Shonen anime is probably the majority of what I watch. I love the action packed, dramatic story lines, and the underdog hero that are common in shonen animes. Here are my top ten favorite shonen animes (numbers 6-10):

Video by: LoosecontroiPL at youtube.com

10.) Fairy tail

I will admit there is a special happy place in my heart for Fairy tail. There is a lot of heart, humor and action in this series. Centered on the rambunctious magical guild that goes by the name Fairy tail, you follow the adventures of their wild at heart wizards. There are four in particular that stand in the forefront of this action comedy: Natsu Dragneel, a dragon slayer who loves to play with fire, Gray Fullbuster, ice magic user with the unfortunate problem of losing his clothes, Erza Scarlet, the requip magic user who has no problem letting the boys know who really wears the pants in the group, and Lucy Heartfilia, the celestial magic wizard who has her special blond moments. And how can I forget Happy, Natsu’s flying, blue cat, who loves fish and delivers comedic comments at just the right moments.

This series will have you laughing so hard you’re rolling, and crying your eyes out. You become attached to the fairy tail guild and their off the wall members. You come to love them in their triumphs and defeats. My favorite arc is the grand magic games arc, which takes place much further in the story, and I love some of the pairings like Natsu and Lucy, and Gray and Juvia.

If you want an entertaining action comedy, then you may want to consider giving Fairy tail a viewing, but beware, adult humor is not shy in this series.

Video by: crEAtz AMV at youtube

9.) Assassination Classroom

I will admit that the first time I saw this anime, I thought it was one of the weirdest things I have ever seen, but there is something intriguing about the strangeness of this anime that pulls you in, and makes you want to watch more of it. It focuses on Classroom 3-E of a prestigious school, a class that is isolated from the rest of the school and designated for the reject kids of the school: kids with bad grades, kids with problems with authority figures, or just the bad apples of the school. Unbeknownst to the rest of the school, class 3-E is given a special mission: they must kill their teacher by the end of the school year, or it will be the end of the world. Now why will the world end you ask? Well their teacher is a strange, yellow octopus looking creature with a big smiley face that is strong enough to blow the moon into a permanent crescent shape, and is capable of moving at mach 20. By the end of the year, “Koro Sensei”, their strange teacher, has promised to destroy the world. During the course of the year, he has asked to teach the kids of classroom 3-E, and in return, they will have ample chances to assassinate their teacher. They become trained by professional assassins in the hopes that they can save the world.

Now this one takes an open mind to get into, but if you are willing to go on this strange journey, it is worth it. It is a very funny dark comedy. You come to know all the students, and understand them as well as the strange creature that is their teacher. While you root for them to save the world, you want to know why Koro Sensei is doing what he is doing, and what he really is. Over the course of the story, you start to love this creature as you see him as being a really good teacher who is actually whipping this class of rejects into shape, and making them realize that they can be more. My favorite characters would have to be Karma, because he is that little maniacal genius you grow to love, and Nagisa because he is the one person who may just be the strongest of them all, and the one you would never expect either. This is a very funny action comedy with a lot heart to it.

Video by: Luna it is on one of the playlists of TheBestAMVSofalltime from youtube.

8.) Tokyo Ghoul

Unlike number 9 and 10, Tokyo Ghoul is a much darker and much more violent anime. Tokyo Ghoul takes a place in a world where ghouls, creatures that can only eat human flesh dead or alive, coexist with humans. A young man named Ken Kaneki goes on a date with the girl of his dreams, only to be attacked by her. She is a dangerous ghoul, nicknamed the binge eater, who has been slaughtering young men all over the city. Kaneki survives her attack after a pile of beans from a construction site crushes Rize, the binge eater, under a pile of beams. Under emergency surgery, a doctor, without knowing that Rize is a ghoul, transplants some of her organs into Kaneki, inadvertently turning him into a hybrid of human and ghoul. Kaneki is suddenly thrust into this dark and dangerous world of the ghouls. A storm is brewing in the city between good ghouls who wish to live in peace, bad ghouls who don’t like to coexist, and the CCG, a human organization whose sole purpose is to destroy ghouls.

Tokyo Ghoul is a dark and dramatic story. The characters are nicely created, and are faulty humans including the ghouls themselves. There are tragic deaths, and unexpected reversals. It has interesting plot lines.   You find yourself rooting for the ghouls, and the CCG at times because both sides have had innocent casualties. Neither side is perfectly good or evil, which makes for more thought provoking drama.  The question of what does it truly mean to be human pops up a lot as the characters struggle with what they are, and what they’ve done.  It is a bloody anime, and not for the squeamish, but if you can handle this, then you will definitely like this one.

Video by: amv4fun from youtube.

7.) Seraph of the End

Now this one caught my attention in the first few seconds. I was immediately pulled into the story and into the lives of Yu and Mikaela Hyakuya within the first minute of the story. Seraph of the End takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where almost every human over the age of thirteen is wiped out by a mysterious plague, sending the world into a tail spin. Out of the ashes of this disaster, vampires, who have been living in secret in cities underground, come out to gather up the remaining survivors, which are all children under the age of thirteen. The two main characters Yuichiro (Yu for short) and Mikaela (or Mika) Hyakuya are orphans who are gathered up, and taken, along with a handful of other orphans, to a vampire city under ground. They are fed and clothed by the vampires, but are essentially being used as human blood bags.

After a tragic incident, Yu manages to escape the city to the outside world where he finds that the human race has not been completely wiped out, and are working on regaining the world that the vampires have taken over. He joins the Japanese Demon Imperial army, where he fights vampires and other monstrous creatures called the Four Horseman of John.

Mika, against his will, is turned into a vampire, unbeknownst to Yu, and thus begins their tragic, but dramatic diverging paths. On top of that, there is a mysterious element to the two boys: one of the leaders of the vampires has called them seraphs, and mentioned that the last time anyone messed with the seraphs, it led to the plague that nearly wiped out the human race.

This anime is a beautifully drawn sweeping drama, with heartbreaking incidents, and intriguing mysterious that linger in this post-apocalyptic world. The musical score is extremely good, done by the same man who did the beautiful Attack on Titan soundtrack, Hiroyuki Sawano. In fact, the songs used in the first episode made me look up who did it because I liked the music so much.

Song title: onezeroeight

Complete playlist is courtesy of winstonoredo from YouTube.

The characters are interesting, and the viewer becomes attached to the two main characters very quickly as we see their friendship in the beginning, and tragic separation. There is only one season out for this, but I feel like there is so much more of the story and world to explore, and I can’t wait to see where it goes. Some people may be put off that this is another vampire drama, but I felt this one had a fresh take on vampires and the dystopian futuristic story.

If you watch this one, be prepared to laugh and cry. I cried my eyes out in the very first episode, which is always a good indicator that a series is going to be good. If a story can pull on your emotions enough to make you cry in such a short amount time, then, in my opinion, there is a good chance that it will be good one through and through. I was impressed by this one, so give it a watch if you want a good drama.

Video by: Javier Mendoza from youtube.

6.) Bleach

This is one of the first animes I’ve seen, and one that I binged watched as well. It is a high action story that centers on the adventures of Ichigo Kurosaki, a young teenage boy who can see spirits, and creatures of the spirit realm. He has a run in with a Shinigami named Rukia after an evil spirit, or a Hollow, attacks his family. In order to save his family, Ichigo has to take the power of a soul reaper (or Shinigami) from a wounded Rukia, and in turn becomes a substitute soul reaper. Throughout the series he journeys into the Soul Society (heaven) to save Rukia, Hueco Mundo, a realm much like a purgatory realm to save his friend Orihime, and in one movie, he travels into the hell dimension to save his sister.

This is definitely a longer anime, and can be daunting to those who are starting out in the anime world, but it has a fun, action packed story. Sure there are a lot of filler episodes, and it does seem to fizzle out after the main villain is defeated, but I think the storyline is interesting enough to want to follow it. I’m almost reminded of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy by Bleach because like Dante, Ichigo also travels into the three different spiritual realms.

There is a lot of heart and humor to this series as well as epic fight scenes. Ichigo, the underdog, grows stronger as the series progresses, and is a character you love to follow. I found myself even liking the villains, especially Ulquiorra Cifer. In fact, the entire Ulquiorra fight scene with Ichigo is one of my favorite parts of the series, and I actually cried when Ulquiorra died.

Ulquiorra Cifer courtesy of the Bleach Wikia

I love the characters, and their interactions with each other. I like the character designs, which are just cool to look at, and the world set up of this series. Don’t be put off by the earlier comment because this action packed epic series is definitely worth a watch.

And that is it for now. Next up: my top five favorite shonen animes!

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