The arrow of time will always march forward. In that momentum, you see progress happen in both small and wide spheres. One such small sphere is anime, where a singular series can come along and leave a lasting effect on the industry as a whole, be it for better or worse. I think of it as leaving fingerprints. It is the visible, yet often overlooked mark a singular series can have on many other series.
Before we get started, while there is unarguably a lot of popular series on this list, the popularity of the series isn’t necessarily what left a fingerprint here. It is just a pretty standard equation that popularity equals money and folks tend to chase that currency.
Best Influential Anime
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
What makes Haruhi influential to anime isn’t something that is immediately obvious, but it has since had a huge impact. I cite Haruhi as the first majorly successful adaptation of a light novel. This paved the way for studios to give light novels more of a chance. Due to that, you have series like Bakemonogatari, Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, and My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU.
Were Haruhi to have flopped, you probably would still have light novel adaptations, but they definitely wouldn’t give more obscure ones a shot.
K-On
K-On is the cute face that launched 1,000 moe anime. Certainly, K-On alone is not responsible for the concentrated shift towards the moe art style, but the popularity it celebrated certainly didn’t hurt. The series as a whole was so popular it became the face for the moe push. It turns out weebs like cute waifus, they sell, and now it is all you get.
Lucky Star
While Lucky Star certain contributed to the moe-fication of the anime art style, I cite this series as having a different influence on things. Lucky Star made popular the genre of an anime series being about nothing. There is no overall plot to it, and there is barely a plot to the episodes. It is just cute girls doing cute things. Now that sub-genre is hopping with like-minded series.
Sword Art Online
Easily the most unpopular opinion I have every uttered on this site has been that Sword Art Online launched the isekai craze. However, the fact you hate hearing that doesn’t make it less true.
Certainly Sword Art Online wasn’t the first isekai anime, I have named plenty isekai that came before it, but there is no doubt Sword Art Online is what made it popular. Interestingly enough, Sword Art Online moved away from what most isekai is today pretty quickly – people in an RPG-inspired fantasy world. Yet, people adored that first arc and it got viewers in the seats. That gave so many studios the green-light to create more like it, and that dead horse will be beat until dollars stop squirting from its ass.
Dragon Ball
It was certainly not the series that launched the battle shounen, but it is certainly the series that helped shape the formula for modern battle shounens. Dragon Ball is one of those series that you can see in a lot of popular shounen. You can its shadow in the character dynamics of shounen protagonists and their frenemy sidekick (in Z, at least). You can see it in the arc-style story-telling. You can see it in the need to reach higher level of powers in every major battle.
Neon Genesis Evangelion
NGE is kind of an odd beast. It was a mecha anime that came at the height of mecha anime, yet it is considered one of the most influential. It wasn’t that mecha anime series previous didn’t have complex plots either, but they weren’t usually as thought-provoking. It probably helped that the director went a little clinically depressed at the end, giving the viewers years of symbolism to sift through.
Madoka Magica
Like Lucky Star defined the cute girls doing cute things sub-genre, Madoka Magica made a genre itself. The genre is shows that look cute, but are actually super dark. It was a show that sought to, and succeeded in, subverting the magical girl genre. Typically, twee and happy, Madoka Magica made a magical girl anime that was vicious and philosophical. People ate it up and the magical girl genre has not been the same since. Furthermore, it invited other creators to try and subvert other classic genres as well.
Pokemon
Pokemon, the franchise, is popular for reasons I can’t quite grasp, having never played the games. However, Pokeomon, the anime series, has a popularity I can explain! Certainly the beloved game franchise went a huge way in building its popularity, and that fact cannot be diminished. However, Pokemon also represented a sort of movement away from gender-based advertising of anime. You know, the old “Sailor Moon is for girls,” and “Yu Yu Hakusho is for boys” sort of idea of the 90’s and before.
Both series are popular, and certainly had fans across genders, but if you combine two genders, the fanbase for your show can be quite huge. Combine the action of Pokemon with the relationships built between characters, and you have something that everyone enjoys.
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure
No, not because of the memes, and likely not for the reason you think. Why I put Jojo as influential is because it represents one of the more successful growing trends – rebooting older anime series. It was not the first reboot, but it is likely the one most people recognize. It was also a reboot that benefited the series the same way many series are now benefiting. It now has the animation to back up the ideas and vibrant characters. It has led the way for those to pitch other ambitious reboots like Dororo, Ushio & Tora, and Mr. Osomatsu.
Akira
Every anime fan can tell you that Akira is an iconic anime movie in the industry, but a fraction can tell you why. The fingerprints of Akira can in seen in every anime after it. It changed the way animation was done, and a large part of that came with its fat budget of roughly 8 million, a record for largest budget anime film it held for some time. It really showed what fluid movement animation could feature.
Alongside being part of the departure from more childish storylines, Akira also served as a solid handshake between anime and the west. This wasn’t your silly Speed Racer, this was something mature, and more importantly, a beautiful piece of animation that showed animation as an art form as well as entertainment.
These are but a fraction of influential anime out there, but all I could think of. If you have an influential anime that you think left its own fingerprints, lay them on us in the comments section below.
