Battle Shonen Stuff

[LumRanmaYasha]

To be fair, it's not like the bar is all that high.

[Rynnec]

Pretty much every SJ movie blows it out of the water.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I should be clear that I don't really have any ill intent against TZ or even JTP. I just find his insistence on claiming that Naruto is one of the best manga and anime ever to be genuinely hilarious. Mind you, this is a series that even many hardcore fans turned their back on as it progressed and got incredibly contrived in its writing to being so bad that it was actually funny. Podcasts like WMR as well as various anime bloggers had a blast making fun of every bad thing about the manga in the final few years of its run. We're talking about Star Wars-prequels levels of horrendous, here, except much more fun to joke about.

So, seeing someone genuinely try their best to pretend like it's an amazing series is just too much for me to take seriously. That, and the other poster ripping the series to shreds was so funny (to me), that it actually made me feel happier. That's the reason why I brought it up.

[Foggle]

Oh yeah, there was nothing wrong with your post at all. Just want to remind people not to take it too far in the future.

[gunswordfist]

but would've totally okay with a Sasuke/Naruto ending

*closes tab, cleans web history thoroughly*

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Remember that list that I did for superhero cartoons before? I figured that I'd do the same thing for battle shonen series from Weekly Shonen Jump. I'm only sticking to WSJ series for now, though, and only battle or match-oriented manga (so no Death Note or Level E), otherwise I'd be stuck here listing way too much stuff, easily over 50 series, if not more, which I don't currently have the time for. Also, while mostly subjective, I'll try to be more fair and considerate about series that I don't care as much for.

Ecxellent:
1. Rurouni Kenshin
2. Dragon Ball
3. Slam Dunk

Great:
4. Hunter X Hunter
5. One Piece (pre-time skip)
6. Hikaru no Go
7. Yu Yu Hakusho

Very Good:
8. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (so far)
9. Saint Seiya

Generally Good:
10. Psyren
11. World Trigger
12. Haikyuu

OK, But Not My Thing:
13. One Piece (post-time skip)
14. My Hero Academy
15. Fist of the North Star
16. Buso Renkin
17. Embalming
18. Kuroko no Basket
19. Black Cat
20. Rurouni Kenshin: Restoration
21. Yu-Gi-Oh
22. Naruto (pre-time skip)

Bad:
23. D. Gray-Man
24. Beelzebub
25. Medaka Box

Please Kill Me, Now:
26. Naruto (post-time skip)
27. Bleach

[Spark Of Spirit]

Aren't Ashita no Joe and Hajime no Ippo shonen?

That's a pretty good list. I can't think of any shonen off the top of my head that would rank up there.

(Though if we're talking anime, YYH would easily go over HXH)

[gunswordfist]

You've read Fist Of The Northstar? What's RK: Restoration again?

[Spark Of Spirit]

Oh, I'd put Flame of Recca (manga) in the generally good tier, too. It's pretty good at what it does.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

GSF: I actually haven't finished every manga that I listed. I have read at least a few volumes of each, though. More than enough to formulate a solid opinion on them. I read the first 5 volumes of FOTNS a few years ago, and just couldn't get into it. Perhaps I'll revisit it some day. I haven't read that much of Saint Seiya, either, but I really dug what I did read for its old-school charm.

Aren't Ashita no Joe and Hajime no Ippo shonen?

I mentioned that I was only listing WSJ series.

Both AnJ and HnI were serialized in different magazine anthologies.

If I included every battle shonen that I've read, I'd have to factor in stuff like Kenichi and Flame of Recca, among other manga.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I didn't catch that. 

But a master list would be pretty cool for those interested in reading more.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

When I have more time on my hands, I'll do an expanded list.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Great list and idea! Timely too, considering something I've been thinking about doing recently.

I'd rank the battle shonen and sports manga from Weekly Shonen Jump that I've read a significant portion of as follows:

Excellent:

1. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
2. Rurouni Kenshin
3. Dragon Ball

Great:

4. One Piece (pre-timeskip)
5. Slam Dunk

Very Good:

6. Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma
7. Hunter X Hunter
8. Gintama
9. Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo
10. Assassination Classroom
11. Cross Manage
12. Gakkyu Hotei: School Judgement
13. World Trigger
14. Toriko
15. Yu Yu Hakusho

Generally Good:

16. Hikaru no Go
17. Yu-Gi-Oh! (Millennium World Arc)
18. Black Cat
19. Hinomaru Zumo
20. Eyeshield 21
21. Shaman King
22. My Hero Academia
23. Psyren
24. Yu-Gi-Oh! (Shadow Games Arc)
25. Black Clover (so far)
26. MX0

OK, But Not My Thing:

27. One Piece (post-timeskip)
28. Shinsetsu Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo
29. Yu-Gi-Oh! (Duelist arc)
30. Naruto (pre-timeskip)
31. Buso Renkin
32. Kuroko no Basket (pre-Akashi)
33. Haikyuu
34. Stealth Symphony
35. Rurouni Kenshin: Restoration

Guilty Pleasures:

36. The Prince of Tennis
37. Medaka Box

Bad:

38. Hi-fi Cluster
39. Kuroko no Basket (post-Akashi)

Please Kill Me, Now:

40. Naruto (post-timeskip)
41. D. Gray Man
42. Bleach

Haven't Read Enough Of Yet to Really Judge:

?1. Kagamigami
?2. Fist of the North Star
?3. Ultra Battle Satellite
?4. Claymore
?5. Cyborg Roggy

I never made a list of my favorite Shonen Jump manga in general before, did I? My Top 10 Series I've read from the imprint overall would be:

1. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
2. Barefoot Gen
3. Rurouni Kenshin
4. Dragon Ball
5. One Piece
6. Dr. Slump
7. Slam Dunk
8. Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma
9. Bakuman
10. Death Note

[Spark Of Spirit]

You've read more Black Clover than Kagamigami? Or do you just mean that BC has a clear pattern you think it's going in and KG hasn't really yet?

Anyway, good list. Claymore is pretty good but it loses a lot of points for being so slow post-timeskip. The main character wasn't (or still hasn't for all I know) seen for well over half a decade in the manga. My interest just totally petered out because of it.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Viz has been serializing Black Clover in Jump so I've been able to keep up with it. No one's been scanning Kagamigami, so I haven't been able to read past what Viz released yet. So at this point, I've read 12 chapters of Black Clover compared to just 3 of Kagamigami.

I read the first volume's worth of chapters of Claymore when Jump did a Jump Back for it a while back. I wasn't impressed by I read, and I've heard the criticisms about how it ended up as it went on, so it's not much of a priority for me to read at the moment, though I still plan to go through the series one day.