Battle Shonen Anime/Manga Tournament Brackets

HOME OF THE OBLIGATORY TOURNAMENT ARC

[battle-shonen-brackets]

Because what goes together better than battle shonen manga and tournaments?

FINALS:

Fullmetal Alchemist vs. Hunter x Hunter

3rd Place Fight: Dragon Ball vs JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

Seminals:

Fullmetal Alchemist vs. Dragon Ball

Hunter x Hunter vs. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

Quarterfinals Loser's Brawl

Quarterfinals:

Fullmetal Alchemist vs. Bleach

Naruto vs. Dragon Ball

Hunter x Hunter vs. Inuyasha

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure vs. One Piece

Round 1 Loser's Brawl (Final)

Round 2 Loser's Brawl

Previous Rounds:

Round 2:

Fullmetal Alchemist vs. Fist of the North Star

Bleach vs. Demon Slayer

Naruto vs. Blue Exorcist

Fairy Tail vs. Dragon Ball

Hunter x Hunter vs. Yu Yu Hakusho

Inuyasha vs. Jujutsu Kaisen

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure vs. Saint Seiya

Soul Eater vs. One Piece

Round 1 Loser's Brawl:

Bracket A: Lucifer & Biscuit Hammer, Black Clover, Sakamoto Days. Mashle, Burn the Witch, Shaman King, My Hero Academia, Medaka Box

Bracket B: Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan, Fire Force, Toriko, Samurai 8, Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, Seven Deadly Sins, World Trigger, Mahou Sensei Negima!

Previous Rounds:

Round 1:

Fullmetal Alchemist vs The Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer

Black Clover vs Fist of the North Star

Bleach vs Sakamoto Days

Mashle vs Demon Slayer

Naruto vs Burn the Witch

Shaman King vs Blue Exorcist

My Hero Academia vs Fairy Tail

Medaka Box vs Dragon Ball

Hunter x Hunter vs Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan

Fire Force vs Yu Yu Hakusho

Inuyasha vs Toriko

Samurai 8 vs Jujutsu Kaisen

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure vs Katekyo Hitman Reborn

Saint Seiya vs Seven Deadly Sins

Soul Eater vs World Trigger

Mahou Sensei Negima! vs One Piece

Deliberate Omissions:

I have specifically excluded all sports manga and non-battle battle series (e.g. death note, promised neverland, food wars, etc). Comedy series have been included on the basis of whether their story follows the structure of a battle shonen - Gintama has been excluded, for example, as it is usually more focused on episodic comedy.

I have specifically chosen to both exclude Chainsaw Man and Attack on Titan as I feel their tone and narrative themes make them too different to the rest of the competitors to be a fair contest. (I considered the same for FMA but chose to leave that).

In addition, I refuse to include Rurouni Kenshin due to the actions of its mangaka. While there are other manga on this list with problematic creators there is an order of magnitude between them and what Nobuhiko Watsuki has done and I cannot in good conscience endorse his work.

If anything not covered in these is missing it's either because I forgot or just didn't give enough of a shit about it.

[battle-shonen-brackets]

Because that other poll was bothering me

What was your first anime? (excluding Pokemon)

Sailor Moon

Dragon Ball Z

Cardcaptor Sakura

Inuyasha

Hamtaro

Naruto

Fullmetal Alchemist ('03 or Brotherhood)

Death Note

Ouran High School Host Club

Soul Eater

Black Butler

Something else

Voting ended onMay 4, 2024

no shade to the OP of the original poll but i wanted to see more broadly accurate results so. yeah.

[battle-shonen-brackets]

AND THE WINNER IS...

Congratulations to Fullmetal Alchemist for taking first place!

With honourable mentions to Hunter x Hunter taking 2nd and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure taking 3rd.

Don't go anywhere, because I'll be putting on further battle shonen brackets in the future - next up will be Battle Shonen MCs.

[battle-shonen-brackets]

BATTLE OF THE BATTLE SHONENS - THE FINAL ROUND

Fullmetal Alchemist vs. Hunter x Hunter

Fullmetal Alchemist

Hunter x Hunter

Voting ended onMay 27, 2023

[battle-shonen-brackets]

BATTLE OF THE BATTLE SHONENS - FIGHT FOR 3RD PLACE

Dragon Ball vs. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

Dragon Ball

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

Voting ended onMay 26, 2023

[battle-shonen-brackets]

BATTLE OF THE BATTLE SHONENS - QUARTERFINALS LOSER'S BRAWL

Choose One:

Bleach

Naruto

Inuyasha

One Piece

Voting ended onMay 18, 2023

The tournament is single elimination so this is purely for fun. Putting everything that was eliminated in the quarterfinals against each other to decide which one of these manga got fucked by the seeding hardest.

(I thought I did a pretty good job seeding this but there have been some series that have been way more/less popular than I expected).

[battle-shonen-brackets]

BATTLE OF THE BATTLE SHONENS - SEMIFINALS

Hunter x Hunter vs. JoJo's Bizare Adventure

Hunter x Hunter

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

Voting ended onMay 18, 2023

[battle-shonen-brackets]

BATTLE OF THE BATTLE SHONENS - SEMIFINALS

Fullmetal Alchemist vs. Dragon Ball

Fullmetal Alchemist

Dragon Ball

Voting ended onMay 18, 2023

[battle-shonen-brackets]

BATTLE OF THE BATTLE SHONENS - QUARTERFINALS

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure vs. One Piece

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

One Piece

Voting ended onMay 11, 2023

[battle-shonen-brackets]

how the fuck did these results literally invert themselves in the last 6 hours of a week long poll

[battle-shonen-brackets]

BATTLE OF THE BATTLE SHONENS - ROUND 2 LOSER'S BRAWL

Choose One:

Demon Slayer

Fist of the North Star

Jujutsu Kaisen

Blue Exorcist

Fairy Tail

Yu Yu Hakusho

Soul Eater

Saint Seiya

Voting ended onMay 11, 2023

The tournament is single elimination so this is purely for fun. Putting everything that was eliminated in round 2 against each other to decide which one of these manga got fucked by the seeding hardest.

(I thought I did a pretty good job seeding this but there have been some series that have been way more/less popular than I expected).

[battle-shonen-brackets]

BATTLE OF THE BATTLE SHONENS - ROUND 1 LOSER'S BRAWL (FINAL BRACKET)

Choose One:

Shaman King

My Hero Academia

Fire Force

Toriko

Black Clover

World Trigger

Sakamoto Days

Mashle

Seven Deadly Sins

Katekyo Hitman Reborn!

Voting ended onMay 11, 2023

The tournament is single elimination so this is purely for fun. Putting together the survivors of the first loser's bracket to decide once and for all which one of these manga got fucked by the seeding hardest.

(I thought I did a pretty good job seeding this but there have been some series that have been way more/less popular than I expected).

[battle-shonen-brackets]

Just to address some confusion: these polls are based on the original manga runs, so there's no distinction between Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, Naruto and Naruto Shippuden, Bleach and Bleach Thousand Year Blood War, etc.

Boruto and Dragon Ball Super are their own seperate things, though. I did consider adding them as contestants, but did anyone actually want them? I doubt it.

Also I am technically bending the rules here for JoJo's Bizarre Adventure if only because its release history is so weird and convoluted that it'd seem more abitrary not to.

[battle-shonen-brackets]

BATTLE OF THE BATTLE SHONENS - QUARTERFINALS

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure vs. One Piece

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

One Piece

Voting ended onMay 11, 2023

[battle-shonen-brackets]

BATTLE OF THE BATTLE SHONENS - QUARTERFINALS

Hunter x Hunter vs. Inuyasha

Hunter x Hunter

Inuyasha

Voting ended onMay 11, 2023

[battle-shonen-brackets]

BATTLE OF THE BATTLE SHONENS - QUARTERFINALS

Naruto vs. Dragon Ball

Naruto

Dragon Ball

Voting ended onMay 11, 2023

[battle-shonen-brackets]

BATTLE OF THE BATTLE SHONENS - QUARTERFINALS

Fullmetal Alchemist vs. Bleach

Fullmetal Alchemist

Bleach

Voting ended onMay 11, 2023

[battle-shonen-brackets]

BATTLE OF THE BATTLE SHONENS - ROUND 1 LOSER'S BRAWL (BRACKET B)

Choose 1:

Toriko

Seven Deadly Sins

Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan

Mahou Sensei Negima!

Samurai 8

World Trigger

Fire Force

Katekyo Hitman Reborn!

Voting ended onMay 3, 2023

The tournament is single elimination so this is purely for fun. Since there are 16 losers in round 1 and the poll maxes out at 10, this loser's brawl is being split in two, with the survivors from each bracket going up against each other. To survive to the second loser's brawl round, all it has to do is not finish in the bottom 3.