Anime

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’)

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

Vinland Saga

Fire punch

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.

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.

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.

I mainly read Korean now, pretty much most of what's on https://asuracomic.net/ plus a few Chinese comics here and there.

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

I’ve been keeping up with ‘Magilumiere Co. Ltd.’ a series about a magical girl company. It’s got a nice blend of cute chill with some interesting bits. The main arc right now is the uncovering secret underhanded methods used to privatize the magic industry. First season of the anime just came out as well.

Another I def have to recommend for easy reading is ‘Sakamoto days’ about a former number 1 assassin who quit and settled down with a wife and daughter. Very slice of life with bits of action. First season of the anime also just dropped.

In a similar vein I have to also mention ‘Spy x Family’

Kagurabachi

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

Didn't see a lot of recommendations for 90s-2000s manga.

I love me some Ranma and Maison Ikkoku. Great Teacher Onizuka, dragon quest, Kenshin, Trigun, and Hunter x Hunter and YuYu Hakusho.

These are all classic series that I grew up with, and absolutely feel like they hold up to today.

Sengoku Komachi kurou tan: History buff Girl studying agriculture timeslips and encounters Oda Nobunaga and helps him with his conquest.

I wouldn't mind getting a good isekai recommended.

Zenshu has zero fanservice and it is hilarious

A particular favorite of mine, which i don't know in which genre to put it in (slice of life maybe?) Blue Period, 15+ volumes

Blood on the Tracks

I've wanted to get the Demon Slayer books. Watched the anime first and want to know what I'm missing in the story.

Hinamatsuri (sci-fi comedy)

Angel Densetsu (action comedy)

Claymore (fantasy action-horror, same author as the above)

Devilman (classic manga that inspired A LOT of japanese media)

Helck (adventure)

Jojo's Bizarre Adventures (eccentric superpower action series)

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (social satire by the world's most GenX author)

Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru (eccentric slice of life)

Kaiji (excellent gambling drama)

are some of my favorites

Daemons of the Shadow Realm, from the FMA author?

D. Gray-man isn't bad for like the first 10 or so volumes.

Black Butler isn't 100% action but interedtingly steampunk at times.

for all the Vinland Saga-heads out there, I'd recommend The Bugle Call: Song of War. First chapter is among the best opening chapters I've read of any manga so far, especially among action/war mangas, and I've read one comment on MangaDex that likened it to the entire development of the first arc of VS, but more cramped and rushed. I might be a bit biased in my evaluation of it tho, given that I also decided to listen to the Tchaikovsky Manfred symphony while reading it, and listening to the first movement while reading the first chapter was a transcendental experience for me.

Issak is one I found and binged yesterday which I also enjoyed. Classic 'one apprentice seeks revenge on another for killing their master' premise, only its happening in the Holy Roman Empire at the outset of the Thirty Years' War. My only foreknowledge of the Thirty Years' War comes from Matt Christman's Hell on Earth podcast series, but it was still pretty pog when Wallenstein makes his appearance. One of the major charas is a follower of Thomas Müntzer, tho I doubt that connection will be taken as far as it could. CW for gore thruout, and attempted SA in first chapter.

If you don't mind long strip style, then I'd like to plug again Martial Wild West. A wuxia set in Han Dynasty-settled Turtle Island; it gave me a lot of Kenshi vibes. Am waiting for it to come out of hiatus...

I wouldn't mind getting a good isekai recommended.

Controversial take but Mushoku Tensei Jobless Reincarnation is actually good...