Just because a manga is fantastic doesn't mean it makes a smooth transition from the page to the screen. The anime industry only took off globally in the eighties, and as it has grown, more and more creators have looked further back into the older manga canon to seek out which gems have been forgotten or left behind.

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In recent years, several fantastic manga classics have finally received anime adaptations at long last. While some of these adaptations fail to do the source material justice, several have elevated older works, introducing them to a brand new generation of viewers. What's old can be gold, and these manga are finally getting the anime adaptions they richly deserve.

10 Dorohedoro Was Published For 18 Years Before An Anime Was Announced

dorohedoro en family photo

Q Hayashida's Dorohedoro is the very definition of a cult classic. Violent, offbeat, and entirely incomparable to anything else, the dystopian series about violent sorcerers and a lizard-headed amnesiac seeking answers began publication in 2000. For fourteen years, Dorohedoro was published exclusively in seinen magazine Monthly Ikki, and later finished publication in Monthly Shonen Sunday.

The anime adaptation was announced just before the final chapter was released, and fans were as surprised as they were delighted that the oddball series would finally come to animated life.

9 Dororo Received A Second Anime Adaptation Fifty Years After Its First One

Dororo and Hyakkimaru walking along a dirt path

Osamu Tezuka is considered the grandfather of anime, the creator who helped reshape early Japanese comics into the manga we know today. One of his titles, Dororo, never received the ending it deserved. Though initially adapted into an animated series in 1969, the story never felt complete.

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As the 50th anniversary of the original anime approached, MAPPA announced it would work in conjunction with Tezuka Productions to at last adapt the series anew. 2019's Dororo is a modernized version of a great story, made only better with the advent of technology, enhanced characterization, and a revamped design.

8 Parasyte Was A Horror Staple Of The '80s

parasyte manga shinichi

Parasyte began life in 1988. Written by Hitoshi Iwaaki, the manga received a Kodansha Manga Award in the nineties and won readership and acclaim for its dark science-fiction themes and the relationship between the protagonist, Shinichi, and the alien parasite Migi. In an era where John Carpenter films were at their peak, body horror was a hit.

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Though U.S. film rights for Parasyte were purchased in 2005, the series didn't receive an anime until Madhouse took on the project in 2014. Twenty-six years after the first chapter debuted, the anime helped reinvigorate sci-fi horror all over again.

7 Until 2012, JoJo Fans Had To Make Do With A Few Oddball OVAs

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, Golden Wind and Phantom Blood representatives

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure has always had a devoted fanbase, so it's a real head-scratcher as to why it took decades for the manga to receive proper anime adaptations. There are more than 100 million copies of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure in circulation, and the series has often been voted among the best manga of all time.

In 1993, a thirteen-episode OVA series set during the Stardust Crusaders arc was produced by A.P.P.P., but the OVA failed to meet expectations. Finally, during a 25th Anniversary celebration of the series n 2012, author Hirohiko Araki himself announced that at last, the first two parts of the manga were being adapted by David Production. The rest is history.

6 Banana Fish Had To Wait For The World To Catch Up With It

Eiji and Ash smiling/laughing together in Banana Fish.

Banana Fish was a groundbreaking series on several fronts, not the least of which was bringing BL content to a more diverse audience. Though the series was marketed as josei, the riveting action and high-stakes storytelling soon won the manga a lot of male readers as well.

In an era before yaoi and shonen-ai were established subgenres, Banana Fish crossed boundaries and told a fantastic, tragic story to boot. Though the manga debuted in 1985, the anime adaptation, beautifully animated by MAPPA and directed by Hiroko Utsumi, debuted in 2018.

5 Vinland Saga Won Several Awards Before It Won An Anime Adaptation

Vinland Saga Manga Art

Manga fans have been following the career of author Makoto Yukimura devoutly for decades. Author of the hard sci-fi classic Planetes, from early in his career Yukimura established himself as a mangaka who relished research and attention to detail. In 2005, he began working on his magnum opus, the Viking epic Vinland Saga.

While fourteen years doesn't seem especially long to wait for an anime, given the other series on this list, the wait was more confounding due to the manga's universal acclaim. The series won a Grand Prize at the Japan Media Arts Awards, as well as a Kodansha Best Manga Award in 2012. Despite this, it took seven more years for Wit Studio to showcase the series as an anime, and a fantastic one at that.

4 Uzumaki Will Finally Debut Next Year

Kirie from Uzuami anime

There's already a live-action Uzumaki adaptation, and there's already an anime featuring the stories of Junji ItoAnd yet no one can blame fans for feeling shortchanged when it comes to good adaptations of the work of one of the best horror authors of all time.

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Uzumaki first found publication in 1998 in seinen magazine Big Comic Spirits. Soon after, the horror series received a live-action Japanese film adaptation and inspired two video games, too. None of these adaptations lived up to the source material, a deeply unsettling story about spirals overtaking life in a small town. Fortunately, the new anime, set to debut in 2022, looks promising.

3 Osomatsu-San Reinvented Itself For A New Generation

Osomatsu San SM

Don't call it a comeback, but that's exactly what it is. Osomatsu-Kun was a popular gag comedy manga from the 1960s. In 1966, Studio Pierrot produced an anime adaptation, and then another in the '80s. After that, the series more or less dropped off the global radar, even as it remained a fondly remembered classic in Japan.

In 2015, to celebrate author Fujio Akatsuka's 80th birthday, Studio Pierrot produced a revamped reboot series, Osomatsu-San. While the essence of the humor remained intact, it had been adapted to match the times, and the six Osomatsu siblings were recast as hopeless NEETs. The anime exceeded all expectations, becoming one of the most successful series of the year.

2 Berserk Fans Waited Years Only To Be Disappointed

Berserk Anime

Even today, newcomers to anime are told to watch the original Berserk adaptation which debuted in 1997. Extremely grisly and dark, the series was a testament to the ways anime was maturing in the 90s. However, the anime barely covered any of Kentaro Miura's beloved medieval fantasy manga, which had been serialized since 1988. When fans learned in 2016 that Berserk would finally receive a new anime, hopes were high.

But hopes were dashed. The 2016 anime, produced by OLM, Inc., fails on almost every front. The animation is hideous, the pacing and storytelling are lackluster at best, and the better aspects of the story are buried beneath the terrible CG visuals. Luckily, the manga's done enough to eclipse the stain of the adaptation.

1 Terra E, The Sci-Fi Gem Everyone Forgot

terra e anime and toward the terra

Some anime classics remain in the public psyche for decades. Astro Boy remains instantly recognizable, and Akira is receiving a live-action adaptation directed by Taika Waititi, once again confirming its landmark status. But other series that earn critical and popular acclaim are doomed to be forgotten, and such seems to be the case with Toward the Terra.

The initial manga, written by Keiko Takemiyawas created in the same hopeful era of sci-fi as the original Star Wars trilogy. The story focuses on mankind's struggle to exist in a futuristic, unbalanced world after Earth's resources are all but used up. The protagonists make the decision to use warp-speed travel to terraform a new planet elsewhere. It's classic sci-fi that hits all the right beats, pitting empathy against progress, humanity against prejudice. In 2007, Toward the Terra received a reboot in the form of a solid anime adaptation, Terra E. The series received great reviews but is virtually forgotten today, proof that staying power can't be taken for granted.

NEXT: 10 Most Merchandisable Anime of All Time