Sports Romance, Slice of Life Volumes: 14+ (Ongoing – Serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump)
From Naoki Urasawa (the author of Monster ), this manga follows Kenji, a convenience store manager, who discovers that a mysterious symbol he and his friends drew as kids in the 1970s is now being used by a cult leader to try to destroy the world.
Fantasy, Iyashikei (Healing), Philosophical Why it’s popular: An elf mage who defeated the Demon King outlives her adventuring party. She must learn to understand human emotion and mortality decades after her friends have died.
Action Comedy, Slice of Life Why it’s popular: A spy must build a fake family for a mission. Unbeknownst to him, the orphan girl he adopts (Anya) is a telepath, and the wife he finds (Yor) is a professional assassin.
Popular in Japan or the manga community, but slightly less mainstream in the West.
: Widely considered one of the greatest of all time, this series follows two brothers using alchemy to restore their bodies.
Imagine a world where the last remnants of humanity live behind colossal walls to survive man-eating giants (Titans). Attack on Titan starts as a brutal survival horror but evolves into a complex geopolitical drama about war, revenge, and the cycle of hatred. The animation by Wit Studio and MAPPA is cinematic quality. For manga readers, Hajime Isayama’s original art is raw and visceral, though the anime is considered the definitive version.
: A dark mystery set in the world of J-pop idols that has become a viral phenomenon. Spy x Family
The best anime is the one that makes you feel something. Don't be afraid to drop a series if you aren't enjoying it after 5 episodes (or 3 volumes of manga). Conversely, sometimes the "popular" series are popular for a reason. Give One Piece a chance; give Chainsaw Man a read.
