| What do you all believe is the anime that has had the biggest effect on western culture. Me and a friend was having a discussion he believed DBZ to be the biggest i believe for its time yes but now many newer anime's such as JOJO may take over it what is your opinion. PLEASE EXCLUDE POKEMON AS THAT IS TO OBVIOUS |
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| I just can't pick anything other than DBZ, because most of the anime that do have an impact here in the west have taken some sort of inspiration from Dragon Ball since Shounen is big here. Naruto and One Piece are very notable examples of insanely popular series here in the west and both were inspired by DBZ. There are plenty of popular shows that don't seem to be influenced by Dragon Ball, but just One Piece's fanbase alone outnumber most of them. Jojo is definitely surging in popularity, but it still hasn't really reached mainstream audiences here in the west, it's mostly just watched by people within the anime community, whereas DBZ and the Big Three had a lot more people that didn't regularly watch anime still watch it. |
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| Uh, sure. JoJo obviously has had a massive impact as of late. But, I doubt it is the biggest. I feel as though it may be Dragonball despite me never really ever watching it. I am sure JoJo or other shows may take over but they also may not. I feel that DBZ has had a lot more time in the spot light for Western Audiences than JoJo or the newer ones. I feel that the older anime have had huge effects considering they were few back then compared to now allowing many to flock towards them. |
"Perfection is perception. For me, humanity's imperfections is what makes it perfect"  |
| @onionknightrise & @firerifle64 ye you are both right but from my point of view and i am using myself as an example as a person new to anime i dont think as of yet i would be willing to put the amount of time it takes into such an old anime. I know it was revolutionary I understand that but I feel like it would be hard for me to watch when there are many newer better looking shows such as HXH, JOJO ETC that are of much higher quality, If you understand where i am coming from. I feel like a lot of DBZ fans are fans because they grew up with it. Where as newer fans don't have the same connection |
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| @OnionKnightRises also nice ping pong signature :) |
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| Toss up between Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z. I'd have to go with Pokemon, not by much though. Only for the fact that Pokemon has been consistently relevant for over 2 decades in the West and has been apart of so many kids lives. Dragon Ball Z comes up short in my opinion because it had lost a lot of relevance after the early 2000's once they finished releasing all of the Dragon Ball material in the West and didn't really get a resurgence until 2013 with the Battle of the Gods movie and then Dragon Ball Super. Opposed to Pokemon that always had new content and stayed relevant. I'm not saying Dragon Ball hasn't been relevant for decades but that there was a gap in time where no new content was coming out so people weren't as into it as much. |
| Naruto definitely also made an amazing impact. Everyone has heard of Naruto and everyone knows what the Naruto run is, we've seen hella lot Naruto cosplays over the years, etc. Between DBZ and Naruto there were Evangelion and Slam Dunk in the mid 90s. Slam Dunk is definitely the number 1 in the West regarding sports anime, I've heard a lot of stories about it being influential and how even 40+ y.o. people who never watched a single anime before it enjoyed it so it won't be an exaggeration to say it transcended the anime genre. |
@Lionel13927 ye i think in the west you actually have to take memes into consideration like Naruto run has became such a meme even people do it without even nothing anything about it. |
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| Western animation directors love miyazaki and hollywood directors adore akira, ghost in the shell and satoshi kon and have taken influence by them. When it comes to the average joe it's still dragon ball and one piece with their ability to make both normies and harcore fans obsess over them for decades. I think that jojo OP mentioned is still just an inspiration for shitty memes and hasn't become the cultural behemoth that it is in japan, at least not yet. |
| MEA·MENTVLA·INGENS·EST |
Ethant2002 said: @onionknightrise & @firerifle64 ye you are both right but from my point of view and i am using myself as an example as a person new to anime i dont think as of yet i would be willing to put the amount of time it takes into such an old anime. I know it was revolutionary I understand that but I feel like it would be hard for me to watch when there are many newer better looking shows such as HXH, JOJO ETC that are of much higher quality, If you understand where i am coming from. I feel like a lot of DBZ fans are fans because they grew up with it. Where as newer fans don't have the same connection No one really said anything about putting the time into it. As I said, I never really seen more than 3 episodes of DBZ. Despite that, I have seen the impact of Dragonball. But, I do see where you come from with the whole idea of newer anime people. But, JoJo hasn't really had a big enough impact in the Western area compared to Japan. The thing that really made it bolster into being a well known show is the memes that have occurred from it. If I were to say specifically, that has had a very huge impact for Western audiences, it might be these: Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood My Hero Academia Attack on Titan HxH Granted, as I said with JoJo, these shows managed to gain more attention with the use of memes. But, we can see with things like MAL, FMAB is ranked number one and FMAB is one of the gateway anime for newer people. Additionally, I feel as though MHA is another more recent contender, especially with streaming services advertising it more and with the fact it has had two movies already aired especially in the the Western sphere. AoT has really become well known because of the Song memes used because of its awesome OP. Additionally, it is an anime that really showed off its very dark atmosphere when it first aired. JoJo, I feel, has not had the biggest impact on western audiences, but it may have had a huge impact on the anime community as a whole. Other animes try to incorporate JoJo references whether about stands or try to imitate the art style. |
| "Perfection is perception. For me, humanity's imperfections is what makes it perfect" |
| Death Note, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. One of these two I'd bet. |
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OnionKnightRises said: I just can't pick anything other than DBZ, because most of the anime that do have an impact here in the west have taken some sort of inspiration from Dragon Ball since Shounen is big here. Naruto and One Piece are very notable examples of insanely popular series here in the west and both were inspired by DBZ. There are plenty of popular shows that don't seem to be influenced by Dragon Ball, but just One Piece's fanbase alone outnumber most of them. Jojo is definitely surging in popularity, but it still hasn't really reached mainstream audiences here in the west, it's mostly just watched by people within the anime community, whereas DBZ and the Big Three had a lot more people that didn't regularly watch anime still watch it. I agree with literally every word that's written here. |
Ethant2002 said: @onionknightrise & @firerifle64 ye you are both right but from my point of view and i am using myself as an example as a person new to anime i dont think as of yet i would be willing to put the amount of time it takes into such an old anime. I know it was revolutionary I understand that but I feel like it would be hard for me to watch when there are many newer better looking shows such as HXH, JOJO ETC that are of much higher quality, If you understand where i am coming from. I feel like a lot of DBZ fans are fans because they grew up with it. Where as newer fans don't have the same connection I mean we're talking about impact here, not it's current popularity. Even if it's harder to get into for newer anime watchers it's still had the most impact here in the west. Since you brought up HxH, while it's not as noticeable as other shows like the Big Three, Togashi did get inspired by Dragon Ball. Gon's abilities and the look of the main antagonist of the Chimera Ant arc specifically were inspired from Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z. This is especially true for people that watch English dubs, because the market for Shounen here in the west seems to have only really opened due to the popularity of DBZ. If we're just talking popularity today, then that's a bit harder to pin down. There are a ton of anime that have a lot of popularity here in the west, but it's hard to tell which is the most popular. Maybe Attack on Titan, or Your Name. The latter was especially huge when it just came out, it wasn't just anime websites that wouldn't stop talking about it but even people you'd never hear talking about anime would mention it, that movie was an absolute phenomenon. I was on a flight sometime ago after it came out, and when I went to the bathroom I saw a very old couple watching it. Ethant2002 said: also nice ping pong signature :) Thanks, the only thing that'd make my signature better is if it lived in a pineapple under the sea. |
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| @OnionKnightRises Ye i guess DBZ is like the start and inspiration for many things. but for UK/US you could bring up the argument of Akira being a such a large impact in pop culture with the likes off Kanye west taking lots of inspiration from akira in his early work. Also it would look better under the sea. Further more am more a team kong wegne kinda guy lol. |
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| I've yet to meet someone in the real world out there that knows about Jojo I myself didn't even know about it until I joined MAL a couple of years ago xd |
| @Ferien lol i surprisingly know quite a few people that aren't really into anime that have watched Jojo |
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| @Ethant2002 well probably because of the internet meme invasion, I guess xd |
Ethant2002 said: @OnionKnightRises Ye i guess DBZ is like the start and inspiration for many things. but for UK/US you could bring up the argument of Akira being a such a large impact in pop culture with the likes off Kanye west taking lots of inspiration from akira in his early work. Also it would look better under the sea. Further more am more a team kong wegne kinda guy lol. As influential as Akira was, it didn't define anime trends as much as DBZ did here. Though that is actually kind of a good point, Akira inspired Ghost in the Shell, and Ghost in the Shell inspired the Matrix, and so many action movies tried to do what the Matrix did for action movies. |
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| @Ferien ye probably lol but still. Also i looked at your list with the things we share your a harsh marker 1 for ping pong the animation, really. |
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| @OnionKnightRises I think they both hold a place for both being revolutionary in their own ways |
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OnionKnightRises said: Naruto and One Piece are very notable examples of insanely popular series here in the west and both were inspired by DBZ. There are plenty of popular shows that don't seem to be influenced by Dragon Ball, but just One Piece's fanbase alone outnumber most of them. How was One Piece inspired by DBZ? I haven't watched DBZ so I didn't know. |
Ethant2002 said: @OnionKnightRises I think they both hold a place for both being revolutionary in their own ways Damn, the mention of Akira has actually made me doubt the answer is DBZ now. DBZ is undoubtably the anime with the bigger impact when it comes to just anime, but even if DBZ has influenced more of the popular anime, Akira has influenced more outside the medium. Hannatach said: OnionKnightRises said: Naruto and One Piece are very notable examples of insanely popular series here in the west and both were inspired by DBZ. There are plenty of popular shows that don't seem to be influenced by Dragon Ball, but just One Piece's fanbase alone outnumber most of them. How was One Piece inspired by DBZ? I haven't watched DBZ so I didn't know. No idea as I don't read or watch One Piece, but Oda himself has said he was inspired by it. I will say Luffy's childish nature and even Japanese voice acting is pretty reminiscent of Goku though |
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| Gurren Lagann was first to mind since it managed to ruin the ending of Samurai Jack which was a western cartoon |
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| I think we all ignore anime for kids and definitely Doraemon and Pokemon changed the culture in many non-Japanese countries in my opinion. I think DBZ was a classic one in every country, so I agree with that too. |
| Ghibli and Makoto Shinkai's movies come to my mind. Probably since they are movie, they can get more exposure. |
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