Shounen anime is one of the most popular genres of anime and there is no other genre that even comes close to it. If you don't believe me then just take a look at some of the best anime series and you will see that they are dominated by a few shounen anime series. It can be repetitive, there are certain tropes that are present in almost all shounen series, but even then it remains as popular as ever - perhaps it has become more popular as the whole world is now watching anime!
So what exactly does "shonen" mean?
Shounen is basically a genre aimed at an audience of young male teens between the ages of 12 and 18. Nearly all shounen anime series feature a male protagonist in a compelling storyline filled with humorous elements, heavy-duty combat, and adventure. journey. The protagonists of these stories tend to be upbeat and cheerful people who have a desire to constantly improve and enjoy making friends for some reason. However, all these qualities of a shounen series are not requirements, as there are anime series that do not have any of these qualities and are still considered shounen.
Shounen is a versatile genre because you can also mix fantasy, adventure, thriller, sports and many other genres and still end up with really good shows. Since it is a popular genre, there are thousands and thousands of shonen anime series worth watching. But if you want to recommend which ones are the best, then I can help you!
22. Fire power
Imagine living in a world where your next door neighbor can go up in flames and turn into a fiery monster called the Infernals. It's almost every day in the alternate version of Tokyo where the action takes placefire force . To take care of these infernals, firefighters with firepower are fighting to keep communities safe. The protagonist, Shinra Kusakabe, is a member of the Fire Company 8 and, having obtained this, he can shoot fire from his feet.
We'll see Shinra and the other members of Company 8 take on the Infernals as well as the real bad guys, the "white robes" who are trying to capture people with special fire powers like Shinra in order to carry out their grand plan.
21. The Seven Deadly Sins
This is one of the few shounen anime series where the protagonist is short but still very masculine. This anime follows the story of Meliodas, the leader of a group of knights known asSeven deadly sins . The story begins 10 years after this group was accused of treason. Britain's third princess, Elizabeth Liones, is searching for a group of exiles when the holy knights who protect the kingdom have risen against her.
This anime has many plot twists as Meliodas and Elizabeth try to find the other members of the seven deadly sins. All members of the group have different abilities and belong to different races (there is even a giant), plus we get some epic battle scenes as the story progresses.
20. Noragami
This urban fantasy is set in contemporary Tokyo, where two worlds exist: the "Near Shore", or the world of humans, and the "Far Shore", or the world of demons and creatures. The minor god Yato, who doesn't even have a shrine dedicated to him, takes on the strangest tasks to gain recognition; and then there's Hiyori, a human girl who gains the ability to slide between two worlds (sometimes involuntarily).
She befriends Yato, and along with Yukine's Yato regalia, they go on many fun adventures that sometimes lead to some pretty serious situations.
19. Black clover
This magical anime focuses on the opposite personalities of two orphans, Asta and Yuno, who dream of becoming the Wizard King of the Clover Kingdom. There's just one problem: Asta has absolutely zero magical abilities, while Yuno has them in abundance. When Yuno reaches adulthood, he receives a four-leaf clover grimoire, which is supposed to be extremely rare; but Asta unexpectedly receives a five-leaf clover grimoire that contains swords and an ominous presence within.
It's one of the best shonen anime so far, a culmination of the best things that make a shonen series good, and it gets really interesting as the story progresses and the two join the magic knight squads and work to protect the citizens of the city. kingdom from unforeseen threats.
18 Mob Psycho 100
The protagonist, Shigeo Kageyama, nicknamed Mob, is a powerful psychic who holds back his emotions for fear of losing control of his powers. Mob also works part-time for the rogue Reigen Arataka and is tricked into performing most of the exorcism because Reigen does not have psychic powers of his own. Instead of the usual confrontational MC, Mob avoids ridicule, but there are times when he can't contain his emotions.
When this happens, the person who was responsible for losing control of his emotions finds himself in a world of pain, and watching Mob's outbursts as he overwhelms his opponents is definitely one of the anime's coolest moments!
17. Dr. Stone
Imagine a mad scientist trying to bring everyone back to life. Yep, that's pretty much who Senku Ishigami is! This anime takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where all the people on Earth have been turned to stone by a mysterious green light. 3700 years later, Senku wakes up and quickly decides to use his scientific knowledge to revive humanity. A couple of months later, Senku's best friend Taiju also wakes up, meanwhile Senku has already figured out a way to revive people. The duo then revive Yuzuhira, who is in love with Taiju, and later revive Tsukasa to help them when they are in danger.
Unfortunately, Tsukasa doesn't like the plan to revive the entire civilization, preferring a world without adults. With the help of a tribe of people that Senku finds, he attempts to renew the new world by inventing many things to defeat Tsukasa.
16. Haikyuu!!
Do you like sports anime? If yes, and you are a fan of volleyball, thenHaikyuu!!this is the perfect shounen anime for you. It follows the Karasuno High School volleyball team as they strive to restore the school to its former glory and make it to the national championships. The protagonist Soyo Hinata is a short character who became interested in volleyball as a child after seeing a similarly short player from Karasuno playing in the National Championship.
The current Karasuno team is slowly growing as new and amazing freshmen join. They breathe new fire into all their teammates and motivate them to get better and give their best on the court!
15. Trigun
It's a pretty old anime that aired in 1998, but that doesn't make it any less cool. Your Stampede, a truly controversial protagonist, has a massive $60,000,000,000 bounty on his head because he is a supposedly ruthless villain who can level cities and crush anyone who opposes him; but he is actually a normal guy who eschews violence and claims to have never left a single life.
Trigun is an anime full of wit and comic relief, and each episode has its own story that gradually leads into the main story of the series.Your Stumpid embarks on a journey to learn more about his life, and each episode brings us closer to the answer.
14. Food Wars! - Shokugeki-no-souma
As the name suggests, this anime is literally all about food wars with a dash of comedy. Try to feel yourself before watching this anime, because you will see a lot of delicious food. This story follows Yukihira Suma as he hones his cooking skills to surpass his father. He was unexpectedly enrolled in a cool culinary school, where he must prove to first-class chefs that he belongs to this school.
The food in this series has an almost orgasmic taste, so be prepared to see some weird reactions to the food, like one bite orgasms and clothes being torn, when they really aren't. This anime is filled with competitive spirit and is very different from the usual fantasy theme you find in shounen anime series.
13. Demon Slayer - Kimetsu No Yaiba
It's one of the most popular anime at the moment and let me tell you, it's worth it. Tanjiro Kamado is an ordinary guy who takes care of his family after the death of his father. But one day, after returning from work, he discovers that his entire family was killed by a demon, except for his younger sister Nezuko, who herself turned into a demon.
After a chance meeting with a man from the Demon Slayer Corps, Tanjiro decides to become a Demon Slayer himself. He trains hard to become stronger in order to fight bloodthirsty demons, and also tries to find a cure to turn his sister back into a human.
12. One piece
one piece One of the longest running shonen anime of all time. I mean, there are over 900 episodes at the time of this writing, and the series is far from over! The protagonist is Monkey D. Luffy, who goes to sea to find a treasure called "One Piece" left behind by the former Pirate King; and wants to be the next Pirate King himself.
Like most shounen anime series, Luffy can be quite dim-witted, but he builds his team by slowly recruiting people, and those people take care of things he can't. And according to Luffy, he might not be very good at a lot of things, but he's good at fighting, and the entire series is filled with one amazing fight scene after another.
11. That time I was reincarnated as a slime
As the title suggests, this is an isekai anime, which means our main character dies early and then reincarnates in another world, but this anime is different because our MC is not reincarnated as a human, but as a slime! 30-year-old Satoru Mikami is mortally wounded and regains consciousness in a cave. He discovers that he is now a slime, but all is not lost because he has been gifted with some pretty cool powers to not only survive this magical new world, but reach the top of the food chain with little to no effort.
In short, our cute slug is a subdued protagonist, but the anime is far from universal as it has the perfect mix of a good storyline with different types of characters and a great balance of comedy, adventure and action.
10 Assassination Classroom
This series has a rather unique premise as the students of the misfit class are tasked with killing their homeroom teacher within a year. Korosensei is an invulnerable octopus-like creature that can fly at speeds of up to Mach 20 and is powerful enough to destroy over half of the moon and leave it in a crescent shape. He also threatened to destroy Earth within a year, but gives the military a chance to prevent this by becoming the homeroom teacher and instructing his students to kill him within a year.
It turns out that Koro-sensei is the best teacher these students will ever have once they start to excel academically and also hones their assassination skills to bring out a tentacled teacher before the end of the year.
9 Samurai Champloo
Samurai Champloo – not your usual shonen anime; it's a mixture of bloody combat and awesome sword fighting scenes, and it's also really funny at times. Mugen is a reckless self-taught swordsman, and Jin is a true ronin samurai with goggles to top it off. They are so different that they often quarrel, which leads to fights, but after being saved from execution by Fu (a waitress at a teahouse), they are forced to work together as they embark on a journey to find "a samurai that smells of sunflowers".
If you have amazing character designs, fluid animation style, well crafted action scenes, and morbid hip-hop beats, then you will definitely love this anime!
8. Naruto / Naruto Shippuden
Anyone who hasn't heard ofnaruto probably lives under a rock. Naruto has a huge fan base and even if you haven't watched it, you must have heard about it from one of your friends. The anime tells the story of Naruto Uzumaki, an exiled ninja with a demon fox sealed inside him, who dreams of becoming the Hokage, head of the village. He faces many obstacles and enemies as he learns about his past, but he never gives up and trains to become a better and stronger shinobi.
Naruto Shippuden is a sequel to the series that takes place after the time skip, and that's when the story gets really serious as more secrets are revealed and new characters are introduced.
7. Dragon Ball Z
Dragon Ball is a shonen anime series that almost all of us have watched without even knowing it was an anime. It can be said that this anime is responsible for introducing the Western audience to the world of anime, and it maintains its popularity even after all these decades.
Action Dragon Ball Z takes place 5 years after Goku won the World Martial Arts Tournament and he now lives with his wife Chi-Chi and son Gohan. At the start of the series, Raditz appears and reveals himself as Goku's brother and tells him all about his origins as a Saiyan warrior and the reason he was sent to Earth. As the story progresses, more and more powerful opponents appear, and Goku and his friends must work together and train hard to become strong enough to defeat anyone who threatens them!
6. The catastrophic life of Saiki K.
Imagine that you are a powerful psychic who is surrounded by ordinary people and you always have to hide your true abilities. Sounds like an action-adventure anime filled with tons of violence, doesn't it? But it's not, because it's one of the best anime comedy series ever!
Saiki Kusuo is an extremely introverted dude, endowed with many supernatural powers such as telepathy, x-ray vision, teleportation, and more. This may seem like a blessing to most, but not Saiki as he just wants to lead a normal and ordinary life. But the more he tries to stay out of the spotlight, the more he finds himself in the spotlight, as there are many strange characters around him that prevent him from leading a carefree life. This anime doesn't have a grand plot, but it's hilarious, and Saiki's commentary on the lives of the people around him will make you laugh your ass off.
5. Hunter X Hunter
Gon Freecss leaves his home on the island to take the Hunter exam and become a hunter like his father after learning that he is alive. The thing is, being a Hunter is no small feat because you become a member of high society with access to special locations and secret missions, but you also need to be strong and smart to complete these missions as they are extremely dangerous.
Although Gon is just a cheerful 12-year-old boy, he is strong and will make friends with other candidates during the exam, including Killua Zoldyck, who is the same age as Gon.Then in the anime, the main characters go on adventures as they figure out what it really means to be a hunter!
4. My hero academia
Imagine a world where almost everyone has superpowers, better known as "quirks", and can become a superhero by enrolling in special schools. The protagonist, Izuku Midoriya, doesn't have any powers, but that doesn't stop him from dreaming of becoming a Hero. After meeting his favorite hero, All Might, he is given the "One for All" ability and enters UA, a high school that trains students to become heroes.
Although he now has a powerful ability, there are some disadvantages as his body cannot fully control his strength. Therefore, every time he uses his power, he ends up damaging his body. So, Midoriya trains with All Might to learn how to control his new abilities, and he also works with his new classmates to fend off dangerous villains.
3. Jujutsu Kaisen
Jujutsu Kaisen is the latest title in the vast ocean of shonen anime, and it didn't make a splash, but caused a tsunami the moment it started airing. The anime follows the exploits of Yuuji Itadori, a high school student who leads a leisurely lifestyle taking care of his bedridden grandfather. But his life takes a turn for the worse when he enters the world of curses - evil creatures created from human malice - after he finds the cursed talisman.
This cursed talisman turns out to be the finger of Sukuna, the King of Curses, and Yuuji eats the finger to protect his friends and ends up becoming Sukuna's master. Yuuji then enters the Tokyo Metropolitan Jujutsu Technical School where he begins to learn how to become a good jujutsu sorcerer!
2. Attack on titans
In most shounen anime series, most of the characters are always safe and you are absolutely sure that everyone will survive at the end of the journey. Well,Attack On Titan - the exact opposite of that! He is 2nd on this list because of his unpredictability, you never know what will happen next. The action takes place in a world where the main characters are enclosed in a wall, protecting them from mindless cannibal titans roaming outside the walls. The whole illusion of safety is shattered when the Titans breach the wall in the very first episode.
Eren Jiger, the protagonist of the anime, joins the army along with his friends with the sole purpose of killing all the titans. The plot thickens, however, when the Survey Corps discovers that there are people who can transform into Titans, and that there's a lot more about these monsters that they don't yet know.
1 Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is without a doubt one of the best shounen anime you should watch if you haven't already! This is an anime that follows the story of Edward and Alphonse Elric, two brothers who try to bring their dead mother back to life with alchemy, but everything goes terribly wrong. In the process, Alphonse's body is destroyed and Edward loses his left leg. He then trades his right hand for Al's soul, which he keeps in a metal armor. With metal prosthetic limbs and a new armored body for Alphonse, the brothers become state-approved alchemists and try to find a way to get their body back.
This fantasy anime is truly breathtaking with many epic scenes and one of the most intricate plots of all time. It will make you scream "damn it" in action scenes, laugh uncontrollably at hilarious scenes, and cry in the next second due to emotional scenes.
Which Shonen anime series do you like?
Shounen is one of the most popular genres in the anime industry right now, which is why there are so many anime to choose from. They are versatile and can have all sorts of plots with the only stipulation being that the anime should be aimed at teenagers.
If you love this genre and have watched a bunch of shounen anime series but still want more, then this list will definitely help you find your next game to watch. And if you've watched all the anime on this list, let us know which ones you like the most. Also, feel free to recommend some of your favorite anime in the comments section below!
