Recommendations for manga like Dragon Ball (in certain ways)

[RoboBlue]

Dragon Quest: Dai no Daibouken might a good choice.
It's one of my favorite obscure manga and the characters are all based on Toriyama designs, being a Dragon Quest series.

[Lord Beerus]

As already mentioned, Yuu Yuu Hakusho and Fist Of The North Star are excellent, martial arts centered and Wuxia influenced manga in similar vein to Dragon Ball.

[Kunzait_83]

Figured I'd throw in one more that largely fills the "astounding art" category, and KIIIIIIINDA sorta the "Wuxia manga" one as well.That title of course is Shamo, easily and without question one of my absolute favorite manga of the 2000s.



Written by Izo Hashimoto and illustrated by Akio Tanaka, Shamo centers on Ryo Narushima, who begins the series a seemingly normal teenage Japanese boy with a loving family (parents and a sister), fantastic grades, and a bright future ahead of him. Until one perfectly typical afternoon, he comes downstairs for lunch with his folks... brandishing a knife, before gruesomely, remorselessly butchering them in front of the terrified eyes of his sister for seemingly no clear reason whatsoever (on the surface of things at least...).



Arrested and sentenced to a lengthy stay in a heavy security prison for youth criminals, the first bulk of the manga deals with the fallout of Ryo's seemingly random, senseless crime and his navigating his way through prison life among other hardened young delinquent thugs. Immense horrors befall Ryo within the prison walls, and in order to protect himself from the other inmates, he begins to learn traditional Japanese Karate from a tough old convict (sent to the boys' prison to teach karate as a means of discipline to the kids) and discovers an incredible aptitude and talent for fighting.



The story eventually moves away from the prison and follows an escaped Ryo as he navigates the Japanese underworld: underground illegal cage fighting, legitimate tournaments, drug culture, kidnapping, rape, general street thuggery, and other such illicit activities as Ryo searches the the bottom-most dregs of Japanese society for his estranged sister, who drifted into prostitution and has gone missing after their parents' murder. He also continues to study various forms of martial arts under different teachers and grows ever more talented as a fighter as much as he deteriorates ever further into amoral depravity as a person.



The true motives for Ryo's murdering of his parents and the deeper layers of his broken psyche are gradually laid bare over the course of the series, which effortlessly swerves from prison drama to hardboiled crime fiction to martial arts and gritty street fighting and yes, even eventually slight (ever so slight) shades of wuxia at one point.



This series is beyond breathtaking and dense in scope, as much an incredible piece of crime storytelling as it is a fascinatingly layered character study, a bit of social commentary on various aspects of Japanese youth crime and criminal justice, and even one of the all time BEST martial arts manga I could care to name. And all with TREMENDOUSLY amazing Gekiga art by Akio Tanaka, whose fight choreography and compositions are some of the absolute, all time most stunningly brutal and elegantly well realized in almost ANY manga (or comic in general) I can name (Dragon Ball most certainly included).



Shamo is without a doubt a manga that almost defies a comfortable genre classification: its as much a hard, gritty crime manga as it is a classic martial arts narrative, and the way the story layers Ryo's continued growth as a martial artist alongside his continued decent into craven street scum and uses both of these dual trajectories to make some incredibly pointed, biting social commentary on Japanese society's treatment and outlook on youth crime and violence... the manga is just downright brilliant, no two ways about it. If ever there was a single title that STARKLY lays out and makes plain the immense gulf between Shonen and Seinen, Shamo is unquestionably up there alongside the likes of Me and the Devil Blues, Real, Crying Freeman, and Jiraishin.



And while the martial arts generally keeps itself VERY grounded and hyper-realistic throughout the vast majority of it... it DOES, for a single prolonged story arc, dovetail SLIGHTLY into Wuxia/martial arts fantasy territory for a spell. Many arcs of the manga often features Ryo learning and mastering a new martial arts fighting style - often Japanese or Western - sometimes from a new teacher (traditional Karate first, then modern kickboxing, MMA, Muay Thai, Aikido, Judo, weapon-based forms, etc).



At one point, Ryo's travels takes him on a detour into China, where he both competes in the underground fighting circuit there while also learning traditional Chinese Kung Fu forms from an old master. Said-old master is something of a very hermetic Xian-esque figure who knows some bits of genuinely supernatural/mystical Ki control techniques: and from there, Ryo gets roped into a decades-long (and VERY Wuxia-like) feud between his master and one of his bitter and corrupted former students/rivals; who just so happens to pattern himself after, wait for it... Sun Wukong.



Its a wonderfully cool and, for Shamo anyway, highly unusual and offbeat story arc, serving as the one and only instance where it swerves away from its otherwise ultra-gritty, reality-rooted narrative to dabble in traditional Chinese fantasy-oriented Wuxia storytelling for a bit, with all the narratives themes, character archetypes, Taoist mysticism, and super-powered magical martial arts battles that are classic hallmarks of the genre. Its certainly also quite a polarizing story arc of the series among Shamo fans due to how much it starkly stands out and apart from the rest of the manga surrounding it: but me personally as a Wuxia nerd, I am (to no one's surprise) quite a great deal fond of it.



Apart from how fucking great it is in general, Shamo was also infamous for a really, really bitter falling out between its writer Izo Hashimoto and illustrator Akio Tanaka: one which resulted in a lengthy lawsuit between them over copyright royalties that put the manga on indefinite hold for over 5 years (if you'd been following it throughout its serialization like I was, that wait was fucking BRUTAL, particularly as it appeared as if the manga might remain forever unfinished). The two did however eventually settle their legal disputes - much to my and other fans' immense joy and relief - and resumed work on the manga together once more, finally completing it as recently as 2015.



With its incredible blending of genres and themes (hardboiled crime fiction, character-based drama, prison life, social commentary, sports drama, martial arts, and briefly Wuxia), Shamo ends up being something far, far greater than the sum of its already outstanding parts. Its dense, gripping, visceral, and downright emotionally harrowing throughout, with Ryo Narushima's nihilistic personal decent being played completely unflinching, blunt, and uncompromising in its methodical "this is how monsters are made" deconstructive approach.



Shamo is as much an excellent character-study as it is an excellent biting criticism of Japanese society's criminal justice system as it is an excellent piece of crime fiction as it is an excellent martial arts training story about the growth of a great fighter (contrasted brilliantly with his collapse into the most vile of amoral sleaze).

All told, in my book, Shamo is without question one of the most outstanding manga of the 2000s and an absolute goddamn masterpiece.

[8000 Saiyan]

Figured I'd throw in one more that largely fills the "astounding art" category, and KIIIIIIINDA sorta the "Wuxia manga" one as well.That title of course is Shamo, easily and without question one of my absolute favorite manga of the 2000s.



Written by Izo Hashimoto and illustrated by Akio Tanaka, Shamo centers on Ryo Narushima, who begins the series a seemingly normal teenage Japanese boy with a loving family (parents and a sister), fantastic grades, and a bright future ahead of him. Until one perfectly typical afternoon, he comes downstairs for lunch with his folks... brandishing a knife, before gruesomely, remorselessly butchering them in front of the terrified eyes of his sister for seemingly no clear reason whatsoever (on the surface of things at least...).



Arrested and sentenced to a lengthy stay in a heavy security prison for youth criminals, the first bulk of the manga deals with the fallout of Ryo's seemingly random, senseless crime and his navigating his way through prison life among other hardened young delinquent thugs. Immense horrors befall Ryo within the prison walls, and in order to protect himself from the other inmates, he begins to learn traditional Japanese Karate from a tough old convict (sent to the boys' prison to teach karate as a means of discipline to the kids) and discovers an incredible aptitude and talent for fighting.



The story eventually moves away from the prison and follows an escaped Ryo as he navigates the Japanese underworld: underground illegal cage fighting, legitimate tournaments, drug culture, kidnapping, rape, general street thuggery, and other such illicit activities as Ryo searches the the bottom-most dregs of Japanese society for his estranged sister, who drifted into prostitution and has gone missing after their parents' murder. He also continues to study various forms of martial arts under different teachers and grows ever more talented as a fighter as much as he deteriorates ever further into amoral depravity as a person.



The true motives for Ryo's murdering of his parents and the deeper layers of his broken psyche are gradually laid bare over the course of the series, which effortlessly swerves from prison drama to hardboiled crime fiction to martial arts and gritty street fighting and yes, even eventually slight (ever so slight) shades of wuxia at one point.



This series is beyond breathtaking and dense in scope, as much an incredible piece of crime storytelling as it is a fascinatingly layered character study, a bit of social commentary on various aspects of Japanese youth crime and criminal justice, and even one of the all time BEST martial arts manga I could care to name. And all with TREMENDOUSLY amazing Gekiga art by Akio Tanaka, whose fight choreography and compositions are some of the absolute, all time most stunningly brutal and elegantly well realized in almost ANY manga (or comic in general) I can name (Dragon Ball most certainly included).



Shamo is without a doubt a manga that almost defies a comfortable genre classification: its as much a hard, gritty crime manga as it is a classic martial arts narrative, and the way the story layers Ryo's continued growth as a martial artist alongside his continued decent into craven street scum and uses both of these dual trajectories to make some incredibly pointed, biting social commentary on Japanese society's treatment and outlook on youth crime and violence... the manga is just downright brilliant, no two ways about it. If ever there was a single title that STARKLY lays out and makes plain the immense gulf between Shonen and Seinen, Shamo is unquestionably up there alongside the likes of Me and the Devil Blues, Real, Crying Freeman, and Jiraishin.



And while the martial arts generally keeps itself VERY grounded and hyper-realistic throughout the vast majority of it... it DOES, for a single prolonged story arc, dovetail SLIGHTLY into Wuxia/martial arts fantasy territory for a spell. Many arcs of the manga often features Ryo learning and mastering a new martial arts fighting style - often Japanese or Western - sometimes from a new teacher (traditional Karate first, then modern kickboxing, MMA, Muay Thai, Aikido, Judo, weapon-based forms, etc).



At one point, Ryo's travels takes him on a detour into China, where he both competes in the underground fighting circuit there while also learning traditional Chinese Kung Fu forms from an old master. Said-old master is something of a very hermetic Xian-esque figure who knows some bits of genuinely supernatural/mystical Ki control techniques: and from there, Ryo gets roped into a decades-long (and VERY Wuxia-like) feud between his master and one of his bitter and corrupted former students/rivals; who just so happens to pattern himself after, wait for it... Sun Wukong.



Its a wonderfully cool and, for Shamo anyway, highly unusual and offbeat story arc, serving as the one and only instance where it swerves away from its otherwise ultra-gritty, reality-rooted narrative to dabble in traditional Chinese fantasy-oriented Wuxia storytelling for a bit, with all the narratives themes, character archetypes, Taoist mysticism, and super-powered magical martial arts battles that are classic hallmarks of the genre. Its certainly also quite a polarizing story arc of the series among Shamo fans due to how much it starkly stands out and apart from the rest of the manga surrounding it: but me personally as a Wuxia nerd, I am (to no one's surprise) quite a great deal fond of it.



Apart from how fucking great it is in general, Shamo was also infamous for a really, really bitter falling out between its writer Izo Hashimoto and illustrator Akio Tanaka: one which resulted in a lengthy lawsuit between them over copyright royalties that put the manga on indefinite hold for over 5 years (if you'd been following it throughout its serialization like I was, that wait was fucking BRUTAL, particularly as it appeared as if the manga might remain forever unfinished). The two did however eventually settle their legal disputes - much to my and other fans' immense joy and relief - and resumed work on the manga together once more, finally completing it as recently as 2015.



With its incredible blending of genres and themes (hardboiled crime fiction, character-based drama, prison life, social commentary, sports drama, martial arts, and briefly Wuxia), Shamo ends up being something far, far greater than the sum of its already outstanding parts. Its dense, gripping, visceral, and downright emotionally harrowing throughout, with Ryo Narushima's nihilistic personal decent being played completely unflinching, blunt, and uncompromising in its methodical "this is how monsters are made" deconstructive approach.



Shamo is as much an excellent character-study as it is an excellent biting criticism of Japanese society's criminal justice system as it is an excellent piece of crime fiction as it is an excellent martial arts training story about the growth of a great fighter (contrasted brilliantly with his collapse into the most vile of amoral sleaze).

All told, in my book, Shamo is without question one of the most outstanding manga of the 2000s and an absolute goddamn masterpiece.

Shamo also looks pretty intriguing.

And also, another thing I found interesting about what you said about the art of Jiraishin is how it evokes a sense of German Expressionism and classic noir, which is a genre that I always enjoyed (Love me some Robert Mitchum and Humphrey Bogart ). If they ever adapt that manga into anime, would you want them to make a black-and-white adaptation instead of one in color? Again, I haven't read Jiraishin yet, but I will one day, but looking at the art, it does have a lot of potential to look really good in a black-and-white anime.

[Kunzait_83]

Shamo also looks pretty intriguing.

And also, another thing I found interesting about what you said about the art of Jiraishin is how it evokes a sense of German Expressionism and classic noir, which is a genre that I always enjoyed (Love me some Robert Mitchum and Humphrey Bogart ). If they ever adapt that manga into anime, would you want them to make a black-and-white adaptation instead of one in color? Again, I haven't read Jiraishin yet, but I will one day, but looking at the art, it does have a lot of potential to look really good in a black-and-white anime.

A Jiraishin anime is something that I've thought about and salivated for since the 90s. And yeah, I've also considered the idea that it be done in black & white: I think that that aesthetic would benefit and suit it outstandingly well overall.

While I'm here, I'll toss in a whole crapton more incredibly handsome pages & panels from Shamo, since its such a fucking eye-popping gorgeously drawn manga. Tanaka is such an incredibly excellent, supremely talented Gekiga artist.

Spoiler: