With the recently rebooted Fruits Basket now on its long awaited third season, it got me thinking about other animes that deserve the same treatment.

Whether it’s for redemption because the anime just didn’t do the manga justice, or because it’s time for a more modern approach, here are the top seven anime series that deserve a reboot:

Soul Eater

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The series revolves around Maka Albarn and Soul Evans, along with two other student-teams consisting of a weapon user called a “meister” and at least one “demon weapon.” These teams attend Death Weapon Meister Academy (DWMA) run by the headmaster, Death. Their objective is to become Shinigami. They have to collect 99 evil souls and one witch soul, so their demon weapon can become a Death Scythe. 

This anime deserves a reboot because it is vastly different from the manga. There were a lot of concept changes from character development to removing and creating characters specifically for the anime who were never in the manga.  At first the anime somewhat followed the manga. However, by episode 35 (out of 51), it completely derailed from the original plot. Not only that, but the anime ends on a cliff-hanger.

Black Cat

The series follows the life of Train Heartnet, a reformed assassin. He is now a Sweeper, a licensed bounty hunter, traveling with his partner. All the while his friend-turned-nemesis, Creed Diskenth, another former assassin, has started his own organization in order to start a world revolution. 

This anime deserves a reboot because it didn’t do the manga justice at all! Don’t get me wrong… I really enjoyed this anime! But after reading the manga afterward, I was really disappointed in just how much the anime left out. They also created non-canon plot points which I will never understand why this is done. The animation is great too. However, with only 24 episodes compared to the 185 chapters in 20 volumes of manga, there is just so much more to explore with this anime! 

Ouran High School Host Club

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This series follows the lives of several students during their afterschool activities as a Host Club at a prestigious school for the upper class society. Haruhi Fujioka, from middle/lower class, attends the school on a scholarship and gets blackmailed into joining their club as their errand boy. For reference, a host club is a type of bar in Japan where the staff sit and flirt with the patrons. They are very popular in Japan and there are a bunch of different types of themes. 

This is one of my favorite anime shows! And I wish with all my heart to see this rebooted and completed! The anime only goes through to volume 8 out of 18. There is so much more development  and it needs to be done just for the love-geometry alone. And as much as I love the anime, it would be great to see this animation be upgraded.  Come on, Funimation! 

Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt

Warning: there is a lot of vulgarity and sexual humor in this anime, so it’s for mature audiences only.

The series is about the exploits of the Anarchy sisters, Panty and Stocking, angels who were kicked out of Heaven for their sins of lust and gluttony. They are sent to Daten City, a place on the border between Heaven and Hell and are under the care of Reverend Garterbelt. With his help, the sisters are responsible for capturing Ghosts, evil souls who haven’t passed on, by using their angel-magic to transform their lingerie into ghost-hunting weapons. By doing so, they earn “Heaven Coins” which they plan to use to buy their way back into Heaven. 

This is one of the first anime where the manga came after. This anime needs more of a continuation than a reboot. The animation style is great: bold lines and bright colors, with blocky figures, but it worked so well. It ended on such a dramatic cliff-hanger and it seemed so popular at the time that a second season was expected to come out, but now 11 years later, we are still waiting. What a hiatus! 

Trigun

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This series takes place on a desert planet. It follows the story of a gunslinger with a $60,000,000,000.00 bounty on his head and two insurance girls that are trailing him to fine him for the damages caused in towns where bounty hunters have tried to capture him. Vash the Stampede is not the mass-murdering criminal he’s been portrayed as. Instead he is a loveable, dorky guy who just happens to be an amazing gunslinger with a sad past. 

This is another anime that I hold near and dear to my heart. There’s a lot of reasons why this anime deserves better. For one, the anime only goes as far as the first series of the manga. The anime does a really great job of following the manga honestly, the only problem was it seemed like the manga wasn’t going to continue after the original publishing house shut down so the series ended. However the manga was picked up by another publishing house so it was able to continue and be completed. After the release of the movie Badlands Rumble in 2010, it showed that this anime truly deserves a reboot and updated animation.   

Yu Yu Hakusho

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This series follows a teenage delinquent, Yusuke Urameshi, who, in an uncharacteristic act of selflessness, saves a child by pushing them out of the way of a car, and he is struck instead. His spirit is met by Botan, a woman who ferries souls down the River Styx to the Spirit World where their life is judged for the afterlife. Yusuke’s selfless act caught the Underworld by surprise and couldn’t decide whether to send him to heaven or hell. Thus Yusuke is given a chance to return to his body through a series of tests. After succeeding, Yusuke also gets the title of “Spirit Detective,” tasking him with investigating supernatural activity within the Human World.

This anime deserves a reboot if for nothing else than updated animation. While it was remastered in 2011, it would be even cooler to see its animation completely redesigned. Even though the series followed the manga storyline pretty accurately, they did make changes that adapted the story-telling in a different light. For example, they made Yusuke less of a delinquent than he actually is. Though I understand for the times, seeing a 14 year-old smoke and drink isn’t something they would want to perpetuate to kids. They also both extended particular fights and yet cut out a lot of other fighters from the tournament arc. It would be nice to see it as it’s written in the manga.

His and Her Circumstances 

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This series follows the developing relationship between Yukino Miyazawa, the female class rep., and Soichiro Arima, the male class rep.. As the most popular and admired girl among the freshmen, she’s great at everything: academics, sports, and she is sociable. Behind closed doors, she actually works hard to keep up appearances and loves being the center of attention. This is why she cannot stand Soichiro, whom she feels is her rival for attention and praise. After figuring out her true nature, Soichiro blackmails her into completing his student council duties. Forced to spend time with him, Yukino learns that she is not the only one hiding secrets.

This anime deserves a reboot because the author, Masami Tsuda, absolutely hated the anime adaptation!  She says they lessened the romantic plot in favor of screwball comedy. She was so upset that she demanded the director be fired halfway through the season. After that, the anime had no clear direction for the remaining episodes was running out of budget to the point where still frames, live action segments, and paper puppets on sticks were used to fill time. The manga is a beautiful love story and it would be great to see it animated to Tsuda’s vision. 

Which animes do you think deserve a reboot? Let us know in the comments below!

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