The 2010s and 2020s are proving to be aninteresting era for anime and manga, especially for veteran fans of the manga, who are finding themselves, like any other seasoned members of a community, jaded by the modern expressions of their favorite media. In various contexts, the world is passed a particular “Golden Age” in popular culture, with the 1980s and 1990s proving to be some of the most mythologized among people for all kinds of reasons.
The world is simply different now, and this current era in anime happens to fall several decades after the establishment of some of the greatest works the medium has ever known, so there are several titles either being rebooted, or returning as part of acommemoration of their respective anniversaries, or simply coming back after eons of absence. Regardless of the context behind the return, some of these titles are significant to anime and manga in extremely profound ways, and their return heralds a kind of pseudo-Golden Age.
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Dragon Ball Super
Akira Toriyama’s most famous series and one of the most influential stories of all time,Dragon Ballenjoyed the height of success attainable by a manga work in the 1980s and 1990s in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump alongside other heavy-hitters likeJojo’s BIzarre Adventure, Yu Yu Hakusho,andSlam Dunk. The manga ended in 1996, but the anime enjoyed several glories past the heyday, like the TV originalDragon Ball GT, and a special OVA released in 2008.
The 2013 release,Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, was a canonical new installment in the series, and the follow-up,Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection of F,heralded the return of the beloved franchise in anime form in 2015. The official manga began in June 2015, and it is written by lifelong fan Toyotaro, whose work is overseen by Toriyama himself.
Dragon Ball Superis available Subbed onCrunchyrolland Dubbed and Subbed onFunimation
Fruits Basket
Being one of the standout romance and slice of life titles of the early 2000s, Fruits Basket’s return in 2019 was immense, and it is now being hailed as one of the best stories in anime to date.This version ofFruits Basketfollows the events of the manga more closely, and reflects the seriousness of the original story a lot more than the original anime adaptation.
With this reboot, Fruits Basket’s status in the anime community and industry as a classic is reiterated and this joins the very small pantheon of anime to have an original adaptation and reboot that are both highly regarded; however, Fruits Basket 2019’s bursting onto the scene is one of the most powerful revivals of an anime series fans could ever hope for.
Fruits Basketis Dubbed and Subbed onCrunchyrollandFunimation
Sailor Moon
Naoko Takeuchi’s famous magical girl title is perhaps one of the most influential on this list. The magical genre, be it anime or otherwise, owes a great deal to this title, and its reboot,Sailor Moon Crystal, was created to commemorate 20 years of the franchise. The first episode aired in 2014 and this version of the story is much closer to the manga in terms of plot and characterization than the 1992 anime was.
While the announcement ofSailor Moon’sreturn was greatly appreciated by fans, the first and second seasons ofSailor Moon Crystalwere criticized for haphazard pacing and very noticeable errors in animation. Despite this, the anime ran for four seasons and a film,Sailor Moon Eternal, was released in 2021, being the first film from the franchise to be shown in Japanese theatres for over 25 years.
Sailor Moon Crystalis Subbed onCrunchyroll
Berserk (2016)
This one pains fans to talk about, in fact, if you asked a fan aboutBerserk, they’d probably direct you to the manga and the 1997 anime. Be that as it may, the return ofBerserkafter nearly 30 years since the last time it was adapted was a greatly anticipated moment in anime history because, at that point, Kentaro Miura (rest in peace) had been working at the manga serialization for 27 years. So coming out nearly 20 years after the official TV anime,Berserk2016 was the sequel and adapted the events following the infamous Golden Age arc.
The series suffered from poor CGI animation which greatly dampened the experience, as well as excitement aboutBerserk’sreturn. Unfortunately, Miura passed away without seeing a truly brilliant and faithful adaptation of his magnum opus, astain which will remain on the anime industryforever.
Berserkis Subbed and Dubbed onCrunchyrolland Subbed onFunimation
Mr. Osomatsu
This title, after 26 years of absence, returned with a first episode that was hilariously banned. To this day, you can’t get an official stream of the first episode ofMr. Osomatsuand home versions have it replaced with an OVA.Osomatsu-sanis the follow-up to Fujio Akatsuka’s legendary hit gag manga and anime,Osomatsu-kun (1962). This series follows the daily lives of the Matsuno sextuplets, and has been a celebrated animetitle that made an entire generation laugh. It has already seen a reboot in the 1980s, but this one is rather different. The reboot, or rather, the sequel to the famed title, is based on the lives of the sextuplets in their adulthood, with more mature themes, and was released in celebration of the author’s 80th birthday in 2015.
The first episode was in fact pulled because of copyright – in true gag anime fashion,Osomatsu-santhrows a flurry of references and Easter eggs your way. The premise of the first episode is that now that they’re back on TV in their adulthood, the Matsuno brothers feel a bit out-of-touch in the modern day (“we’re an anime from the Showa Era, you guys”) and need to figure out a way forward for the brand-new anime they’ve just gotten greenlit, so they explore various well-known settings, includingBoys Over Flowers,Attack on Titan, a hybrid betweenHaikyuu!,andKuroko’s Basketball, Idolmaster!,and several other titles that grew immensely in popularity in the brothers' decades-long absence.
Mr. Osomatsuis Subbed onCrunchyroll
Devilman: CRYBABY
Devilmanby Go Nagai is an influential manga from the 1970s that saw a resurgence in 2018 when the ONADevilman: CRYBABYwas released by Netflix. The new iteration, directed by Masaaki Yuasa (Japan Sinks, 2020), follows a similar story trajectory as it’s predecessor in a more modern setting.
This version of the story is Yuasa’s interpretation of what Nagai would have done had he not been restricted by the Shonen demographic of the original 1970s series, and the result isthe gory, shocking tale ofDevilman: Crybaby.
Megalo Box
To commemorate 50 years since the release of the legendary boxing manga,Ashita no Joe (Tomorrow’s Joe), written by Asao Takamori and illustrated by Tetsuya Chiba, the anime saw revival in the form of Megalo Box, a futuristic boxing series that reflects some of theoriginal work’s themes. In this series, athletes duke it out in the ring while wearing highly technological exoskeletons called “Gear” and the protagonist, Junk Dog, is an underground fighter looking to defeat the champion of the prestigious Megalonia boxing competition.
The parent series is one of the most popular anime of all time, and it galvanized the ideas of the new leftist movement in Japan. The titular protagonist, Joe, was seen as a paragon of the working class, and his journey from nobody to legend remains the blueprint of several sports and shonen anime to this day. However, Joe Yabuki is not the protagonist in this series but rather, the story is told from the perspective ofJunk Dog, who later assumes the name “Joe”.
MEGALOBOXandMEGALOBOX 2: NOMADare Subbed and Dubbed onFunimationandCrunchyroll
Dororo
Dororo (2019)comes 50 years after the first anime adaptation of Osamu Tezuka’s manga by the same name. This new version boasts the brilliant animation of its time, and reflects Tezuka’s trademark understanding and use of emotional aspects to truly drive a story. With theoriginal animationhaving been released in 1969, there are huge stylistic and directional differences which make this version ofDororoa worthy successor to, if not better than the original.
This is by no means an exhaustive foray into the plethora of reboots and returns that have been happening in anime in recent years, but highlights some of the bigger names to have made a return. Recently, news of the return of the legendary animeCity Hunterhas made rounds which further affirms the idea that this reboot era is an interesting and somewhat coincidental revival of the Golden Age of the 1980s and 1990s.
