When it comes to the shonen genre the very first names that come to one’s mind are Attack on Titan, Demon Slayer, Dragon Ball, JJK, One Piece, and some others. We do know these are the top-of-the-line big daddies of the Shonen genre that every newbie will go for.
However, if you’re a weeb who somehow managed to follow all these and looking for some most underrated shonen anime ‘more like hidden gems of shonen’ you have landed at the right place.
Today I have curated a list of some underrated anime shows which has the potential to impress any Shonen lover yet people rarely talk about them.
14: Angels of Death
In every season, we usually see many copycats of anime that are thrown on the market with a little bit of shuffling and that’s it. If you have complaints! Don’t bother yourself instead give this underrated psychological anime “Angels of Death” a shot.
The show revolves around a suicide-addicted Loli who wakes up in a strange building without her memories. All she knows is she wants to end her life and meet a creepy murderer that agrees to kill her once escapes from this building.
The show has been labeled as a horror yet throws more comedy than seriousness. Maybe the reason why this shonen went underrated is the consumers didn’t get what they expected.
13: Ron Kamonohashi’s Forbidden Deductions
Looking for a spectacular detective series with a Sherlock Holmes type of character? Well, Ron is something similar but not the exact same.
Ron Kamonohashi’s Forbidden Deductions is a mystery shonen that you have to watch keeping your mind and logic aside. Not because of its plot, the all logiclessness credit goes to serious MC Ron and his oddball sidekick Totomaru.
Ron Kamonohashi, once known as the best detective has been restricted from working as a detective due to some past events. After being approached by an incompetent police officer Totomaru they continued to solve mysterious cases.
12: Ragna Crimson
If you judge anime by considering its first episode, make sure you don’t get yourself involved in Ragna Crimson because this anime actually begins from 3rd to 4th episode.
Initially, within three episodes, this anime looks like a ditto copy of some fantasy anime where dragons in human form are threats to humankind until the entry of Crimson in the story.
From there, a nonstop mixture of comedy, action, and psychology takes place and makes this awesome shonen an underrated anime.
This shonen fantasy revolves around Ragna and Crimson who both hate the dragonkind and work together to achieve their separate pursuits.
There are some badass dragons in the form of humans, some twisted girls and overpowered MC, and a nonstop action adrenaline where protagonists and antagonists hold an equal advantage by the writer.
11: Baki The Grappler
Those who have repelled God of the High School anime for its fast pacing despite its cool choreography animations can lessen their anger with Baki The Grappler anime. A pure masterpiece of martial arts.
This anime do not waste time on proving the MC a prodigy and gives fair screen time to even antagonists. There you’ll be watching a whole bunch of fights between antagonistis where you won’t find even a glimpse of MC.
The anime revolves around Baki ‘the strongest man’ and the son of Earth’s mightiest creature “Hanma Yujiro”. Baki is damn powerful yet he takes part in tournaments to grow stronger than his father.
I hope the overly bulky bodies will give you enough gym motivation and won’t be a bother for you because the art style is far from reality.
10: World Trigger
An anime that has suffered from all the odds like terrible art style, average sound, bad beginning, and yet it manages to achieve a 7.5 MAL rating on behalf of its storyline.
An anime that has suffered from all the odds like terrible art style, average sound, bad beginning, and yet it manage to achieve a 7.5 MAL rating on behalf of its storyline.
The story is nothing special or new. The world has been invaded by some creatures “neighbors” due to connecting with another world. After several years the people are still afraid that such a tragedy to happen again so they have created a special force that remains on guard.
9: Fire Force
Fire Force is quite a better version of Black Clover in terms of animation quality and remained the underdog just because of its fast pacing and weak character development.
If beautifully animated battles are your satisfaction factor, give this underrated shonen anime a shot already.
The story revolves around a unique MC that makes a creepy smile face when panics. He has recently joined a Fire Force group named Company 8 to battle against Infernals. Infernals are people who turned into a fire-spirited entity just like JJK Cursed spirits.
If you’re interested in supernatural action anime, fire force is quite the cream of crop.
8: Claymore
Claymore is a hidden darker gem of a shonen trope that faced backlash for its borderline maturistic theme. Though it’s a treat for violence lovers who admire blood and gore.
Claymore is a classic tale of revenge where the main character is not op nor underpowered and manages to carry on her mission of vengeance while navigating villages and slaying monsters she wants revenge against.
7: Undead Unluck
A project like Undead Unluck comes to reality when the writer has nothing else to do other than to extract his bizarre imagination into anime.
A shonen where immortal MC wanders all over the place being naked while convincing her partner to have sex. Why he wants this? because he wants to die. How can someone die by having sex? Because MC wants to have it with a girl who is unlucky like hell, even touching her can drop a whole satellite on another person.
Initially, even I was struggling to wrap my head around its plot. More than the plot, the most ironic charm of this anime lies in its bizarre characters that you can’t help but admire.
6: Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun
Unlike many isekai adventures, Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun throws a tantrum of comedy neglecting all the demon, responsibility, and hero’s journey stuff.
The story follows a very unfortunate mc Iruma Suzuki whose heartless parents sold him to a demon. Though it’s not what it looks like, the demon grandpa just needs a little kid to pamper that’s all.
In the flood of some best Isekai shows, it’s a little tough to consider an underrated shonen anime like this one, but if you do, you won’t have any complaints.
5: The Case Study of Vanitas
The Case Study of Vanitas by Studio Bones has something for everyone like comedy, action, horror, quirky characters, and more importantly crazy good art style. As a whole a perfect treat for newbies.
Genuinely I feel super bad for Studio Bones as there many shows remain underrated despite the fact they’re good from beginning to end. For example Super Crooks, Sonny Boy, and Wolf’s Rain.
Vanitas was a cursed vampire born in rare circumstances and ridiculed by his kind. Legen says he has created a dark grimoire to destroy vampire Kind and Noé Archiviste is one the way to find this accursed grimoire.
On the way of his journey, he was saved from a vampire attack by a doctor who called himself Vanitas and claimed to have that cursed Grimoire. Its mystery shonen anime where you won’t find a single dull moment.
4: D. Gray Man
D. Gray Man, a show that has the potential to be like JJK but remains unknown to many just because of incorrect timing.
Today’s lads become overjoyed once know their favorite show is getting 24 episodes, massive success! Whereas 2000-2010 was an era where we usually get 40 above episodes in a single season.
Just like that D.Gray Man is a show with over 100 episodes in a single season that freaks out today’s lads. Well, it indeed takes time to ramp up but once done, you will have to watch all 100 eps.
Allen Walker wields a special arm destroying possessed monsters called Akuma. A member of the Black Order Exorcists, he faces off against the sinister Millennium Earl and his monster legions.
Alongside friends new and old, Allen fights to save humanity from dark forces while learning his own mysterious connection to their epic conflict.
3: Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic
Those who have even a little bit of admiration for American series staged in Middle Eastern settings “Aladdin” shouldn’t miss Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic.
It has the same Middle Eastern setting blended with a typical shonen fantasy setup full of hot chicks, dungeon explorations, and famous characters like Sinbad.
A Magi is a magician blessed with immense magical powers who is said to rule the world. Whereas Aladdin is a young man wandering around the world to find his true self.
He has been accompanied by Djinn called Ugo. This underrated shonen anime has the potential to beat today’s shonen with ease if carried by animations like Demon Slayer.
2: Moriarty the Patriot
Moriarty the Patriot is a surprisingly faithful Sherlock Holmes adaptation fully recommended to those who won’t just laugh awkwardly and say, “Um…Really dude?
In easy words, consider this a mystery adaptation with a pursuit like Code Geass that features a non-anti-hero protagonist, unlike Code Geass.
Moriarty is a prophet-like man born in a noble house yet wants to restructure the society ranking system for societal stability.
It has the features of almost 3 s rank anime shows which I don’t want to reveal, in the end, you can set your hopes high for this underrated psychological anime.
1: Summer Time Rendering
Summer Time Rendering- A little hard-to-follow mystery shonen that once you begin to follow, there’s no stopping until the show ends.
Unlike many shows that try to give their best in the first quarter to hook in the viewers, this underrated shounen anime is totally the opposite which begins as a light-hearted slice of life and evolves into a dark mystery.
The story follows an orphan Shinpei Ajiro who returns from Tokyo when Ushio tragically drowns during the attempted rescue of a little girl.
Suspecting it could be murder rather than a natural accident some supernatural phenomena take place making things worse.
Conclusion:
These are the top underrated shonen anime series that are worth watching at all costs. Following popular shonen neglecting the fact that some underrated ones are quite better would be a crime as an Otaku so make sure you give any of these a shot.
