Most Popular Anime Shows In The West

Anime took so long to break through in the West that even the term coined for it fell out of date: in the 80s, it was called Japanimation, and was extremely niche in English-speaking regions. It was only through the grassroots efforts of dedicated fans that the medium was disseminated and popularized in the West, alongside the lucky syndication of some shows that proved to be mega-hits.

Today, anime is a big industry worldwide: companies sell merch, posters, and T-shirts for shows that, once upon a time, you’d be lucky to find a subtitled version of. Here’s a look back at the shows that made the anime industry a cultural behemoth.

8

Dragon Ball Z

1989-1996

While the original Dragon Ball is a respectable anime today, many DBZ fans didn’t even know of its existence until much later. Dragon Ball Z first gained popularity in the late 90s and early 2000s through its syndication on Western cartoon channels. Akira Toriyama’s iconic designs caught the eye of many young viewers, and the plot was endlessly compelling despite its simplicity and retcons.

DBZ became such a gigantic multimedia franchise that Akira Toriyama would have been a billionaire if he had been more stingy with his IP rights. Goku is a household name, particularly in Latin America, where new episodes of Dragon Ball have filled real-life stadiums.

7

Pokemon

1997-Present

Mario may have sold the most video game cartridges, but Pokemon is the most lucrative multimedia franchise in history. Its video games and anime adaptations formed a symbiotic relationship in the late 90s and early 2000s: those who enjoyed the games became fans of the anime, and those who liked the anime were compelled to try the games.

Ash Ketchum’s adventures drew high ratings and massive success in the pre-internet era, and Pokemon maintains a dedicated fanbase today. While it’s not the most hyped anime around now, with many old-school fans simply following the games, it remains an essential part of most anime fans’ childhood. When Ash finally won the world championship in Pokemon Ultimate Journeys, it was widely reported on in mainstream publications.

6

Naruto

2002-2017

Naruto became popular for much the same reasons that Dragon Ball Z did: it had an aspirational shounen hero, and it taught good lessons about the importance of perseverance and friendship. However, most DBZ fans had missed out on a solid chunk of Goku’s development in the original Dragon Ball, and Naruto gave them the opportunity to start fresh.

Although Naruto finally concluded in the late 2010s, it will remain in the anime community’s consciousness forever. Naruto was perhaps the first anime to benefit from the burgeoning online culture of the 2000s, where memes and fan discussion drove the show’s growth.

5

Sailor Moon

1992-1997

While shounen played a big role in the medium’s popularity, magical girl anime should not go uncredited for its influence. Sailor Moon in particular was an early success in the 90s, appealing to young girls and bringing anime a new fan demographic in the West. Sailor Moon was empowering and provided its fanbase with more relatable plot points.

It wasn’t just in the West that Sailor Moon was important: the show breathed new life into magical girl anime as a whole, and gave rise to a new wave of cosplay and fan culture.

4

Neon Genesis Evangelion

1995-1996

Giant robots were among the most marketable aspects of anime in the West, and among the small Western fanbase the medium cultivated in the 80s, most were introduced through Robotech.

Neon Genesis Evangelion brought the genre a new psychological edge in the mid-1990s. It explored the effects of the setting on the minds of its young protagonists, and had iconic character designs that codified anime tropes in the West. Having a catchy opening and stellar animation in the early episodes helped it catch on, too.

3

One Piece

1999-Present

The original Western broadcast of One Piece is remembered – perhaps unfairly – as a mangled mess of censorship and reworked lines. Anything that was deemed unsuitable for young children was scrubbed out of the English dub, which was itself of dubious quality.

Yet even in this supposedly butchered form, the show caught on. You cannot hold down a good story: One Piece offered a rich world and a diverse cast. As for its first Western broadcast – however censored it was, the fact that One Piece managed to air at all was crucial for anime in the West, and its localization crew deserves credit for bringing the show over through sheer passion alone.

2

Cowboy Bebop

1998-1999

To this day, anime dubs struggle to be taken seriously. No matter how nonexistent their knowledge of Japanese is, fans prefer to tune in with subtitles alone. This may be easy now, but it wasn’t easy back then: subtitles were not the norm in TV airings, and most voice actors were working for the love of the medium rather than because it paid well.

Cowboy Bebop is the first anime series to have had stellar English voice acting, and it helped popularize anime in the West on a much greater scale. Its mature plot and character designs also helped it catch on with an older audience: anime wasn’t just for kids anymore.

1

Death Note

2006-2007

Death Note is the gateway anime of online culture. This series is where a new generation of anime fans got their start: in the late 2000s and the early 2010s, if you didn’t watch Death Note, it meant you weren’t going to get into anime at all.

This show is essential viewing and remains the perfect way to introduce new viewers to the medium today: it’s well-paced, has a reasonable length and its characters are endlessly intriguing. Death Note’s status as one of anime’s titans is undisputed, and Kira remains the template for all villain protagonists.