Top 25 Epoch-Making Anime
- Categories: Anime, News
- Date: Mar 14, 2012 15:05 JST
- Tags: Evangelion, Gundam, Haruhi, K-ON!, Mahou Shoujo, Mecha, Rankings, Retro, Studio Ghibli
Anime fans sought to provide a ranking of the most influential, historic and memorable anime ever to grace the medium, resulting in a rather impressive list of undisputed classics both new and old.
1. Neon Genesis Evangelion
2. Mobile Suit Gundam
3. Space Battleship Yamato
4. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
5. Card Captor Sakura
6. K-ON!
7. Dragon Ball
8. Sailor Moon
9. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
10. Puella Magi Madoka Magica
11. Pokemon
12. Astro Boy
13. Lupin III
14. Ghost in the Shell
15. Mazinger Z
16. Lucky Star
17. Spirited Away
18. Princess Mononoke
19. Future Boy Conan
20. Akira
21. Doraemon
22. Touch
23. Sazae-san
24. Magical Princess Minky Momo
25. Macross: Do You Remember Love?
Subarashii Sekai Wonderfully Worldly
Top 10 Anime of February, According to NewType
Yandere Simulator “Could Be Renamed”
Studio FOW Short Totally Tentacular
Phantom World Stretching Expectations
Charming Futaba Nendoroid
How You Wish KyoAni Made Phantom World…
Togijo no Senhime: Another Story Unexpectedly Gory
Coming of Age Day Illustrations Quite Formal
Atelier Shallie Plus Trailers Unbearably Cute
Pyramid Head’s Great Knife Replicated
Mortal Kombat X DLC More Gruesome Than Ever
Top 10 Most Anticipated Anime of Winter 2016
Splatoon “Super Play Time” Absolutely Cringe-worthy
Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut “Dragons & Mechs?”
Monster Hunter X Megaman Event Profusely Blue
Love Live! Sunshine!! MV “Will Brighten Up Your Day!”
Top 10 Best Anime Girls of 2015
Hai to Gensou no Grimgar “Has Oppai!”
Skimpy Elf Bikini Cosplay by Saku Supremely Sexy
Gothic Lolita Hatsune Miku Cosplay Busts Out
Delectable Dizzy Cosplay by Lechat
Dark Elf Cosplay by Non Very Dark Indeed
Titillating Tamako Cosplay Perfectly Pink
Goddess of 2ch: “Full of Lust & Urges (& Also Videos)!”
Raunchy Reisen Inaba Cosplay by Tsuyato
Haruhi Bunny Girl Cosplay Rocks Out
Youmu Ero-Cosplay by Madoka Adachi Deadly Sexy
Comiket 89 Cosplay Sickeningly Sweet
Damn good list for the most part.
But Madoka hasn't influenced anything yet. It would have been better to go with Nanoha, or Princess Tutu, since they both subverted the genre before Madoka.
I'd honestly say Revolutionary Girl Utena subverted the magical girl thing before any of those; it has transformations, and was technically consider a magical girl show, even though it was /anything/ but.
The key word is "influential," people. It doesn't matter what subverts what if nobody cares. Friggin' Dokuro-chan and Dai Mahou Touge subvert magical girls, and that's not an automatic ticket to anything. And I say that as a Tutu fan, though my penis draws the line at Utena (it can also do sketches).
Now, we haven't seen entire strings of Madoka imitators yet besides Symphogear. But it has become a top seller in Japan, anime or otherwise. That's why it already counts as a landmark.
Oh, yeah. You're right. I somehow forgot about Utena.
Mai-Hime as well, however they subvert different aspects (Princess Tutu is the only siilar one in this case, Nanoha made a Magical Girl Gurren Lagann, while Utena made a shojo that bordered on shonen)
no complaints here, nothing but agreeance
Whether you like Eva or not, you cannot deny it's impact on the anime industry.
It had the same impact on anime, as the Original Star Wars had for film making. It's pretty dynamic.
Like successfully marketing the shit out of an anime with artwork and swag that has absolutely nothing to do with the anime, other than resembling the characters?
Lobotomy girl: Rei
Incompetent bitch: Asuka
Whiny piss-pants: Shinji
So, why did you saw it ?
Or still talk about it ?
What? A top list on Sankaku Complex that is actually true? Dear heavens, is this the end of time?
it is 2012.. you figure a fluke had to happen sooner or later.
If you throw enough shit at the wall, some of it is bound to stick
I am also generally okay with this list.
More like a top list from Biglobe, Sancom doesn't really do anything with the lists other than repost so nothing to do with this site other than the people's rants
Obviously not white people cause no trigun, cowboy bebop, or dragonball Z.
Agreed. Besides, there's no Fist of the North Star, which has influenced pretty much all the anime on that list except Astro Boy and Doraemon. And Lucky Star is a piece of shit, it's just a female alternative to Cromartie High, so that should be on the list, too. The first 6 on that list is made of fail.
DBZ is 8
Overall a great list. I would personally move madoka below Ghost in the Shell, and move Sazae-San up. I would also like to move Ghost in the Shell up, but those are some giants of the Anime industry above it.
Overall I would say we need these voters doing the other lists too.
They don't really need to be organized at all, since they didn't all affect anime in the same way.
They could be arranged in order of release. The older they are the more chances they had to influence anything.
Evangelion is #1... Yayfications! Finally a good list.
just gonna say..
Dat ass.
Who is that hot chicke in picture?
she’s from Eva…
Mari Illustrious Makinami from Rebuild of Evangelion
My personal top 28 anime:
Noir
Gundam Wing + Endless Waltz
Escaflowne
Macross Plus
Cowboy Bebop
Ghost in the shell
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Serial Experiment Lain
Elfen Lied
Gunnm
All of Hayao Miyazaki movies
Haibane Renmei
Gankutsuou
Millennium Actress (and Perfect Blue from same author and Paprika)
Black Lagoon
Akira
Hellsing
Read or Die
Last Exile
Fullmetal Alchemist
Fafner in the Azure
Record of Lodoss War
Slayers
Kara No Kyoukai: Garden of Sinners
Higurashi
D.N. Angel
Card Captor Sakura
Full Moon Wo Sagashite
DAT ASS!!!
YEaaa! Neon Genesis Evangelion #1!
Macross, GITS and Akira should lot higher.
Madoka, Lucky Star and K-ON, GTFO!
The rest of the list is OK.
I honestly don't know why people concern themselves so much with the positioning of Anime in lists. Personally, I feel that being on the list is all that counts and I have to agree with every single one of them.
Also, I don't see why K-On!, Lucky Star and Madoka shouldn't be on the list. With a title like Epoch-Making, you can't argue that those three Anime did create waves and influenced change in the Anime-world, both within Japan and internationally. It would be delusional to deny that.
Actar, you don't know the meaning of "influential". Go watch azumanga daoih, evangelion and space runway ideon first and you will undestand which your retarded argument which lucky star, k-on! and madoka deserves to be in this list are wrong.
Lucky Star and K-On! may be influential, though I personally think they were just more in a long line of cute girls doing things anime.
Madoka, on the other hand, hasn't changed anything that I've seen, so far.
It was just another loltwist anime that a few people are heavily circle jerking over, and everyone else has forgotten by this point. Just because it was about mahou shoujo in this case doesn't mean it was anything significant.
Saying Madoka is influential in any way would be like saying Serial Experiments Lain was influential in any way. It was different and unusual, but it didn't change anything at all.
@ Anon 23:37: You do know that Revolutionary Girl Utena, Princess Tutu, Cutie Honey, Panty & Stocking and Mai-Hime are all Mahou Shoujo shows too right?
I mean, other than the shared features of Magical Girl shows like transformation scenes, mascot characters, magical items/powers, the fighting of evil and what not, there really is very little in common between Magical Girl shows. And before anyone says anything, as opposed to being ‘cliches’, I would say that the above characteristics are what defines the genera, like how Macross will always have music and transforming planes and how Kamen Riders will always have a henshin belt. As long as they are handled differently in each work, there should be no problems.
If we're talking about overall influence, it's too early to tell. Madoka still holds up as an anime that, while it sold mostly to otaku, it pulled in people from all different kinds of backgrounds who watched it on television and compared the feeling to when they watched Evangelion. Even though it's only been about a year, it's already been spoofed and used several times in other series, and the following "cult" hasn't diminished much yet. It's won several awards and gotten critical acclaim from all sorts of big-name places and people. Not to mention, it still appears at the top or near the top of most polls.
I'm not going to claim that it WILL outlast its time, but I'm willing to bet it has a good chance of doing so, if not influencing the future of the Magical Girl genre (like Nanoha did, if not even more dramatically). But only time will tell, so there's no point in arguing about it to the end yet.
Dear lord, you guys don't understand the concept of "epoch-making"? Influential?
For something to be influential, the work must affect OTHERS works. Is like saying how a movie or a manga with revolutionary ideas created a bunch of similar or inspired works.
Like Pokemon. After Pokemon, a wave of "kids with their *monster/robots/csrds/thigs* became famous. The concept of a powerfull pet might have appeared before, but the way Pokemon presented it became worldwide famous, and changed the industry forever.
Madoka can't be influential because it is so new that *nothing* was inspired by it.
Yes but to be influential it must have had an effect on things after it. So far i have yet to see anything.
If you take in account influence (and not random up-voting fanboys) then sailor Moon and Card Captor are more influential. Hell toss Yugio in there as well.
The reason it's on the list is because it's a recent show. In ten years it'll be like Love Hina or Rahxephon or Chobits. Thought of as significant at the time, relegated to the dustbin of history to be only remembered vaguely by those who saw it and end the end recognized by the more well acquainted as just another part of a long line starting before it and continuing after it. Mildly evolutionary, not at all revolutionary.
Not that any of this is to say that madoka wasn't a decent show. It certainly had some things about it that were okay, but to act like it had some significance beyond it just being another loltwist anime this time in the mahou shoujo genre is putting it on an unmerited pedestal.
Yeah, Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha never showed us Precia whipping Fate, some eldritch horrors, an impaled loli, mind breaking and lots of blood before.
Sailor Moon also had it share of violence in every single season.
The reason it's on this list is how it looked at the standard mahou shoujo. It was dark and somewhat thought provoking. It had ideas that were deep unlike any other mahou shoujo I have ever seen. It also had an overarching story so you really did have to watch every episode unlike your usual mahou shows that have, for the most part, self contained episodes till the final 5 or 6 episodes of the season.
Pokemon, but no Digimon?
Also, Princess Mononoke should be higher.
probably because pokemon was there first and digimon is pretty much the same thing.
Actually the Digimon manga was running well before anything Pokemon was around.
Off the top of my head:
Digmon
- Digimon talk.
- Take place in 'reality' where Digimon are unnatural.
- Each child has only one Digimon and are treated as Partners.
- Digimon 'digivolve' to a more powerful form for battle and revert back to Rookie form after.
- Digivolution is usually triggered through character growth.
- Goal is to defeat the bad guy and restore peace and order to the world.
- Overarching story based.
- Individual seasons with unique characters, settings and plot for each one. Not to mention, the characters are deeper and the concepts discussed and brought up are far more mature.
Pokemon
- Pokemon do not speak
- Take place in a 'fictional' world where Pokemon are everywhere.
- Each person can have multiple Pokemon and they are treated more as animals/pets.
- Pokemon evolve when they gain enough battle experience.
- The main goal is defeating all the Gym Leaders to be the 'best'.
- More episodic.
- If I'm not mistaken, Ash/Satoshi has been the main character even till now and the setting/world has remained the same.
...also, not sure about Pokemon, but Digimon was really dumbed down in the US dub...
Actually, Digimon appeared first than Pokemon. Nintendo copied the concept of the Tamagotchi, which were premordial digimon.
both are proxy battle anime with the audience beeing children err i mean youngsters... dont get me wrong... i dont dislike proxy battles... i play pet classes all the time.... but the mon's are alike imho.
yeah but we talking about anime not manga
Its Popular versus Boutique.
Everyone knows popular and accepts it.
All the while popular copies boutique and mimics it horribly (Chinese bootleg)
It gets in ones head because they heard of popular first that it was the original and therefore boutique is seen as a copy (but usually better.)
It works in real retail and it works in TV shows too. Same with cars as well.
Everyone wants a Ferrari/Porsche but they cant afford it so they buy something that looks similar.
the anime and manga are as described.
IMO Digimon was better. Pokemon had the fanbase going into the show.
actar, pikachu is the best partner of ash and digimon is just a copy accept the reality
Sorry, but anyone who says that Digimon = Pokemon has not actually watched Digimon. Other than the 'mon' in the name, the two shows are completely different in tones, themes, motivations and ideas.
People who write Digimon off just because of the similarity in name really do not know what they are missing.
But yeah, even a devout Digimon fan like me has to concede defeat to Pokemon. It's just far more popular and well-known.
Pokemon was good and innovative for its time, and was far more influential. Digimon influenced nothing after it aired.
To be true, I just enjoyed the third season of Digimon. It was by far the best one.
Just because it was idolized by 4 year olds that couldn't have pets growing up and fell in love with a rat that can only sat its namesake is a bit sad.
Just because its popular doesn't mean its good.
Look at the Twilight movies and the "popular" music of today.