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Your Most Influential Anime

Wickett

By Wickett
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Wickett

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I've considered before the interesting difference between a favorite(s) anime and an anime that impacted you mentally or physically. Something that stayed with you beyond simply enjoying the story, character arcs, OSTs, etc. What would you say was the most personally influential anime that you've ever watched, and why?

For me it happens to be one of the two sports anime I've ever watched, Kuroko no Basket. At the time, I worked a desk job from home, and while it was a good job and I greatly enjoyed working from home, the obvious downsides presented themselves after a couple of years. I was horrendously out of shape. Favorable genetics in this sense didn't allow for significant weight gain, but my heart and lungs were rarely worked out. Aside from playing baseball at the ages of 9 and 10, I never had any great interest in sports. Until of course, I watched Kuroko no Basket. I loved everything about that anime, I've watched it beginning to end 4 times over the years, and the idea of starting at the bottom rising up becoming better at the sport helped me a lot in getting started, knowing it would take a long time to get better (also starting very late in life for something like this). Basketball remained a primary hobby of mine for approximately 7 years, serving as an excellent outlet and exercise until a new (and thankfully good) job prevented any opportunity to play. I look back on the first several games I played realizing how far I eventually did get and have always credited Kuroko no Basket for igniting a much-needed fire under me.

What about anyone else? 

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Guest

Guest

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That's a pretty hard question, medias influence their watchers in an often unpredictable and undetected way.

But if I had to pick one anime, I would say Parasyte. Throughout the show, the parasites raised some interesting points which wouldn't hit the same if it came from a human, someone the viewer would apply "common sense" to.

Skipping the specifics of the show, it basically made me see things without perceiving them as right/wrong or at least not as much.

How it influenced my life: I've gotten less anxiety of making mistakes and being perceived as a jerk. For example, I used to very often make any excuses to leave when I'm near someone that knows me. But now, I might just shamelessly be there even if I says nothing meaningful. It's not that I'm going to all hangouts or stay until the end though.

This might be quite a long stretch but I don't know about philosophy or that thinking stuff over the show, lol.

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Animedragon Grand Master

Animedragon

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Noir was very popular about 24 years ago, and rightly so because it's got an interesting and intriguing storyline and two excellent lead characters. But sadly it's sort of dropped off the radar these days.

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Digimon_Sommelier Mentor

Digimon_Sommelier

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There are several, for me. Digimon is my favorite, as well as Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, Rurouni Kenshin, Yu Yu Hakusho, Zatch Bell, Cowboy Bebop, The Vision of Escaflowne, Outlaw Star, among others. They inspired me to create the anime book series Scout Masters, which can be purchased/read free if you have Kindle on Amazon.

Edited by Digimon_Sommelier
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Wickett Collaborator

Wickett

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If I was to go back before Kuroko's Basketball and to my childhood, I'd have to give most of the credit for anime to Zoids: Chaotic Century. I also of course watched Pokemon, but Zoids fit the typical anime mold more and following that show was a blast a kid. Also used to make my own Zoids out of Kinex toys which was fun.

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Clayton Mentor

Clayton

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On 1/11/2025 at 10:45 PM, Digimon_Sommelier said:

There are several, for me. Digimon is my favorite, as well as Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, Rurouni Kenshin, Yu Yu Hakusho, Zatch Bell, Cowboy Bebop, The Vision of Escaflowne, Outlaw Star, among others. They inspired me to create the anime book series Scout Masters, which can be purchased/read free if you have Kindle on Amazon.

I hear you. I wrote How to be An Anime CHaracter https://www.amazon.com/How-Anime-Character-Clayton-Overstreet/dp/1441451803

 

Though I mostly based that on rules that apply to ALL anime

 

I still have the English sailor moon theme stuck in my head though...

 

 

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Ohayotaku Grand Master

Ohayotaku

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I first watched Star Blazers  (Space Battleship Yamato) on a staticky black & white tv before I’d even heard the word “anime” . Even with it’s Americanized names & corny accents obscuring it’s WWII symbolism, it dealt with topics of war & genocide (each episode ending with a doomsday countdown until humanity faced extinction). It was the first serious  & linear storyline of it’s type my pre-teen self had encountered at a time when most televised “cartoons” were comedic shorts like Loony Tunes, Tom & Jerry, Popeye, etc. Even darker examples like Thundarr the Barbarian felt less mature. I was so fascinated by Star Blazers, I would even set my alarm clock to watch it during summer break & go back to bed afterwards. Years later Robotech (especially the Macross arc) reinforced the sense of animated stories & characters that felt real & were the biggest early influence of my appreciation of anime. More recently, the Fruits Basket remake & My Roommate is a Cat really resonated with me emotionally with some things I was going through. A lot of what I’m currently watching are lighter toned or even comedic, but those are the series I feel made a significant & lasting impression on me.

Edited by Ohayotaku
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Sakura Dragon Proficient

Sakura Dragon

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I am going to count Soul Eater here because it was the first anime I had ever seen. It’s the anime that got me into anime. If I didn’t watch it, my life would probably be much more boring. Anime has given me countless hours of entertainment, brought me to meet some great new people, gets me out of the house with conventions and meetups, and gave me some new hobbies like TCG collecting. It also taught me to be less judgmental, as I used to firmly believe that all anime fans were unintelligent and annoying.

Edited by Sakura Dragon
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KaiyaSaysHaiya Experienced

KaiyaSaysHaiya

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definitely danganronpa: the animation! i was SUPER into danganronpa a few years ago, and i watched the first anime before i even knew it was based off of the first game. the series helped me through some tough times, allowed me to make some amazing friends and connect more with other people around me. i'm very grateful for it. with that being said, though, not every impact is positive. i also think i got a bit too invested which was probably a little unhealthy at some point. i think that was only a very short period of time, though, so overall i'm super happy i gor into danganronpa <33

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