Everyone loves a sequel. Or rather, they love the concept of sequels. If something is good, people want more. Some may match or even surpass their predecessor, such as Terminator 2: Judgment Day. But if it’s mediocre or bad, it ruins the franchise forever and gets ignored.
Diminishing returns are usually because sequels keep trying to repeat what the first movie/anime/season/etc did. But there is a way around that: change the formula. Introduces new characters! Change the program settings! Change your gender! You can reinvigorate the franchise by expanding its universe. Or end up making the series so different that it might as well be a spin-off. Here are some anime sequels that really shook things up for their series.
5 Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders
This one doesn’t seem as dramatic, and is undergoing a change from the original manga. But that’s just because stardust crusaders set the template that all other parts will follow. It’s the series with the punch-ghosts named after current musical acts and whatever progressive rock band is in Hirohiko Araki’s CD collection. Nevertheless, stardust crusaders it was the third part of eight. The earlier parts still had the musical references, but there was no Stand in sight.
Before that, the big hook that Parts 1 and 2 offered was Hamōn: a martial art based on breathing techniques. He was essentially a European. Fist of the North Star with Araki’s taste for the extravagant and fashionable. North StarSunshine time in the sun was coming to an end when those parts were posted, so JJBAThe change from Stands to Stands came at the right time.This change gave the series its fame across the country, got it an OVA series and a couple of video games. While Part 1 got a lost anime movie, and Part 2 didn’t get anything until the beginning of the 2012 anime series.
4 Dragon Ball
Dragon Ball Was it a sequel to something? About. Before Akira Toriyama thought of Son Goku, he made a name for himself with dr slump. It was a sci-fi comedy that followed a robot girl named Arale and her creator Senbei Norimaki as they make their way through Penguin Village and foil Dr. Mashirito’s machinations. It was more of a real-life comedy manga full of puns and toilet humor than a big action epic.
However, it takes place in the same universe as Dragon Ball, complete with their quirks as humans living alongside dinosaurs and anthropomorphic animals. The two shows blended better in Dragon Balls early days, with Arale even helping Goku against General Blue. By dragon ball super, the Super Saiyan scream fest had changed so much that Arale’s appearances seemed strange. However, he did beat Vegeta, so he could probably hold his own against Goku’s enemies quite well.
3 the cat returns
heart whisper it was one of Studio Ghibli’s underrated gems. It was Yoshifumi Kondō’s first and only film, which Ghibli founders Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata thought would be his successor. Unfortunately, he passed away in 1998, three years after the release of this film. His movie was a sweet romance about a boy who meets a girl because of her love of books. It was particularly notable for a sequence in which an anthropomorphic cat statue named Baron came to life and messed with the girl.
Then, seven years later, the cat returned in…the cat returns. This time, a new girl named Haru gets more than she bargained for when she saves a cat from being run over. The cat is the Prince of the Cat Kingdom, and her father wants to reward her by marrying them together. She is dragged into her house and has to escape before she too turns into a cat. That’s where the Baron steps in to help her. It was entertaining enough, but it didn’t really stand out in the Ghibli lineup. He could even be usurped as hearts weird sequel to the upcoming live-action movie.
two Carole and Tuesday
This is a kind of border. Apparently, all of Shinichiro Watanabe’s works take place in the same universe, but the connections between the different franchises can be a bit vague. moo of samurai champloo can be the great-great-grandfather, etc, grandfather of cowboy bebop‘s Spike Spiegel, or that could be a fan theory because they look a bit similar and have the same English voice actors. However, there is a show that is confirmed as part of the Bebop-verse.
Carole and Tuesday is about the titular singer-songwriter duo and their differences. The first is an orphan girl from Earth and the second is a rich girl from a terraformed Mars. It takes place a few years after the events of Bebopbut it’s not really a continuation of that show. Carole and Tuesday swap sci-fi action for romance, music, and interracial dynamics. It has received solid praise from critics, despite some issues. Though when it comes to drastic changes from source materials, this is one of the more notable examples.
1 Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
Almost all of CLAMP’s creations have crossed paths at one time or another. angelic cloak is the predecessor of chobits. a character from Yumeragia CLAMP short story from 1996, appeared in his dark fantasy series xxxHoliclike a talking pig Murikuri, another CLAMP short story. At this rate, Jōta Kujo of CLAMP in wonderland will appear in your next project. Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle stands out as it is a direct sequel to card captor sakura.
An older Syaoran and Sakura are the main characters as they go through different worlds to retrieve Sakura’s memories. In other words, card catcherThe magical girl stage of became an isekai. The person tasking Syaoran with his multi-dimensional jumping mission is Yūko Ichihara, the Dimensional Witch of xxxHolic. it’s as if crazedSkull Knight told Usagi and Tuxedo Mask of sailor moon to leave the Moon Prism Power behind, pick up a sword, and jump through the world of Escaflowne. It’s an ambitious mix, to say the least, and those are just a few of the show’s many crossover characters.
