Breakthrough Hit / Anime & Manga

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 more well-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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Go Shogun 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.
• 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).
• 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 ˝ (both its 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.

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