Lucky Star and K-on for CGDCT
Evangelion for meta-commentary and deconstruction, to the point that future works that qualify often get called the “Evangelion of <genre>”
Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood and Attack on Titan for battle shounen
Bocchi the Rock for girls band anime, specifically
Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro for pretty much all of Ghibli
Akira for 90s anime
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As good as it is, I don’t see how Bocchi the Rock is a blueprint for girls band anime tbh. For one, it’s too recent to even tell and it’s not like there are newer girls band anime trying to follow Bocchi’s formula.
I also don’t think that it’s doing anything new to even function as a blueprint. K-On would be much closer.
Same for AoT.
I don’t see how Bocchi the Rock is a blueprint for girls band anime
Yeah, it’s good, but there are plenty of older ones: K-On!, Sound! Euphonium, Show By Rock!!, BanG Dream!, arguably Carole & Tuesday… (also quite a lot of others that came out around the same time; the genre seems to be in vogue this decade or so).
Same for AoT.
It’s an interesting and original take on the giant mecha genre, I’ll give it that, but I can’t think of anything that’s specifically riding on its coattails, no.
AoT itself is inspired by muv luv, which afaik founded the whole “humanity on the brink of extinction fighting against some enemy” concept. But while AoT is the first anime of a story like that to my knowledge, I also can’t really think of another anime with that concept outside of 86 (i will not acknowledge the existence of the horrendous muv luv adaptation that came out a few years ago, plus it wouldn’t make sense to include as something AoT inspired anyway).
Astro Boy (Tetsuwan Atom). Basically defined and kick-started anime as a genre and aesthetic. If there’s a most influential anime, it’s this.
Or maybe Space Battleship Yamato. It turned anime from “TV comics” into, well, anime.
Mazinger Z. Pioneered the giant mecha anime. Also Getter Robo.
Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (better known in the West for its adaptation as Battle of the Planets). The template for the super sentai team genre.
Mobile Suit Gundam. Revolutionised the giant mecha genre moving from simple good vs. evil children cartoons to complex geopolitical narratives. Also, in a similar vein, Macross.
Urusei Yatsura. The template for moe anime. See also Ranma ½.
Nausicaä Of The Valley Of The Wind. The foundation for Studio Ghibli’s aesthetic, tone, and narrative.
Akira, Dragon Ball, Cowboy Bebop. Brought anime to the mainstream in the West, and Dragon Ball is a cornerstone of the shounen genre, with probably only One Piece coming close in influence.
Sailor Moon. Not the first magical girl anime by a long shot, but arguably the cornerstone of the genre. Also Puella Magi Madoka Magica, which redefined and revitalised it.
Neon Genesis Evangelion, already mentioned in the OP. Extremely influential in the 90s and noughties.
Ghost in the Shell. Took over from Akira as a cornerstone of cyberpunk anime.
And I’m surely missing dozens, I’m far from an expert in the genre.
Personally Space Pirate Captain Harlock, Doctor Slump, Dragon Ball, Urusei Yatsura, and Ranma ½, and later Akira, My Neighbour Totoro, Nausicaä, Ghost in The Shell, and Fullmetal Alchemist were my main introductions to the genre (besides stuff that was in the background but I didn’t really follow or, at the time, recognise as a specific genre), but that’s just personal history and preference; I tried to list ones that seem to objectively have had significant influence on the genre or industry.
I had to think a bit hard to identify and guesstimate what was some of my first “impactful” anime personally, and after dragon ball and doraemon that aired on national TV as our saturday morning cartoon (I wasn’t considering it “anime” yet as a child), it has to be ranma 1/2 and gensomaden saiyuki when I was a teenager and it was airing on axn when our family gotten satellite TV. And then it was gundam wing and seed after that, since those too got aired on national TV.
There’s actually another anime I’d like to include, but over the years scouring what AXN and toonami has shown back in the 90s and 00s, that was then imported a second time through my country’s first satellite TV network, I just couldn’t find it. And it even involved a small buckler sized shields and have time magic or something, and a woman chosen one or something. I just could not find it. Whenever I remember my crusade for this anime I am a bit upset>
Hm… Homura uses a small shield sometimes, she has time magic, and Madoka is about as chosen as it gets… are you thinking of Puella Magi Madoka Magica?
Nope, I was in my 20s back then. this is older. the same period as first ranma 1/2 anime. around that. and yes, as I was watching PMMM weekly back then, That Episode blew my head.
No idea then, sorry.
Google suggests Magic Knight Rayearth or Phantom Thief Jeanne, neither of which I’m familiar with, but they don’t look like they fit.
Saint Seiya could fit the dates, Athena could pass as a chosen one, and Cygnus had a buckler of sorts, but that’s probably not it either…
It’s okay. It’s been my white whale for a long time and what led me to meticulously detail what I watch and read if I remember to do it.
I’ll check out your suggestions to see if it can get me closer or like magically spark some core memory.
K-on for Bocchi the Rock :D
Evangelion for Gurren Laggan
SAO for every freakin isekai out there
I believe Toradora was pretty influential in the romantic-drama space? (Way too few of those being released btw.) Also Sakurasou was the pinacle of the golden era of ecchi IMO.
Did Nichijou influence One Punch Man? If not, I would say they co-influenced modern anime humour in general
Evangelion for Gurren Laggan
Can you really count that when it was the same studio?
For what it’s worth, I think it counts.
Toradora
I was not watching anime at the time they aired, but I remember it was that, Haruhi, and Kimi ni Todoke together
I don’t think Lucky Star and K-ON! are blueprints for CGDCT. They surely influenced the shows coming after them but any popular show in a genre does that. The consensus seems that Azumanga Daioh is the blueprint for CGDCT as before it CGDCT wasn’t a genre and after it CGDCT became a genre. For example, can we say that shows like Gochiusa that came after Lucky Star are based upon it and not on something slightly earlier like Ichigo Mashimaro, and can we say that Lucky Star is truly groundbreaking compared to Ichigo Mashimaro in its content? I would say that shows like Lucky Star and K-ON! are not genre defining but instead popularised the existing genre. If anything, that 2007-2009 era was the golden age of CGDCT, not its inception (2002) or where it finalised its form (maybe around 2005 but harder to say). So my vote is Azumanga Daioh for CGDCT.
Maybe for shows heavily leaning into Iyashikei, Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou is what really set the tone but I’m not sure. I’m going with “leaning” here because SOL, CGDCT, Yuri and Iyashikei are almost always in there together to some extend but some works lean heavier into some aspects than others.
Aria was another early work in this area, but I don’t know how much it influenced later shows because this is so not my genre.
I’m not sure either how much ARIA influences later shows either. Apart from Tamayura which is by the same director. ARIA is definitely my favorite though 🥰. I went with Yokohama because it aired much earlier (1998 vs 2005).
Unfortunately I can’t think of any anime that really feel like they’re taking inspiration from Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. Can you give any examples?
It feels like Sword Art Online and Rising of the Shield Hero sure got a lot of imitators though!
There were a lot of “stuck in a game” anime well before SAO.
Log horizon came a few years before[2 years after…]. .hack//SIGN about 10 years prior. And hell, Digimon came even before that.I don’t think Digimon quite occupies the same sphere – it’s like comparing Chronicles of Narnia to Ready Player One.
I’m not even sure how to rate the multiple .hack// series here because they were really experimental (one branch leaving half of its story in PS2 games) and AFAIK nobody was directly copying them. Meanwhile, after SAO…
I’m aware that it wasn’t the first but there’s no denying that SAO kicked off a big trend.
Also .hack//SIGN was boring af; only part worthwhile was the soundtrack.
Yeah, SAO feels like the start of the isekai boom
I might be partially wrong about the battle shounen. I could argue more strongly that FMAB (and DBZ Kai) set the tone for future manga-faithful remakes (Fruits Basket 2019, Rurouni Kenshin 2023, Ranma and Urusei remakes, etc.)
I forgot about how SAO became the blueprint for modern isekai 😂
Not just SAO! I called out Rising of the Shield Hero because unfortunately it popularized the trope where an isekai protag goes and buys some slaves.
