Best Shonen anime

49 ELO points separate Dragon Ball from My Hero Academia at the top of the Shonen ranking, after 95427 duels.

Dragon Ball dominates with 1421 ELO points and a 66% win rate across 2891 duels, establishing a commanding lead over second-place My Hero Academia at 1372 points. Attack on Titan claims third with 1343 points, while One Piece sits at fourth with 1332 points despite boasting the second-highest win rate in the top five at 67%. Hunter x Hunter rounds out the top five with 1323 points. The gap between Dragon Ball and My Hero Academia is the sharpest in the ranking, confirming the enduring appeal of Akira Toriyama's classic even as newer series compete for attention. At the bottom, Toriko languishes at 936 points with a 35% win rate, suggesting the community has spoken clearly about which titles truly define the genre.

This ranking draws on 95427 duels from 1057 players comparing 26 shonen contenders. The data was updated on 10 October 2026. Whether you side with the old guard or champion a modern favorite, your vote shapes this list. Head to VAINKEURZ and cast your duels to push your top shonen higher or challenge the established order.

Updated on October 10, 2026

How this ranking is computed

Every duel won lifts a contender and every loss drops them, by an amount that depends on the opponent's strength: beating the leader is worth more than beating the last. It is an ELO, the same principle as in chess. Duels are not drawn at random — an adaptive entropy sort puts the least predictable match-ups first, which settles the ranking far faster than a full round robin. A worldwide ranking is only published past 30 completed plays. Known limit: a contender who has faced few opponents keeps an approximate score, and the bottom of the table moves more than the podium.

How our rankings are made →