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12 Anime Shows that Could Use a Cool Reboot


Reboots are incredibly popular in the anime world. The definition of a reboot is when an old anime is completely remade from the beginning, essentially starting over from scratch. Anime can rebooted for many reasons. It can be to try to stick closer to the source material (the manga) or it can simply be because the creators have a new take on the old story, or want to flesh out some things.

I recently did a rundown of some of the most successful anime reboots and noted that there have been some really excellent ones, like Hunter x Hunter 2011 and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

So in the vein, I want to examine some really old anime that wasn’t treated quite as well as it could have been the first time around and explain why these anime deserve a good reboot. Is there any old anime you’d like to see rebooted as well? Share your thoughts in the comments!

  1. The Rose of Versailles Anime

    Rose of Versailles was a manga set before and during the French Revolution, following the adventures of a crossdressing female bodyguard to Marie Antoinette named Oscar. Written in the 1970’s, it was an incredibly influential manga, examining gender, class divides and sexuality all while weaving together a compelling historically based tragedy.

    You can see how deeply impacted the genre of “girls comics”, as stories like Revolutionary Girl Utena reference it a lot. It was even adapted into an incredibly popular musical and thus usually gets referenced whenever anime characters decide to put on a play.

    However, the anime that adapts this story could definitely use a redo. For one thing, it was animated in the late ‘70s, so the art was not always up to snuff and couldn’t really reflect how “pretty” the manga was most of the time. In addition to this, while the first half of the anime was a very faithful adaptation of the manga, the second half of the anime was extremely rushed, skipping large chunks of the story.

    Such an influential manga deserves a complete adaptation with detailed, modern animation. I’d definitely like to see The Rose of Versailles make a comeback.

  2. The Fruits Basket Anime

    Fruits Basket was one of the gateway manga for many young girls as far as I can tell. The story focuses on a girl named Tohru who ends ups getting involved with the Sohma family, who are all possessed by the creatures of the Chinese Zodiac (the sheep, the rat, etc) and who are cursed to turn into those creatures under certain circumstances.

    This fantasy romance had a ton of drama and enough quirky characters to keep its young audience entertained and it got surprisingly dark at points. It received a 2001 26-episode anime series that was decent but fell short at the end. The anime only covered the first half of the manga and ended on a note many found disappointing due to how it deviated from the characterization of the manga. Not only did it change the backstory of one character significantly, it also showed Tohru freaking out over a friend’s secret, while in the manga she was very accepting of it. But worst of all, the anime’s story was left hanging and many characters were left unintroduced.

    Considering how beloved the series is too many, it would definitely be nice to get a reboot that was faithful to manga’s characterization and also had the manga’s more satisfying conclusion. In 2005, a bunch of fans even folded 1000 paper cranes and sent them to the studio in an effort to show how much they wanted more Fruits Basket.

  3. The Basara Anime

    Basara is a 1990’s fantasy epic manga focused on a girl named Sarasa, whose twin brother is supposedly the chosen one who will save her people. Except, her brother is murdered by the tyrannical king pretty quickly and so Sarasa decides to secretly take his place and unite her people instead. This is an intense and often dark tale with a huge cast of characters, intricate worldbuilding, tons of action and an incredibly starcrossed romance. It won awards when it came out and spanned 27 volumes. However, the anime adaptation was only 13 episodes long, covering roughly the first five volumes. And, as could be expected for a series airing in 1998, the animation was rough and did not capture the gorgeous detail of the original manga.

    Such a sprawling epic tale definitely deserves a sprawling, epic reboot that captures the complete story.

  4. The Yu Yu Hakusho Anime

    There’s definitely a whole lot of interest in a Yu Yu Hakusho reboot. When I googled some questions about anime reboot, all the related searches were asking about a new YYH show. It’s easy to see why there’s so much interest- the story about a juvenile delinquent turned spirit detective and his band of supernaturally aware friends is a classic action anime. It has fun characters and is funny and self aware at times.

    Personally, I don’t think the original series was ill-served, though- it covered the manga well, the animation was decent and it told a complete story. However, there were a few manga chapters that were left out and it would be pretty cool to see the many fight scenes in modern animation. So I definitely wouldn’t say no to a good reboot of this anime. 

  5. The Soul Eater Anime

    Soul Eater, an anime focused on a girl named Maka who takes down supernatural creatures with her partner who can turn into a weapon while attending an academy for demon hunters, was pretty well done all around. It had great animation, a great cast and the manga was faithfully adapted…right up until the end, when the anime deviated from the then-still-ongoing manga and made up its own conclusion to the story.

    Unlike a lot of fans, I don’t really mind this ending, as rushed and nonsensical as it was, as I feel the ending the manga ultimately delivered was not that great either.

    But there were some cool moments in the manga the anime never got to cover and manga fans deserve to see the whole story animated. So a full reboot of Soul Eater that concludes the story as the manga did would likely be well received. 

  6. The Angel Beats Anime

    Angel Beats! is a fairly recent anime, but the production troubles it had led to a lesser story than what we could have gotten. This story of a bunch of kids who woke up in the afterlife after dying young and decide to rebel against God for giving them such crappy short lives was originally supposed to be 26 episodes, but ended up being cut down to 13. As a result, most of the cast was left underdeveloped and it seemed like the story didn’t get to do a lot of things it wanted to do.

    This was a real shame since the series had such an interesting premise. So I’d really like to see a longer remake that allows the cast to develop fully and the full story to be told. 

  7. The Blue Exorcist Anime

    Blue Exorcist tells the story of a boy who finds out he’s related to Satan and rather than following in his father’s footsteps, decides to become an exorcist instead. Like many others on this list, it caught up with the manga it was adapting and made up an original ending. The manga is still ongoing, so maybe once it finished we can have a remake with the real ending.

  8. The Sailor Moon Crystal Anime

    This is definitely my most bizarre request- I’m literally asking for a reboot of a reboot. But all I want is to see the first two seasons of this series to be remade. Sailor Moon Crystal was a remake of a beloved franchise, but its first two seasons were incredibly poorly animated and clumsily put together.

    However, with the third season coming out now, it seems the creators listened to fan complaints and gave the series the nice animation it should have gotten from the beginning and are also telling the story more competently, adding in humor and cool fight scenes.

     I’m pleased the new Sailor Moon is finally getting the treatment it deserves, but I don’t understand why it couldn’t have been this way from the beginning. Now that Toei Animation has realized their mistakes, I wish they’d reanimate and redo the first two seasons to match this third one in quality, as unlikely as that is. 

  9. The Claymore Anime

    The Claymore anime, focused on a part-human, part-monster warrior named Clare, was another one that got an original ending because it’s manga was still ongoing. And the ending was pretty darn generic. I wasn’t super enthused with the ending of the manga had either, but there were some nice moments that deserve to be animated and I’d be okay with a reboot doing that.

  10. The Ranma 1/2 Anime

    The martial arts comedy Ranma ½, focused on a boy named Ranma who was cursed to change sex when splashed with water, is considered an anime classic and was the gateway series for a significant amount anime fans in the West.

    However, fans complain about a lot of problems in the series, including a drop in art quality at times and a lot of filler episodes the anime did in an effort not to overtake the manga (though the manga was pretty episodic itself). The series also made some pretty large changes to the source material. As such, a well-done reboot of this classic would likely be welcomed with open arms. 

  11. The Pandora Hearts Anime

    The Pandora Hearts anime is a dark fantasy focused on a boy named Oz who is cast into a mysterious prison. In a song and dance you’re probably well familiar with by now, the anime adaptation was made well before the manga finished its run and had an unsatisfying ending as a result.  The manga is finished now, so a reboot is welcome!

  12. The Rurouni Kenshin Anime

    Rurouni Kenshin, a beloved manga about a wandering former samurai, has received a bit of a franchise revival lately. There’s been a very well received live-action adaptation of the series. It seems like now would also be a great time for an anime remake, considering fans complain about the original anime’s filler and also say it botched the final arc and left it hanging. 

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