Where would you rank DB among "Shounen" Anime

[Desassina]

Top 3

1. Dragon Ball (manga & anime)
2. Rurouni Kenshin (manga)
3. Saint Seiya (anime)

I haven't seen or read many Japanese works belonging to this demographic.

[Saikyo no Senshi]

Can Neon Genesis Evangelion qualify as a Shonen anime? I've always thought that anime screams Seinen.

The anime's demo was never specified to my knowledge, but yeah the majority of the fanbase are teens and adults in their 20s/30s.

The manga though was published in a shounen magazine, but later moved to a seinen one. So, its both.

[FoolsGil]

I love the series to death, but I won't deny that that there are some series that take its general idea, and does it better. Yu Yu Hakusho, One Piece, Hunter X Hunter, Naruto, Bleach. In some places Dragonball is superior, but in a lot of places, these shows stepped in places I wished Dragonball did, especially One Piece.

[PFM18]

The original story (DB&Z) is my favorite among the Shonen I've seen as everything from the writing to the action is nearly perfect.

"nearly perfect"? Really? Let's be honest it is far from perfect. It is by far my favorite but it is no wonder anything that comes after the original gets a bad rep if people are so biased/nostalgic that they spout that the original series is essentially flawless.

But yeah I agree it is among the best shounen if not the best.

[sintzu]

Let's be honest it is far from perfect.

It is no wonder anything that comes after the original gets a bad rep if people are so biased/nostalgic that they spout that the original series is essentially flawless.

Nostalgia probably has something to do with it as DB was my very first anime but my enjoyment also factors in my opinion towards it.

I think Naruto and One Piece, both of which came after the original DB have done things better such as characters and world building so I'm not too biased to admit when something else is better. The reason I don't think Super and GT lived up to it is simply because I don't think they're as good. If it had to do with nostalgia I wouldn't say other shows do some things better. Of course that doesn't change the fact that I've enjoyed Super very much and can't wait for its movie and anime continuation.

[Kunzait_83]

Because Shonen is a demographic category and not a genre (as the OP thankfully acknowledged), its REALLY hard to compare something as genre-specific as DB with the ENTIRE broad spectrum of Shonen at large. Shonen is and has always been a whole, whole LOT of different things over a vastly LONG period of time.

Comparing Dragon Ball directly with something like let's say... Wild 7, or Rokudenashi Blues, or Area 88, or Barefoot Gen would strike me as unbelievably, ludicrously silly and pointless. All of those series have almost NOTHING whatsoever in common with one another remotely, apart from being aimed at very young (elementary school aged) Japanese boys. That's really the ONLY uniting thread that "Shonen" as a whole has, per its very name.

What people in the last 15+ years often mistake for the "Shonen genre" is what's sometimes known as "Battle Shonen" - which itself, as I've often noted, still isn't really a "genre" per se, but a loosely grouped together assortment of Shonen titles who's major uniting theme is that they heavily borrow/copy martial arts/wuxia tropes from Dragon Ball purely because Dragon Ball itself grew to become astronomically, stratospherically popular and successful when using them (that and/or the authors grew up adoring DB and sought to emulate it without really thinking it through any farther than "DB is awesome"). There's also cases like Fist of the North Star and Yu Yu Hakusho where they just happen to also fall under more or less the same actual martial arts/wuxia genre as DB, but those are relatively fewer amidst the overall "Battle Shonen" spectrum.

So the way I see it, there's one of three possible avenues to come at the question behind this topic: two of which I'll tackle properly.

The one that I won't is coming at the question from the standpoint of comparing DB against other titles known under the "Battle Shonen" banner. Because, quite frankly, I have no interest in or respect for the Battle Shonen "genre" as it were. I think and have always thought that the genre classification itself is complete and utter bullshit nonsense to begin with, and furthermore the VAST overwhelming majority of titles that fall within it (apart from DB and other, actual proper martial arts/wuxia manga and anime) are brain-meltingly terrible and unreadable/unwatchable dumpster fires. If I'm gonna compare DB against the likes of vapid garbage like Fairy Tale, One Piece, Soul Eater, and Toriko, DB's gonna come out the clear and undisputed winner all the time, every time. That isn't even a contest remotely.

So the two remaining avenues to come at this are: comparing DB against ALL of Shonen as a broader demographic classification, genre and story-content be damned, and comparing DB against other, actual Shonen martial arts/wuxia stories.

For the first one: no, DB isn't even VAGUELY close to the best ever manga/anime series to be published for the Shonen audience in my eyes. If I did a top 10 list of my personal all time favorite Shonen titles, I'm not even 100% sure DB would make it onto it. And if it did, it'd be pretty far down it probably.

Here, lets be generous and try and throw together an impromptu top 20 Shonen list and see where DB would fall within it:

1) Barefoot Gen
2) Area 88
3) Galaxy Express 999
4) Rokudenashi Blues
5) Ashita no Joe/Tomorrow's Joe
6) Violence Jack (first half)
7) Devilman
8 ) Metropolis
9) Guyver
10) Hokuto no Ken/Fist of the North Star
11) Yu Yu Hakusho
12) Mermaid Saga
13) Venus Wars
14) Silent Mobius
15) Dragon Ball
16) Space Adventure Cobra
17) City Hunter
18) Drifting Classroom
19) Crows
20) JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

Yeah, no. DB's a great title, a classic even, iconic and massively important for sure... certainly nowhere close to my top spot though amidst everything remotely within the broad Shonen demographic.

As far as other martial arts/wuxia manga and anime though? DB still wouldn't be my all time favorite by any means (that honor would fall on Fist of the North Star), but its certainly up there in very high regard. If I did a top 5 favorite martial arts/wuxia manga/anime list, it'd probably go something like:

1) Fist of the North Star (Shonen)
2) Yu Yu Hakusho (Shonen)
3) Osu!! Karate Bu (Seinen)
4) Dragon Ball (Shonen)
5) Kujaku Ou/The Peacock King (Seinen)

[JulieYBM]

I don't get anything out of any real broad ranking of series. I like Dragon Ball a lot and I like other works a lot, too. How passionately I feel might fluctuate, but that's about it.

Dragon Ball is entertaining. Have you read or seen it?

[GT_Goten10]

Top 5:
1.DBGT
2.DBZ
3.One Piece
4.DBS
5.Naruto

[sintzu]

1.DBGT
3.One Piece
5.Naruto

A cat just died somewhere.

[Doctor.]

snip

Seems like you like Yu Yu Hakusho quite a bit. Are you not interested in Hunter x Hunter? Level E is also pretty good.

I was gonna say Parasyte seems like your kind of manga, but then I figured it probably isn't really within the Shounen demographic.

[ClutchBangstrip]

Top 5:
1.DBGT
2.DBZ
3.One Piece
4.DBS
5.Naruto

Similar...

1.DBZ
2.DBS
3.DB
4.DBGT
5.Naruto

[sintzu]

1.DBGT
3.One Piece
5.Naruto

Similar...
4.DBGT
5.Naruto

Another cat died. Stop killing cats.

I'm always seeing out there opinions but this... How on earth is a failed spin off better than something like Naruto, One Piece or any other main Shonen ?

[Hellspawn28]

snip

Seems like you like Yu Yu Hakusho quite a bit. Are you not interested in Hunter x Hunter? Level E is also pretty good.

I was gonna say Parasyte seems like your kind of manga, but then I figured it probably isn't really within the Shounen demographic.

I remember Kunzait saying that he didn't like Hunter x Hunter. I personally don't like it and I watch up to 15-17 episodes of the newer show on Toonami. It didn't seem anything special to me and it came off as another "Benn there, done that" type of shows. It was cliche and generic to me.

[sintzu]

snip

Seems like you like Yu Yu Hakusho quite a bit. Are you not interested in Hunter x Hunter? Level E is also pretty good.

I was gonna say Parasyte seems like your kind of manga, but then I figured it probably isn't really within the Shounen demographic.

I remember Kunzait saying that he didn't like Hunter x Hunter. I personally don't like it and I watch up to 15-17 episodes of the newer show on Toonami. It didn't seem anything special to me and it came off as another "Benn there, done that" type of shows. It was cliche and generic to me.

Get to ep27 and you'll change your mind. I personally liked the first 26 but 27-75 were pure gold and among the best episodes I've seen in Anime.

[ClutchBangstrip]

1.DBGT
3.One Piece
5.Naruto

Similar...
4.DBGT
5.Naruto

Another cat died. Stop killing cats.

I'm always seeing out there opinions but this... How on earth is a failed spin off better than something like Naruto, One Piece or any other main Shonen ?

It's Action Packt. Keep the animated Law and Order drama outta my PPV fights. Every version of DB is PPV, some title matches are jus better than others.

Every other anime/manga jus tries to do too much. I jus wanna experience stuff that can't be seen in RL. Dudes splitting mountains in half by screaming is right up my alley.

[Hellspawn28]

Can Neon Genesis Evangelion qualify as a Shonen anime? I've always thought that anime screams Seinen.

Yes, it is Shonen. The manga was published in Shonen Ace and the anime aired on the same timeslot as the original TMNT show. Evangelion is not as deep as many people think it out to be, but I do feel like the show has more substance to it than FMA, AOT, and HxH to be honest. Japan is not as strict about content compare to the US seeing how America still has this conservative mindset that any form of violence will turn your kids into murders or traumatize them if they were a soldier in the war when that is not true most of the time.

Shonen and Seinen are just demographics, Shonen can be just as dark and mature as an R rated movie while a Seinen can be PG depending who is writing it. After all, these two have the same demographic in Japan.

[GT_Goten10]

1.DBGT
3.One Piece
5.Naruto

Similar...
4.DBGT
5.Naruto

Another cat died. Stop killing cats.

I'm always seeing out there opinions but this... How on earth is a failed spin off better than something like Naruto, One Piece or any other main Shonen ?

GT isn’t a spin off lol

[Neo-Makaiōshin]

Among my favourites but surpassed by others. I'm sure it would land somewhere in my top 20 but I'm unsure if it will make it to the top 10.

[FortuneSSJ]

Objectively speaking, HunterxHunter and One Piece are above everything else.
Subjectively speaking, Dragon Ball is not only my favourite shounen, but also my favourite anime/manga overall so in that way it's the "best" for me.

Something that a lot of people still don't understand and thus why they often wonder how Dragon Ball is more successful than their favourite better written manga/anime is that it's all about entertainment. A better written show is not guaranteed to be more popular, if it fails to be entertaining.

The causal audience is not looking for plot holes, they don't care about asspulls or retcons, how many characters have a sad backstory, etc... they just want to be entertained and holy shit, Dragon Ball sure is entertaining!

The most recent example of this is the Universe Survival arc. A minority of the fanbase was wondering where the plot was, while the majority was wondering who would fight who next, because the fights are obviously one of the most loved things in this franchise and Toriyama/Toei know that. And that's it. As long as Dragon Ball can be entertaining, it will always be around in one way or another.

Another good example is Pokémon. Pokémon doesn't have a deep plot but when I was a kid, no other anime entertained me as much as Pokémon besides Dragon Ball.
Nowadays it's still going, while other better written animes/mangas are buried and there's no interest in bringing them back.

[Kid Buu]

Hmm I like Kimagure Orange Road and Inuyasha more. Also My Hero Academia is fun right now but it's still too early to tell.