Ground Breaking Animes

[JWR]

I was reading one of several anime related blogs I like and found a post talking about how it seems that in current anime series that there is not many that can be looked upon as truly unique. Most seem to be simular to others we have seen before with a few "changes" to the formula.

How many series truly produced something so original that they stand as being "groundbreaking" and if copied never matched.

A few that were offered as suggestions of ones that qualify are:

Haibane Renmei , Serial Experiments Lain , Aria,the animation and Excel Saga.

I could add Love Hina.

So do you have others that you feel could qualify?

[moonrabitt]

I agree to Excel Saga, that one is truly Unique.

I have seen a ton of anime, but most if not all do have the same formula. I think if the anime is short enough, then maybe it would not suffer such a fate as the "jump the shark" syndrome, which might be the reason anime's are put in the "are alike section". Some start out strong, but just along the way are stretched far and end up being another one of those "alike anime".

To the list i would add:
FLCL, because that one is just so random.
Fruits Basket was also a nice fresh anime, the tone and music was beautiful
fullmetal alchemist.

I think the main thing that would make an anime unique is that you dont /or its hard to predict what happens next.

[Gonzai]

I would say Noein. I have never seen anything like that.

[sensei]

Certainly Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo. Although the idea of adapting a Western classic is fairly standard, the distinctive approach to the animation and the overall world of this series remains totally unique and unmatched in any subsequent anime. (Romeo x Juliet made a stab at exploiting the same approach but IMHO came nowhere close in plot or animation.)

I saw a classic 30s version of CMC on a movie channel recently and thought it was totally inferior in every way to the anime. I still imagine Dumas rising from his coffin to applaud wildly and say "Mon Dieu! Why didn't I think of that!!"

[theultimatebrucelee]

I would say the two seasons of ef: a fairy tale of two, a tale of memory as well as white album, and also kore wa zombie desu. they all seem to have very unique style in my opinion to make them stand out, dispute some of them being converted from visual novel.

[darksuzaku]

Can agree with these:

- Haibane Renmei -> Definately a unique kind of story that has never again appeared. The series was great. Too bad it's too short, too many questions without answer.
- Aria the Animation -> Even if the idea of man living on mars is not completely original, the idea to make it a water planet and recreate on it such a beautiful city was great. You never see gondolas in any other series.

A few more come to my mind:

- Juuni Kokki -> It's not your typical "Girl travels to another world series". The particularities of that world make it an unique series.
- Figure 17 -> Maybe the uniqueness of this series is that merges into one series elements that you don't see often. The countryside life of an small girl on a farm is very naturally merged with the bad alien invaders . You can add to that the 45 minute long episodes, a format that is quite rare but that fits this series very much.
- Spice and Wolf -> Sage wolf girl traveling with a merchant, and series mainly focusing in all those interesting dialogs between both of them. Honestly, can't think of a similar style.
- Kemono no Souja Erin -> Quite original story if you ask me, about the life of a girl who can communicate with animals.
- The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya -> Perhaps the originality of this series is the bold decisions done during the series. In the 1st season the episodes were aired in a "certain random" order that drived many people nuts. In the second season, out of the 13 episodes 8 of them were the repetition of the previous episode with minor changes.
- Higurashi no Naku Koro ni -> The originality of this one is probably the format. Each arc is composed of around 5-10 episodes and after each one there's a time reset and the "same story" is told focusing in a different character which leads into a completely different story/outcome and goes on until the "true" story is fianlly able to be "unleashed"

[GuyvarIII]

Anime that broke ground beyond its own purview:

I would say “Urotsukidôji” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=la8wB1onNog).
While it wasn’t really even all that good, what it brought to anime was like nothing else. Many later anime tried to emulate it, and you couldn’t say that those misogynistic, violent, oversexed tentacles came directly out of “Blade Runner”, or “Alien” … or, even in a more general sense, Sci-fi, Action, Horror, Western, or Surrealist movies, pulp novels, or comics. It’s purely unique to anime, and to some extent its presence still partially defines the entire medium. Originally banned in the UK, it blasted through into the general pop culture, and scenes from it were even utilized in Madonna’s 2001 “Drowned World” tour.

Next, would be “Akira” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRY2sS4zmM4).
Elements from this movie, like the burned-out, dystopian, slum city of the future, can be seen as ideas from many Sci-Fi novels, and to a certain extent as visually similar to Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner”. But, within the medium of animation its presentation of a nihilistic world where all the dreams for the future died; the elderly cling to power and use those naïve enough to believe in change as tools for their own ambition; and the young are a bunch of good for nothing biker punks who waste their time trying to kill each other, was quite unique. Also, the animation of Tetsuro’s mutation, the film’s use of its techno-taiko drum soundtrack, and its overall look and animation style were highly influential in many later cyberpunk works outside of anime, as the film became a hit on the broader, general art-house circuit.

[JWR]

A couple of newer ones to consider.

Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai or as most know it Ano Hana.

I would say that that emotional story plus that art style set it apart from others produced before it.

as well as a new one from this season in Japan, Koroko Connect is following a story line I can not recall seeing before.

[graymouser]

I would agree with the blogger who said that a lot of anime shows rehash the same type of characters and stories. The studios are risking a lot of money on these shows so it is easier to use a formula that has already proven itself. It takes a lot of guts to do something truly unique.

I would suggest that it takes time to determine how ground breaking an anime really is. I agree with putting Akira on the list. Although I personally never liked the show, it did have a huge affect on the field. The concepts and artwork from Akira took anime in totally new directions. It is a lot harder to tell if a newer show is going to cause a significant change for future or not. Pale Cocoon (a one shot OVA) comes to mind as a relatively new show (2006) that is pretty unique. Another one is probably Mushishi (2005) though I do want to be careful that my enjoyment of these shows is not coloring my opinion about their uniqueness.

[Keropi]

It's hard to think of something that is really that unique. Often the more unique something is the more intriguing it is...unless you don't like it of course. Just seeing something less cliche would be nice, but more anime adaptions these days play it safe.

I don't think that Love Hina should be on the "unique" list. Akamatsu pulled a lot of the story elements from Maison Ikkoku. I know he said he did it as a tribute to Maison Ikkoku, but there were a few too many similarities. The desert island trip and the bar jobs were similar. The hot springs train trip was similar, etc.

Kaiji was sort of unusual, but there were a number of gambling anime that came before it. Afro Samurai was uncommon, but there have been other modern hip takes in the sword fighting genre. Alien Nine was different, but unique...hmm.

I haven't watched much older anime, but most of the "more different" anime that I can recall seeing have been more in the vein of "anime shorts". There's Genius Party, Robot Carnival, Memories, Rain Town, Restaurant of Many Orders...there are others, but my memory isn't very good for these kinds of anime.

But to be fair, I suppose it's also easier to be different in a short than in a regular LONG TV series. You're more likely to repeat yourself when the story is longer (it would also be riskier making a longer anime that is too different).

[KT]

I think that Outlaw Star is a very unique anime. It is a great space opera series that is overlooked often. I began watching OLS when it was first put on Toonami in 2001-2002 (sometime around then) and I was hooked. The characters are so different and their designs are great. I remember I would always cry at certain scenes, this show really knew how to tug at your emotions!

[Lain]

Hi
This is my first post with anime-beta
So here goes i just wanted to suggest a/ One of a kind! b/ 2x Popular Anime's and c/ 2x obscure Anime's
a/ Serial Experiments: Lain
b/ Neon Genesis Evangelion from the 1990's to now Q And K-on
c/ (I think these two Anime Series are so unrated)
Mnemosyne And The Wallflower

[Joost]

I haven't seen enough anime to really make a vote here but I was going to say the same as sensei : Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo

It would be a nice exercise to determine when some of those classic anime features emerged for the first time.
But that would be a work for the die-hards

[pixie_princess]

I disagree with Love Hina. We had harem anime before it in the form of Ranma 1/2.

There was Magical Girl before Sailor Moon but I think it was one of the first times such a "normal girl" with many faults was the heroine of the series. There have been many magical girl shows that came after it that seemed to borrow elements or give a nod it it. There have also been other series that give passing nods to it as well.

Evangelion had a profound effect on a generation of fandom and shook things up in Japan.

Macross was one of the granddads of Space Dramas... though I guess the first one that I can think of is Legend of Galactic Heroes. As for Macross it did revolutionize everything -it gave us Mechs and awesome detailed animation for starters. In relation to Outlaw Star I'd argue that Crest of Stars had a more 'epic' feeling as far as Space Operas go, or if you are looking for a western type outlaw feeling maybe Cowboy Bebop (with an excellent musical track), Trigun, or Lost Universe (manga was created several years earlier) would be better contenders. Outlaw Star seemed to have issues with the pace of the story line and did not seem to hold people's interests as frequently as Cowboy Bebop or Trigun.

I'd also say Rose of Versailles (although very slow at the beginning) served as one of the earliest series where the lead character was living her life as the opposite gender or simply a female "prince type" character.It also gave us a strong female hero as opposed to the damsel in distress waiting for her prince to arrive.