Breakthrough Hit in Anime & Manga.
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Authors and Artists
Multiple/Region-Specific
- Butsu Zone for Hiroyuki Takei country-wide, Shaman King internationally.
- Dr. Slump for Akira Toriyama in his home country. And while he would later be better known for Dragon Ball, he made it big worldwide with the anime adaptation of its later two-thirds, Dragon Ball Z.
- Magic Knight Rayearth put CLAMP on the map in Japan and Cardcaptor Sakura would be their biggest worldwide success.
- Ring ni Kakero for Masami Kurumada in his home country; Saint Seiya worldwide.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! for Kazuki Takahashi in his home country; Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist worldwide.
- Zombie Powder for Tite Kubo in his own country, Bleach worldwide.
Anime/Manga Series
- AKIRA for Katsuhiro Otomo.
- Astro Boy for Osamu Tezuka.
- Attack on Titan for Hajime Isayama (and its animated adaptation for Wit Studio).
- Azumanga Daioh for Kiyohiko Azuma.
- Chainsaw Man for Tatsuki Fujimoto.
- Cowboy Bebop for Shinichiro Watanabe.
- Cyborg 009 for Shotaro Ishinomori in manga and anime. Kamen Rider was his big break in Live-Action TV.
- Death Note for Takeshi Obata (artist) and Tsugumi Ohba (writer).
- Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba for Koyoharu Gotōge; they had published several one-shots in Shonen Jump beforehand, but Demon Slayer was their first ongoing series and it became a major Sleeper Hit, being the first manga to surpass One Piece in terms of volume sales in over a decade.
- DEVILMAN crybaby:
- For Masaaki Yuasa, a director with a cult following before hand but has made his impact in the West for the first time with this series.
- While Netflix is obviously big, Crybaby established them as a legit producer of anime, whereas beforehand any "original" was merely licensed in the West and they were seen as a less anime-based platform compared to Hulu and Crunchyroll. This series has paved the way for more true Netflix Original anime to come.
- Elfen Lied for Lynn Okamoto.
- Emma: A Victorian Romance for Kaoru Mori.
- Excel♡Saga's anime adaptation for Shinichi Watanabe (no relation to Shinichiro Watanabe above).
- Fist of the North Star for Tetsuo Hara (artist) and Buronson (writer).
- Flunk Punk Rumble for Miki Yoshikawa.
- Fruits Basket for Natsuki Takaya.
- Fullmetal Alchemist for Hiromu Arakawa.
- Fushigi Yuugi for Yuu Watase.
- Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex for Kenji Kamiyama.
- Golden Kamuy for Satoru Noda.
- GoShogun and Magical Princess Minky Momo for Kunihiko Yuyama and Takashi Shudo in their home country and Europe. Later, Pokémon: The Series would be their biggest breakthrough on a larger worldwide scale.
- Gunbuster for Hideaki Anno and Studio Gainax. Later, Neon Genesis Evangelion became an even bigger breakthrough for both.
- Hayate the Combat Butler for Kenjiro Hata.
- Hellsing for Kouta Hirano.
- Honoo no Alpen Rose for Michiyo Akaishi's works. It's actually the only of Akaishi's mangas made into an anime, and reached quite the success in Italy and some Arabic countries despite flopping in Japan.
- I.O.N for Arina Tanemura.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure for Hirohiko Araki. Specifically, it was Part 3 that established his fame as one of the most renowned mangaka, with the first two parts being Vindicated by History later.
- Kaguya-sama: Love Is War for Aka Akasaka.
- Kill la Kill for Studio TRIGGER.
- Kokou no Hito for Shinichi Sakamoto. Early in his career, Sakamoto aimed to create marketable manga that followed established shounen tropes. This went on for ten years in which he achieved no real success. When he worked on Kokou no Hito, he believed this would be his last manga. Once his collaborators left the project, Sakamoto became the its sole writer and illustrator. With nothing left to lose (quite literally), Sakamoto decided that he would do whatever he wanted with the work, no longer following established conventions. This was when the story experienced a shift in tone, slowly morphing into a somber, melancholic coming-of-age story. The art transformed from good to being extremely realistic and beautiful, some of the best in the manga industry. While the story had faults here and there, overall Kokou no Hito emerged a much stronger work compared to its initial direction. This became Sakamoto's first success hit, which established his style going forward.
- Lady!! - Yōko Hanabusa wrote a lot of shojo manga but this was the only one that received an anime adaptation and became a Cash-Cow Franchise.
- Love Hina for Ken Akamatsu.
- The Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer for Satoshi Mizukami.
- Lupin III for Monkey Punch.
- Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha for Seven Arcs.
- Mazinger Z for Go Nagai.
- Mobile Suit Gundam (and its accompanying movies) for Sunrise.
- Monster for Naoki Urasawa.
- My Hero Academia for Kōhei Horikoshi, a rewrite of a one-shot manga he wrote back in 2008.
- Naruto for Masashi Kishimoto.
- Noir for Bee Train and Yuki Kajiura (composer).
- One Piece for Eiichiro Oda after a slew of one-shot mangas.
- Ouran High School Host Club for Bisco Hatori; prior to it, she had written some shojo which was never well-known.
- Phantom Thief Jeanne for Arina Tanemura.
- The Prince of Tennis for Takeshi Konomi.
- Princess Jellyfish for Akiko Higashimura.
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica for Gen Urobuchi.
- Rave Master for Hiro Mashima.
- Revolutionary Girl Utena for Kunihiko Ikuhara.
- Rurouni Kenshin for Nobuhiro Watsuki.
- Sailor Moon for Naoko Takeuchi.
- Serial Experiments Lain for Yoshitoshi ABe (character designer).
- The Seven Deadly Sins for Nakaba Suzuki.
- Soul Eater for Atsushi Ohkubo.
- Spy X Family for Tatsuya Endo.
- Strobe Edge for Io Sakisaka.
- Super Dimension Fortress Macross for Shoji Kawamori.
- Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann for Hiroyuki Imaishi.
- Tenjho Tenge for Oh! Great.
- Those Who Hunt Elves for Yu Yagami.
- Trigun for Yasuhiro Nightow
- Urusei Yatsura for Rumiko Takahashi.
- Ushio and Tora for Kazuhiro Fujita.
- Uzumaki for Junji Ito.
- The World God Only Knows for Tamiki Wakaki (also doubles as Career Resurrection).
- YuYu Hakusho for Yoshihiro Togashi.
Distributors (International)
- CLANNAD was Sentai Filmworks' first major license after the collapse of ADV Films.
- Dragon Ball Z for Funimation.
- The Haruhi Suzumiya light novel series for Yen Press.
- Neon Genesis Evangelion for ADV Films.
- Ranma ½ (both the manga and anime) was one of Viz Media's first big successes as a publisher.
- The first Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki OVA was Pioneer LDC's first major hit as a publisher and a producer.
