I’ve seen very very few anime with interesting worldbuilding if I’m being honest. Most of my favorites are either set in present-day Japan (Kaguya-sama: Love is War, LOOK BACK) or their focus is simply elsewhere (Gurren Lagann, Redline).
I almost presented Mobile Suit Gundam as an exception, but then I remembered just how many spin-off stories there are about secret Gundam projects the Federation was supposed to have been working on during the One-Year War, and how poorly they all mesh together.
That said, exceptions do exist. I’ll second what djsoren19 said about Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. Amestris really is a cool, well-defined setting where small details such as its generic, vaguely-circular shape really matter.
Delicious in Dungeon also has shockingly good worldbuilding considering it’s an anime in which you spend almost all your time looking at the same hole in the ground. Same goes for Made in Abyss.
I think my favorite worldbuilding in anime has to go to Eureka Seven though. Throughout the show it raises all sorts of question about both the world you’re looking at and the pasts of the characters you’re invested in, most or all of which it eventually answers in interesting and plot-relevant ways. Also, mechs flying through the air on surfboards is a cool aesthetic. Can’t get enough of it.
I’ve seen very very few anime with interesting worldbuilding if I’m being honest. Most of my favorites are either set in present-day Japan (Kaguya-sama: Love is War, LOOK BACK) or their focus is simply elsewhere (Gurren Lagann, Redline).
I almost presented Mobile Suit Gundam as an exception, but then I remembered just how many spin-off stories there are about secret Gundam projects the Federation was supposed to have been working on during the One-Year War, and how poorly they all mesh together.
That said, exceptions do exist. I’ll second what djsoren19 said about Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. Amestris really is a cool, well-defined setting where small details such as its generic, vaguely-circular shape really matter.
Delicious in Dungeon also has shockingly good worldbuilding considering it’s an anime in which you spend almost all your time looking at the same hole in the ground. Same goes for Made in Abyss.
I think my favorite worldbuilding in anime has to go to Eureka Seven though. Throughout the show it raises all sorts of question about both the world you’re looking at and the pasts of the characters you’re invested in, most or all of which it eventually answers in interesting and plot-relevant ways. Also, mechs flying through the air on surfboards is a cool aesthetic. Can’t get enough of it.
Kaguya sama ? Really ?
Anyone putting in contemporary romcoms doesn’t understand what world building means.
Yeah. Have you watched Season 3? It’s a great show, just not for worldbuilding reasons.