As we move ever closer to proving that Twain was right and there is no such thing as an original thought, remakes and reboots of older things are all the rage in other mediums. Your favorite childhood video game from a decade or two ago? Remake them with modern graphics. The Spiderman series every time it gets over three movies? Reboot it. Even anime is not immune. There have been a number of successful reboots and remakes that add to a franchise, and usually better adapting the source material. This has made the trend of rebooting and remaking things in anime arguably more successful than in other mediums because they have been successfully doing it better than the original.
Best Anime That Could Use a Reboot
Berserk
My kingdom and my entire band of mercenaries for a decent Berserk anime adaptation. Just let it meet the minimum bar of animation that most isekai series get these days, even. Just as Gutts is destined to be the struggler, so, too, is his fan base destined to struggle through ugly-ass anime that either suffered from lack of budget looks like it was done by an animation student for their senior final project.
Special note: This article had been sitting on my desktop, finished but not proofread or scheduled for posting, for a few weeks when it was announced that Berserk author Kentarou Miura had passed away. While other series who have authors on hiatus for health reasons are mentioned below in an honorable mentions section, I still stand by my opinion here. There is still much to adapt, and if a decent studio were to do it, I could even get behind a filler ending.
Claymore
Claymore did a passable job of being an adaptation right up until the end arc when the studio was likely told they wouldn’t be carrying it on. There was still much that Claymore had to tell, but I guess “female Berserk” is getting some of that cursed struggle run-off.
Battle Angel Alita
So, Battle Angel Alita got a live-action movie without ever getting more than a short animated OVA series? That’s not how hype works. You revive an old manga with a successful anime adaptation, then you let loose with the Hollywood live action movies that turn people off.
Soul Eater
Soul Eater, the anime, has a problem with pacing and often with arc transition, but maybe that’s just me. The part we all agree on is that ending that, as well as being silly, completely undermines many of the themes of the show. Despite that, Soul Eater is still pretty beloved, and a reboot can get fans right back in there. Especially with the love they gave the author’s other series, Fire Force. Share some of that.
Deadman Wonderland
You know Deadman Wonderland was going off the rails when they just full-on left out characters that were crucial to the plot. Of course, the anime also was cancelled after a short run, so it didn’t really matter. Yet, even if it wasn’t, they were already veering off course. Survival game-type series aren’t as popular as they once were, but like zombies, trends tend to come back from the dead given time.
His and Her Circumstances
Let it be said that I actually really like the His and Her Circumstances anime, despite reading the manga. Having read the source material, I can tell you that the series gets really caught up in the slapstick comedy. I thought it made the shift to Arima’s darkness later more jarring, but so much of even that was rushed on out of there by conflict between the creator and Hideaki Anno. Of course, the lack of budget played a part too, which shows in the animation quality.
Gantz
I was willing to endure the filler arc that was season 2, but I was not willing to see the series end there. The saddest thing is that any Gantz manga fan will tell you that the next arc was easily one of the best ones. There is Gantz:O which, to its credit, was pretty good for what it is, but a lot was skipped to get to that point.
Tokyo Ghoul
Tokyo Ghoul got so many anime adaptations because it was so very popular, yet so much of it was just bad. I honestly don’t even know why an anime creator would make such big changes to the source material they are adapting. Small changes because things in manga do not transfer well to being animated, I get that. Huge story-altering changes, though? Well, that just feels like narcissism.
The sad thing is that the animation was pretty on point. Much of the series here should be considered for reboot because they are pretty old and showing that age. Tokyo Ghoul was just done poorly story-wise and it deserves another go.
Outlaw Star
The thing about Outlaw Star is that what most western fans fell in love with was likely the heavily censored version, and the unaltered version was even better. Furthermore, while old animation need not be called ugly, this series could use a little tender love and care in that department. This is one of those classic series that people loved, but they don’t enshrine enough to not want to see it updated – unlike it’s kissing cousin Cowboy Bebop.
Trigun
The Trigun anime, as it is now, is still pretty good. It is considered a classic, but the story it told was not the complete story or even the right adaptation. The series has officially drifted into the unique cross-section of having older animation that could use an update and having a story that could be adapted differently enough to bring back older fans.
Baccano
Baccano is new enough that you could say it just deserves more seasons instead of a reboot, and be valid in that opinion. However, the Baccano anime adapts so little of the source material and deviates so severely from it in the last few episodes that it would need to be remade in order to right that ship in a way that would make fans happy.
Honorable Mentions: Gangsta and Nana
These two I’d like to say should be rebooted because they honestly were great series even for how poorly they were done originally. Interestingly enough, they both have the same problem that limits them to the realm of honorable mentions – their source material is on hiatus. Both series are done by different authors, but both authors have health issues that prevent them from continuing their series.
