Ranking The Most Legendary Anime and Manga Creators!

On weekends, I like to head to one of the hot spring baths located around J-List. These offer a dozen different baths, plus a restaurant where I can browse the web while watching TV. The other day I was watching Sazae-san, an anime that’s been on the air nonstop since 1969, and was blown away by the huge influence it’s had over the years. Let’s try to rank the most legendary anime creators in this blog post!

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How Do You Define an Anime Legend?

Here are the criteria I’m using to choose the most incredible anime creators.

They must have had a huge influence on the anime and manga industries.
They should have repeatedly changed their respective areas of the anime and manga world. It’s one thing to make a popular anime or manga work, but to do it repeatedly is really special.
If they made “only” one incredible work, it should have had an influence spanning 20 years or more.

Japan’s Most Legendary Anime and Manga Creators, Ranked!

I asked J-List’s awesome customers to suggest legendary anime and manga creators. Let’s check out the responses we got!

CLAMP

A team of four manga artists that started out creating doujinshi before going professional in 1989, CLAMP has repeatedly delighted fans with their amazing stories. Their most popular works have included Cardcaptor Sakura, Magical Knight Rayearth and Chobits. They also did behind-the-scenes character and story work on famous works like Code Geass.

Machiko Hasegawa and Momoko Sakura, Creators of Sazae-san and Chibi Maruko-chan

I’m ranking these two together because neither will be familiar to anime fans outside of Japan, yet both shows are the highest-rated and longest-running anime series ever, with nearly 10,000 episodes between them. Sazae-san is the most famous anime you’ve never seen, telling the “slow stories” of two families living in one house. Chibi Maruko is the ongoing adventures of Momoko, a girl living in the 1980s, who wants to be a manga artist when she grows up. The Sunday 7 pm time slot wouldn’t be the same without these two legendary shows.

Yoshiyuki Tomino Changed All Our Lives

An extremely important animator who worked alongside Osamu Tezuka on classics like Astro Boy and Heidi, Girl of the Alps, he went on to define the “Real Robot” mecha genre with his Mobile Suit Gundam series. Japan’s place in the world would never be the same again.

Which series took your ‘Gundam virginity’? Read my blog post on this subject here!

Yoko Kanno Created the Anison Genre

The legendary anime composer who defined the three decades of anime, she composed music for everything from Cardcaptor Sakura to Escaflowne to Macross Plus to Cowboy Bebop and SPY x FAMILY. There’s a huge group of anime fans who are primarily here for the wonderful music, thanks to anime legends like Yoko Kanno.

Shiro Sagisu Defined My Life as an Anime Fan

One of the most legendary anime composers ever, he’s most famous for working with Hideaki Anno on Evangelion, as well as Shin Godzilla and Shin Ultraman. But he also did the music for Bleach, Berserk, Nadia, Megazone 23, and my beloved Kimagure Orange Road. I’ve been listening to his music all my life as an otaku.

Osamu Tezuka, the God of Manga

Revered as Japan’s God of Manga, he created the modern manga industry we know today. His famous manga included Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion plus philosophical works like Hi no Tori and Buddha. But he was also the God of Anime, too, cleverly finding a way to animate Astroy Boy in a way that would be financially feasible for a weekly show and founding one of the most influential anime studios ever.

What happens when an anime studio goes bankrupt? Read this blog post!

From UY to Inuyasha, Rumiko Takahashi Is a Legend

How often has Rumiko Takahashi changed the world as anime fans know it? The popularity of Urusei Yatsura and Maison Ikkoku created the modern manga and anime industry. Ranma 1/2 was one of the early hits as anime first went mainstream. Then she finally found her much-deserved worldwide commercial success with Inuyasha, bringing in a new generation of fans.

Akira Toriyama is Famous All Over the World

One of the true marks of greatness to the Japanese is whether foreigners know your name, and there are TV programs that travel to other countries and ask which Japanese names they know. Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama is always near the top of the list for his amazing achievements.

Eichiiro Oda

Another legendary creator is Oda-sensei, who created a globe-spanning empire with his successful manga and anime. How did he do it?

Hirohiko Araki

Not everyone is a fan of the long-running Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, but I think all of us can agree that its creator Hirohiko Araki is a boss for keeping his long-running series going for 37 years. Read my blog post on how I finally broke down and became a Jojo fan here!

Naoko Takeuchi

The anime that merged the made-for-girls mahou shoujo genre with the made-for-boys sentai fighting team genre, Sailor Moon helped make anime famous in every corner of the world. And helped J-List sell a lot of hentai doujins.

Mamoru Oishi

There’s no shortage of amazing anime directors we could have added to this list. Creator of melodramatic space operas Leiji Matsumoto. Legendary Gainax animator Anno Hideaki. And the most popular anime director in recent years, Shinkai Makoto. But where would we be without the intense film-making of Mamoru Oishi, who wowed us with the original Ghost in the Shell?

Hayao Miyazaki is a Legendary Anime Creator

Japan’s most famous anime director is Hayao Miyazaki, and his works have been a part of my life ever since I discovered anime. What’s your favorite film by him?

Want to know some surprising political opinions held by your favorite anime creators? I’ve got a blog post for you here!

Go Nagai Created the Ecchi Genre

Manga artist Go Nagai has several amazing achievements under his belt. He thrilled fans of the shounen genre with such works as Mazinger Z, Devilman and Getter Robo. But he also created the world of ecchi anime with titles like Harenchi Gakuen and Cutey Honey. J-List would not be here without this man!

Hokusai The Dream Of The Fisherman's Wife

Hokusai Created Manga 210 Years Ago

The term manga literally means “whimsical pictures,” and it was coined by famous ukiyo-e artist Hokusai. In 1814, he published a collection of 252 illustrations of everyday people living in Edo called Hokusai Manga, more or less created as a personal art study. The book sold so well that his publisher asked for more volumes, and it became a huge sensation in Japan. Hokusai’s influence even made it back to Europe, thanks to a German doctor living in the Dutch colony in Nagasaki who sent his artwork back home, helping create the Japonisme boom. Hokusai also created quite a few pornographic shunga prints over the years, and is the father of tentacle porn. What an amazing achievement!

Thanks for reading this blog post ranking the most legendary anime and manga creators in Japan. Did I leave your favorite creator off the list? Tell us in the comments below!