Audiences now have so many forms of entertainment that compete for their attention, yet the creative heights of anime continue to bring in new viewers and push boundaries. It’s never been a better time to be an anime fan because there are so many diverse genres of storytelling that celebrate their audience’s eclectic interests. The climactic heights of battle shonen series or the cathartic conclusion of a powerful melodrama are hard to top.
However, the anime series that make comedy their priority can also connect in incredible ways. Laughter is a universal experience and the exaggerated nature of anime often allows humor to hit even harder. Additionally, there’s a growing trend in the anime industry to reboot old properties for new audiences. Comedy can show its age over time and there are some funny anime series that would seriously benefit from a reboot.
10 The Irresponsible Captain Tylor Appoints The Worst Person Possible For A Space Voyage
The Irresponsible Captain Tylor is mandatory anime viewing from the early 1990s that's way ahead of the curve. As the anime's title indicates, Justy Ueki Tylor finds himself unexpectedly catapulted to the role of space cruiser captain after he accidentally foils an assassination attempt and frees some hostages. Tylor is young, lazy, and selfish, all of which are traits that are comically exaggerated once he reluctantly accepts his new responsibilities. The Irresponsible Captain Tylor is an older anime that still works but has lots of room to grow.
9 Great Teacher Onizuka Is Head Of The Class When It Comes To School-Based Comedy
Anime series have limitless freedom to be set in unbelievable fantasy worlds or future dystopias, but there are also constant stories that use the institution of high school for inspiration. Great Teacher Onizuka is a satisfying role reversal study where Eikichi Onizuka, a former juvenile delinquent, finds himself in charge of educating a brutal class of students. Great Teacher Onizuka is an economical anime at only 26 episodes, which culminates into a story that’s equally emotional and comedic. GTO is a classic, but a modern take on it that runs longer and allows these relationships to further develop would be even better.
8 Excel Saga Is Too Much Parody To Handle And Almost Too Smart For Its Own Good
Excel Saga is a fearless genre masterpiece where each episode lampoons a different style of anime. The relentless parodies never disappoint, but the show’s protagonist, Excel Excel, is as chaotic as characters get. Excel Saga remains an artistic high mark for the anime industry and an example of how far comedy and satire can be pushed in this medium.
However, so many new trends have taken over the anime industry in the two decades following the conclusion of Excel Saga and it’d be so much fun to see what the series does with them. A reboot of Excel Saga could even devote an entire episode to the bloated nature of reboot culture.
7 Dragon Half Turns Familiar Fantasy Features Into Curious, Comedy Gold
Fantasy archetypes are rich material to deconstruct and much of the joy in Dragon Half comes from how these magical staples are undercut through hilarious misunderstandings. Mink, a human-dragon hybrid, alongside her dwarf and elf friends Pia and Lufia, feels perpetually overwhelmed. There's comfortable chemistry between these magical misfits and the main reason to reboot Dragon Half and return to this world is that there are only two episodes of it. These two OVA installments are a decent proof of concept, but they're a tease for what could be a full comedy classic.
6 Bastard!! Finds The Laughs In Brooding Dark Fantasies
Bastard!! is a six-episode OVA from the 1990s that hides a sense of humor behind its aggressive name. Bastard!! is a gruff subversion of dark fantasy tropes with a narrative that owes more than a little to Dungeons & Dragons. Doom and gloom reign supreme, but the self-serious nature of these stereotypes produces some surprising comedy. Audiences are now even savvier to dark fantasy parodies and a modern version of Bastard!! could become the antithesis to something like Berserk. A new Bastard!! adaptation is on its way to Netflix, albeit in movie form. Hopefully, this project will get audiences more interested in a full series.
5 Those Who Hunt Elves Turns A Fantastical Voyage Home Into Meta Mayhem
Anime has the capacity to create impressive comedy simply by eschewing any of the medium’s well-established genres. In the case of Those Who Hunt Elves, it’s fantasy adventures that are put under scrutiny. The anime’s special Elf Hunters must locate these mystical creatures and remove special tattoos from their skin that can help these heroes get back home to Japan.
Those Who Hunt Elves has two twelve-episode seasons that mostly focus on monster-of-the-week storytelling. The anime is full of gratuitous fan service, but it’s also hilarious and recklessly demolishes the fourth wall. The first anime also doesn’t finish adapting the manga, which a reboot could make possible.
4 Ping-Pong Club Is Old-Fashioned Bawdy Humor At Its Best
Ping-Pong Club is as silly as they come and its uncouth comedy is tonally similar to South Park, but it’s an oddity that flew under the radar during the 1990s. Ping-Pong Club unpacks the misguided efforts of a group of social outcasts who struggle to communicate with the opposite sex and improve their social standing in school. Ping-Pong Club is 26 episodes, but each installment is split in half to deliver a faster-paced style of comedy. The jokes in Ping-Pong Club are still hilarious two decades later, but there’s still a lot of value in a proper reboot.
3 Golden Boy Is An Endless Series Of Mirthful Misunderstandings
Slice-of-life storytelling and comedy are a natural fit, which in the case of Golden Boy translates into awkward odd jobs for its hormonal hero, Kintaro. One of the most appealing arguments for a Golden Boy reboot is that the original OVA series only has six installments. Golden Boy doesn't waste a single entry, but it also feels like the show's hilarious premise is only just getting started by the time that it ultimately ends. What currently exists of Golden Boy is grand, but a modern makeover and more episodes would turn the series into an indisputable comedy classic.
2 Samurai Pizza Cats Is A Heightened Parody That Surpasses What It Lampoons
The 1990s were an unpredictable decade in terms of the anime that received English dubs and which of those would actually find an audience. The overwhelming popularity of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles accelerated a dubbed version of the shonen and mecha satire Samurai Pizza Cats. There’s a familiar heroic narrative at the center of Samurai Pizza Cats where a trio of courageous felines don mecha suits and protect their city. Samurai Pizza Cats is an oddity that’s stuck in many people’s minds and just enough familiarity remains that a reboot could succeed. More episodes and the freedom of modern programming would heighten the effective formula in Samurai Pizza Cats.
1 Ranma ½ Engages In Brilliant Comedy That’s Held Back By Dated Shonen Tropes
Rumiko Takahashi’s Ranma ½ is one of the biggest shonen anime to come out of the 1990s. It’s also an action series, but embraces broad comedy whenever possible. The 161 episodes of Ranma ½ do get repetitive with their plotting, but there are plenty of shonen series that are twice as long and have less to say. Ranma ½ is a product of its time and the gender-swapping shenanigans that afflict Ranma would play very differently today. Ranma ½ has such rewarding character relationships and a unique world that puts so much value in a modern reboot that smoothes out what didn’t work the first time around.