10 Best Anime Series From The 20th Century That Are Still Hard To Live Up To
The 21st century marks a veritable explosion in the sheer number and variety of anime for fans around the world to enjoy. Today’s anime industry offers countless series with cool characters and stellar animation, but this current wave of new-gen anime is kept humble by one factor: the legendary greats of the 20th century. From the mid-century onward, Japan started producing outstanding anime for TV, and plenty of those titles hold up today, to the point many modern series can only hope they live up to what those icons accomplished.
21st-century anime may benefit from modern animation techniques and better pacing, but these anime are still hard-pressed to surpass what came before. No matter their age, the finest 20th-century anime have a stellar reputation, often because they are historic landmark series that helped give shape to certain genres, tropes, or even the entire industry. That counts for a lot, and it’s a reason to salute these 20th-century anime and use them as a yardstick for deciding whether any of today’s anime are worthy.
Neon Genesis Evangelion Set the Standard For Mecha, Deconstruction & Animation
Few anime are more delightfully and darkly subversive than Neon Genesis Evangelion, a true classic from 1995. This anime is the grim counterpart of Gurren Lagann, since both anime poke fun at the giant mech genre but do so in different ways, and for different reasons. Gurren Lagann is a playful love letter to mecha that has fun taking things to an incomprehensible extreme, while Neon Genesis Evangelion focuses on the humanity.
This anime is famous for taking a more honest look at what it would really feel like for teenagers to suit up in giant robots and risk their lives fighting monsters as dangerous as Angels. That includes 14-year-old Shinji Ikari nearly snapping, not to mention the realistic flaws of these young heroes who aren’t entirely ready for what they’re being asked to do. The philosophical angle rounds things out, provoking more thought than other genre deconstructions such as Oshi no Ko and Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead.
Anime Fans Can Thank Yu Yu Hakusho For Bleach & Jujutsu Kaisen
Quite a few of the best anime from the 20th century are action series, and they rank among the most popular, too. Both then and now in the 21st century, action anime have been prominent and appeal to viewers of all types, which helped make 1992’s Yu Yu Hakusho such an icon. Its animation may be dated, but this anime’s character designs and sheer vibe aren’t easily topped by modern anime.
Yu Yu Hakusho almost definitely helped inspire Tite Kubo’s Bleach and through it, Gege Akutami’s Jujutsu Kaisen. Those latter two anime do a lot of things Yu Yu Hakusho didn’t or couldn’t, but in terms of attitude and style, they’re still hard-pressed to top Yu Yu Hakusho. That’s hardly surprising, given how Yu Yu Hakusho was crafted by Hunter x Hunter‘s author, a certain Yoshihiro Togashi.
Trigun’s Dark Western Adventure Still Stands Out
A few short anime from the late 20th century remain iconic of their decade and indeed, the entire concept of 20th-century anime, with 1998’s Trigun being one of them. This anime even inspired the later Trigun Stampede in 2023, which proves the staying power of this popular franchise. Trigun is another anime that looks and feels great, even if it’s older than half of its viewers.
Like many 20th-century anime with dated production values, Trigun stands on the creativity, style, and originality of its content, and factors like those only get better with age. It’s no mean feat for any of today’s anime to rival Trigun in any of its departments: funny yet OP heroes, Western-inspired settings, or sci-fi adventures with a dark edge. Trigun does them all well, with Vash the Stampede still having the edge on Satoru Gojo as a comedic, casually overpowered anime hero.
Slam Dunk is What Every Sports Anime Wishes It Was
The realm of sports anime is a fun and relatable way to show the characters fighting hard to make something of themselves in a physical hobby. The genre is a fine counterpart to action/adventure anime in the shonen or seinen anime spheres, and few anime do this better than 1993’s Slam Dunk. Even now, it’s a cherished sports anime that commands the respect of countless fans, and that may be why it inspired The First Slam Dunk in 2022.
Author Takehiko Inoue channeled his own experiences with the sport of basketball in Slam Dunk, and it shows. Nothing beats firsthand experience or passion for a sport or other endeavor, and thus, Slam Dunk helped inspire countless Japanese manga and anime fans to get into basketball. Today’s sports anime such as Haikyuu!! and Blue Lock feel like Slam Dunk‘s spiritual successors, but even solid anime like those only come close to what this basketball series accomplished.
Berserk’s 1997 Anime May Be the Only Good Berserk Adaptation Anyone Gets
While most fans agree that author Kentaro Miura’s original Berserk manga can never be topped in any anime adaptation, the 1997 Berserk anime gave it a fair shot. At the time, it was an impressive attempt to replicate Guts’ adventures on the small screen, and it’s definitely better than the 2016 Berserk anime. For the foreseeable future, the 1997 anime will remain the only worthwhile Berserk anime.
As for story and content, the 1997 Berserk anime does hold itself back by omitting a number of the manga’s scenes, but it still delivers a powerful story with the manga’s Golden Age Arc. Even now, most medieval and dark fantasy anime can only hope to be half as good as this, with Vinland Saga being one of the few anime series to surpass the 1997 Berserk in any meaningful way.
Detective Conan Sets a High Bar For Genius Anime Characters
1996 introduced anime fans to the outstanding Detective Conan anime, also known as Case Closed in the West. To this day, the overall Detective Conan franchise is releasing new material and has never been better. It’s truly remarkable how author Gosho Aoyama can keep thinking up brilliant, mind-bending mysteries for Shinichi Kudo to solve, like a Sherlock Holmes story that never ends — and maybe never should.
Detective Conan sets a high bar for any anime that focuses on detective work, puzzles, or anything else cerebral. One of the few worthwhile competitors today is The Apothecary Diaries, which not only made Maomao a proper detective in terms of poisons but also explores the unique role of women in a Chinese-inspired, tradition-bound setting. That’s an angle Detective Conan doesn’t have, and it helps expand on the idea of anime mysteries in essential ways.
Fist of the North Star Expertly Blends Mad Max With Martial Arts
In 1984, fans beheld the awesome power of Kenshiro the martial artist in Fist of the North Star. This anime, and the 1983 manga that inspired it, are both expressions of the amusingly macho vibes found in 1980s fiction, where musclebound heroes like Kenshiro looked incredible in leather. Kenshiro, like Son Goku, helped create a new era for shonen action, upping the ante for what action stars can do.
Fist of the North Star‘s anime looks quite dated now, but the original manga still boasts some impressive art that’s impervious to aging. And any dedicated manga and anime fan will know it’s the content that matters most, with Fist of the North Star challenging any and all modern anime to rival it as a Max Max martial arts adventure. Not many of today’s anime even attempt this, let alone surpass Fist of the North Star at its own game.
Dragon Ball is the Most Legendary Anime of All Time For a Reason
No discussion of legendary 20th-century anime is complete without the Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z anime being brought up. Dragon Ball is well known for establishing or popularizing many familiar tropes, from transformations to hungry himbos and intense rivalries, and its influence is everywhere. Even today, most shonen action anime want a piece of what Dragon Ball did from 1986 onward on the small screen.
An underrated part of why anime fans love Dragon Ball is its delightful personality as a shonen anime blending martial arts with Chinese folklore, science fiction, comedy, and even dinosaurs. This creates a memorable vibe for the entire anime, and today’s 21st-century anime usually just borrows part of what Dragon Ball created while not having the creative flair to imitate the whole thing. Some parts of Dragon Ball may feel dated or routine now, but its boldly refreshing personality hasn’t aged a day.
Sailor Moon Made the Magical Girl Genre a Force to Be Reckoned With
Sailor Moon is another 20th-century anime that continues to be the golden standard for all later anime in its chosen genres. Fans can say it was the Dragon Ball of shojo anime, though it’s not necessary to contextualize Sailor Moon that way to show how important it was and still is. With or without Akira Toriyama’s creations around, Sailor Moon was a major step forward for shojo anime as the magical genre took shape.
Magical girls have existed in manga and anime since the days of Osamu Tezuka, but it took Sailor Moon‘s 1992 anime to turn this concept into a genre, one that commanded immediate respect. Practically all magical girl anime are trying to do what Sailor Moon did, and this ’90s anime’s historic impact isn’t easily matched by even the most daring of today’s magical girl anime.
No One Can Beat Cowboy Bebop’s Moody Jazz Vibe
Like Trigun, 1998’s Cowboy Bebop is a classic anime that helped end both the decade and the 20th century on a high note. Both anime are short but sweet as highly distinctive and emotionally evocative sci-fi anime. They may have spaceships and the like, but anime like Cowboy Bebop are less about aliens or robots and more about the relatable human condition. Antihero Spike Spiegel is more compelling than any space opera about invading alien fleets.
Cowboy Bebop remains one of the finest anime in its space, with few 21st-century titles directly competing with it. Cowboy Bebop practically stands alone as a winning blend of outlaw action, comedy, aching human drama, the feeling of isolation, and moody jazz. Roughly similar 21st-century anime include Samurai Champloo and Psycho-Pass, but not even those fine titles can easily top what Cowboy Bebop has already done.
