most influential anime

[Mantis421]

I was thinking that with all the anime out there which ones have changed the industry or were monumental in getting anime noticed good or bad and yes as much as I hate to admitt it Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z did help the cause. But for me I believe Speed racer for its time, and Escaflowne and Cowboy Bebop come to mind. anybody how their own opinion on this or agree with me?

[ArkaidR]

Hey I'm ith you with the whole DBZ thing but, I think Pokemon really helped out the trading card game industry a lot more. Akira also helped in the migration to north American shores cause of all that violence. Let's face it, we heart violence.

[Cidien]

DBZ by far. Akira comes second and Cowboy Bebop third. I don't think Pokemon did that much for anime as it was mostly 10 year olds that watched that show. If the dubbing hadn't been so awful it may have been a little different but it's thought of more as a cartoon than it is as anime.

The card game was also designed for 10 year olds. After playing games like Star Wars CCG going to pokemon was pathetic. It took almost 0 skill to play that game. The only thing required was you had to go out and buy a good deck. Star wars on the otherhand was great. My dark side deck was never once beaten except by a light side deck I made for my friend lol.

Anyways.. ya, DBZ I think brought the most people into anime. That show was cool no matter how bad the dubbing.

[ArkaidR]

God, I can't believe I forgot about Cowboy Bebop. That did to anime what Halo did to FPS games. As for Pokemon, I was ten when it started and that's what got me into TCG games. Now, I play Magic: The Gathering but, I got some Star Wars cards lieing around here somewhere(is the game any good?). Since I forgot to mention the more recent anime, also FLCL hit me with something big. Heck if it was a full length anime, Bebop would have a run for it's money. I converted many people thanks to FLCL

[Robojack]

Cowboy Bebop didn't have THAT big of an influence on anime. If anything, its creators overestimated it, and in actuality, few studios attempted to imitate it in their productions. It may have revolutionized anime in the eyes of North America (or maybe that was the slop the media pouring on you people at the time). However, in Japan, it was relatively unsuccessful. Because of this, I can't agree that Bebop had that large of an effect in the overall Japanese anime industry.

One anime that DID have a large effect on anime in Japan would likely be 0079 Gundam, as it was one of the earlier giant robot/sci-fi drama animes, and gave various mechanical designers a chance to showoff their technical designs. Even series such as SDF Macross were inspired by such series. However, Macross undoubtedly made popular (if not introduced) the entire concept of a transforming robot into a vehicle.

And of course there's Tetsuwan Atom (aka Astro Boy), I don't there's any argument with that.

[ArkaidR]

Originally posted by Robojack
Cowboy Bebop didn't have THAT big of an influence on anime.

Ok, maybe I should have elaborated on my comment on Halo(trust me Halo didn't do that good either). When Halo Came out, other gaming companies said,"Crap, now we gotta make a good singleplayer mode." But we are just now seeing the effects of Halo on the gaming industry. As for Bebop, we probably won't see the effects of that till a couiple of years or so.

Also Astro Boy practically made the industry. That's like saying that M:TG influenced the the trading card industry.

Latr

[Robojack]

Oh please, what are you talking about? Cowboy Bebop's been out in Japan for almost ten years now! If we haven't seen much of its influence by now, we probably never will. The Japanese market is primarily where it really matters.

As for trading cards, they've been around since the earlier half of last century, with baseball trading cards being quite prodominant.

[Last Exile]

i would have to say those two titles i bear not to mention started the little kid reveloution of spednign their parents money . that shit sucks and always will. im sorry but all the stuff walt disney created influnced all of this animation . it all because of him it started , everyone knows that and always will . every interview i have seen on anime dvds they mention walt disney.

and i would say that poke'mon is shit , its not good its really only animated lips not alot of moving. so how could that influence anime the abrevation of animation ? can anyone give me an answer ? no you cant . so i would have to say stuff like cowboy bebop have done that. so rember where it all started and give respects to the one who gave us what we have today.

That is all.

-LE

[Robojack]

Why do so many North American anime fans think that? High-qualitied anime certainly did NOT start with Cowboy Bebop. Cowboy Bebop was like any other anime OVA/movie, it had a large budget that most TV series didn't access to.

I would like to think that some of the earlier Gonzo Digimation productions (Such as Blue Submarine, Brain Powerd) were easily as influential on the overall anime industry, since they were one of the earliest studios to do away with traditional cel animation, instead using entirely digital methods of animation and illustration, as well as daring attempts of combining 3D models with 2D animation. Other studios had also tried this before Gonzo, but none as ambitiously nor as successfully as Gonzo.

And this thread talks about most influential ANIME that influenced the rest of the anime industry, not what outside factors influenced it.

[Cidien]

First off I think he's talking about what has influenced anime here in america, not so much in japan.

Second off 0079 did not do very well in Japan and had to be cancelled. It wasn't until later it became more popular.

Third, Bebop is one of, if not the most popular anime in america. You can argue this but I know a ton of people that got into anime because of bebop. The only anime that got more people into anime is dbz around here.

Fourth, what the hell are you talking about with trading cards? We're talking about card games which i thought was made quite clear.

And ArkaidR, don't get into star wars ccg. That game was great and I spent probably over a grand on it but ever since they started mixing episode one crap into it the game has sucked. They changed too many rules and added stupid stuff, not to mention it didn't make sense to have people from different time periods fighting each other. I quit as soon as I read the new rule book when it came out... =/

No idea what it's like now but I doubt very much they have fixed very much, especially since it's harder to find places that still sell swccg packs at stores much less places that sponsor tournaments. I know they have stopped entirely in my area.

[Mantis421]

Well if you look at the Asian market look what spawned alot the story lines Godzilla and Voltron type shows in the 60s and 70s which started the whole Giant Robot stuff ie Transformers and early Gundam. But as far as us Americans go we were really a late bloomer to the whole anime craze. As late as 1988 - 1990 their really wasent any anime on US TV outside of cable TV. Bit then in the early 90s their was a flood of Campy Anime cartoons hitting the US market. Monster Rancher, Pokemon, Digimon, Dragon Ball. I think that all of us started with them types except for some of the older fans and as we grew up we graduated to real anime, not the force fed Disney type

[Robojack]

Actually, hbk101, the topic creator inquired about anime that had the largest influence on the anime industry, which is in Japan. North America has no anime industry, as they don't make anime. They have an anime MARKET, but no industry.

[Robojack]

Mantis421, Voltron (known as Hyakuju ou Golion in Japan), aired in the early 80s in Japan, whereas Gundam 0079 aired in 1979. It came AFTER Gundam 0079, not before.

[hbk101]

Originally posted by Cidien
First off I think he's talking about what has influenced anime here in america, not so much in japan.

How can you say that what influenced anime in america? For one thing, we don't even make animes. So we can only influence our anime viewing habits, not anime itself.

For anime industry in general,
I'll say "Nausicaa of The Valley of Wind." It paved a way for Studio Ghibli and its run of successful artistic films that many others try to copy.

Or I can say "Space Battleship Yamato" When it came out in 1976, it raised the level of animation by providing interesting characters, detailed actions, and impressive soundtrack. Even now, shows like Nadesico includes a parody of Yamato. Here in US, known as Starblazer, it was one of the more successful early animes.

P.S. Ooops, sorry Robojack, I didn't know you already replied to my post.

[Robojack]

I see someone agrees with me. The anime we watch in North America is but a smidgen of what is aired in Japan. Even with fansubs, it's unlikely that you'll be able to see everything that is aired in Japan, but that don't make it over to NA due to cultural differences.