10 Best Shonen Anime If You Want Even More Action Than Dragon Ball Z (2024)

There is no doubt that the Dragon Ball franchise is the most iconic and one of the most beloved action anime series out there. The Dragon Ball franchise also helped establish the modern formula for shonen action, from power-ups and transformations to goofy himbo heroes and bitter rivalries. Anyone who's caught up on Dragon Ball is encouraged to check out other action anime to satisfy their cravings for even more anime mayhem.

While Dragon Ball has the most bombastic and jaw-dropping action sequences of all, other shonen action series aren't far behind and are a perfect watch for Dragon Ball devotees. These series pack just as much action as Dragon Ball does, if not more so, pound for pound, and that is what any shonen anime fan would want after they've caught up with all of Goku's on screen antics. These series also tend to put a fun twist on the formula with unique powers, monsters, and tricks to keep things fresh and not just feel like a Dragon Ball clone.

10 Attack on Titan Blends Mecha Anime With Horror and Action

Eren Yeager Made the Whole World Tremble

Attack on Titan is a grim shonen adventure with a totally different combat style than its Dragon Ball predecessor. This anime started with humanity's desperate defensive war against destructive, man-eating Titans as soldiers used swords and cannons to defend their city home, only for half-other powers to take over the combat system. Soon, characters like Eren Yeager fought the Titans with their own Titan forms.

That upped the ante in a huge way, and the action kept escalating when Eren tangled with his enemies from across the sea, the Marley Empire. That empire had high-tech weapons to resist the Titans, including battleships, and more Titan Shifter duels unfolded as the war escalated. In the end, Eren menaced the entire world with the rumbling, intending to trample everything flat.

Attack On Titan

TV-MA

Action

Adventure

After his hometown is destroyed and his mother is killed, young Eren Jaeger vows to cleanse the earth of the giant humanoid Titans that have brought humanity to the brink of extinction in Attack on Titan.

Studio

Wit Studios, MAPPA

Release Date

September 28, 2013

Cast

Bryce Papenbrook , Yûki Kaji , Marina Inoue , Hiro Shimono , Takehito Koyasu , Jessie James Grelle

Main Genre

Animation

Seasons

4 Seasons

Creator

Hajime Isayama

Production Company

Number of Episodes

98 Episodes

9 Chainsaw Man Packs a Lot of Gory Action in a Short Runtime

Devil Slayers Tend to Die in the Line of Duty

Even a short anime series like Chainsaw Man can pack a lot of action into a short runtime, and manga readers know that the next few arcs will treat fans to even more intense action in the upcoming International Assassins arc and Denji's heartbreaking battles in the arc after that. These fights are also gory and savage affairs, with no honor or restraint shown as Denji and his allies fight devils.

This is a subversive shonen anime that twists the Dragon Ball formula, offering a bizarre yet refreshing take on shonen action with memorable action beats and character designs. It's all centered around Denji/Chainsaw Man himself, who is always ready for a fight against devils and hybrids to earn his pay and finally make something of himself. Fighting is all he knows, so he will gladly throw himself into deadly situations and slice his way through with three chainsaws.

Chainsaw Man

TV-MA

Anime

Action

See Also

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Adventure

Following a betrayal, a young man left for dead is reborn as a powerful devil-human hybrid after merging with his pet devil and is soon enlisted into an organization dedicated to hunting devils. When his father died, Denji was stuck with a huge debt and no way to pay it back.

Release Date

October 11, 2022

Cast

Kikunosuke Toya , Ryan Colt Levy , Tomori Kusunoki , Suzie Yeung

Main Genre

Anime

Seasons

1

Studio

MAPPA

Creator

Tatsuki Fujimoto

Main Characters

Denji, Makima, Pochita, Power, Himeno, Kishibe

Number of Episodes

12

Network

Crunchyroll

Streaming Service(s)

Crunchyroll , Hulu

8 One-Punch Man Holds Nothing Back as Saitama Saves the Day

Saitama Even Punched a Meteor

One-Punch Man is a total satire of superhero and shonen action anime, offering wacky comedy and bombastic action while having an achingly relatable narrative about depression and the emtpiness of modern life. Saitama is an invincible superhero who can clobber any foe with one swing of his fists, but it doesn't bring his life any meaning.

While Saitama searches for meaning, he has plenty else to do, with all kinds of people, monsters, and aliens challenging him time and again with their unique powers. Saitama is the one who can defeat the Deep-Sea King, destroy a giant meteor, and slay an alien warlord with his fists and make it look easy, and he's gone even further in the manga. By that point, Saitama was training and fighting on a cosmic scale, and no planet was safe from him.

One-Punch Man

TV-MA

Anime

Action

Comedy

The story of Saitama, a hero that does it just for fun & can defeat his enemies with a single punch.

Release Date

October 5, 2015

Creator(s)

ONE

Cast

Makoto Furukawa , Kaito Ishikawa , Max Mittelman , Zach Aguilar , Hiromichi Tezuka , Robbie Daymond , Kyle Hebert , Shôta Yamamoto

Main Genre

Anime

Seasons

2

Writers

Tomohiro Suzuki

Streaming Service(s)

Crunchyroll , Hulu

Franchise(s)

One-Punch Man

Directors

Shingo Natsume , Chikara Sakurai

7 Demon Slayer is Pretty But Also Savage as a Shonen Adventure

There Are Brutal Demons to Fight Every Single Night

While Demon Slayer makes the best impression with its unique and dazzling visuals, being pretty and shiny doesn't make it a gentle action series. For all its comedy and cute characters like Nezuko and Mitsuri, Demon Slayer is a wildly violent affair, with the very first episode changing Tanjiro Kamado's life with the slaughter of his family at Muzan's hand.

Demon Slayer could never match Dragon Ball's outrageous power scaling, but it doesn't have to, either. Pound for pound, Demon Slayer is just as action-packed as anything Dragon Ball's arcs can offer, since demons are always ready to strike from the shadows. Demon Slayer also features some tough yet inspirational training arcs, such as the Hashira Training arc, in which Tanjiro earned his power-ups with many aches and bruises.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba

TV-MA

Animation

Action

Adventure

Release Date

April 6, 2019

Cast

Natsuki Hanae , Zach Aguilar , Abby Trott , Akari Kitō , Yoshitsugu Matsuoka

Main Genre

Animation

Seasons

5

6 Gurren Lagann Features the Most Incredible Mecha Action of All

The Mechs Became Bigger Than Galaxies

Most action anime involve the characters fighting face to face with fists, swords, and magical spells, but mecha anime plays by different rules as a great example of science fiction anime. While the famed Gundam series is a fairly "serious" take on this genre, Gurren Lagann gleefully pushes the boundaries of mecha by cranking up the power scaling to outrageous heights with each battle.

Conventional mecha battles gave way to moon-sized spaceships, gigantic alien fleets, and most of all, a pair of dueling mechs that were larger than galaxies and even the known universe itself. The sheer explosive action, fist-pumping triumphs, and outlandish power levels easily make Gurren Lagann the Dragon Ball of mecha anime in all the right ways.

Gurren Lagann

TV-14

Anime

Sci-Fi

Two friends, Simon and Kamina, become the symbols of rebellion against the powerful Spiral King, who forced mankind into subterranean villages.

See Also

Best Anime Like Horimiya

Release Date

April 1, 2007

Cast

Shizuka Ito , Tetsuya Kakihara , Yuri Lowenthal , Michelle Ruff , Marina Inoue , Steve Blum

Main Genre

Anime

Seasons

1

Studio

Gainax

Creator

Hiroyuki Imaishi

Number of Episodes

27

Streaming Service(s)

Crunchyroll , Funimation , Hulu

5 Fairy Tail Pits Wizards Against One Another in Explosive Showdowns

The Sheer Variety of Magical Styles is Staggering

The Fairy Tail anime is a lengthy shonen adventure starring a huge team of heroes, focusing mostly on the strongest members of the Fairy Tail guild. The action begins when Lucy Heartfilia joins the Fairy Tail guild, teaming up with Natsu Dragneel to accept action-packed missions for pay as a professional wizard. That threw open the doors to a stunning variety of magical powers in each arc.

Fairy Tail's heroes continued to power up in exciting ways as ever-stronger villains showed up, from the rival Sabertooth guild to dark guilds and even the dragon Acnologia himself. Disaster struck when the Fairy Tail wizards won their battles on Tenrou Island, only for Acnologia to fire a breath attack that wiped out the whole island, stranding the best Fairy Tail wizard for seven whole years. Such a devastating plot twist wouldn't be out of place in Dragon Ball's own sagas.

Fairy Tail

TV-14

Action

Adventure

Animation

Lucy, an aspiring Celestial Wizard, becomes a friend and ally to powerful wizards Natsu, Gray, and Erza, who are part of the (in)famous wizard guild, Fairy Tail.

Release Date

October 12, 2009

Creator(s)

Hiro Mashima , Masashi Sogo

Cast

Cherami Leigh , Todd Haberkorn , Tia Lynn Ballard , Colleen Clinkenbeard , Newton Pittman , Brittney Karbowski , Monical Rial , Brina Palencia

Main Genre

Action

Seasons

9

Writers

Hiro Mashima , Masashi Sogo

Streaming Service(s)

Hulu

Franchise(s)

Fairy Tail

Directors

Shinji Ishihira

4 Berserk is a Grim Tale of the Lone Struggler, Guts

Guts' Sword Has Cleaved Countless Apostles

Berserk is an R-rated seinen manga/anime franchise with nonstop action and mayhem with a truly dark edge to it all. The sword-wielding protagonist, Guts the mercenary, has only ever known war and violence growing up, and that brutality will double after Guts gets the Brand of Sacrifice and starts fighting countles Apostles and undead in later story arcs.

As a fantasy seinen series, Berserk has plenty of bombastic action to equal anything found in Dragon Ball, such as Guts fighting sea monsters with the Berserker Armor, but that's not all this series offers. Aside from bloody violence, Berserk is also an inspiring tale of a strong-willed hero enduring countless horrors to find peace and happiness, refusing to let the darkness take him no matter how bad the odds may seem.

Berserk

Guts, a wandering mercenary, joins the Band of the Hawk after being defeated in a duel by Griffith, the group's leader and founder. Together, they dominate every battle, but something menacing lurks in the shadows.

Created by

Kentaro Miura

First Film

Berserk: The Golden Age Arc 1: The Egg of the King

First TV Show

Berserk

Latest TV Show

Berserk

Where to watch

Crunchyroll

Video Game(s)

Berserk: Millennium Falcon Hen Seima Senki no Sho , Berserk and the Band of the Hawk , Sword of the Berserk: Guts Rage

Manga Volumes

42

Genre

Fantasy

Where to Stream

Crunchyroll

Summary

Berserk (Japanese: ベルセルク, Hepburn: Beruseruku) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kentaro Miura. Set in a medieval Europe-inspired dark fantasy world, the story centers on the characters of Guts, a lone swordsman, and Griffith, the leader of a mercenary band called the "Band of the Hawk". The series follows Guts' journey seeking revenge on Griffith, who betrayed him and sacrificed his comrades to become a powerful demonic being.

3 Naruto Keeps Upping the Ante With Stronger Ninjas and Jutsu

Some Jutsu Had the Power to Chang the World

The hit anime Naruto is a part of the original shonen "big three" that succeeded Dragon Ball, and all of them lived up to that series' reputation for action and cool story arcs. For its part, Naruto shakes up the shonen action formula with trickery and ninjutsu, focusing on ninjas rather than martial artists and thuggish aliens or androids.

The action sequences in Naruto are a winning blend of hard-hitting combat and mind-bending tricks and traps, keeping viewers on their toes as the world's strongest ninjas outfox each other time and again. In Naruto Shippuden in particular, the power scaling shot through the roof as Naruto mastered his jinchuriki powers, allowing him to fight in explosive showdowns against the likes of Sasuke Uchiha and Kaguya Otsutsuki.

Naruto

TV-PG

Action

Adventure

Naruto Uzumaki, a mischievous adolescent ninja, struggles as he searches for recognition and dreams of becoming the Hokage, the village's leader and strongest ninja.

Release Date

September 10, 2002

Cast

Junko Takeuchi , Maile Flanagan , Kate Higgins

Main Genre

Anime

Seasons

1

Creator

Masashi Kishimoto

Production Company

Pierrot, Staralis Film Company

Number of Episodes

220

2 One Piece Delivers Stellar Action With Devil Fruits, Haki, and Naval Battles

The High Seas Are a Dangerous Place

One Piece is the oldest and longest member of the shonen big three, so it's had the most time to show off its Dragon Ball-inspired stuff. It all started when the himbo hero Monkey D. Luffy ate the Gum-Gum Fruit and powered up, and by age 17, he was ready to form his own pirate crew. As Luffy's Straw Hat crew expanded, they got into more and bigger fights on the many islands of the Grand Line and the New World.

By that point, the entire Straw Hat crew would fight together against their many enemies on islands like Dressrosa and Wano, with Luffy leading the charge into the fray. Along the way, Luffy kept boosting his own power with his Gears and Haki, allowing him to hit harder and faster than ever as he faced various Warlords and Emperors. The most recent example was the amazing transformation into Gear 5, Luffy's own way to go Super Saiyan and then some.

One Piece

TV-14

Action

Adventure

Comedy

Drama

Fantasy

Super Power

Follows the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy and his pirate crew in order to find the greatest treasure ever left by the legendary Pirate, Gold Roger. The famous mystery treasure named "One Piece".

Release Date

October 20, 1999

Creator(s)

Eiichiro Oda

Cast

Mayumi Tanaka , Kazuya Nakai , Akemi Okamura , Kappei Yamaguchi , Hiroaki Hirata , Ikue Ôtani , Yuriko Yamaguchi , Kazuki Yao , Chō

Main Genre

Action

Seasons

20

Creator

Production Company

Writers

Junki Takegami , Shoji Yonemura , Hirohiko Uesaka

Number of Episodes

Streaming Service(s)

Crunchyroll

Franchise(s)

One Piece

Directors

Kônosuke Uda , Junji Shimizu , Munehisa Sakai

1 Bleach is All About Swords and Spiritual Monsters

The Thousand-Year Blood War Arc is Nonstop Action

Bleach is the third member of the big three, trading fists and Devil Fruits for swords and kido spells to drive its combat system. By the time the Soul Society arc launched, Bleach was firing on all cylinders with its explosive action, with bankai and Ichigo's Hollow powers taking center stage in the battles. The stakes in Bleach rose even higher in the battle against Aizen's Arrancar army and the final battle against the Wandenreich.

Bleach is also relatively grounded compared to the rest of the big three and Dragon Ball, being the only one set on Earth as viewers know it. That makes Ichigo Kurosaki and his friends more relatable despite their fantasy adventures, and it creates serious stakes as villains like King Yhwach threaten the entire Earth with their terrifying plans.

Bleach

TV-14

Animation

Action

Adventure

Bleachrevolves around Kurosaki Ichigo, a regular always-grouchy high-schooler who for some strange reason is able to see the souls of the dead around him.

Release Date

September 6, 2006

Cast

Johnny Yong Bosch , Michelle Ruff , Stephanie Sheh , Jamieson Price , Derek Stephen Prince , Wally Wingert

Seasons

16

Creator

Production Company

Story By

Tite Kubo

Writers

Tite Kubo , Masashi Sogo

Number of Episodes

Network

Funimation

Directors

Noriyuki Abe , Jun'ya Koshiba

Showrunner

Tite Kubo

Producers

Tasuku Honda , Yoshihiko Tominaga , Genki Negishi

Character(s)

Ulquiorra (voice) , Ryūsei 'Kenryū' Kenzaki (voice) , Ugaki (voice) , Avirama Redder , Kurōdo (voice) , Noitora (voice) , Uncredited , Maki Ichinose (voice) , Jinta Hanakari (voice) , Noba , Aaroniero Arruruerie (voice) , Lirin (voice) , Mashiro Kuna (voice) , Wonderweiss Margera (voice) , Hyōrinmaru (voice) , Uryu Ishida (voice) , Nel Tu (voice)

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