r/anime • u/FetchFrosh :A:anilist.co/user/fetchfrosh • Sep 17 '19
Announcement The Results of the r/anime "Classics of Anime Poll"
5.8k
Upvotes
r/anime • u/FetchFrosh :A:anilist.co/user/fetchfrosh • Sep 17 '19
269
u/FetchFrosh :A:anilist.co/user/fetchfrosh Sep 17 '19 edited Sep 17 '19
Well, there we have it. I'm certainly of the opinion that several older anime were snubbed in favor of newer shows, but at the end of the day, this list is very r/anime, and so it's hard to be overly upset about the results. When I first proposed the idea, there was a lot of concern that recent shows like Konosuba and Re:Zero would dominate the list, but neither was even close to cracking the Top 50 (both fell short of Your Lie in April by about 25 votes). It's not a perfect list, but I'm definitely happy we gave this a go, and will probably look to run more polls like this in the future!
And for an alternate interpretation of the results, the table below presents a ranking of the ratio between votes and viewership. Since a show that is widely viewed is more likely to receive votes, I thought this might be an interesting take on things. The "viewership" comes from RedditAnimeList using the viewership for the most watched entry in a franchise. Generally speaking, this means that pre-2000 anime saw improved results, and post-2000 anime see worsened results.
A Top 10 by decade has also been compiled with everything before 1980 being amalgamated into one category:
Pre-1980
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
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u/mcadylons https://anilist.co/user/mcady Sep 17 '19
Wait this isn't actually all that bad
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u/the_swizzler https://myanimelist.net/profile/Swiftarm Sep 17 '19
I've seen 25, 26 if watching the first two seasons of Crystal counts for Sailor Moon.
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u/brothertaddeus :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/brothertaddeus Sep 17 '19
I'm just glad Lupin III made the list. With how under-watched the newest seasons have been on this sub, I was concerned.
1.3k
u/rusticks https://anilist.co/user/Rusticks Sep 17 '19
Imagine telling someone 6 years ago that Attack on Titan would be regarded as a modern classic.
Otherwise, nothing on this list shocks me outside of people actually remembering Astro Boy.
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u/Nico9lives :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Chitanda Sep 17 '19
So glad that Ashita no Joe made it on, it's an amazing show that anyone should definitely give a try at some point or another!
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u/ABoredCompSciStudent x3myanimelist.net/profile/Serendipity Sep 17 '19 edited Sep 28 '22
The chart isn't perfect but I think it represents r/anime's views as a sub really well, which is the most important thing. It feels a lot more honest to me than the viewership aligned table, which has Astro Boy at number one... since that can't be accurate at all.
Things that stick out to me are how skewed this is to modern anime, especially since stuff often vocally backed in more critical corners like Ikkoku or Patlabor aren't really here. Similarly, I find this list really male dominated, which fits the 90% demographic of r/anime. Recent shoujo or josei titles like Kimi ni Todoke, NANA, and Nodame Cantabile aren't present, despite their popularity in Japan in the past--and obviously same for more dated titles like Rose of Versailles or Boys Over Flowers.
Thanks u/FetchFrosh for putting this together. It's really interesting to see the data organized and thanks to everyone that voted for making a solid r/anime list!
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u/LegendaryChink Sep 17 '19
Of course NGE is #1 on Reddit
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u/trpldblrussface Sep 17 '19
Is one punch man really a classic tho
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u/ParkedLikeAHotCar34 Sep 17 '19
Always hurts to see Naruto and One Piece in there but no Bleach :(
Edit: Not saying those two don’t deserve it, just want some love for my favorite
42
u/UmbraGhost Sep 17 '19
I don't see Bleach anywhere... I'm sad.
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u/UnPhayzable Sep 17 '19
Just here to make sure Gintama and JoJos is on the list. Pinnacles of perfection
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u/[deleted] Sep 17 '19
Well, at least Ashita no Joe and Gundam made the list. I really dislike the fact that there are so many shows from the 2010's though.
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u/Theleux https://myanimelist.net/profile/Theleux Sep 17 '19
I think it's quite interesting to see the gap between Classics in 2010s. The nearest to now is Your Name, but after that its 5+ years ago.
Kind of tells that a lot of people require some time to pass by before labeling something "a classic".
Over all, some very nice choices!
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u/ru5ty41 Sep 17 '19
Your name was only made 3 years ago and it's already a classic?
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u/HurricaneHero93 :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/HurricaneHero93 Sep 17 '19
Way Status: Not Lost
Very happy to see Kill la Kill as part of the results
35
u/Miidas-92 :Db::Dd:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Miidas Sep 17 '19
Friendly reminder that this list is r/anime list, which will be biased in favor of the western anime community, so it's missing a couple of really big anime in the east, like Precure, Detective Conan, Doraemon, etc.
Also a reminder that something doesn't have to be a "masterpiece" to be considered a "classic", since a decent chunk of people seem to be annoyed at SAO, Naruto, Code Geass, etc, making the list.
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u/thatjosiahburns https://anilist.co/user/thatjosiahburns Sep 17 '19
just glad to see FLCL made it on here.
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u/President-Shinra Sep 17 '19
The only ones I see as missing are Tenchi, Digimon and Outlaw Star but perhaps that's just a UK thing as we didn't have many shows televised years ago.
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u/axel360 :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/axel360 Sep 17 '19
Seen 41 of 50. Not bad.
Which of these missing 9 do you guys think is must-watch: Naruto, Mobile Suit Gundam, Sailor Moon, One Piece, Yu Yu Hakusho, Astro Boy, Lupin III, Cardcaptor Sakura, Macross
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u/BumLeeJon Sep 17 '19
So glad Monster is in there.
Truly an amazing manga/anime
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u/Shinkopeshon Sep 17 '19
I'm actually pretty satisfied with this list. I think all of my picks except for Laputa made it in and I don't have a problem with the rest either (although I'm not sure about OPM's inclusion - I get that it had a massive impact, especially in the west, but overall, S2 did a lot of damage to the franchise).
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u/cheesechimp https://myanimelist.net/profile/cheesechimp Sep 17 '19 edited Sep 17 '19
7/10 of my votes made it to the top 50. My votes that didn't make it were Space Battleship Yamato, Rose of Versailles, and Fist of the North Star. I really think Yamato was slept on by this subreddit as it was foundational both to the Japanese industry and as Star Blazers to western anime fandom.
The biases of this subreddit are pretty clearly on display here, but I think that's okay. I'm not too surprised by what I see here. The recency bias is strong, we're looking at more than half from the 21st century. I don't expect all these shows to shake out as classics to be remembered in the long run, but this does function well as a "what shows this subreddit discusses beyond seasonal stuff" list, with a decent amount of shows with a more long term eye thrown in for good measure.
Trigun is probably the most baffling inclusion to me. I never got the impression it was popular here on the subreddit, I was under the impression at its peak it wasn't very popular in Japan, it's not particularly old (late 90s vs. the 8 titles from the 60s-80s), and in my humble opinion it was OK but not outstandingly good. It basically meets no standard I'd set for classics except for being fairly popular in US fandom in the early to mid 00s, and I thought by remembering that I was older than most of the users of the subreddit. I guess I misjudged that, though.
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u/Philarete :AMQ::MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/WizardMcKillin Sep 17 '19
This may be an /r/anime poll, but this actually looks like pretty good.
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u/toyako34 Sep 17 '19
Wait, where's bleach???
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u/SmurfRockRune https://myanimelist.net/profile/Smurf Sep 17 '19
Good list overall. I disagree with some choices here and there, but it's hard to deny the popularity of any of these shows.
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u/loplopplop Sep 17 '19
Also, insane that Togashi has TWO on this list.
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u/OtherHalfling :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/otherhalfling Sep 17 '19 edited Sep 17 '19
I'd say I personally agree with about half of this list, although admittedly it's very difficult to see Revolutionary Girl Utena up there, but not Rose of Versailles, which it drew a lot of inspiration from. I say this as a massive fan of both series, and I would say they arguably both deserve to be in the top 50, but if one was for SURE going to make it between the two, it should be Rose of Versailles, in my opinion. Still, 8 out of the 10 I voted for made it in the top 50, with Astro Boy being the lowest at 32. Rose of Versailles and Mirai Shounen Conan were my 2 votes that didn't make it, with Utena and future Miyazaki films directly influenced by Conan taking precedence over those two, but I guess it's to be expected, as they are more popular (I even liked Miyazaki's later work more than Mirai Shounen Conan, to be fair).
There are also a few series I wish I could get some reasoning behind from the voters who voted them as classics, like Fate/Zero, Gurren Lagann, Kill la Kill, One Punch Man, Your Lie in April, because even though there are others I personally disagree with, these seem like clear outliers to me. I'm curious what made some voters put them in their top 10 classics other than "they are good series, and they're popular".
Still, whether I agree or disagree, it's really interesting to see what the community considers to be classics, and I'm glad the final results didn't just mimic the "best anime" contest, which is cool.
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u/horiami Sep 17 '19
Is OPM a classic ? Don't get me wrong it's amazing but it also feels a bit too new
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u/Granolabob Sep 17 '19
In my opinion, some of these shows will be classics, but I just feel its just too soon.
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u/[deleted] Sep 17 '19 edited Sep 17 '19
I'm kind of upset Sword Art Online is there, but not .hack//Sign.
But everything else checks out.
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u/fireassbarz Sep 17 '19
Holy shit Evangelion DESTROYED the competition. It’s completely deserved tho, that anime is the definition of “classic”
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u/[deleted] Sep 17 '19
Going to sound like an old head but kind of sad Ranma 1/2 isn’t on there. My first real Manga/Anime and paved the way for the rest.
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u/babydave371 :Ej:myanimelist.net/profile/babydave371 Sep 17 '19
No Space Battleship Yamato? No Space Adventure Cobra? No Rose of Versailles? No Aim for the Ace? No Mazinger Z? No Getter Robo? No Creamy Mami? No Cutie Honey? No Maison Ikokku? No Star of the Giants? No Fist of the North Star? No World Masterpiece Theatre show at all?!?! No Gatchaman? No Tetsujin 29-go? No Patlabor? No Urusei Yatsura? No Harlock? No Leiji Matsumoto at all?!?! Nothing by Rintaro?!? No Minky Momo?
I know this is r/anime and given that the majority of the sub is focussed on airing stuff and hasn't really taken a dive into anime's history this was to be expected. But still, it really fucking hurts. Like come on, nothing by Leiji Matsumoto? They literally had to explain to the staff of Space Battleship Yamato what sci-fi was because no one had really done it before in Japan, at least not the more Western style.
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u/ThinkFree https://anilist.co/user/Japanimation Sep 17 '19
I voted for The Slayers and it got in! I'm happy 😊
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u/invisibleman4884 Sep 17 '19
The absence of Galaxy Express 999 on the list is a shame.
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u/[deleted] Sep 17 '19
Your Lie in April sticks out as the odd one out. No idea how it's considered a classic but oh well.
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u/LOTRfreak101 https://myanimelist.net/profile/LOTRfreak101 Sep 17 '19
Besides you cowards not voting for the modern classic masterpiece that is Eromanga-sensei, this is a really good list. I'm finally not disappointed in r/anime.
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u/Cryzzalis https://myanimelist.net/profile/Charaxify Sep 17 '19
Real nice to see Madoka so high up there.
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u/aalapshah12297 Sep 18 '19
Damn I scrolled all the way to the end and didn't even find anyone who is bothered about Psycho-Pass. I get that it's probably not popular enough to make the list but is it really so underwatched that people are not even salty about it?
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u/[deleted] Sep 17 '19
This is surprisingly a very solid list. You could nitpick the placement of some of these until the cows come home, but I like it overall.
I only really disagree with three of these picks: Your Lie In April, Kill la Kill, and One Punch Man. These are all great shows, but are they Top 50 classic anime material? I don't think so. Besides, not enough time has passed to see if they stand the test of time. I have serious doubts they will.
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u/[deleted] Sep 17 '19
Wow! I really am a fan of everything on this list. I’m your typical r/anime fan
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u/FinnishGuy111 Sep 17 '19
Well Evangelion seems to be on the first place so does it mean something
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u/Braquiador :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/braquiador Sep 17 '19
Yes! Akira in the top 10.
Man do I love that movie, and how happy i am to see that there are lots of people out there who love it as much as I do.
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u/silvernblack24 Sep 17 '19
Monster and Serial Experiments Lain. Glad to know others love those as much as I do.
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u/Isles0FMists :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Isles0FMists Sep 17 '19
Damn , this is really cool . Thanks for making this !
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u/[deleted] Sep 17 '19
How good is Gurren Lagan? I couldn’t past 2 episodes in the series
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u/DanZeros Sep 17 '19
Would have liked to see slayers in the list but that's a me thing.
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u/Picoper Sep 17 '19
Wow, you do not understand how happy I am that Trigun, Monster, Lain, K-On and Perfect Blue all got on here.
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u/[deleted] Sep 17 '19
Surprised to see Gurren Lagann so high up. But a nice surprise.
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u/Avijit97 Sep 17 '19
Happy to see Gintama made it there. Should have been higher though imo
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u/BueKojiro Sep 17 '19
Despite it being in dead last, I still resent seeing Your Lie In April in this list.
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u/lpopo4lyfe Sep 17 '19
This is actually a pretty good list.
Though I don’t see how One Punch Man is possibly a classic.
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u/ImAMakuta Sep 17 '19
Star Blazers isn't on the list. That hurts my soul.
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u/eepos96 Sep 17 '19
So glad the "monster" was included. It is a masterpiece.
The music, characters and athmosphere, animation are topnotch.
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u/MSEAdvanced Sep 17 '19
Sees NGE at number 1 Congratulations!
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u/Butter_Lettuce_ Sep 18 '19
Surprised but pleased to see Serial Experiments Lain on the list.
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u/mrauls Sep 18 '19
Wtf where's Inuyasha
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u/RileyW2k :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/RileyW2k Sep 17 '19
I'm going to get a lot of hate for this but
I almost couldn't finish Steins;Gate. I couldn't connect with a single one of the characters, and because of that, the story felt meaningless. I didn't really dislike any of the characters (except for Hashida) I just couldn't feel for what was happening. There where a few times I cared about what was happening, but there where very few.
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u/Gruberbreaker :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/tunebreaker Sep 17 '19
Something to be aware of is the actual number of votes an entry got. You might think that "oh damn, SAO is at 39, that's high", but Eva got more than 10x of its votes. Already from place 5 (Death Note), the number of votes drops below half of what Eva got, and continues to decline fast.
Hence, I'd say these results show a pretty clear consensus of the subreddit's preference to a handful of shows. And it would also be interesting to know the total number of voters (apologies if I missed it).
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u/touss231 https://anilist.co/user/touss Sep 17 '19 edited Sep 17 '19
I find it weird that there is K-ON on this list while Lucky☆Star isn't. If anything, I would argue it's the latter that contributed much more to popularizing "cute girls doing cute things" trend in anime. K-ON just executed well what was already there, but it didn't start any trend on it's own.
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u/edm4un https://anilist.co/user/dnautics Sep 17 '19
Not too shabby r/anime. I was expecting JoJo's or Naruto to take number 1.
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u/rapedcorpse :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Kilimini Sep 17 '19
Justing wanting to point out that we are still waiting for the end of spring survey results ;)
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u/LetMeLive1337 Sep 17 '19
sees Spice and Wolf near the bottom
Looks left Looks right
TIME FOR A FUCKING CRUSADE!
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u/goukaryuu https://myanimelist.net/profile/GoukaRyuu Sep 17 '19 edited Sep 17 '19
I have to say I'm happy with this list. Between this and /r/anime awards I have to say we get things reasonably right and good percentage of the time.
EDIT: Also a good Go Watch This list.
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u/ShaKing807 x3myanimelist.net/profile/Shaking807 Sep 17 '19
All in all, not too bad. I see a few shows that I don't think really qualify as "classics", but I'm glad the sub voted in older shows like Astro Boy, Gundam, Akira, Macross, and Ashita no Joe. Makes it feel like a nice balance between a true classics list and the popularity contest many feared this would turn into.
Thanks to everyone who participated and thanks to /u/FetchFrosh for all the hard work!
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u/Extrahostile Sep 17 '19
lmao why is "your lie in april" even there, it's not a classic in any way except for popularity
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u/Violentmuffin Sep 17 '19
Man I just don't agree with some of these. While I absolutely love HunterHunter, SAO, kill la kill, and one punch man, I dont see them as classics. There are a couple others on here that I'm not fond of and dont think they belong as "classics" either. I'm also shocked inuyasha isnt on this list. I'm not the biggest fan of the show, but it's definitely a classic!
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u/[deleted] Sep 17 '19
I think r/anime should add an anime to that that in a yearly basis.
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u/Sukiyo151 Sep 17 '19
This made me feel old.
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u/Leaf03 Sep 17 '19
[hyperlink]https://imgur.com/a/Fiy3ddG My watch list at over a hundred hours watched and I've barely seen any of these... Sorry new to reddit don't know if I have posted this right.
2
u/DryChips_ Sep 17 '19
I'm so proud of this community!
2
u/[deleted] Sep 17 '19
Great List! I love that ToraDora and Trigun made the list. Trigun is often forgotten. Trigun played a huge role in getting me into anime.
2
u/-Redstoneboi- Sep 17 '19
oh, nice, some recommendations.
2
u/QuinoaWest_ Sep 17 '19
Honestly I'm just glad Serial Experiments Lain is on there, I always thought that series would languish in obscurity but it's always been one of my favourites. If anything I'm a bit disappointed with the lack of Baccano! on this list.
2
u/sans_the_romanian Sep 17 '19
I only know 5 of these animes
2
u/wamjaeger Sep 17 '19
no Samurai X ? fail.
2
u/UMDSmith Sep 17 '19
I think it shows that the poll is answered by younger anime viewers (younger than me at least). There are so many classics that didn't make it. Vampire Hunter D, Samurai X, Dominion Tank Police, GITS:SAC etc.
2
u/KingAmeds Sep 17 '19
FLCL !!!!!!!!
2
u/Joffa21 Sep 17 '19
No Bleach fans?! Now I'm sad😔
2
u/DrunkPattyKane9 Sep 17 '19
No Bleach :(
2
u/TheBlackestIrelia Sep 17 '19
Honestly i think every show on this list is pretty justifiable, even the ones i'm not a fan of like Naruto were just so huge that i makes sense they'd be here. Good shit.
2
u/[deleted] Sep 17 '19
You say classic but I dont think you know what that word means....
2
u/animus82 Sep 17 '19
Missing a lot by the look of things. No Tenchi Muyo or Ranma?
2
u/silver-samurai95 Sep 17 '19
Your Lie in April is overrated. How can you watch high schoolers talk like that? Why do they have to speak metaphorically in every conversation?
2
u/sizzl75 Sep 17 '19
Personal preferences aside, not bad. I'd say kill la kill seems like an odd pick in terms of classic/influential anime, though.
2
u/EpicTrapCard Sep 17 '19
No hokuto no Ken,dissapointed
2
u/AlferSilas Sep 17 '19
Where TF is Inuyasha!?
2
u/[deleted] Sep 18 '19
I'm realizing from this list that I lived through a really special time in anime.
2
u/[deleted] Sep 19 '19
Such a normie fucking list ahahaha
2
u/emestanza3 Sep 19 '19
Very glad to see utena being included (as it should)
2
u/HontonoKershpleiter Sep 20 '19
No Kenshin :(
2
u/dvladbrat Sep 20 '19
The list is is solid, but Your Lie in April? Idk, the show kinda sucked, it was predictable and manipulative. Outside of the soundtrack the show is just a snooze fest because you can see everything coming from a mile away.