like it this much when I started it.

PirateHasan said:

The theme of the story at the beginning of serialization depicts how the tone of the series is going to be. You pick Death Note, JJK, KNY etc; these ones have been darker and grittier from the beginning itself and by the end of their serialization, they will become much darker than how they were originally were.
You mentioned Naruto, yeah it becomes darker because of the how the character matures and along with him, us, readers have also matured, after all it has been running for a long time. The jokes you make when you are a 10 year old boy doesn't seem funny when you are at the age of 25.
The dark vs. light classification was stated because of this reason only. It would be awfully weird for Light Yagami picking his nose and at the same time, it would be weird seeing 11 year old Naruto killing a rogue Ninja.

Jeff_Caesar said:
All the above :D I love a nice shonen just to put on while I eat, like I'm watching cartoons back in the day

I especially love the quirky over the top & just absurd funny ones - One Piece, Jojo, Kill la Kill, Dr. Stone

Geel said:
I don't have a specific one, I can like any of those types.

PirateHasan said:

Nice, I tend to stay away from the romantic and sport shonens.

Geel said:


I love sport shounens, romance ones tend to be hit or miss for me though.

PirateHasan said:

I haven't mentioned anything about dark fantasy, there are hardly any shonens with that tag.
JJK characters are childish, but do remember that
You did talk about Naruto though, Dragon Ball in our country was aired censored so I can't say much about it that despite the fact the deaths were depicted in a wacky, humorous way and lacked any emotional depth to the characters dying.
Wasn't Grandpa Gohans death off-screened?

PirateHasan said:


Romance in shonens just drag out too much, I never understood why shonen series are bothered with adding a romantic tale in their story, it kinda gets annoying. I dropped Nanatsu no Taizai for this reason only, it had great plot and characters but romance was forced and unnerving for me.

MinorTatu said:
Because of Attack on Titan and Re:Zero I appreciate drama much more than before. In fact. when you really think about it, shonen fights can sometimes be pretty annoying because some of them are 1) uninteresting to watch 2) don't really add to the plot 3) are just spectacles

Demon Slayer was an offender of this, but it had the slight advantage of looking nice. But random monster battles or just fights in general can be a drag if they don't feel consequential/have some emotional weight behind it. Attack on Titan doesn't have the most high speed flashy fights, but I can feel how much the fights matter when they (rarely) occur

Adster123 said:
The top three shounen that I like are Black Clover, Haikyuu, and Jujutsu Kaisen, so for me, it would be a mix really