In the mid-2000s, few shonen series were as popular as the Big Three, a term created by the Western anime community to refer to One Piece, Naruto, and Bleach. Extremely beloved worldwide, these three franchises ran alongside one another in Shonen Jump from 2001 to 2014, amassing a substantial shared fanbase and even becoming an entire generation’s introduction to anime. However, with the conclusion of Naruto in 2014 and Bleach in 2016, a void was left on the pages of Shonen Jump, urging the fans to search for new series to take the Big Three’s place.

In the following years, a new lineup of top-rated shonen series did, indeed, emerge, even if none of them ended up becoming the universally acknowledged New Big Three. Yet, this new generation of shonen hits is now also swiftly concluding. Just in the last few years, such massive series as Demon Slayer, Hell’s Paradise, Dr. Stone,...