Today, most Western fans young and old would recognize shonen superstars like Goku, Naruto, and Luffy on sight. They may even knowYu Yu Hakusho’sYusuke,My Hero Academia’sDeku, and Saitama theOne Punch Man. But anime and manga used to be much more niche than they are now. Series that are considered classics today would be nearly impossible to find in bookstores if they were even translated at all.
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For example,Jojo’s Bizarre Adventurespent most of its 36+ year run as Japan’s best-kept secret outside the Capcom fighting game and an OVA series. Now, thanks to David Production’s anime, the series has built an international fan base with each completed part. So maybe there’s still hope for these battle shonen manga that are more popular in Japan than in the West to follow in their footsteps.
8Medaka Box
Nisio Isin made his name with theMonogatarilight novel series, alongside works set in theJojo’s Bizarre AdventureandDeath Noteuniverses. But he also worked onMedaka Box, a shonen manga set in a school that mixed student council politics with superpowers and conspiracies. Written by Isin and illustrated by Akira Akatsuki, the manga followed Medaka Kurokami.
As head of the student council, she tries to protect the ordinary schoolkids, or “Normals,” against “Abnormals”- kids given superpowers by the school chairman’s illegal experiments. While the manga didn’t reachNarutoorOne Piecestatus, it grew popular enough to earn light novel spin-offs, an anime adaptation, and for Medaka to be a playable character inJ-Stars Victory Vs. But in the West, it passed without much notice.
7Sakamoto Days
There’s still time for Yuto Suzuki’s comedy action manga to catch on. Starting life in 2020, it’s since received award nominations from the Next Manga Awards and the Shogakukan Manga Award. Plus,Fullmetal Alchemistcreator Hiromu Arakawa promoted it as one of the funniest strips on the market. As of 2023,Sakamoto Dayshas been translated by Viz Media in the Westto fair but quiet acclaim.
The “Sakamoto” in the title is Taro Sakamoto, a legendary hitman. He retired from the business to settle down with his girlfriend, whom he married, had a child with, and then became another average old man running a convenience store. But the other hitmen still know who he is and want to take him down. With the help of his telepathic employee Shin, Sakamoto will stop at nothing to protect his family, friends, and humble store.
6Psychic Squad
If Takashi Shiina’s manga looks familiar, it’s because it inspired its darker anime spin-offUnlimited Psychic Squad, which followed the main series’ villain Kyōsuke Hyōbu and his PANDRA organization. The originalPsychic Squadwas a lighter affair that earned a 51-episode anime, an OVA, a light novel, and a Nintendo DS game. While Sentai Filmworks licensed the anime in 2012, it didn’t excite Westerners as much as it did in Japan.
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Set in a future where people can develop ESP, the Japanese government sets up BABEL, an organization aimed at handling ESP-related crimes. It’s up to Kōichi Minamoto to instruct three gifted but troublesome girls, Kaoru, Shiho, and Aoi, on how to use their psychic powers against PANDRA and the Black Phantom among others. As interesting as it sounds, it is essentiallyThe Powerpuff Girlsplayed straight, which is probably why most anime fans prefer the spin-off.
5Nura: Rise Of The Yōkai Clan
Hiroshi Shiibashi’s manga started with promise. The original 2007 one-shot wonShonen Jump’sGold Future Cup, an award given to one-shots readers wanted to see get serialized the most. Then it did, running from 2008 to 2012, gaining two anime series across 2010-2011, and millions of individual tankobons sold. Viz Media translated both the manga and anime for the West, butneither got much attention.
Maybe it’s because it was too steeped in Japanese folklore for international audiences to click with. Its hero, Rikuo Nura, is a human-Yōkai hybrid who’d rather live like a human than inherit his grandfather Nurarihyon’s position as head of their clan. But he learns to unite humanity and Yōkai against rivals like the Gyuki Clan and the Shikoku faction. Unless readers know the significance of Nurarihyon and the Hyakki Yako already, the manga may be too bizarre for them.
4Hell Teacher Nube
Shō Makura and Takeshi Okano’s own spin on the supernatural went for more general concepts of demons and monsters than yōkai. For when Meisuke “Nube” Nueno isn’t teaching Class 5-3 at Dōmori Elementary, he’s an exorcist who protects the town with his spiritual tools and his possessed Demon’s Hand. It became a mainstay inShonen Jumpthroughout the 1990s, gaining an anime series, three animated movies, and an OVA within the decade.
Then it was revived for two new manga, a live-action series, and a spin-off in the 2010s. None of which traveled beyond Japan. GivenDragon Ballvolumes didn’t make it to the West until its censored anime reached TV screens,Nube’soccult themes and violence likely gave broadcasters pause before pondering how to fit it into the Saturday morning schedules.
3Devilman
If being occult and violent was enough to keep a work down, no one would’ve heard of Go Nagai’sDevilmanat all. The tale of Akira Fudo fusing with the demon Amon to battle other underworld dwellers is more familiar now thanks toDevilman Crybaby. But it modernized a lot ofDevilman’selements because the original manga was from 1972, where its bloody violenceand dark endingwere particularly shocking.
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As such, it was too old for the manga boom in the late 1980s, then too grimdark and edgy after the 2000s until its Netflix update.Devilmanwas influential in Japan, inspiring CLAMP’sXand the EVA designs inNeon Genesis Evangelion. Outside their shores, and beforeDevilman Crybaby, Nagai’s dark fantasy had a 1990 OVA adaptation and an odd cameo in Sega’sThe Revenge of Shinobiwhere he replaced their knock-off Batman boss fight.
2Sakigake!! Otokojuku
Considering the 1980s taste for all things macho, it’s surprising that Akira Miyashita’s manga didn’t become a cult classic in the West like fellow beef festFist of the North Star. Then again, neither the comic nor its multiple seinen spin-offs, anime series, movies, or video games got distributed outside Japan in any significant way. It wasn’t untilJ-Stars Victory Vsthat the West got its first official look at the series’ hero Momotaro Tsurugi and his strict principal Heihachi Edajima.
It was originally a gag strip about Heihachi, a World War 2 veteran, teaching the students at an all-boys private school how to be real men, with Momotaro often bearing the brunt of his methods. Then it gradually became a martial arts epic as Momotaro and his friends fought against rival schools, soldiers, and other escalating threats. The manga became one ofShonen Jump’sbiggest bestsellers, and its characters are iconic in theschool delinquent subgenre.
1Saint Seiya: Knights Of The Zodiac
Usually, a series about five warriors with a theme (Greek mythology in this case) with superpowers defending Earth against divine threats would be a winner. It worked forPower Rangersand other super sentai series. But while Masami Kurumada’s manga aboutSeiya and his fellow Saintssold 50 million copies in its original 1980s run, it still feels obscure. That’s because it kind of is…to Anglophones.
The manga wasn’t translated into English until 2003, a decade or so after the middling localization of its anime adaptation. However, its French, Spanish, and Italian editions made the series as iconic in those territories asDragon Ball Z, if not more so in some places. So,Saint Seiyadid sort of catch on in the West. Just not with English speakers or people east of the Alps.
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