Poll: Favourite Shounen series

[Shinsei-J]

I voted Bleach but I can't really choose between that and Soul Eater.
Soul Eaters Characters have great arcs and mesh together well, where as Bleach has Swords...
Rethinking about it I like Soul Eater better.

I have barely started Soul Eater so I can't comment on that yet.

I also don't watch, I read first then skim through episodes...

Read the manga to where it's up to now first and then watch the anime because they differ way to much in plot and character development and the manga's just a whole lot better. While Black Star remains the worlds biggest douche and becomes bland in the anime, the manga version of him starts to grow up a little as he sees more of the world. He still remains a slight douche but at this point but it's more of a facade, due to this his character has never once become bland for me. This is just one small poorly described example of many changes that happen to characters in the series and that's why it keeps getting more and more interesting to me.

Wow this took me over half an hour to get right, just because I couldn't come up with a way to describe Black Stars change over time...
Now that's a testament to how deep these characters become.

 

[CleverCover]

FullMetal Alchemist is one of the best things I have ever watched and that will never ever change. Ever.

 

[SaetonChapelle]

I like Shaman King. Does this only revolve around anime, because the manga Nora, Devildom was also really good and very short. Hoshin Engi as well.

Besides these, I really don't enjoy Shounen. /Sigh At least not ones hugely represented by the media and promotion.

 

[Kolby Jack]

Dragonball of course. It's THE Shounen series. Every other Shounen series owes something to Dragonball. Even inexplicably popular, shoddily written, shameless rip-offs of Dragonball like Bleach.

Naruto is decent too, but generally my favorite animes tend not to be shounen ones, because they almost always have better paced, more exciting stories.

 

[ecoho]

I don't always watch Shounen, but when I do it's One Piece.

Dragonball Z is a close second, get rid of the episodes of powering up and it'll be higher. The only other Shounen I've seen is FMA: Brotherhood. It was thoroughly enjoyable.

you my friend need to watch dbz: abriged sooo much better then the real show and alot funnier.

 

[Kal-Adam]

Used to be One Piece, I was in love with it. But now I have a near obsession with Bleach.

 

[solemnwar]

Speed Grapher

Holy shit I watched all 24 episodes in two days. THIS ANIME IS SO GOOOOD.
And according to wikipedia it's shonen, and as long as SOMETHING considers it shonen, I shall count it as such. Even though I don't think it's aimed to /boys/... lol

 

[soren7550]

The only ones that I've read are Naruto and Bleach, and seeing as I gave up on Bleach over a year ago, by default it's Naruto (what can I say? Ninjas are cool).

But they aren't even real ninjas D: What kind of ninja wears bright orange? They're supposed to be stealth warriors, not magical beings with the ninja title.

Actually, Naruto takes it stuff from both ninja lore/myths and what they actually did. People believe that they were able to perform ninja magic (after all, how else can they be that good at doing the things they do?), and ninjas tended to push that belief by weaving signs and saying magic words. Also, despite what kung-fu and Hollywood films would have you believe, ninjas didn't wear all black. They wore clothes that were appropriate for their mission. (ok, granted that probably wouldn't have included an orange jumpsuit, but still, it's a fantasy series.)

For more on the wonderful world of ninjas, read Ninja: The Shadow Warrior!

 

[Gatx]

Why are all the options the fighting ones? What about sports like Eyeshield or Prince of Tennis? The romance ones like Ichigo 100%? And then there's whatever the hell Death Note and Bakuman are.

 

[DarkRyter]

The only ones that I've read are Naruto and Bleach, and seeing as I gave up on Bleach over a year ago, by default it's Naruto (what can I say? Ninjas are cool).

But they aren't even real ninjas D: What kind of ninja wears bright orange? They're supposed to be stealth warriors, not magical beings with the ninja title.

I don't think anybody ever really cared.

 

[NeutralDrow]

Mahou Sensei Negima, hands down. Once Akamatsu got past the initial "all romcom, all the time" and into the fighting and actual character relationships, it immediately became my favorite shounen series (and second favorite manga overall; my favorite is shoujo, Fruits Basket).

Very strong secondary votes to Fullmetal Alchemist and Hayate the Combat Butler.

Does Gurren Lagann count as Shounen?

...was that a serious question? I don't believe it's possible to get any more shounen than Gurren Lagann.

Filler's not a component of shounen in particular, just of anime that either outpace their respective manga or are being milked.

 

[Fuhrlock]

My favourite completed work (I don't like to compare to on going things as due to the importance of an ending to a series) is Fullmetal Alchemist, specifically the manga (brotherhood was good but skipped out way too much especially the Ishval flashback). Definitely one of the least traditional shounen series but I don't think any other series has even got me half as invested in any of its characters as FMA did.

As for ongoing series Fairy Tail is probably my favourite with Beelzebub a close second, both of these series have a nice balance of what I like to see in a series and don't get bogged down with overly long fights that eventually kill my interest (I'm looking at you in particular One Piece).

One Piece is good but other than the previously mentioned overly long fights, I find Oda tries to hard to get me to care about characters I can never really be invested in both within the crew and people introduced within each arc. Just because you gave us a few pannels of people complaining that things are bad in Fishman isle, Skypea etc. that I should feel good when the strawhats sort things out for them and you waste another few pages with them just celebrating. Not to say Oda is universally bad at making me care about his characters or world, he is just very hit and miss.

I used to be really invested in Bleach and Naruto but they have been steadily falling in my favour and their are still bits of them I enjoy but the more weeks I continue to read the less I tend to say 'I liked this chapter' (but I am still saying it enough to keep going atm)

 

[Kae]

I'm not into anime and have watched/read very few things, but the one that I know it's Shounen mostly because it has been mentioned many times already, is Fullmetal Alchemist, kinda funny considering how I was just making fun off it when my friend showed it to me, but after 5 episodes I actually started to like the characters and actually felt a little silly because at the time I was a lot like Edward [small](Short-tempered, strong willed, stubborn and really short)[/small], but anyway I liked it so much I even read the manga, and that was really good but for some reason I never read the ending, but I'm sure I was very close to it, I never watched Brotherhood either, it looked really good but I never bothered watching it.

 

[Nazulu]

Naruto (not Shippuden) easily out of those. The quality went all over the place before the fucking endless filler saga but it is a fun ride. It is more interesting with the powers, techniques and fights, still has the best fight scene I've seen out of all. Also, it has the best music.

 

[The Funslinger]

To me that would be One Piece, I just find it superior compared to other shows like Bleach, Naruto and Fairy Tail (the other current Shonen shows I've watching well except for Bleach) but fair dues, that series is extremely long compared to those three.
Hey they must be doing something right to still be ongoing (like its art style is unique, it can be comical at times, the setting is always changing and its universe is huge) unlike Bleach who is just barely hanging there.
Also to me second place would be Fairy Tail.

Agreed. I find Luffy's antics genuinely amusing. And Eric Vale does some of his best work in the Funi dub as Sanji and Zorro.

 

[Broady Brio]

I don't always watch Shounen, but when I do it's One Piece.

Dragonball Z is a close second, get rid of the episodes of powering up and it'll be higher. The only other Shounen I've seen is FMA: Brotherhood. It was thoroughly enjoyable.

you my friend need to watch dbz: abriged sooo much better then the real show and alot funnier.

I will. When they start the Buu saga, seeing as I've seen them already.

 

[JohnnyCage]

One Piece is probably the only show that I cant find any real faults in. I absolutely love the one piece manga, my only complaint is the fact that I have to wait every goddamn week to read another pesky 16 pages.

Ohh, and also some rather inconvinient flashbacks that has brought down the pace, and kind of predictable fights. You know Luffy is gonna fight the strongest guy, Zoro is gonna fight guy #2, Sanji #3 and then it just keeps on spiralling that way. I would love it for the show to sometimes depend on a different formula, which is something Oda has been breaking into more often lately. But I do love One Piece as a shounen.

Bleach is decent I guess, Im still reading it, so it must be something to it. Soul Society arc was especially brilliant, after that it kind of lost it's prime. Exception being the battle between Kenpachi and Nnoitra, possibly Ichigo vs Grimmjow fight.

Fair Tail is a show I really want to be more critical too, but it's kind of like criticizing popcorn and a coke: it's something for you that just about fills your stomache and you are pleased as you leave. It should be lifted to the skies for not having the shounen concept of neverending battles. But the character introduction is made rather sloppy and there is alot of hasty work that dosent really immerse you. The anime sucks really badly, due to the lack of gore and extremely frustrating music. I love Natsu's voice actor though. The show is still easy to enjoy and shouldnt be taken as more than that.

On the contrary, the 2 ton sirlion steak with mayo that is Naruto is something completely different. It starts good and nice and it just ends with stomache pains, diarrhea and nausea. There are solid parts here and there, but all around it's just devolved into a really shitty concept with gutwrenchingly horrible characterization. Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura is hands down the most unlikeable protagonist cast of all time and despite the show having good parts, the majority of it is awful. The secondary characters overshade the major ones, easily.

DBZ is just so extremely bad it isnt even worth mentioning. I cant think of one show that fails so hard on this issue as DragonBall Z.