Anime has had a big presence in the West since the days of “Sailor Moon” and “Speed Racer,” but these days the Japanese art form is receiving more and more praise from the general public. At the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, many of the world’s top athletes celebrated their victories by posing or referencing their favorite anime like “Yu Gi Oh” and “One Piece. ” Earlier this summer, Megan Thee Stallion released an entire song, “Otaku Hot Girl,” about her love of anime, referencing and sampling a song from “Jujutsu Kaisen. “
This cultural expansion is not unexpected if you pay attention to it and see how the market has grown. In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, the industry raised $21. 3 billion internationally, and that was after a slight COVID-induced slowdown. Films like “Demon Slayer: Mugen Train” and “Jujutsu Kaisen 0” proved that enthusiasts would show up in theaters, and both were in for tough times for the theater industry.
That said, the bread and butter of anime fandom has been television series; Part of the popularity of media today comes from Generation Z and Millennials, who grew up watching shows like “Pokémon” and “Naruto,” developing and maintaining their fandom. The rise of streaming has been another factor: with sites like Crunchyroll and HiDive releasing screens the day they premiere on Japanese television, it has never been less difficult or more available to watch new and old screens.
What makes anime so appealing to Western audiences? Well, the first thing to keep in mind is that it is more of a medium and an art form than a genre. Beyond action series like “Dragon Ball Z” that depict belief in anime among non-viewers, presentations can range from dark mental dramas to quirky sitcoms. The most productive anime are those that use the freedom of the animation form to create something brilliant and imaginative, anything that may never be achieved in live action. Although almost all reputable anime seem very specific to Japanese culture, the most important ones have a universal relativity that transcends subtitles or cultural boundaries.
When combining this list, we focus on more canonical series and classics that have had an impact on this art form. As a result, exhibits that are still in progress and not yet completed were not eligible for inclusion. That being said, read on to learn about the 10 most productive animated TV shows ever created.
With two hundred episodes, no one would say that “Sailor Moon” is the most consistent anime ever created. There’s a lot of filler with a lot of inconsistent animations in Naoko Takeuchi’s first and greatest iconic manga adaptation. But none of those themes because The Adventures of Usagi Tsukino (brilliantly expressed through the iconic Kotono Mitsuishi) and his team of Sailor Scouts opposed to the forces of evil are the best prepared Saturday morning meal, an explosion of unapologetic female wish-fulfillment that combines incredible action with sincerity and serious storytelling. The secret to her good luck is that Usagi never becomes the best heroine: she’s still recognizable as the weeping woman who appeared in the pilot episode, even though the five seasons see her evolve from an immature schoolgirl to a compassionate and strong young woman. Watching this progression is a real treat, between the show’s captivating villains, the wonderful music and even inconsiderate look at female friendships and the avant-garde technique of homosexuality and sexuality.
Possibly the funniest comedy anime ever made, “Ouran High School Host Club” updates the genre farce formula of a William Shakespeare play for the cutthroat world of Japanese private schools. At the titular elite academy, Haruhi Fujioka is a beautiful, tomboyish young woman who breaks a priceless vase belonging to the school’s Host Club, an organization of six male students who entertain their classmates with food, parties, and flirtation. Mistaken for a man, Haruhi joins the club to pay off her debt and hides her true gender from the student frame along with the developing romantic emotions she develops for the overly dramatic and stupid but concerned club leader, Tamaki. The central romance is satisfying, but “Ouran High School Host Club” shines in the interaction between the club’s various members and its clever, winking use of parody. It’s the kind of show that gleefully pokes fun at a romantic comedy cliché before, mercifully, indulging in it.
It’s not as iconic or as popular in the West as that other western created in 1998, but “Trigun” is a sublime classic. Based on the manga by Yasuhiro Nightow (albeit with an original ending after the cancellation of the Nightow series), it follows the spiky-haired, red-caped outlaw, Vash the Stampede, who surely has a huge bounty on his head and causes a lot of asset destruction, but is a pacifist at heart. Following his adventures across the planet No Man’s Land, “Trigun” begins in a comical and wacky way before effortlessly plunging into darker waters as Vash’s afterlife is revealed. The plot is a bit confusing to understand, but at its core, “Trigun” is an honest and heartwarming story of redemption and momentary opportunities.
Hard to locate today, “The Vision of Escaflowne” is a series that paved the way for many major talents in the anime industry: It came from “Macross” author Shoji Kawamori, was written by Ryota Yamaguchi, known for “One Piece,” and featured contributions from anime visionaries such as Shinichiro Watanabe and Hiroshi Osaka. Knowledge is noticeable. The story of a teenage girl dragged into a world of exchange where two warring countries order mystical robots to fight, this is a story you’ve seen many times before. But its combination of robots and fantasy is superbly represented with the best rhythm. and stunning animation that still makes the familiar indelible.
There are many popular anime or shonen series aimed at young children: “Dragon Ball Z”, “Naruto”, “Bleach”, “One Piece”, to name a few. No one can compete with Hiromu Arakawa’s “Fullmetal Alchemist” manga, a cold vintage that ran from 2001 to 2010. Set in the land of Amestris, where alchemy grants practitioners the ForceArray, the series filters a story of civil war through through the mission. Brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric to locate the Philosopher’s Stone and repair young Alphonse’s frame after a tragic incident in his formative years. Simply put, “Fullmetal Alchemist” has everything you’d expect from a fantasy series of its nature: a giant ensemble of incredibly compelling characters, expertly rendered combat sequences, meticulous world-building, tight pacing, and a compelling story. . mature about loss, war and ethics that never presents its conflicts in black and white. Through it all, the brotherly bond between Ed and Alphonse proves to be a solid core, giving the anime one of its most touching relationships. The first animated adaptation of the manga, which aired between 2003 and 2004, especially deviated from the original curtain and presented an absolutely different final story. It’s worth a look, but the more accurate “Brotherhood” is a better, more coherent viewing experience.
Perhaps the most beloved and popular anime of all time among Western fans, the crossover appeal of “Cowboy Bebop” is evident when you watch it. Shinichirō Watanabe’s seminal paintings combine attributes of science fiction, Western narratives, martial arts choreography, a wealth of cinematic references ranging from “Pierrot le Fou” to “Alien,” and a varied musical palette presented through composer Yoko Kanno. In other words, there’s something for everyone in the 26-episode series, but the story of Spike Spiegel and the Bebop spaceship team succeeds on its own terms. The tone shifts from tragic to hilarious, adventurous and contemplative from episode to episode, offering the best short stories about life in a textile world inhabited by outlaws and vagabonds. Its main story about the afterlife and Spike’s redemption is elusive and vaguely told, and that’s why it’s all the more compelling. “Cowboy Bebop” is a series that may have lasted a hundred episodes without problems and, however, its short duration makes it an almost excellent gem.
A compelling mix of “Ghost in the Shell”-inspired cyberpunk and nauseating mental horror, “Serial Experiments Lain” and its expressionistic portrait of online life seem ahead of its time. Modern, mainly online films like “We’re All Going to the World’s Fair” and “Searching” owe a lot to the story of Yasuyuki Ueda, played by Lain Iwakura, a clumsy first-level student who retreats from the global genuine and immerses itself in the virtual truth of the global. “Wired”, thus losing sight of his own identity. Filled with metaphysical reflections on the nature of truth and full of atmosphere, its portrait of social and technological alienation rings even more true in the 21st century than when it was first published.
Written by Yōji Enokido and directed by Kunihiko Ikuhara, “Revolutionary Girl Utena” is a decadent feminist fantasy that covers mythological symbolism in the most sensitive part of its nostalgic high school melodrama. Set at the Ohtori Academy boarding school, the story follows Utena Tenjou, a woman in need of a prince, and her quest to win a sword dueling tournament at the hands of the no-nonsense and feminine Anthy. This undeniable plot, animated through a fairy tale, is presented as a surreal and avant-garde tapestry. It is a visual delight, since it is a narrative, and an essential text of queer storytelling and gender fluidity like there has never been on television.
Satoshi Kon, one of the wonderful anime creators of all time, made his call with films like “Perfect Blue,” “Millennium Actress,” and “Paprika,” which expertly tested the tenuous boundary between fiction and truth. Every film Kon has made is wonderful, and yet his 13-episode series “Paranoia Agent” might be the purest distillation of his skills as an anime storyteller. A mental mystery presented as an anthology, the “Paranoia Agent” episode revolves around another user of interest in the case of a mysterious boy who traveled around Tokyo attacking locals with a baseball bat. The nature of this child is unclear: is he a human being in general? A parageneral creature? A figment of the imagination. “Paranoia Agent” has its superficial pleasures – a horror-dense setting, brilliant film-quality animation from the Madhouse studio – but as the story delves into more surreal territory, its focus turns to the lies and illusions the that other people give themselves up to escape. His truth will fight. same in the depths of your mind.
Confusing, controversial, polarizing and divisive, “Neon Genesis Evangelion” still feels fresh 3 decades after its premiere in 1995. Hideaki Anno’s series begins as a series of decidedly contemplative giant robots, about the war between humanity and strange alien beings known as angels, and the young people caught in the middle as the only foot soldiers capable of resolving the clash, before morphing into a deconstruction and examination of its own genre and of anime as a medium and cultural movement as a whole. At the center of “Neon Genesis Evangelion” and its shifting, shifting narrative is an intimate attention to depression, the psyche, and whether humans are ever able to perceive themselves. As the series progresses, the central question becomes whether humanity can face the invasion that begins the plot. about whether the recessive and depressing protagonist, Shinji, will one day be able to locate happiness within himself.
Television is, by nature, a collaborative medium, and no anime is the work of a single man. But more than any series, “Neon Genesis Evangelion” turns out to be a reflection of the guy who created it. Anno, who has revised and reinvented the central narrative several times as he grew up, has been open about the depression he experienced while making the series, and this is reflected in the series in a way that makes his storytelling raw and uncompromising. filters. This collapse, and the reduction of the series’ budget, also led to the final two episodes of the series, in which the main plot is absolutely deserted for about 40 minutes of natural contemplation and internal monologues. The series would eventually get a “good” ending in its brilliant final film “The End of Evangelion,” yet those final two episodes seem to be the most natural distillation of “Evangelion’s” magic, its blend of brutal truth with delicate sensibility. . underlying. “Neon Genesis Evangelion” is a messy and riotous painting, which makes it so moving and unforgettable. This is anime at its finest.