The Best Shonen Sequel Manga

Highlights

• Sequels vary in quality but can surprise fans. Handa-kun and Boruto show the range in manga sequels.
• Yashahime and New Prince of Tennis keep audiences engaged, building on the success of their predecessors.
• Dragon Ball Super and Ultimate Muscle offer fresh takes on beloved stories, blending old and new elements effectively.

Sequels are often a mixed bag. For video games, they’re often an improvement on what came before. In movies, they usually fall short unless they really do something special. With manga, it can go either way. Handa-kun, the prequel to the seinen calligraphy manga Barakamon, is a solid, well-liked series. Boruto, the shōnen successor to Naruto, fell from grace as its story went on.

Likewise, Burn the Witch, a more Wiccan/Hogwarts take on Bleach’s Soul Society, didn’t set the world alight either. Whether they’re giving readers more of the same or a brand-new direction, a sequel’s success is not guaranteed (except maybe monetarily). Nonetheless, these shōnen sequel manga managed to keep their audiences hooked, matching or even surpassing their predecessors.

8

Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon

MyAnimeList Score: 7.29

• Created by Takashi Shiina, based on Rumiko Takahashi’s InuYasha
• 7+ Volumes, 35+ Chapters
• Available in English via Viz Media’s Shōnen Sunday imprint

Ranking by quality means the early entries here are more contested. Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon is only a touch lower on MAL than its predecessor, InuYasha, with its 7.86 score. Its manga is certainly much better received than its anime adaptation. Even so, it’s more of a lucky free-throw than a slam dunk, as many fans aren’t quite as excited about Inuyasha and Sesshomaru’s kids as they were their parents.

This time, Sesshomaru’s daughter, Towa, frustrated at having to hide her powers and unable to remember where she came from, gets attacked by a demon and sent back in time to feudal Japan. There she is reunited with her long-lost twin sister, Setsuma, and meets Inuyasha’s daughter, Moroha. To recover their missing memories and learn why they were separated, they must track down the Dream Butterfly, and find out what happened to their missing parents.

7

New Prince Of Tennis

MyAnimeList Score: 7.37

• Created by Takeshi Konomi
• 42+ Volumes, 421+ Chapters
• Fan Translations only

The original Prince of Tennis saw Ryōma Echizen aim to step out of his father’s shadow and become a tennis ace in his own right. He manages to earn the respect of his teammates at Seishun Academy, despite being a cocky little brat, because he’s got the skills to back up his attitude. Even so, his friends aren’t slouches on the court either, offering some of the most over-the-top serves in sports anime. It wouldn’t be a shōnen manga if it didn’t get fancy with its techniques.

New Prince of Tennis, or Prince of Tennis 2, is basically more of the same, only instead of the Kanto Regionals or National Tournament, Ryōma and co are invited to the Japan’s U-17 training camp. Not only do they have to deal with its strict rules, they’ll have a wider variety of opponents, including players from all over the planet in the U-17 World Cup. If the first Prince of Tennis managed to hit the spot for readers, then the sequel should keep them just as happy.

6

Dragon Ball Super

MyAnimeList Score: 7.33

• Created by Akira Toriyama and Toyotaro
• 23+ Volumes, 103+ Chapters
• Available in English via Viz Media’s Shōnen Jump imprint

If this list was about anime sequels, Dragon Ball Z would likely get the top spot, but both it and GT weren’t technically sequels as manga. Their arcs, or sagas, are as much a part of the original Dragon Ball as its Red Ribbon Army and Piccolo sagas are. They’ve since been released abroad as separate Z and GT volumes, but that’s only because much of the West didn’t get the series until Z. However, it did get a sequel decades later in Dragon Ball Super. Kind of.

It follows the events of Z, but takes place before GT, and more or less follows the anime with the battles against Beerus, Zamasu, Jiren, etc. It just has some slightly different scenes and plot details (e.g. Kaioken isn’t mentioned in connection to the Super Saiyan God forms), and has kept going beyond the Super anime’s end with new arcs awaiting adaptation. Older fans tend to prefer Z, but newer fans have come around to Super‘s run and how it works in the newer characters.

5

Ultimate Muscle

MyAnimeList Score: 7.44

• Created by Yudetamago
• 29 Volumes, 300 Chapters
• Available in English via Viz Media

Ultimate Muscle had less difficulty living up to its predecessor abroad, because Kinnikuman never really caught on in the West. Older readers may recall the old MUSCLE toys that were based on the show. Though it’s more likely they’ll remember seeing Ultimate Muscle turn up on the FoxBox with Sonic X and Shaman King. Both were basically DBZ with pro-wrestling instead of plasma beams, and featured foes with some very strange gimmicks.

In Kinnikuman, the titular hero managed to prove himself worthy of Planet Kinniku’s throne and left Earth to govern it (until Kinnikuman: Perfect Origin). Ultimate Muscle, or Kinnikuman: 2nd Generations, sees his son Kid Muscle become part of a new generation of Chōjin (supermen), ready to take out the evil dMp (Demon Manufacturing Plant). He’s reluctant at first, but as he faces newer, stronger threats, he grows to meet the challenge. Still, there’s always a bigger baddie waiting just around the corner.

4

Angel Heart

MyAnimeList Score: 7.45

• Created by Tsukasa Hojo
• 33 Volumes, 363 Chapters
• 13 Chapters were formerly available on Silent Manga Audition (the rest are fan translations only)

Angel Heart is a sequel to City Hunter, but isn’t the sequel to City Hunter. It’s an alternate continuity, like The Legend of Zelda’s branching timelines. Fans were put off by it essentially being a ‘what if’, but that might’ve been for the best, as its plot required the death of a fan favorite character. It saw ‘City Hunter’ Ryo Saeba’s partner, Kaori, killed in a traffic accident while trying to save a young girl. Her organs were donated, with her heart being picked up by a group known only as the Organization.

They used Kaori’s heart to save Glass Heart, a Taiwanese assassin who was driven to suicide by her guilt. While in a coma recovering from the transplant surgery, she was plagued by visions of Kaori and Ryo. Upon waking up, she tracks the grieving Ryo down to Shinjuku, where she learned where her new heart came from, and he learned of the Organization. He formally adopts Glass Heart, but she takes on new names. By day, she’s Xiang Ying Li. At night, she’s Angel Heart, and with Ryo, she seeks to find out who her old bosses really are.

3

Zatch Bell 2

MyAnimeList Score: 8.02

• Created by Makoto Raiku
• 3+ Volumes, 21+ Chapters
• Fan Translations only

Like Ultimate Muscle, Zatch Bell may be a blast from the past for some. Kiyo Takamine’s adventures with the titular Mamodo (an imp-like humanoid) to win the once-a-millennium tournament for the throne of the Mamodo Kingdom was a popular show on Toonami. It had an intriguing premise, as Kiyo had to read passages in a book of magic to unlock powers Zatch could use against his opponents. Kind of like if The Legend of Zelda had its own Pokémon-esque spin-off with its fairies.

It had a happy ending back in 2007, but in 2022, Makoto Raiku brought the series back with Zatch Bell 2. The Mamodo Kingdom’s peace was short-lived, as beings from another dimension began to invade. Their magic depleted, the Mamodo Kingdom were left defenseless. With no options left, three kids escape into the human world and try to find Takamine to get him to save the kingdom once more. This sequel has done quite well critically so far, offering nostalgia for older fans while doing something new with the story and characters.

2

Baki Hanma

MyAnimeList Score: 8.13

• Created by Keisuke Itagaki
• 37 Volumes, 312 Chapters
• Fan Translations only

Grappler Baki has been going on since 1991, though unlike Dragon Ball, its plot has always been separated into chunks. Grappler Baki led to Baki, which preceded Baki Hanma, Baki-dō, Bakidō, and Baki Rahen. They all follow Baki’s quest to grow stronger than his ridiculously powerful father, Yujiro, and beat him to avenge his abusive upbringing.

The most acclaimed part of his saga is Baki Hanma, where Baki has just about reached his father’s level, but needs to test himself more. It’s the part where he tracks down the bounty hunter, ‘Biscuit’ Olivia, by kidnapping US President ‘George Bosch’, and fights a thawed-out Mesozoic caveman named Pickle. That’s not to mention the actual father-son battle, which left viewers of the ONA adaptation just as perplexed by its conclusion.

1

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 4: Diamond Is Unbreakable

MyAnimeList Score: 8.57

• Created by Hirohiko Araki
• 18 Volumes, 174 Chapters
• Available in English via Viz Media

It’s amazing what some creators can do without really even trying. That’s not to make light of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable. It’s just that, compared to other parts, it doesn’t have a set story arc. The main villain, Yoshikage Kira, wasn’t thought up until halfway through the manga. Up to that point, Josuke and co were chasing the Stand Arrow and getting into scrapes with other Stand Users. Yet that’s part of its charm, as it gives the characters unique things to do.

Instead of just shōnen battles, they handle family drama, face off against scammers and stalkers, try to win the lottery, eat Italian food, and much more. Araki basically gave the cast intriguing sidequests to do while he was thinking up the next story beat. It has since become the 2nd most acclaimed Jojo part on MAL (after the seinen story Part 7: Steel Ball Run), and one of the more influential ones as well, offering the most spin-offs from Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan to Crazy Diamond’s Demonic Heartbreak.