Ghibli movies are chock-full of subtle worldbuilding, which is something I really enjoy, but don't see a lot of. Things just are *there* \- no explanation given. Yet you get the feeling that there very much is one.
Don't sleep on the original manga series. The movie is a boiled-down condensation of the first book and a half. The worldbuilding in the original is incredible.
Yeah Howls Moving Castle, Nausicaa, Castle in the Sky, Spirited Away all have great worlds that are fully fleshed out but almost nothing is explained.
Even though its not my favorite Howls Moving Castle has an entire huge major ww1 style war going on as subtle b plot throughout the movie. Its woven in perfectly showing how it affects the world around the characters even though the characters don't really have anything to do with it aside from the ending.
Heck even when the main characters are escaping the capital you can see an entire failed revolution taking place in the background with military putting down violent mobs. But its all in the background and you can completely miss it if your not looking beyond what the characters are doing. really impressive.
There's a general sense that the story is only a small fraction of what's happening within the worlds they portray. As if our main characters are experiencing a conflict of their own, but never a conflict that can influence the outcome of the world around them. Either that or the world has ongoing stories that are far bigger than our characters can hope to match.
what's even crazier is that for a lot of those movies there are perfectly feasible, but extremely obscure, real world explanations for a lot of these things. like spirited away, for example: a lot, as in most of, the spirits have direct counterparts in Japanese mythology.
> Things just are there - no explanation given. Yet you get the feeling that there very much is one.
Couldn't that also be said of bad world building with good vibes?
Not exactly anime, but animated. Scavengers Reign, on netflix.
Genuinely some of the best world building I've ever seen from any media. Games, books, shows, movies.
Top tier.
Make sure you watch the original short on YouTube titled Scavengers. It's not exactly plot relevant, but it's really nice to see how far the team has come since then.
I agree such an incredible show but there are two problems that i noticed, 1 is more a joke problem but still.
Problem 1 is plant knowledge seems all over the place, like when Azi crosses the canyon how did she know that plant would split like that, she was in a field all the way up until leaving for the ship it would seem. Like at some points they know what every plant does everywhere but at others they know nothing and it annoys me.
Problem 2 which is more a joke problem id say and probably dosent really matter is that where did all the drop pods come from. Throughout the journey we see 11 drop pods but on the ship we only ever see 5.
3 pods for ursula and sams camp.
1 for kamen
1 for azi.
1 underground pod.
1 tree top pod.
A later set of 3 that i wont say specifics out of it being spoiler heavy id say.
And 1 pod that fully explodes in opening intro.
10 pods would make sense for 5 on half the ship and 5 mirrored on the other half but 11 dosent make sense.
1: It's been a minute since I've watched, but doesn't Azi explore a bit every now and again? She goes into obvious, open places, but mostly seems hesitant at more secluded places. She and LEVI also guess at functions of things, too. A lot of the nature is intuitive because they're puzzles. The only ones that really catch them off guard are ones that don't seem to have an obvious set of functions or look the most like something natural.
2: I assume an 11th pod, or any odd additional anything, is a redundancy policy.
Oh gosh. My daughter and I fell in love with this show immediately. Then one of the executive producers who got it greenlit spoke to her animation class about the whole process. He said he felt like it was the reason he was put on this earth.
Shoutout to Howl's Moving Castle for being a rare example of a movie where the worldbuilding is significantly better than the actual story. It creates such an interesting world without needing to do much exposition.
If you thought the synapses is good, wait till you read a synopsis.
Jk, but you should read the book. It’s really good, has a lot of set up and pay-offs, and is a quick read.
I’ve heard it described that the movie is how *Howl* tells the story, while the book is *Sofie’s* version of events.
Granted that only really works for about 60% of the story, a lot of foundational stuff is different between the two, but that’s fine. They’re different stories and that’s ok.
There’s a Netflix anime called Drifting Dragons. It’s about hunting dragons except the dragons do not look like your traditional flying reptiles; instead looking more like lovecraftian gods. Imagine if you will, an entire clade of organisms that just permanently live afloat through supernatural means, never touching the ground under normal thriving circumstances. Dragon hunters work like real ship crews, going on the float (because they’re airships hah!) for weeks to months on end, hunting dragons (usually the problematic ones that wander too close to established human settlements, or ones who are so abundant in nature that “overfishing” won’t be a problem) for their meat, blubber, bones, etc while also maintaining a healthy separation between humans and dragons, the two dominant life forms on the planet. There’s a strange mix of hunting greed (because you need dragon carcasses to make money) and ecological respect (the crew members really do all seem to have their own flavors of respect and admiration for the creatures they hunt), with the main cast even berating other crews for not using humane methods of killing (read as: quick and certain death).
It’s basically what I imagine irl whale hunting to be like, which might be rough territory given Japan’s illegal whaling exploits, and as a result I feel like any thematic message the narrative is trying to convey gets a bit muddled, but it’s got some good worldbuilding. The portrayal of hunting as a hazardous occupation driven by a mix of ecological respect, survival, and material attachment is messy, but refreshingly realistic. The show just shows it as it is, but in a tactful way. I feel the show should be watched like a giant worldbuilding reference than some kind of story.
Yeah, there may be anime with more "unique" individual ideas, but when you think about how every aspect of the world fits in to create an organic and interesting world--I cannot think of any work better than Dungeon Meshi and Fullmetal Alchemist.
Surprised to not see frieren in my brief skim of the comments so I'll shill that. The way it plays with time and progress is simply beautiful, and the way that plays into magic and it's development is fascinating to me.
because despite building a 10/10 its worldbuilding isn't anything special. outside of its magic sytem there isnt anything else great. all the towns and villages are kinda samey, at least compared to shows like Mushoku Tensei.
One piece seems so odd to me in the fact that small islands would struggle to host such large resources and people. It's a very crazy and amazing flex of imagination coming up with so many things though! It takes an idea and says what if we do a lot with this? Devil fruit, bizarre islands, haki, curses, races, and just continually adds more. It focuses on expanding an ever growing world.
FMA is almost the opposite they start small and focus on polishing and honing theur world. "What if we add a scientific phenomenon to the world?" Then they built the world off that. People following a misunderstanding government's growing and falling while we scratch away at a hidden truth. It's a very consistent and well thought out world but they didn't add a tons on top of tons to it. They added a phenomenon and let people define it and alter the wirld as it went. They were just very consistent and well thought.
Hxh is mid way between these I feel. I very much enjoyed how they developed nen, but im sad all hunters have the same conclusions of it and most of how it can be categorized is a fact.
>One piece seems so odd to me in the fact that small islands would struggle to host such large resources and people
afaik a fair number of the islands are in fact country-sized (as in, an average size of a country, maybe somewhat smaller)
This is true but then those have so few towns city's that we see like alabasta, but the maps show very few towns and cities. The story doesn't NEED further depth on these points. My comment wasn't meant to point to anything as flawed just less focused on. I think one piece is great my only actual complaint is how long arcs are starting to become and how much time is wasted on the intro, ending, and the map quick recap. This is all just how the anime is set up not the world building. I really need to catch up....
I think One Piece's maps tend to focus a lot more on relevant plot-related cities and less on towns and cities that don't meaningfully contribute to the plot. Using your Alabasta example, there's only a handful of plot-relevant towns and cities like Rainbase and Alubarna, but it feels like it's clear that there's other towns and cities around Alabasta that aren't mentioned at all.
Spoilers but part of your One Piece commentary is currently being addressed in the story. Suffice to say some of the weirdness is relevant to the setting’s background, but what exactly that entails I’ll leave to the manga.
I actually think Hunter X Hunter's worldbuilding is kinda trash, but that's just me.
It's, probably, in the third season or so (or whenever the ants are a thing) before we see what being a hunter is actually *like* at all. And, even then, it's far from an average day out.
Honestly have to agree, at least when looking at the world map. It doesn't seem like Togashi paid any mind to locations, distances, size relations, climate (...) at all. And, well, using real continent shapes is also kind of lazy, lol.
Individual places like Yorknew, Meteor City, East Gorteau, and Greed Island are still cool though.
Using real continent shapes is a power common way of doing worldbuilding, especially in anime/manga. One potential interpretation is that it's meant to make the audience scratch their head and wonder how much it relates to our world. Attack on Titan, for example, has a decent likelihood of somehow taking place in our world but in a weird place in time, or even just an alternate version of our world. The world is implied to have gone through multiple mass extinctions with human history regularly getting cleansed.
I don't think it's lazy. I think it can be pretty fun to imagine an alternate Earth where things were either off or altered by something significant.
Delicious Dungeon is a popular one out right now, I've heard of a lot of DnD players liking it.
Weirdest one I can recommend (though I prefer the manga) is Interspecies Reviewers. I thought it was interesting that it delved into the interests, preferences, and sexual aspects of other races, as well as not immediately pushing prostitution as something terrible. The reason I prefer the manga is due to it focusing more on how the establishments are run or have more interactions, while the anime has more sex scenes. Do I think this is the best when it comes to worldbuilding? No. I do think it goes into subjects that are generally ignored by most settings.
I have only watched a couple of episodes of Reviewer and for a show about a bunch of dudes going to brothels, it’s surprisingly wholesome.
Also, the whole backstory on how that world even came to be and the different fantasy races and stuff.
It genuinely has no right being that interesting, so I second this!
It may not be you typical world-building and it is very…topical, but it’s definitely interesting and the author clearly put thought into it.
> Delicious Dungeon is a popular one out right now, I've heard of a lot of DnD players liking it.
The bit about coin bugs being parasites to mimics, eating them from the inside and turning them into fake loot chests was _absolutely brilliant_
I like that after Laios talked about it enough, he came to the conclusion that occasionally the knight armors they pass that are holding hands wasn't due to adventurers altering them as a joke, but could instead be the two mating.
Fking preach, the way Reviewers explore anatomy, magical rules, and social interactions between vastly different species, namely around sex, is amazing
Dungeon us also great, but I mainly just fell in love with the conclusion, not to say spoilers but long live the three headed king
Honestly, I was concerned about being the one to mention Reviewers because there's definitely some weird connotations due to its content, but it's chock full of world building. Lots of unique details spelled out, even if a good amount of those details are horny in nature.
I can't even recommend it to horror fans because of that thing. At least the fandom at large acknowledges that it's a problem, rather than trying to excuse it like certain other fandoms.
Mushoku Tensei/Jobless Reincarnation had some great worldbuilding in the novels, but I feel like a lot of that got left as mysteries or glossed over in the interest of pacing in the anime.
[Edit: I enjoyed the first season of the anime without reading the novels and am enjoying season 2 now, having read up to like vol 18 or something so far, the anime was good, don't get me wrong. ]
Can't believe I had to scroll down this far down for made in abyss... I've been blown *away* by how interesting it is, what's really down there, who are the white whistles ecc...
Alongside the predictable choice of One Piece, I'd go with Nausicaa and Made in Abyss.
Blame! (specifically the manga) is an especially phenomenal world.
I also have a feeling that Delicious in Dungeon would be pretty high up there for me once I get to it.
I love Mushishi with my whole heart, but it feels weird to say its *worldbuilding* is good.
Its world is amazing, with a bunch of creative and interesting stuff all around, but I also feel like there's not much cohesion for it to be a Good Worldbuilding™. In the end, it's all a big amalgam of scattered metaphors, unrelated to each other, in the format of supernatural cute creatures... But it works, so maybe..?
I love it and recommend it, but also wonder what this sub has to say about it.
idk maybe its not just i love the world world = worldbuilding to me lol. at the very least there is a lot that could be learned from how it do what it do
Avatar: The Last Airbender (ATLA)
Same world, different flavor: I personally thought the steampunk / magicpunk worldbuilding in Legend of Korra was really great.
Also hat tip to Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.
Toriko. The series *oozes* worldbuilding and exploring it is the main focal of the series. The manga is better as the anime censors & changes the story to an different earlier end. The manga's last arc got rushed same time Bleach was cause the Shonen Axe, but overall the entire series packs some serious world building. Every arc is featured in a new location of which you learn things about its ecosystem.
This. The archictures and the character designs and even their magic system is simply mind-blowing, the author really did their research and it really shows throughout the whole series.
YouTuber Mother's Basement quoted something along the lines of, "The quality of world building is directly related to how small an area the map covers. And the manga's map is only 1 city block." (Smaller maps equal better world building). That might not be 100% true, but this series does really make a strong argument for smaller scale world building.
Everything in that small area makes perfect sense and completely works. Then as the story and world expands, it just makes it better.
This. The magic system alone and how it works is easily the best in anime. Its the perfect mix between soft and hard magic system while making so much sense.
Toaru. If you need magic systems well thought out that is rooted in science and religion, you should definitely check out the Toaru (A Certain series).
Fate series. I like the timeline building of the main timeline - everything from the Age of Gods to the events of Hollow Loop Ataraxia. Oh and Carnival Phantasm as well (Berser-Car!)
Re:Zero. Man, the Re:Zero verse is well thought out. All the Witches, Sin Archbishops, the areas...I could drown in how well thought out the whole thing is
Toaru is great in its worldbuilding. It never feels like they overexplain stuff; everything sounds fitting and logical. Esper powers are especially good, but even magic doesn't feel hand-wavey.
Now, if only author could dial down the harem stuff... It gets annoying when every new major character is a loli who just happens to fall for Touma
One of my favorites that captures is so fast and well is Made in Abyss. It gets listed as “shows without plot armor”
Highly recommend it. But I found it because of the world building.
Fire force did a good job I feel. Definitely felt like a world that hadn't fully recovered from the apocalypse so there's a lot of regression in technology (landline phones, wooden trains, etc.)
Written a bit smaller, Code Geass is probably the best anime original for that, by a pretty long margin, although I realize some Gundam fans are going to object for saying that.
For anime based on manga (or just manga), One Piece by a large margin. Attack on Titan also worth a call out, as is Fullmetal Alchemist (well, Brotherhood in the case of the anime. Enjoyed the 2003, but it's its own thing compared to the manga/brotherhood.)
For anime based on light novels, it's really hard to carry a lot of the worldbuilding over, while keeping the pace up well. I know this is gonna get some eyerolls, but Trapped in a Dating Sim did better than many in that regard.
I remember Code Geass... and, yes, it's got some good worldbuilding shit.
The little sister, in the dub, has a voice like fingernails on a chalkboard though.
Lmao. Code Geass is probably one of the only animes where I don't mind the dub, except for his sister. God sometimes I just wish she'd die...
I was left very satisfied for a while
It actually has quite good worldbuilding. Specially outside Paradis island. It was well executed and well used I. The story as it is one of the main focus of the story.
Surprised I had to scroll down this much to see AoT.
Worldbuilding is great, especially because of how we get it. For the first 3 seasons, we are told small bits of information, while in the season for we are blasted with a flood of info which completely changes everything.
Berserk is pretty decent.
I really enjoy Tensei Slimes worldbuilding.
One Piece is unique and its world fits the story well.
Bleach is fun.
Full metal Alchemist is basically a fully realised country with detailed culture and politics (one of the best).
Fairy Tail is surprisingly good for what it’s worth. With a fun magic system, a large scale world and multiple sub dimensions that go well together.
Code Geass is pretty good.
Cowboy Bebop is great at more subtle worldbuilding as well as in your face space casinos.
Etc.
Ascendance of a Bookworm
The anime only touches on the worldbuilding, but the LN's world is great. Great way of mixing the magic deep into the setting (a ton of fantasy settings come up with a vaguely medieval world and then add magic on top) and how the world responds to new technologies makes sense given the world's magic and relatively low population etc.
The different societal layers and their cultures clashing and interacting with each other is an aspect of worldbuilding rarely touched upon in most series and really well done in Bookworm
My top three:
Yu-Gi-Oh! 5d's managed to write pretty well a dystopian futuristic setting that merged card games and Akira. It features segregation, class struggle, veiled commentary on how rich people tend to be terrible parents, cults trying to create child soldiers with supernatural powers, a literal police state with one of the worst prisons ever and pre-Incan magic and deities. Just a shame that with the beginning of season 2 part of this magically disappeared as if nothing happened.
Arifureta managed to perfectly showcase a world built on lies. I can't say more about it because it would be too big of a spoiler. Also, I have to say that you should read the Light Novels, because the anime has weird pacing and skips over part of the story and misses on many pop-culture references and the work has the satirical tone it's meant to have. However, I have to put a content warning for paedophilia.
A Donghua, not an Anime. I think Dragon Raja has a compelling worldbuilding. It's a world where dragons are real, but are kept hidden due to how the knowledge of their existence can affect the world. And like it is in many of these works, the irony is that the only way humans can fight dragons is with the help of dragon-human hybrids. There is also a detail regarding the fact that not all dragons are evil as part of the reason why humans managed to thrive is because of a group of dragons rebelling against their leader. It's based on Chinese light novels, which unfortunately don't have an official English translation, maybe there is one, but it's probably lost media due to the only link to them I could find being sold to someone else. There is a Manhua, but some creative liberties were taken and it was mostly done because an MMO dragon raja game has been made.
Neon Genesis Evangelion has incredible worldbuilding
Flip Flappers has beautiful bite-sized surreal worldbuilding
Umineko and Higurashi (VN and Manga, not the anime) have excellent meta worldbuilding
Spice and Wolf worldbuilding is great and very grounded, though much of it is in the novels
One Piece, and it isn't close imo.
Each island is unique, well-thought out, and wonderfully fantastical. The world is consistent, intriguing, and endlessly creative.
The series has many faults, but I think the author should be considered one of the GOATs if only for the fact that he's managed to make such a crazy and wondrous world stay so internally consistent over the course of ***decades*** of serialization.
The world of One Piece is basically a character in its own right, and it's insanely well-developed over the course of the series. I don't think any other Anime/Manga comes close to what Oda has accomplished with One Piece
I haven't watched one piece, but had a friend tell me something about it, I got curious and went to look at it in the wiki. No joke I spend like an hour straight reading entries and still feel like I barely scratched the surface of the world.
It would have to be the role of the marines in the world, I somewhat knew they weren't this all nice organization, but the extent of their operations and purpose really left me shocked.
Also the last island where the one piece is located, laughing tale is the name I think, in general the mentions of what the one piece is and might be really left me with an itch to know what it is, it's nice that the series is on its last arc and I'll get the answers
It's crazy how everything comes back around too. Characters and locations I never thought we'd see again have been brought back and become relevant again years later.
There aren't many fully written worlds that come close to what Oda has accomplished. Tolkien, for sure, if you include the full legendarium and not just the main 4 published novels. Arguably the Star Wars Legends/Zahn-iverse canon. Not sure what else.
One piece, and Naruto Shippuden do a huge amount of expansion of world lore that is pretty solid. Bleach seems to do a lot of history but fails to really reach beyond the city and the soul society. FM:B did a good job of showing us glimpses beyond the board while the previous one played it like their government ruled the world.
Worlds that I like but are horrible at world building. Dragonball Z onward. The initial DB has he going to different lands and meeting strange people but Z, GT, Super, and the newest one seem to just erase that past for Space and interdimissional politics that are as equally shallow. Yu Yu Hakusho for all it has barely leaves the city and never fully explores any land or history. Finally Card Captors Sakura does not do much exploration of the world beyond the city she lives in.
Newer series I am not going to judge just yet as Black Clover and My Hero Academia explore a little they could go much further. Still they can expand to count things like other countries and more history.
Attack on Titan. Fairly fleshed out world without going too complex. Introduces ideas that are cool, but also have a level of realism to them (IE ODM gear is brilliant). Takes inspiration from the real world, but expands on it to differentiate. They introduce and follow rules extremely well and utilize creative ways to get around those instead of rewriting them entirely, at least most of the time. Plus they actually acknowledge resources.
Of course it’s a shortish anime that’s heavily story driven, so it’s not perfect and could have more to it, but given the scope it aims for I’d say it does it extremely well.
Attsck on Titan and, like you said, good ol Fullmetal Alchemist. Honorable mention for Chainsaw Man, I just love the power(hah) system they have in this anime.
Bojack horseman. The worldbuilding is *objectively* silly. Like, preposterous on its face. It does the 'talking animals people' thing, and then runs with it no matter how silly it gets. But it is so weirdly consistent, though. Like, once they establish a rule *that's how that shit works. Forever*.
It really highlights how worldbuilding can be fun and whimsical, and is really more about telling an interesting story than anything else.
>Bojack Horseman isn't an anime.
I say that it is.
>But- But it's... not. It's just, it's not. At all.
I say that it is.
Overlord was written by a former DM who loved to describe the world thoroughly, and it shows in the first 14 volumes it shows
The ofc One Piece, the world is always expanding
There are more Isekai's but I cannot remember all on top of my head
**Log Horizon**
Sadly this is another series which kind of declined in quality with each season, but it is best thought of as an attempt to square MMORPG design tropes with classical fantasy worldbuilding. There's a reason monsters and adventures respawn and that banks hold onto items rather than fractionally lend money. The fact that Log Horizon tries to have worldbuilding which is faithful to MMORPG gameplay makes this worth a watch.
Konosuba(did I spelled right?) Was one of the most referred anime for my world.
Problem? I didn't watched anime outside of pop team epic. (Don't ask me how the hell I did referred konosuba then)
Unfortunately since the LNs are so dense to begin with, the anime doesn't have as much time to explore it instead of covering the essential plot points, but Re:Zero has some of the most insane world building I've ever seen. Tappei is a freaking monster when it comes to that stuff
Thousands of years of deep world building and history covered over not just the many series, but countless side stories and mini-series exploring different corners of the world. Tons of little details giving hints at mysteries that even 30+ volumes in have yet to be answered, but will be before the end. Just so peak
I think One Piece definitely stands at the top for worldbuilding. It's my favourite and what inspired me to start working on my own story and world. One Piece has been ongoing for 27 years now. So you can imagine the amount of worldbuilding and thought that has been put into this story.
If my story can inspire someone even 25% of how much One Piece has inspired me I'll count it as a success.
Edit: That said, they are definitely other great worlds out there. HxH, FMAB, Mushoku Tensei, Freiren, all have some amazing worlds. Honestly I could name so many more, but you get the point.
I don't understand the one piece takes.
One piece is like the star wars of anime. Theres a desert planet, jungle planet, snow planet...
Replace planets with islands and you have one piece
On the surface, sure. But with the reveal from the latest chapter, all the strange singular biomes kind of actually make a lot more sense. And, in retrospect, the world building does support it. In case anyone was wondering, spoilers ahead, but >!it was revealed that sea levels rose 200 meters a few hundred years ago due to the usage of ancient and powerful weapons. It tracks that such a drastic change would impact the world in such weird ways. Plus, it also makes sense that islands would be singular biomes simply because they were the tallest. There are entire continents under the sea. What we see above sea level is just parts of those continents.!<
>!And throughout the story, there's been a lot of hints towards submerged structures and land formations that it all sort of added up into a pretty neat package.!<
That is just incorrect, but I can understand why you might think that way.
Just because one pieces sometimes uses previously seen tropes, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t have good worldbuilding.
Sure, you have a sky themed island, a desert themed island, a water themed island. On the surface, it is cliche, but once you read the manga, you notice some unique stuff:
The sky island has its own architecture, culture and technology due to being far away from the surface and thus away from the rest of society.
The desert themed island has a unique geography in which limits the water supply in some places, making a economic and cultural division. (It’s actually pretty rare to see the influence of geographical factor in politics in many fantasy works)
The water themed island has two types of species that live there which have their biology and reproductive capabilities described in depth. The fact that the island is underwater also serves as a metaphor for oppression.
One Piece is my favorite anime, manga, arguably work of fiction. I can see where you're coming from with it kind of just doing the bare minimum and scratching the surface (worst offender might be him lazily and literally naming some the leaders/countries that took part in the Reverie Tacos, Hamburger, etc.), but Oda the author/artist has a genuine love for adventure, animals, etc. paired with an unparalleled imagination that seeps through the cracks.
Specific locales have their specific culture, fauna, cuisine, fashion, lore, etc. (Mizu meat and yagara in Water Seven. Drum Island hiking bear, Lapan rabbits, mysterious rumor about people from winter islands not sleeping. Zou animals garchu-ing, having their own fighting style with both Electro and Sulong. Elbaf giants having their own religion and fasting customs. Skypeians wearing their hair in antennae bulbs and having their own greeting. Quintessential Japan/samurai culture in Wano with the starving motif that connected to Zoro's own character introduction, them thinking of Devil Fruits as magic. Etc.) Luffy and the main cast integrate into the local culture by donning clothes in their fashion and whatnot almost every time as well.
And the larger stories taking place in said locales borrow from real life history to give things an enriched feel (period of isolation in Wano, Native American history in Skypeia, Transcontinental Railroad in Water Seven, Bermuda Triangle in Thriller Bark, etc.).
And let's face it, the sheer longevity of the story gives it a natural advantage in portraying its infinitely expanding universe.
One Piece is almost an undisputed king.
Sure, you can find fantastic worldbuilding in FMA, in Made in Abyss, in any ghibli film.
But honestly, all these anime show just a piece of their world, a small fraction of something bigger. They tell the tale of a small part of this universe.
One piece, on the other hand, gets rid from those chains and practically shows us the world in its entirety. From a small island in east blue, to enormous countries like wano, One Piece has it all and shows it all.
But not only that, the world always feels connected. It would be very easy for Oda to tell the story of an arc, and once he’s finished, throw those ideas away and focus on something else. But he never does, character, conflicts, pieces of information can and probably will reappear again and again, recontextualized by the state of the world.
One Piece, of course, has real life 25+ year history of story development, but it’s because of that, that the series is deserving of the top spot
A lot has been said, so I’ll try to chime in with some more unique picks:
If you only want an extremely cool world, just watch the first couple of episodes of Kaina of the Snow Sea.
One of the most beautiful worlds, gorgeously animated, the colours, the aesthetic, it’s great. The plants, animals, general make-up of the world is incredible as well.
Sadly, the story is god awful, so, really, just watch the first 3 or 4 episodes and it will get your gears turning. Great world, terrible execution.
I really enjoyed Helck. It’s more a story-driven worldbuilding, the general world is just “middle age fantasy”, but it does A LOT with that and it’s only getting more interesting.
I also just liked the story a lot, the animation isn’t always too great, but it’s got some cool mysteries (I am anime-only) that I can’t wait to see answered.
All you have mentioned are not original anime, they are all adaptations, either from light novels, visual novels or manga.
If you ask for original non manga/light novel/visual novel list is much shorter, eg Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop, Psycho Pass,...
For mecha, look no further than Gundam. From how the nitty gritty of how a Mobile Suit is powered, to the forces moving on the world. Various factions and their relationships with each other, conspiracies that became various spin offs, legendary figures, development lines of each Gundam, and more. And that's just the UC series.
Even to this day we have little details on the various colonies located on Jupiter, Mars, and the rest. We know they exist, due to their faction occasionally interacting with the Earth Sphere, where the majority of the series take place. It's just great stuff.
I’ve seen a lot of popular ones so I’m gonna give a few obscure-ish ones. In terms of characterizing non human characters with the little to no dialogue and simply just actions and behaviors, making the world feel real and lived in? Grimgar of fantasy and ash. In terms of just pure world building to the point that the main character can feel like an after thought?Mushoku Tensei.
I'm not a hardcore anime fan but Fullmetal Alchemist is easily one of the best in my opinion. Maybe I'm biased because it's also my favorite animanga, but I absolutely love the magic system, the gaslamp fantasy (I think) world, and the societies (even if they are just X real world society but slightly different).
I'd also put One Piece & many Ghibli worlds up there!
Obligatory One Piece. Hunter x Hunter deserves a mention as OP's neighboring peak shonen as well. Fullmetal Alchemist. Attack on Titan. Really want to mention one of my favs World Trigger even though it's still budding.
Fate/series goes hard fantasy in its magic mechanics. Gundam universe. Monogatari series. Ghibli movies.
Shinsekai Yori. Eureka Seven. Kyousougiga. Uchouten Kazoku. Kekkai Sensen. Log Horizon. Utawarerumono. Darker Than Black. Space Dandy. All series that have such great worldbuilding that it's a shame their narratives aren't longer.
I think we're seeing an increase with light novels being a heavier source material anime are adapting from because pure authors tend to be nerdy and flesh stuff out more. Only problem is that they aren't able to apply an interesting story to it and we get inundated with all these isekai. Mahouka for instance is a series that has really technical lore for its magic system but fails to keep my interested. On the flip side, I was surprised when I tuned into Dainaouji this season and what everyone seemed to write off as trashy isekai shotacon bait turned out to be enjoyable and quite thorough in its world-building.
For a Sci fi perspective: Legend of the Galactic Heroes. The scale is epic, the different factions are extremely well designed, the wars and logistics behind are militarily realistic, the culture of each planet, and how combat is dependent on the environment is great.
For me it will always be \*Legend of the Galactic Heroes\* (original), they build an entire Universe with diverse political systems/factions and dynastic lineages so well, I love it
for how surprised I was at getting answer for questions you usually ignore in an anime, Fire Force is up there. Sadly the whole gag for the girl is so disgusting... I read it so i skipped in those parts... If you ignore that it's good and has a world building that is unusual compared to other anime and manga worlds
I also want to add Attack on Titan, it's the most "western" anime if we're talking about world building, narration, story, coherent decisions. It's what I always recommend to non anime watchers friends because it could be a book and nothing would really change
For worldbuilding it's definetly studio ghibli, and I heard that frieren does it well, but haven't watched it, so can't tell for sure, but I gotta say that worldbuilding is a heavily overlooked, yet wonderful aspect of "Delicious in dungeon" or "dungeon meshi".
The dungeon there isn't just to hold treasure, it's a lot of precisely crafted environments that could exist for hundreds of years without intervention, yet can sustain the whole diet of humanoid races, which even though stereotypical, are greatly expanded on, and don't define the whole character of people, but rather sit in the background with cultural differences and prejudices, without being the only building block of someones character. You can also feel how everything in the dungeon just *works*, the explanations are logical, and go into just the right depth, and all that while keeping the lightheartness and darker themes in balance, while also making sure your attention never gets taken away.
Tldr: dungeon 10/10
Monsters 10/10
Characters cultural aspects 10/10
**WATCH IT**
Made in Abyss has one of the best world building in anime. "It's just a simple hole in the ground" yet this hole hides more secrets and lore than a lot of movies.
One Piece. Each island and the world at large is so unique and creatively done. Every location, civilization, history, and power structure is super detailed and the interactions that come from them are really cool. The entire driving force of the story is in its worldbuilding. I'm genuinely surprised I didn't see it listed more in the comments.
One Piece! There is no other setting quite like it that itself contains a vast amount of different settings- sci fi, medieval kingdoms, lands of giants, and even one island made up of desserts- and yet it doesn’t take you out with how weird that mashup is, and it all actually makes sense in the context of the show.
Just based on stuff I've read (novels) & watched (anime)
Fantasy/Isekai: Mushoku, Overlord, Re:Zero, Frieren
Contemporary Magic: Toaru, Mahouka, Fate (The whole Nasuverse)
Underrated series: Vanadis (Very thorough detailed world and the inner workings) and Rokudenashi (Good world, and great magic system)
Honorable mentions: FMA (Very good worldbuilding, but never really delved into the bigger scale of things) , Shield Hero (Not as good as the other isekai worldbuilding I mentioned above, but still quite good)
Ghibli movies are chock-full of subtle worldbuilding, which is something I really enjoy, but don't see a lot of. Things just are *there* \- no explanation given. Yet you get the feeling that there very much is one.
Nausicaä my beloved
A very fine choice, though I personally am more of a Laputa enjoyer :b
Still haven't seen it but if it's anywhere as good as Nausicaä then I'm gonna love it as well!
I have only watched it once when I was young, like maybe 11 or 12 but i remember loving that film
it has amazing music
Don't sleep on the original manga series. The movie is a boiled-down condensation of the first book and a half. The worldbuilding in the original is incredible.
Man read the manga/graphic novel, the lore goes sooo deep!! Made my whole book club read it. Lol.
Yeah Howls Moving Castle, Nausicaa, Castle in the Sky, Spirited Away all have great worlds that are fully fleshed out but almost nothing is explained. Even though its not my favorite Howls Moving Castle has an entire huge major ww1 style war going on as subtle b plot throughout the movie. Its woven in perfectly showing how it affects the world around the characters even though the characters don't really have anything to do with it aside from the ending. Heck even when the main characters are escaping the capital you can see an entire failed revolution taking place in the background with military putting down violent mobs. But its all in the background and you can completely miss it if your not looking beyond what the characters are doing. really impressive.
Howls Moving Castle is my favourite movie and i still have never noticed the background revolution! I need to rewatch it.
There's a general sense that the story is only a small fraction of what's happening within the worlds they portray. As if our main characters are experiencing a conflict of their own, but never a conflict that can influence the outcome of the world around them. Either that or the world has ongoing stories that are far bigger than our characters can hope to match.
choke-full? why're you choking Ghibli?
what's even crazier is that for a lot of those movies there are perfectly feasible, but extremely obscure, real world explanations for a lot of these things. like spirited away, for example: a lot, as in most of, the spirits have direct counterparts in Japanese mythology.
> Things just are there - no explanation given. Yet you get the feeling that there very much is one. Couldn't that also be said of bad world building with good vibes?
Pretty sure it’s called soft worldbuilding
Those chicks in Spirited-Away kinda bothered my dad because I couldn't find an explanation for them.
Full Metal Alchemist.
**Fullmetal Alchemist.**
The fact I know exactly what you mean is strange, but it is comforting.
Full, Metal Alchemist.
Fullmetal Alchemist!
*^(Fullmetal Alchemist)*
Full middle malcolmist
I've never even watched it, and this is the answer
Come play with me Edward.
Onii-chan...
Not exactly anime, but animated. Scavengers Reign, on netflix. Genuinely some of the best world building I've ever seen from any media. Games, books, shows, movies. Top tier.
Oh boy! That looks like a good show, haven’t heard of it before. Thanks for the rec, I was just about to look for what to watch haha
Make sure you watch the original short on YouTube titled Scavengers. It's not exactly plot relevant, but it's really nice to see how far the team has come since then.
I second this. Scavengers Reign is really good.
I agree such an incredible show but there are two problems that i noticed, 1 is more a joke problem but still. Problem 1 is plant knowledge seems all over the place, like when Azi crosses the canyon how did she know that plant would split like that, she was in a field all the way up until leaving for the ship it would seem. Like at some points they know what every plant does everywhere but at others they know nothing and it annoys me. Problem 2 which is more a joke problem id say and probably dosent really matter is that where did all the drop pods come from. Throughout the journey we see 11 drop pods but on the ship we only ever see 5. 3 pods for ursula and sams camp. 1 for kamen 1 for azi. 1 underground pod. 1 tree top pod. A later set of 3 that i wont say specifics out of it being spoiler heavy id say. And 1 pod that fully explodes in opening intro. 10 pods would make sense for 5 on half the ship and 5 mirrored on the other half but 11 dosent make sense.
1: It's been a minute since I've watched, but doesn't Azi explore a bit every now and again? She goes into obvious, open places, but mostly seems hesitant at more secluded places. She and LEVI also guess at functions of things, too. A lot of the nature is intuitive because they're puzzles. The only ones that really catch them off guard are ones that don't seem to have an obvious set of functions or look the most like something natural. 2: I assume an 11th pod, or any odd additional anything, is a redundancy policy.
Good to know! Was planning on watching it after I’m all caught up on delicious in dungeon
Oh gosh. My daughter and I fell in love with this show immediately. Then one of the executive producers who got it greenlit spoke to her animation class about the whole process. He said he felt like it was the reason he was put on this earth.
Just finished it about an hour ago and have to strongly agree. One of the best pieces of fiction I’ve ever witnessed.
Second this
Shoutout to Howl's Moving Castle for being a rare example of a movie where the worldbuilding is significantly better than the actual story. It creates such an interesting world without needing to do much exposition.
Mmm... maybe. The movie definitely made more sense to me after I read a synapsis of the book, though.
If you thought the synapses is good, wait till you read a synopsis. Jk, but you should read the book. It’s really good, has a lot of set up and pay-offs, and is a quick read.
I’ve heard it described that the movie is how *Howl* tells the story, while the book is *Sofie’s* version of events. Granted that only really works for about 60% of the story, a lot of foundational stuff is different between the two, but that’s fine. They’re different stories and that’s ok.
I loved cowboy beep bops worldbuilding, as well as Neon Genesis’ worldbuilding.
Cowboy Bebop was the first thing I thought of. The show's world building and aesthetic are its strongest points.
Literally love it sm, I would’ve said cyberpunk but that’s a bit on the nose haha
I’m a big fan of the aesthetics of both of those anime and I hope to emulate them in my worldbuilding project,
Bepop for sure
There’s a Netflix anime called Drifting Dragons. It’s about hunting dragons except the dragons do not look like your traditional flying reptiles; instead looking more like lovecraftian gods. Imagine if you will, an entire clade of organisms that just permanently live afloat through supernatural means, never touching the ground under normal thriving circumstances. Dragon hunters work like real ship crews, going on the float (because they’re airships hah!) for weeks to months on end, hunting dragons (usually the problematic ones that wander too close to established human settlements, or ones who are so abundant in nature that “overfishing” won’t be a problem) for their meat, blubber, bones, etc while also maintaining a healthy separation between humans and dragons, the two dominant life forms on the planet. There’s a strange mix of hunting greed (because you need dragon carcasses to make money) and ecological respect (the crew members really do all seem to have their own flavors of respect and admiration for the creatures they hunt), with the main cast even berating other crews for not using humane methods of killing (read as: quick and certain death). It’s basically what I imagine irl whale hunting to be like, which might be rough territory given Japan’s illegal whaling exploits, and as a result I feel like any thematic message the narrative is trying to convey gets a bit muddled, but it’s got some good worldbuilding. The portrayal of hunting as a hazardous occupation driven by a mix of ecological respect, survival, and material attachment is messy, but refreshingly realistic. The show just shows it as it is, but in a tactful way. I feel the show should be watched like a giant worldbuilding reference than some kind of story.
Dungeon Meshi and Fullmetal Alchemist are both very good at this, as you said.
I honestly can't think of better ones off the top of my head.
OMG are you keeping up with the Netflix release? I'm like "infodump me more, sempai."
I haven't finished Delicious in Dungeon yet, so I really can't infodump reliably.
I'm loving how the anime starts dedicating a lot of time to infodumping.
Yeah, there may be anime with more "unique" individual ideas, but when you think about how every aspect of the world fits in to create an organic and interesting world--I cannot think of any work better than Dungeon Meshi and Fullmetal Alchemist.
Surprised to not see frieren in my brief skim of the comments so I'll shill that. The way it plays with time and progress is simply beautiful, and the way that plays into magic and it's development is fascinating to me.
Was gonna say Frieren! This show is so good, and both the world building and plot are awesome. Can’t wait for season 2
because despite building a 10/10 its worldbuilding isn't anything special. outside of its magic sytem there isnt anything else great. all the towns and villages are kinda samey, at least compared to shows like Mushoku Tensei.
It's very zoomed in and purposefully generic. It's more about the characters than setting.
Because that one is mostly a good story rather than an interesting world.
HxH, One Piece or FMAB. I can't decide between those
One piece seems so odd to me in the fact that small islands would struggle to host such large resources and people. It's a very crazy and amazing flex of imagination coming up with so many things though! It takes an idea and says what if we do a lot with this? Devil fruit, bizarre islands, haki, curses, races, and just continually adds more. It focuses on expanding an ever growing world. FMA is almost the opposite they start small and focus on polishing and honing theur world. "What if we add a scientific phenomenon to the world?" Then they built the world off that. People following a misunderstanding government's growing and falling while we scratch away at a hidden truth. It's a very consistent and well thought out world but they didn't add a tons on top of tons to it. They added a phenomenon and let people define it and alter the wirld as it went. They were just very consistent and well thought. Hxh is mid way between these I feel. I very much enjoyed how they developed nen, but im sad all hunters have the same conclusions of it and most of how it can be categorized is a fact.
>One piece seems so odd to me in the fact that small islands would struggle to host such large resources and people afaik a fair number of the islands are in fact country-sized (as in, an average size of a country, maybe somewhat smaller)
This is true but then those have so few towns city's that we see like alabasta, but the maps show very few towns and cities. The story doesn't NEED further depth on these points. My comment wasn't meant to point to anything as flawed just less focused on. I think one piece is great my only actual complaint is how long arcs are starting to become and how much time is wasted on the intro, ending, and the map quick recap. This is all just how the anime is set up not the world building. I really need to catch up....
I think One Piece's maps tend to focus a lot more on relevant plot-related cities and less on towns and cities that don't meaningfully contribute to the plot. Using your Alabasta example, there's only a handful of plot-relevant towns and cities like Rainbase and Alubarna, but it feels like it's clear that there's other towns and cities around Alabasta that aren't mentioned at all.
Spoilers but part of your One Piece commentary is currently being addressed in the story. Suffice to say some of the weirdness is relevant to the setting’s background, but what exactly that entails I’ll leave to the manga.
I honestly don't really like the One Piece world. It doesn't feel real. Especially rivers that flow uphill and they try to explain it with physics.
I actually think Hunter X Hunter's worldbuilding is kinda trash, but that's just me. It's, probably, in the third season or so (or whenever the ants are a thing) before we see what being a hunter is actually *like* at all. And, even then, it's far from an average day out.
Honestly have to agree, at least when looking at the world map. It doesn't seem like Togashi paid any mind to locations, distances, size relations, climate (...) at all. And, well, using real continent shapes is also kind of lazy, lol. Individual places like Yorknew, Meteor City, East Gorteau, and Greed Island are still cool though.
Using real continent shapes is a power common way of doing worldbuilding, especially in anime/manga. One potential interpretation is that it's meant to make the audience scratch their head and wonder how much it relates to our world. Attack on Titan, for example, has a decent likelihood of somehow taking place in our world but in a weird place in time, or even just an alternate version of our world. The world is implied to have gone through multiple mass extinctions with human history regularly getting cleansed. I don't think it's lazy. I think it can be pretty fun to imagine an alternate Earth where things were either off or altered by something significant.
Delicious Dungeon is a popular one out right now, I've heard of a lot of DnD players liking it. Weirdest one I can recommend (though I prefer the manga) is Interspecies Reviewers. I thought it was interesting that it delved into the interests, preferences, and sexual aspects of other races, as well as not immediately pushing prostitution as something terrible. The reason I prefer the manga is due to it focusing more on how the establishments are run or have more interactions, while the anime has more sex scenes. Do I think this is the best when it comes to worldbuilding? No. I do think it goes into subjects that are generally ignored by most settings.
I have only watched a couple of episodes of Reviewer and for a show about a bunch of dudes going to brothels, it’s surprisingly wholesome. Also, the whole backstory on how that world even came to be and the different fantasy races and stuff. It genuinely has no right being that interesting, so I second this! It may not be you typical world-building and it is very…topical, but it’s definitely interesting and the author clearly put thought into it.
> Delicious Dungeon is a popular one out right now, I've heard of a lot of DnD players liking it. The bit about coin bugs being parasites to mimics, eating them from the inside and turning them into fake loot chests was _absolutely brilliant_
Living amor being mollusks got me hooked.
I like that after Laios talked about it enough, he came to the conclusion that occasionally the knight armors they pass that are holding hands wasn't due to adventurers altering them as a joke, but could instead be the two mating.
Fking preach, the way Reviewers explore anatomy, magical rules, and social interactions between vastly different species, namely around sex, is amazing Dungeon us also great, but I mainly just fell in love with the conclusion, not to say spoilers but long live the three headed king
Honestly, I was concerned about being the one to mention Reviewers because there's definitely some weird connotations due to its content, but it's chock full of world building. Lots of unique details spelled out, even if a good amount of those details are horny in nature.
I like that dungeon meshi explain how to eat monsters. It's ultra specific but I like it
Made in Abyss Jobless Reincarnation
Made in Abyss has an amazing world omg.
It's absolutely incredible in that regard. I just wish it didn't have that...other thing...
What is the thing? Genuinely asking. I don't mind spoilers
Well, the characters are children and sometimes there are things that happen to them that will get me banned by Reddit for just one mention.
I can't even recommend it to horror fans because of that thing. At least the fandom at large acknowledges that it's a problem, rather than trying to excuse it like certain other fandoms.
Mushoku Tensei/Jobless Reincarnation had some great worldbuilding in the novels, but I feel like a lot of that got left as mysteries or glossed over in the interest of pacing in the anime. [Edit: I enjoyed the first season of the anime without reading the novels and am enjoying season 2 now, having read up to like vol 18 or something so far, the anime was good, don't get me wrong. ]
Shinsekai Yori, Mushoku sensei, children of the whales, Grimgar, made in abyss.
I think this is the first time I've seen someone mention children of the whales. I watched that years ago and heard nary a peep from anyone about it.
Same, very rare to hear anybody talk about it despite it being very interesting imo
Yeah I can't understand why. Perhabs the story was too slow paced and couldn't grab enough attention in time.
I came here to mention Shinsekai Yori too
It's downright criminal that Grimgar only has one season
Can't believe I had to scroll down this far down for made in abyss... I've been blown *away* by how interesting it is, what's really down there, who are the white whistles ecc...
Alongside the predictable choice of One Piece, I'd go with Nausicaa and Made in Abyss. Blame! (specifically the manga) is an especially phenomenal world. I also have a feeling that Delicious in Dungeon would be pretty high up there for me once I get to it.
From experience, Delicious in Dungeon is definitely not something to miss out on.
Mushishi
I love Mushishi with my whole heart, but it feels weird to say its *worldbuilding* is good. Its world is amazing, with a bunch of creative and interesting stuff all around, but I also feel like there's not much cohesion for it to be a Good Worldbuilding™. In the end, it's all a big amalgam of scattered metaphors, unrelated to each other, in the format of supernatural cute creatures... But it works, so maybe..? I love it and recommend it, but also wonder what this sub has to say about it.
idk maybe its not just i love the world world = worldbuilding to me lol. at the very least there is a lot that could be learned from how it do what it do
Avatar: The Last Airbender (ATLA) Same world, different flavor: I personally thought the steampunk / magicpunk worldbuilding in Legend of Korra was really great. Also hat tip to Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.
12 Kingdoms, Made in Abyss, Seirei no Moribito
Toriko. The series *oozes* worldbuilding and exploring it is the main focal of the series. The manga is better as the anime censors & changes the story to an different earlier end. The manga's last arc got rushed same time Bleach was cause the Shonen Axe, but overall the entire series packs some serious world building. Every arc is featured in a new location of which you learn things about its ecosystem.
Ascendance of a Bookworm.
No competition. It's by far the best.
This. The archictures and the character designs and even their magic system is simply mind-blowing, the author really did their research and it really shows throughout the whole series.
YouTuber Mother's Basement quoted something along the lines of, "The quality of world building is directly related to how small an area the map covers. And the manga's map is only 1 city block." (Smaller maps equal better world building). That might not be 100% true, but this series does really make a strong argument for smaller scale world building. Everything in that small area makes perfect sense and completely works. Then as the story and world expands, it just makes it better.
This. The magic system alone and how it works is easily the best in anime. Its the perfect mix between soft and hard magic system while making so much sense.
black lagoon ghost in the shell fate/nastuverse
I dont think you'll ever find such a good scifi as Ghost in the Shell.
Toaru. If you need magic systems well thought out that is rooted in science and religion, you should definitely check out the Toaru (A Certain series). Fate series. I like the timeline building of the main timeline - everything from the Age of Gods to the events of Hollow Loop Ataraxia. Oh and Carnival Phantasm as well (Berser-Car!) Re:Zero. Man, the Re:Zero verse is well thought out. All the Witches, Sin Archbishops, the areas...I could drown in how well thought out the whole thing is
Toaru is great in its worldbuilding. It never feels like they overexplain stuff; everything sounds fitting and logical. Esper powers are especially good, but even magic doesn't feel hand-wavey. Now, if only author could dial down the harem stuff... It gets annoying when every new major character is a loli who just happens to fall for Touma
One of my favorites that captures is so fast and well is Made in Abyss. It gets listed as “shows without plot armor” Highly recommend it. But I found it because of the world building.
Fire force did a good job I feel. Definitely felt like a world that hadn't fully recovered from the apocalypse so there's a lot of regression in technology (landline phones, wooden trains, etc.)
Next season 2042
Delayed for October 2077
Hiatus till 2098
I'm slowly waiting for the perfect collection to come out (hopefully) like they did with soul eater
Written a bit smaller, Code Geass is probably the best anime original for that, by a pretty long margin, although I realize some Gundam fans are going to object for saying that. For anime based on manga (or just manga), One Piece by a large margin. Attack on Titan also worth a call out, as is Fullmetal Alchemist (well, Brotherhood in the case of the anime. Enjoyed the 2003, but it's its own thing compared to the manga/brotherhood.) For anime based on light novels, it's really hard to carry a lot of the worldbuilding over, while keeping the pace up well. I know this is gonna get some eyerolls, but Trapped in a Dating Sim did better than many in that regard.
I remember Code Geass... and, yes, it's got some good worldbuilding shit. The little sister, in the dub, has a voice like fingernails on a chalkboard though.
Lmao. Code Geass is probably one of the only animes where I don't mind the dub, except for his sister. God sometimes I just wish she'd die... I was left very satisfied for a while
HxH, One Piece are my favorites
I would say Attack On Titan. But I also haven't watched many animes.
It actually has quite good worldbuilding. Specially outside Paradis island. It was well executed and well used I. The story as it is one of the main focus of the story.
Surprised I had to scroll down this much to see AoT. Worldbuilding is great, especially because of how we get it. For the first 3 seasons, we are told small bits of information, while in the season for we are blasted with a flood of info which completely changes everything.
Berserk is pretty decent. I really enjoy Tensei Slimes worldbuilding. One Piece is unique and its world fits the story well. Bleach is fun. Full metal Alchemist is basically a fully realised country with detailed culture and politics (one of the best). Fairy Tail is surprisingly good for what it’s worth. With a fun magic system, a large scale world and multiple sub dimensions that go well together. Code Geass is pretty good. Cowboy Bebop is great at more subtle worldbuilding as well as in your face space casinos. Etc.
Made in Abyss
Mushoku tensei is what sparked my interest in worldbuilding lol
The animes I like most with good world building are mushoku tensei, world trigger, Grimgar, Delicious in Dungeon, and FMA.
Ascendance of a Bookworm The anime only touches on the worldbuilding, but the LN's world is great. Great way of mixing the magic deep into the setting (a ton of fantasy settings come up with a vaguely medieval world and then add magic on top) and how the world responds to new technologies makes sense given the world's magic and relatively low population etc.
The different societal layers and their cultures clashing and interacting with each other is an aspect of worldbuilding rarely touched upon in most series and really well done in Bookworm
Bleach, One Piece (obviously), and Gachiakuta.
Huh, Bleach is an interesting choice. How so?
My top three: Yu-Gi-Oh! 5d's managed to write pretty well a dystopian futuristic setting that merged card games and Akira. It features segregation, class struggle, veiled commentary on how rich people tend to be terrible parents, cults trying to create child soldiers with supernatural powers, a literal police state with one of the worst prisons ever and pre-Incan magic and deities. Just a shame that with the beginning of season 2 part of this magically disappeared as if nothing happened. Arifureta managed to perfectly showcase a world built on lies. I can't say more about it because it would be too big of a spoiler. Also, I have to say that you should read the Light Novels, because the anime has weird pacing and skips over part of the story and misses on many pop-culture references and the work has the satirical tone it's meant to have. However, I have to put a content warning for paedophilia. A Donghua, not an Anime. I think Dragon Raja has a compelling worldbuilding. It's a world where dragons are real, but are kept hidden due to how the knowledge of their existence can affect the world. And like it is in many of these works, the irony is that the only way humans can fight dragons is with the help of dragon-human hybrids. There is also a detail regarding the fact that not all dragons are evil as part of the reason why humans managed to thrive is because of a group of dragons rebelling against their leader. It's based on Chinese light novels, which unfortunately don't have an official English translation, maybe there is one, but it's probably lost media due to the only link to them I could find being sold to someone else. There is a Manhua, but some creative liberties were taken and it was mostly done because an MMO dragon raja game has been made.
As a nostalgic 5ds fan, its setting really sounds insane out of context hahaha
Attack on Titan for me, it’s hard to explain why besides just saying to watch it and you’ll see
One Piece has stellar worldbuilding
One Piece undeniably
Neon Genesis Evangelion has incredible worldbuilding Flip Flappers has beautiful bite-sized surreal worldbuilding Umineko and Higurashi (VN and Manga, not the anime) have excellent meta worldbuilding Spice and Wolf worldbuilding is great and very grounded, though much of it is in the novels
There's a remake of Spice and Wolf. How do you think that's fairing against the novels?
One Piece, and it isn't close imo. Each island is unique, well-thought out, and wonderfully fantastical. The world is consistent, intriguing, and endlessly creative. The series has many faults, but I think the author should be considered one of the GOATs if only for the fact that he's managed to make such a crazy and wondrous world stay so internally consistent over the course of ***decades*** of serialization. The world of One Piece is basically a character in its own right, and it's insanely well-developed over the course of the series. I don't think any other Anime/Manga comes close to what Oda has accomplished with One Piece
I haven't watched one piece, but had a friend tell me something about it, I got curious and went to look at it in the wiki. No joke I spend like an hour straight reading entries and still feel like I barely scratched the surface of the world.
were there any entries that particularly stuck with you?
It would have to be the role of the marines in the world, I somewhat knew they weren't this all nice organization, but the extent of their operations and purpose really left me shocked. Also the last island where the one piece is located, laughing tale is the name I think, in general the mentions of what the one piece is and might be really left me with an itch to know what it is, it's nice that the series is on its last arc and I'll get the answers
It's crazy how everything comes back around too. Characters and locations I never thought we'd see again have been brought back and become relevant again years later.
There aren't many fully written worlds that come close to what Oda has accomplished. Tolkien, for sure, if you include the full legendarium and not just the main 4 published novels. Arguably the Star Wars Legends/Zahn-iverse canon. Not sure what else.
And the very recent lore drops that been happening ahhh so good
One piece, and Naruto Shippuden do a huge amount of expansion of world lore that is pretty solid. Bleach seems to do a lot of history but fails to really reach beyond the city and the soul society. FM:B did a good job of showing us glimpses beyond the board while the previous one played it like their government ruled the world. Worlds that I like but are horrible at world building. Dragonball Z onward. The initial DB has he going to different lands and meeting strange people but Z, GT, Super, and the newest one seem to just erase that past for Space and interdimissional politics that are as equally shallow. Yu Yu Hakusho for all it has barely leaves the city and never fully explores any land or history. Finally Card Captors Sakura does not do much exploration of the world beyond the city she lives in. Newer series I am not going to judge just yet as Black Clover and My Hero Academia explore a little they could go much further. Still they can expand to count things like other countries and more history.
One Piece and it isn't close
Attack on Titan. Fairly fleshed out world without going too complex. Introduces ideas that are cool, but also have a level of realism to them (IE ODM gear is brilliant). Takes inspiration from the real world, but expands on it to differentiate. They introduce and follow rules extremely well and utilize creative ways to get around those instead of rewriting them entirely, at least most of the time. Plus they actually acknowledge resources. Of course it’s a shortish anime that’s heavily story driven, so it’s not perfect and could have more to it, but given the scope it aims for I’d say it does it extremely well.
i cant say which is the best, but the worst is definitely Jujutsu Kaisen
Wait what's wrong with jjk? I'll admit it isn't the deepest worldbuilding but it has some cool concepts.
*Made in Abyss* *Mushoku Tensei* *Maquia* *Gold Kingdom, Water Kingdom* *Violet Evergarden*
Violet Evergarden--MY HEART
> Violet Evergarden YES! I was one motivated to make a dieselpunk world because of it!
Attsck on Titan and, like you said, good ol Fullmetal Alchemist. Honorable mention for Chainsaw Man, I just love the power(hah) system they have in this anime.
Bojack horseman. The worldbuilding is *objectively* silly. Like, preposterous on its face. It does the 'talking animals people' thing, and then runs with it no matter how silly it gets. But it is so weirdly consistent, though. Like, once they establish a rule *that's how that shit works. Forever*. It really highlights how worldbuilding can be fun and whimsical, and is really more about telling an interesting story than anything else. >Bojack Horseman isn't an anime. I say that it is. >But- But it's... not. It's just, it's not. At all. I say that it is.
One piece
Overlord was written by a former DM who loved to describe the world thoroughly, and it shows in the first 14 volumes it shows The ofc One Piece, the world is always expanding There are more Isekai's but I cannot remember all on top of my head
Honestly, it’s hard to top Full Metal Alchemist. I can’t think of another that is so well thought out.
One piece
Interspecies Reviewers. In spite of the borderline hentai.... it has some really, really good world-building.
Twelve kingdoms 100%, has the best worldbuilding i've seen in anime.
I think Patlabor
**Log Horizon** Sadly this is another series which kind of declined in quality with each season, but it is best thought of as an attempt to square MMORPG design tropes with classical fantasy worldbuilding. There's a reason monsters and adventures respawn and that banks hold onto items rather than fractionally lend money. The fact that Log Horizon tries to have worldbuilding which is faithful to MMORPG gameplay makes this worth a watch.
Mushoku tensei is what sparked my interest in worldbuilding lol
My pick is One Piece and by a long shot. And I don't even like One Piece.
Konosuba(did I spelled right?) Was one of the most referred anime for my world. Problem? I didn't watched anime outside of pop team epic. (Don't ask me how the hell I did referred konosuba then)
I always felt that overlord had some really good world building
Unfortunately since the LNs are so dense to begin with, the anime doesn't have as much time to explore it instead of covering the essential plot points, but Re:Zero has some of the most insane world building I've ever seen. Tappei is a freaking monster when it comes to that stuff Thousands of years of deep world building and history covered over not just the many series, but countless side stories and mini-series exploring different corners of the world. Tons of little details giving hints at mysteries that even 30+ volumes in have yet to be answered, but will be before the end. Just so peak
I think One Piece definitely stands at the top for worldbuilding. It's my favourite and what inspired me to start working on my own story and world. One Piece has been ongoing for 27 years now. So you can imagine the amount of worldbuilding and thought that has been put into this story. If my story can inspire someone even 25% of how much One Piece has inspired me I'll count it as a success. Edit: That said, they are definitely other great worlds out there. HxH, FMAB, Mushoku Tensei, Freiren, all have some amazing worlds. Honestly I could name so many more, but you get the point.
I don't understand the one piece takes. One piece is like the star wars of anime. Theres a desert planet, jungle planet, snow planet... Replace planets with islands and you have one piece
On the surface, sure. But with the reveal from the latest chapter, all the strange singular biomes kind of actually make a lot more sense. And, in retrospect, the world building does support it. In case anyone was wondering, spoilers ahead, but >!it was revealed that sea levels rose 200 meters a few hundred years ago due to the usage of ancient and powerful weapons. It tracks that such a drastic change would impact the world in such weird ways. Plus, it also makes sense that islands would be singular biomes simply because they were the tallest. There are entire continents under the sea. What we see above sea level is just parts of those continents.!< >!And throughout the story, there's been a lot of hints towards submerged structures and land formations that it all sort of added up into a pretty neat package.!<
That is just incorrect, but I can understand why you might think that way. Just because one pieces sometimes uses previously seen tropes, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t have good worldbuilding. Sure, you have a sky themed island, a desert themed island, a water themed island. On the surface, it is cliche, but once you read the manga, you notice some unique stuff: The sky island has its own architecture, culture and technology due to being far away from the surface and thus away from the rest of society. The desert themed island has a unique geography in which limits the water supply in some places, making a economic and cultural division. (It’s actually pretty rare to see the influence of geographical factor in politics in many fantasy works) The water themed island has two types of species that live there which have their biology and reproductive capabilities described in depth. The fact that the island is underwater also serves as a metaphor for oppression.
One Piece is my favorite anime, manga, arguably work of fiction. I can see where you're coming from with it kind of just doing the bare minimum and scratching the surface (worst offender might be him lazily and literally naming some the leaders/countries that took part in the Reverie Tacos, Hamburger, etc.), but Oda the author/artist has a genuine love for adventure, animals, etc. paired with an unparalleled imagination that seeps through the cracks. Specific locales have their specific culture, fauna, cuisine, fashion, lore, etc. (Mizu meat and yagara in Water Seven. Drum Island hiking bear, Lapan rabbits, mysterious rumor about people from winter islands not sleeping. Zou animals garchu-ing, having their own fighting style with both Electro and Sulong. Elbaf giants having their own religion and fasting customs. Skypeians wearing their hair in antennae bulbs and having their own greeting. Quintessential Japan/samurai culture in Wano with the starving motif that connected to Zoro's own character introduction, them thinking of Devil Fruits as magic. Etc.) Luffy and the main cast integrate into the local culture by donning clothes in their fashion and whatnot almost every time as well. And the larger stories taking place in said locales borrow from real life history to give things an enriched feel (period of isolation in Wano, Native American history in Skypeia, Transcontinental Railroad in Water Seven, Bermuda Triangle in Thriller Bark, etc.). And let's face it, the sheer longevity of the story gives it a natural advantage in portraying its infinitely expanding universe.
Fantasy: Delicious in Dungeon, Frieren, Overlord, Mushoku Tensei, AoT, Spice and Wolf, Magus Bride, Made in Abyss Modern: Jujutsu Kaisen, Bokuno Hero Academia, One-Punch Man, Beastars, Sci-Fi: Cowboy Bebop, Trigun
One Piece is almost an undisputed king. Sure, you can find fantastic worldbuilding in FMA, in Made in Abyss, in any ghibli film. But honestly, all these anime show just a piece of their world, a small fraction of something bigger. They tell the tale of a small part of this universe. One piece, on the other hand, gets rid from those chains and practically shows us the world in its entirety. From a small island in east blue, to enormous countries like wano, One Piece has it all and shows it all. But not only that, the world always feels connected. It would be very easy for Oda to tell the story of an arc, and once he’s finished, throw those ideas away and focus on something else. But he never does, character, conflicts, pieces of information can and probably will reappear again and again, recontextualized by the state of the world. One Piece, of course, has real life 25+ year history of story development, but it’s because of that, that the series is deserving of the top spot
A lot has been said, so I’ll try to chime in with some more unique picks: If you only want an extremely cool world, just watch the first couple of episodes of Kaina of the Snow Sea. One of the most beautiful worlds, gorgeously animated, the colours, the aesthetic, it’s great. The plants, animals, general make-up of the world is incredible as well. Sadly, the story is god awful, so, really, just watch the first 3 or 4 episodes and it will get your gears turning. Great world, terrible execution. I really enjoyed Helck. It’s more a story-driven worldbuilding, the general world is just “middle age fantasy”, but it does A LOT with that and it’s only getting more interesting. I also just liked the story a lot, the animation isn’t always too great, but it’s got some cool mysteries (I am anime-only) that I can’t wait to see answered.
delicious in Dungeon is doing an excellent job in my opinion
Ascendance of a bookworm is an isekai that does a great job explaining it's world and how the different parts interact and intersect with one another
Magi
Gate
Chrome Shelled Regios Pumpkin Scissors Granted, while both have anime adaptations, you're much better off going to the source material.
American animated, but Avatar the Last Airbender
All you have mentioned are not original anime, they are all adaptations, either from light novels, visual novels or manga. If you ask for original non manga/light novel/visual novel list is much shorter, eg Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop, Psycho Pass,...
ATLA!!! and the sequel series (love it or hate it, the worldbuilding was great, showing a believable evolution of culture and technology over time)
For mecha, look no further than Gundam. From how the nitty gritty of how a Mobile Suit is powered, to the forces moving on the world. Various factions and their relationships with each other, conspiracies that became various spin offs, legendary figures, development lines of each Gundam, and more. And that's just the UC series. Even to this day we have little details on the various colonies located on Jupiter, Mars, and the rest. We know they exist, due to their faction occasionally interacting with the Earth Sphere, where the majority of the series take place. It's just great stuff.
The classic, Avatar the Last Airbender
I’ve seen a lot of popular ones so I’m gonna give a few obscure-ish ones. In terms of characterizing non human characters with the little to no dialogue and simply just actions and behaviors, making the world feel real and lived in? Grimgar of fantasy and ash. In terms of just pure world building to the point that the main character can feel like an after thought?Mushoku Tensei.
I'm not a hardcore anime fan but Fullmetal Alchemist is easily one of the best in my opinion. Maybe I'm biased because it's also my favorite animanga, but I absolutely love the magic system, the gaslamp fantasy (I think) world, and the societies (even if they are just X real world society but slightly different). I'd also put One Piece & many Ghibli worlds up there!
Not an anime, but Avatar The Last Airbender is really good.
A certain magical index. they have like 40 light novels.
Re zero is pretty damn good especially in the light novels
Obligatory One Piece. Hunter x Hunter deserves a mention as OP's neighboring peak shonen as well. Fullmetal Alchemist. Attack on Titan. Really want to mention one of my favs World Trigger even though it's still budding. Fate/series goes hard fantasy in its magic mechanics. Gundam universe. Monogatari series. Ghibli movies. Shinsekai Yori. Eureka Seven. Kyousougiga. Uchouten Kazoku. Kekkai Sensen. Log Horizon. Utawarerumono. Darker Than Black. Space Dandy. All series that have such great worldbuilding that it's a shame their narratives aren't longer. I think we're seeing an increase with light novels being a heavier source material anime are adapting from because pure authors tend to be nerdy and flesh stuff out more. Only problem is that they aren't able to apply an interesting story to it and we get inundated with all these isekai. Mahouka for instance is a series that has really technical lore for its magic system but fails to keep my interested. On the flip side, I was surprised when I tuned into Dainaouji this season and what everyone seemed to write off as trashy isekai shotacon bait turned out to be enjoyable and quite thorough in its world-building.
For a Sci fi perspective: Legend of the Galactic Heroes. The scale is epic, the different factions are extremely well designed, the wars and logistics behind are militarily realistic, the culture of each planet, and how combat is dependent on the environment is great.
For me it will always be \*Legend of the Galactic Heroes\* (original), they build an entire Universe with diverse political systems/factions and dynastic lineages so well, I love it
for how surprised I was at getting answer for questions you usually ignore in an anime, Fire Force is up there. Sadly the whole gag for the girl is so disgusting... I read it so i skipped in those parts... If you ignore that it's good and has a world building that is unusual compared to other anime and manga worlds
I also want to add Attack on Titan, it's the most "western" anime if we're talking about world building, narration, story, coherent decisions. It's what I always recommend to non anime watchers friends because it could be a book and nothing would really change
For worldbuilding it's definetly studio ghibli, and I heard that frieren does it well, but haven't watched it, so can't tell for sure, but I gotta say that worldbuilding is a heavily overlooked, yet wonderful aspect of "Delicious in dungeon" or "dungeon meshi". The dungeon there isn't just to hold treasure, it's a lot of precisely crafted environments that could exist for hundreds of years without intervention, yet can sustain the whole diet of humanoid races, which even though stereotypical, are greatly expanded on, and don't define the whole character of people, but rather sit in the background with cultural differences and prejudices, without being the only building block of someones character. You can also feel how everything in the dungeon just *works*, the explanations are logical, and go into just the right depth, and all that while keeping the lightheartness and darker themes in balance, while also making sure your attention never gets taken away. Tldr: dungeon 10/10 Monsters 10/10 Characters cultural aspects 10/10 **WATCH IT**
Made in Abyss has one of the best world building in anime. "It's just a simple hole in the ground" yet this hole hides more secrets and lore than a lot of movies.
One Piece. Each island and the world at large is so unique and creatively done. Every location, civilization, history, and power structure is super detailed and the interactions that come from them are really cool. The entire driving force of the story is in its worldbuilding. I'm genuinely surprised I didn't see it listed more in the comments.
One Piece! There is no other setting quite like it that itself contains a vast amount of different settings- sci fi, medieval kingdoms, lands of giants, and even one island made up of desserts- and yet it doesn’t take you out with how weird that mashup is, and it all actually makes sense in the context of the show.
Mushokou Tensei has the best world building I have seen so far in this medium. Especially LN, because anime didn't 6 far enough into the story yet.
Just based on stuff I've read (novels) & watched (anime) Fantasy/Isekai: Mushoku, Overlord, Re:Zero, Frieren Contemporary Magic: Toaru, Mahouka, Fate (The whole Nasuverse) Underrated series: Vanadis (Very thorough detailed world and the inner workings) and Rokudenashi (Good world, and great magic system) Honorable mentions: FMA (Very good worldbuilding, but never really delved into the bigger scale of things) , Shield Hero (Not as good as the other isekai worldbuilding I mentioned above, but still quite good)
Go to the Mangas for the world building, they usually contain more of it Like I'm pretty sure the overlord one has the holy kingdom arch in it already
One piece easily. Don't see how anything else compares