Psyren stands out from its 'long-running' battle shounen contemporaries by being relatively short. At 145 chapters Psyren tells a complete (albeit rushed at the end) narrative that accomplishes everything it sets out to do. There is not much Psyren does extraordinarily well, the art at times can be spectacular and character designs are excellent and some of the plot twists are well handled, but for the most part the series is just solid. Luckily it makes no egregious errors which is why the score is relatively high compared to my faint praise so far.

The power system is Togashi-esque with a baseline amount of abilities everyone has access and then individual powers suited to each characters personality. It doesn't have the depth or balance that Nen does, but the short story stops it from loosing the sense of wonder that gets from seeing new abilities. Psyren also has better female representation than the majority of shounen, the main girl at worst just as strong as the main guy for the entirety of the series, which is refreshing given how these types of stories tend to introduce cool female characters and then promptly push them to the margins.

Psyren is of, right now, my preferred recommendation for someone wanting to get into battle shounen. It hits all the beats fans of that genre expect while delivering a competent story. It was a breezy read with no real roadblocks, it just did not hit the same highs the more popular series of its ilk have achieved.

Score: Strong 7 to Light 8