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

  • kahjtheundedicated@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    14 hours ago

    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.

    • Unique_Emerald_Sol_I@ani.socialEnglish
      3·
      11 hours ago

      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…

    • Unboxious@ani.socialEnglish
      3·
      11 hours ago

      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.

      • nyan@lemmy.cafeEnglish
        1·
        60 minutes ago

        .hack//SIGN did not age well. It got some decently positive reviews when it first aired, but was just about unwatchable when I rewatched it ten years later. But yeah, the soundtrack (early Yuki Kajiura) was always the best part.