Manga Series where you prefer the early part?

[Ikagura]

similar stance on all the series mentioned here, more or less.
I’ve come to especially adore Early dragon ball due to how many monster designs in dragon quest borrow their design philosophy from.

I can already imagine Giran as a 8-bits sprite while a HUD displaying Goku's HP and MP (or Qi in this instance) on the upper left corner

Oddly enough, the more static shonens like MHA come to mind due to the worldbuilding being less of a clusterjunk early on.
It’s hard to tell it this is a hot, cold or lukewarm take but pre-time skip one piece had a much stronger sense of adventure to it due to the “feeling of discovery” being more potent. In my eyes, an adventure stops being an adventure if it became a safer and more and more within your comfort zone (although the recent developments with Kuma are still appreciated).

I didn't follow One Piece too much but East Blue felt so good with the adventure. I feel like OP got DBZ-ified to please the audience...

There’s rarely any mentions of this, but I feel that also applies to hunter x hunter, in a sense. While I still like the chimera ant, the previous arcs had more meat to them due to not overstaying their welcome.

Although there’s an inherent bias on my end due to HxH (1999) being the first anime I watched on spacetoon back in the early 2000s.

I forgot that HxH got a revival in the anime.

I kinda like the late 90's style it had.

 

[Sleepstate]

The Big O I know the second season has it's fans but sorry i can't stand a lot of it

 

[PrismRed]

I'm gonna get lynched to death but Ima say it anyway, Sword Art Online.
Hell, any works by Kawahara Reki has a strong beginning, before he starts an asspull plot and ruin everything past the first part.

 

[VampireLord1024VampireLord1024's icon]

The earlier episodes of the His and Her Circumstances anime compared to the last 3 episodes.

 

[Super Funky Piece]

Initial D and Hajime no Ippo come to mind with both protagonists becoming way too reliant on their one unique gimmick to try and close out every race/fight later on.

 

[BrawlMan]

The Big O I know the second season has it's fans but sorry i can't stand a lot of it

I don't even find the second season bad, but I understand your reasoning.

I must prefer the first Afro Samurai over Resurrection. I don't hate the sequel though.