Vinland Saga - Best manga ever! Manga authors often struggle with writing compelling, meaningful stories and characters but this one absolutely nails it.

Death note - It may initially seem like a power fantasy for teenagers but it really surprised me with how mature the writing is, although it might not be the easiest reading.

Frieren - Pretty much the queen of casual fantasy stories.

Demon Slayer - Just the right mix of cuteness and seriousness to deliver a vibrant story about saving your loved ones.

Jujutsu Kaisen - If you get bored by fights easily, then maybe this one could interest you. Story telling is pretty negelected but the fights are really technical and consistent. No bullshittery or sudden power-ups out of nowhere (with some exceptions).

Chainsaw Man - There’s something wrong with the authors brain in all the good ways. He pretty much just throws shit at a wall and it somehow turns into a masterpiece.

Vagabond - A fictionalized story about Miyamoto Musashi’s life. Some of the best character development I’ve ever seen.

Chainsaw Man, Look Back, Goodbye Eri, and Dan Da Dan.

Read Delicious in Dungeon

My reading list, at the moment (all ongoing):

• Dandadan (I’m a sucker for the urban-supernatural romcom shit it’s got going on, currently my favorite ongoing serial)
• Chainsaw Man (of course—probably going to be the seminal shonen of the decade. technically not originating in this decade, but it is in lock-step with the zeitgeist of the 20s. it’s going to be looked back on very fondly—if it continues cooking—and as a major influence on the forthcoming eras of shonen. you can genuinely already pinpoint some of that influence in the newgens if you know what you’re looking for)
• Akane-banashi (it’s hard to describe assuming zero knowledge of rakugo but it’s might be easier to conceive it framed essentially as a girl’s quest to become the next George Carlin)
• Kagurabachi (I hope by this point the idea of endorsing this being purely a meme has washed away because it’s absolutely GOATed John Wick Samurai Meathead-Shonen)
• Ichi the Witch (newcomer collaboration between the Act-Age artist who got fucked by the writer being a sex-pest and Iruma-kun’s mangaka, shaping up to be a banger at just 21 chapters with great worldbuilding, outstanding character designs, and notably-compelling characterization for such a new work)
• Girl meets Rock! (left ear Bocchi the Rock right ear whatever Death Note machinations Rin is up to)
• Hunter X Hunter (has one of the all-time best arcs in shonen, worth reading even though it’s in and out of purgatory)
• One Piece (I have to catch up, petered out after Egghead due to finals)
• Spy x Family (Pretty good recently)
• 100 Girlfriends (rather absurd parody of harem manga that essentially functions as a gag manga about both romcoms, haremslop, and archetypeslop in general. we’re about a third of the way to the promised quantity and I genuinely do not know how the author or the artist can still make chapters that feature every single character, but they do. its like a fever dream every single chapter. fanservicey but in a, and I cannot believe I am saying this in a self-convincing manner, genuinely ironic and parodic way)

Recommendations otherwise based on your list:

• Early Bleach (very weird-fun beginning and extremely locked-in all the way to the end of the Soul Society Arc. Personally, up to that point, a genuine 10/10 shonen. Kinda gradually declines afterwards, but not in a way that ruins it retrospectively for me. very well drawn. has a genuine variety of intricate and well-executed character designs, as well as standout paneling and use of negative space)
• Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint (if you even ambiently enjoy Solo Leveling, I’m full-send on this rec. this essentially takes the Korean LitRPG urban power-fantasy setting as a hook and delivers a story with some actual depth that I still think about every now and then. Intricately explores its more metafictional themes that I have trouble encapsulating in their entire scope in a way that does not spoil the completed web novel. Genuinely felt the ending for like a day after I finished it. Has an ongoing manhwa adaptation and an incoming anime adaptation. I cannot shill this enough. It is the outstanding entry in its genre. even comparing it to Solo Leveling feels like handing Undertale to someone who’s just played Pokémon, not to rag on Solo Leveling besides it kinda petering out and not ending in a way that really satisfied me, but it’s hard to describe the finer details in almost the exact sense it is to Undertale without giving the bits away and losing some of the magic and craft to it, so I have to push it with a ‘trust me on this’)

Vinland Saga

Fire punch

Digimon V Tamer and Pokemon Special. Hell digimon V tamer is an Isekai and it’s good so go for it

Echoing the many others who have said Chainsaw Man, as well as Fujimoto’s one-shots, Goodbye Eri and Look Back. I would not recommend Fire Punch, though.

For something a bit more obscure than other recommendations: Akumetsu is pretty good. It’s basically Death Note except the protagonist is a politically incoherent high schooler going after high profile corrupt politicians and the power is some kind of duplication thing so he’s just kind of running in and killing them personally before immediately dying himself, over and over. It’s made funnier by the fact that the targets are apparently really obvious expies of specific real contemporary politicians.

Someone else mentioned Witch Hat Atelier, and I’ve got to second that. I’m not all the way through it, but it’s very good, both visually and narratively.

I know others have already said it, but Chainsaw Man really is excellent. You should read this before anything else.

Shutter Love. Just a few chapters long, but a wonderful little universal-appeal story. I also think that it would make for a great indie film set in basically any post 1960ish culture across the world.

The Voynich Hotel. Three volumes of absolute insanity and I love it. Yakuza a la David Lynch.

Girls don’t play video games!

Gon by Masashi Tanaka. One of the best manga artists of all time and his work is entirely done without words except at the end of each volume where there’s descriptions of all the animals featured in the stories.

It’s about a dinosaur who survives to the modern day and spends his time interacting with other wildlife all over the world. Sometimes he raises wolf cubs. Sometimes he protects penguins. Sometimes he terrorizes lions who aren’t good at hunting. And sometimes he steals food from grizzly bears.

Wow thank you all so much for the recommendations! I’ve got a lot of good reading to do I can see. I’m gonna start with chainsaw man, while dipping my toes in some of the more obscure recommendations you’ve given ♥️ really appreciate it

I have been watching Hunter x Hunter and it has been pretty good so far