Weekly Shonen Jump has many hit series to its name. That's no surprise considering the magazine has been releasing new publications every week for over 50 years now. With the Shonen Jump app, a lot of these manga series can be read in their entirety any time, anywhere. However, for those who have it, choosing where to begin can be a little tough. The incomprehensible number of choices can seem overwhelming. Still, there's one good place for a fan of any kind of series to start looking-- the classics.
Shonen Jump's app doesn’t have everything Jump has ever published, but it still boasts an impressive selection of its greatest hits. Naturally, it has popular manga like Dragon Ball, Naruto and Bleach available for reading, but there's so much more. Between these big-name series are some other works that can be considered brilliant classics in their own right. They may not be as mainstream or influential as some of the bigger names under the umbrella of Shonen Jump, but they're definitely worth reading for any manga or anime fan.
Assassination Classroom (2012)
This series revolves around Koro-sensei, a mysterious, octopus-like being who's going to destroy the Earth in one year's time. Before then, his misfit class of middle schoolers must kill him. However, the task seems virtually impossible given how quick and crafty he is. In their efforts to kill their teacher, the students learn valuable lessons about school, assassination and life.
It's unbelievable how well-developed Yusei Matsui's main cast of 28 students and three teachers is. All of Class 3-E, Koro-sensei included, become as close as family, and readers get to know them throughout the story. Additionally, the students always manage to come up with entertaining and creative ways to kill their teacher. At the same time, seeing what Koro-sensei will do to avoid death is equally amusing, as he always does so with style. Their bonds of education and killing are both engaging and surprisingly wholesome.
Toriko (2008)
Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro's magnum opus is both entertaining and fascinating. This series is set in a world where food is everything. Gourmet Hunters use their superhuman abilities to seek and sometimes fight rare and powerful ingredients. Toriko's dream is to find the best foods he can and complete his ideal Full Course Meal.
Toriko is highly underappreciated as far as Jump's shonen battle manga are concerned. In its prime, it was expected to reach the same levels of greatness as Dragon Ball and One Piece (there's even an OVA featuring the three of them). The story is fun, but what's truly exceptional about the series is its master-class worldbuilding. Shimabukuro goes into great detail about the geography, zoology, science, economics and other aspects of Toriko's setting in an engaging manner. Not only does the world of Toriko feel real, but the reader is always left wanting to know more about it.
Kuroko's Basketball (2008)
Tadatoshi Fujimaki's sports manga pulses with shonen battle tropes. The series follows Taiga Kagami, Tetsuya Kuroko and their Seirin High basketball team on their way to the top. Standing between them and victory are several highly skilled teams and players, especially the Generation of Miracles -- five of Kuroko's exceptionally adept teammates from middle school. If Kagami and Kuroko want to win, they must greatly improve their skills and learn to use the power of teamwork to their advantage.
This sports manga may get absurd with its parallels to its shonen battle manga contemporaries, but that's part of the fun. Seeing these high school students perform what seems like superhuman feats as they dribble across the court and make a shot is exhilarating. The characters can sometimes seem a little less than believable, but they're still relatable. It's both a good sports manga and a true Jump series.
Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story (1994)
Nobuhiro Watsuki's samurai manga is as cool as it is beautiful. In the early days of the Meiji Period, Kenshin Himura, also known as "Battosai the Manslayer," takes an oath never to kill again. Instead, in these times of peace, Kenshin wanders the countryside using his swordsmanship to help people.
Something that makes this manga particularly good for reading involves the history of its anime. The series had a fairly successful run on American television and is a favorite among many old-school anime fans. However, the anime is incomplete, even in Japan. At the time of its release, the anime had run out of material from the manga to adapt, so it had to air several filler episodes before ending altogether. It's a shame because the last canon arc, the "Jinchu Arc," is purportedly the best of the series. Luckily, manga fans can still read it through Jump's app.
Yu Yu Hakusho (1990)
Yu Yu Hakusho is another great old-school anime beloved among American audiences. Before Bleach or Jujutsu Kaisen, this was the supernatural battle shonen manga. The series follows Spirit Detective Yusuke Urameshi and his friends as they investigate supernatural events in their area, be they to do with ghosts, demons or psychics. Nowadays, when most people hear the name of artist Yoshihiro Togashi, their first thought is Hunter x Hunter. This series, however, is his original claim to fame.
Yu Yu Hakusho is well-remembered for good reason. The art is beautifully horrifying, the characters have amazing chemistry and the atmosphere in every scene feels just right. The story is also never boring; there are all sorts of changes made to the status quo to maintain a steady flow of fresh, new material that keeps the reader engaged. For anyone who's seen the anime, it's also worth reading the manga for its exclusive material.
