Here is one of the animes that have paved the way for many shounens we know.
This anime is one of the most entertaining i ever watched. the adventure of our MC, the fun cast, the comedy made me laugh so many times and some really good themes. There were some good fights with actual creativity involved in, and the fighting techniques are way cooler than your sequel. But i would say it kind of falls off later on, the main cast was forgotten, some arcs were sort of repetitive, and most of the villains were not it. Plus there were some unnecessary arcs and there were some moments where felt way too dragged.