It’s no secret that I love anime and manga. Every now and then I’ll read a manga that I enjoy so much that I pray it gets an anime adaptation. Today I’m going to talk about three such series. These are ongoing series that are new, underrated, it just deserve extra attention. Two of them are new manga that I reviewed recently while the third has been one of my favorites for a while.
The first manga I want to talk about is Shinobi Undercover. I know there are better series under this genre umbrella like Sakamoto Days, Kill Blue, and even Full Metal Panic!, but Shinobi Undercover has a lot of charm in its own right. It’s about a shy ninja who goes to high school so he can play bodyguard to a clumsy girl. There’s plenty of goofy moments and the slice of life events are okay, but the action really makes up for it.
For starters, the art style is amazing. If a good studio were to get their hands on it, an anime adaptation would look fantastic. The action itself is also lots of fun and looks great. The lore behind the world is interesting and all the characters that are introduced at the start are fun. Shinobi Undercover definitely deserves an anime adaptation, and if you’re still on the fence, you can read our review here.
Next on the agenda is Akira Falling In Love. I recently reviewed the first volume here and the second volume here, but I couldn’t get enough. I’ve read lots of romance manga that didn’t stick, and I thought this was going to be the same. But boy was I wrong. It’s about two lovebirds who are too dumb to admit they’re in love to each other.
The situations that they find themselves in get progressively more chaotic and cringy. But the way these moments are handled brings out the best of the humor. I genuinely think it’s one of the funniest manga that I’ve ever read, and it’s sweet on top of that. Akira Falling In Love really deserves an anime adaptation, and I think it’s on par with something like 100 Girlfriends.
Last on the agenda is Dungeon Friends Forever. It’s kind of like Akira Falling In Love, but the romance takes a backseat to the extra fluffy slice of life stuff. I started reading this more than two years ago and I even did a similar article last May that you can read here. Van is an adventurer and Ryuka is the boss of a dungeon, who also happens to be a dragon. But they’re also childhood friends.
Obviously there are romantic undertones but the series focuses on their daily lives as best friends first and foremost. The two of them are so wholesome together and we get to see them just hanging out. There’s barely any action and romance, but it’s personally one of the best fantasy manga and one of the best slice of life manga that I ever read. It sits comfortably as one of my top 5 manga of all time and more people need to read it and push for an anime adaptation.