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Shonen anime are extremely popular and have been for decades. While the hype is sometimes well deserved, it risks the show or franchise in question falling short of the colossal expectations fans set.
Ironically, the term 'overrated' has itself become overused as shorthand for a piece of media not meeting the hype and therefore being bad. Art is subjective after all, and everyone is entitled to like or dislike shows.
There are a few shonen anime series that are more overrated, or rather overhyped, than the rest.
Note: This article reflects the author's opinion only. Spoilers are included.
Note 2: This isn't an attack or hit piece on any of these anime. All of them are worth watching, even if they don't quite hit the mark all the time.
8 of the most overhyped shonen anime of all time include Dragon Ball Super, One Piece, Naruto, and more
1) Dragon Ball Super
Moreso than Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball Super is outshone by its hype. It's still great in places such as the Tournament of Power, Vegeta's continuing redemption, the Moro arc from the manga, and the Granolah arc likewise. It's far better than Dragon Ball GT by a long shot, but it has its fair share of issues that tend to get lost in the hype.
The main flaws are that the Saiyans dominate every storyline and the never-ending power level increases stagnate the series. The writing isn't that great either, with examples including the Future Trunks/Goku Black arc ending poorly and overstaying its welcome, and the Tournament of Power suffering from the same problem the Frieza Saga possessed: dragging on when it's under a time limit.
2) Pokémon
In this entry, a specific focus is put on the mainline, Ash Ketchum-focused anime. In case anyone forgot, yes, it's still going on. At the time of writing, Ash's adventures have reached the Galar region from Sword and Shield.
The latest series, Pokémon Journeys, seemingly includes all the changes made to the franchise over the past 25 odd years and is a marked improvement, according to sources.
That being said, the reason why it's on this list is because of its formulaic nature. No shonen anime isn't formulaic after a while, but Pokémon in particular seemed to really love testing viewers' patience. Despite the overall moral of the anime being learning from mistakes, Ash seemed to forget and repeat the same lessons in future seasons, which only increased fan and newcomer frustrations.
3) One Piece
One Piece has gotten better over the past decade and continues to chug along. The hype hasn't stopped since, with the latest manga chapter revealing Luffy is a reincarnation of the legendary Sun God. This contributes to the overall problem: the anime has well over 900 episodes and is still ongoing, with the manga having over 1,000 chapters.
The anime often gets bogged down with tedious, long-running fillers, with Foxy's Return Arc and Ice Hunter Arc among the lowest rated, according to fansites. The story is nowhere near being over, despite the first goal being reaching the Grand Line which the Straw Hat Pirates have since gotten to. This leaves newcomers in the dust, with returning fans turned off from watching without a lengthy recap.
4) Yu-Gi-Oh!
Both the Yu-Gi-Oh shonen anime and card game are still going strong today, the anime less so because the original and most iconic story ended. The various sequel series and spin offs, for instance GX, 5D's, Zexel, and Arc V all tend to be very overhyped in and of themselves, but for the sake of simplicity this entry goes to the original Yu-Gi-Oh! anime.
Though the original has a highly entertaining concept, and the character arcs and developments are nothing to sneeze at, it's still formulaic in terms of who wins. Barring Yugi and Kaiba, other duelists and characters tend to either blend into the background or are often underdogs that never quite get over. It's usually up to Yugi to save the day, which makes the show very tedious.
5) Naruto
The Naruto series as a whole has lasted about as long as One Piece. The difference is, the series saw an ending with The Last movie and the final episode concluding with Sasuke vs. Naruto. While there were episodes and manga chapters to follow, fans were able to safely transition to Boruto. This does bring to mind Naruto's biggest flaw as a shonen anime: filler.
Sometimes fillers can be great, episode 101 aka the Kakashi mask episode is still funny, and the Kakashi and Itachi Shinden adaptations still give an important backstory. But when fans take a step back and realize just how much filler is involved, they have to consult a list in order to know which to avoid. Naruto and Sasuke also get the lion's share of development, leaving everyone else behind.
6) My Hero Academia
This is one of the biggest newer shonen anime out there, and it's supposedly ending in 2022 if Mangaka Kohei Horikoshi's statements are accurate. The action and superhero drama of My Hero Academia continues to ramp up as the final war arc begins in the manga, with the anime beginning to catch up. So, naturally, there is quite a lot of hype behind it and backlash is inevitable.
So, how is it overrated? Well, it has the typical shonen anime problem of too many interesting characters that don't get enough focus if your name isn't Deku, Bakugo, or Todoroki. Long-lasting impacts from events don't occur until the USJ, and subsequently All Might's retirement down the road. All for One was also never really compelling enough as a villain, more a typical evil mastermind type.
7) Attack on Titan
Attack on Titan came screaming out of the gate with its ultraviolent premise and death everywhere. It seemingly followed a trend set by The Walking Dead franchise, where nobody is safe from death. This made for compelling character drama and a story of survival against insurmountable odds, but as Attack on Titan went on, more than a few flaws started showing up.
Attack on Titan's grand final twist, a "sins of the past" story, falls flat. For one, the twist comes way too late to have any real impact. Likewise, the "death, death everywhere" trope never seemed to apply to Eren, Armin, or Mikasa and instead to everyone else, which made it difficult to get invested in anyone else even when they were better written. The ending is also its own hotly debated can of worms.
8) Bleach
Though the shonen anime Bleach has officially ended, with its manga showing the final arc and a movie concluding the anime, it's still fondly remembered and hyped by people to this day. It's not hard to see why, as the action is solid, the concepts are deep, and it does feature a wealth of great character development for everyone other than Ichigo like Rukia, Renji, Byakuya, and even Orihime.
Why is Bleach considered overrated then? It became, as several fans and sources noted, "Dragon Ball Z with swords" as Ichigo would gain power, beat that arcs villain, only for worse to show up, and rinse and repeat. As a result, Ichigo stopped developing as a protagonist, which isn't good for a shonen anime. Throw in too much bad filler, and the stakes do not matter because everyone gets healed.
Conclusion
Despite everything that was said here, rest assured that all of these shonen anime are still worth watching. It's important to have a mindset where even shonen anime fans can still criticize their media, without going overboard.
As stated in the introduction, this is just stating the flaws that too much hype may otherwise obscure.
