As anime's popularity has increased worldwide, content creators have moved to tap into its commercial success by expanding the stories' original boundaries through spinoffs focused on characters or issues that initially were not contemplated as being very interesting, but later captured the hearts and minds of the fan base.
Naturally, lacking the initial influence and attractiveness of the original anime, as well as the critical eye of the fan base that has become experts in the style, feel, and history of its predecessor, it's not easy for a spinoff to advance out of the original series' shadow. However, that doesn't mean that this is an impossible feat. Here are ten great anime spinoffs that managed to do that.
10 Pluto
Naoki Urasawa and Takashi Nagaki's manga series Pluto takes Astro Boy's "The Greatest Robot on Earth" arc and transforms it from an exciting robot versus robot challenge into a gripping crime drama as the same story is reimagined through the eyes of Gesicht, one of the Great Robots being hunted down by the unknown killer.
However, while the other robots have the chance to prepare themselves for the challenge, the police officer investigating the crimes has to run towards the danger. Like all good spinoffs, Pluto keeps enough of the original series intact to deliver a series that feels familiar, while being different enough to stand on its own.
9 Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Hatsuki Tsuji's Yu-Gi-Oh! GX is the perfect example of a thematic-based spin-off. Other than a momentary meeting at the beginning of the series between the original protagonist Yugi Muto and Jaden Yuki, the start of GX, the series features a brand-new cast of duelists.
In spite of this, fans will readily recognize the familiar Yu-Gi-Oh! environment, including supernatural forces, Egyptian spirits, magic, and of course, duels. Even though GX has a new cast, due to its storytelling, it doesn't need to rely on the original anime, carving out its own reputation alongside it by developing its own exciting plot centered around Jaden and his friends' experiences in the Duel Academy.
8 Pokémon Origins
With a brand as famous as Pokémon, it's nearly impossible to overcome the original series' legacy, but Pokémon Origins does just that by going back to the very beginning. In doing so, it achieves something that is rare for the Pokémon franchise – a story where Ash isn't the center.
Specifically, Pokémon Origins focuses on Red, the original Pokémon trainer from the video games. While Red and Ash share many similarities, Pokémon Origins chooses to focus on the different circumstances they've both endured. This series follows the lore of the video game, even featuring Red's rival Blue. Ultimately, Pokémon Origins establishes Red's adventures as a viable alternative to Ash's story.
7 Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon
With an anime as beloved as Inuyasha, it would be surprising if it didn't eventually receive a spinoff. Fans wanted it, and creators rarely up the opportunity to keep making content. However, most spinoffs created under these conditions are rarely noteworthy.
Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon breaks the mold by producing a solid stand-alone story that presents itself as more than a different take on the original story. While similarities between the two series exist, Yashahime breaks new ground by focusing on the children of the original series' heroes, and their journeys to find themselves. Its story is delivered with the same energy as Inuyasha, but with a different plot.
6 Dragon Ball Z: The History of Trunks
If spinoffs are a way to add depth and context to characters, themes, and situations that authors are unable or unwilling to address in the original series, then few other anime are as spinoff-ready as Dragon Ball. The diversity of its characters, world, and situations makes it ripe for spinoff content, and Akira Toriyama has used this to varying effects.
The one spinoff that can stand shoulder to shoulder with the mainline franchise is Dragon Ball Z: The History of Trunks. Despite taking place in an alternate universe, the series provides essential background, understanding, and context for Future Trunks' personal story, and provides new information about the world of Dragon Ball itself. Trunks stepping in as Earth's champion in place of an absent Goku, and performing like a natural makes it an instant classic in a franchise loaded with iconic events.
5 Attack on Titan: Junior High
The genius of Yoshihide Ibata and Midori Gotou's Attack on Titan: Junior High is that it takes a heart-pressingly grim story and makes it fun. In doing so, it literally increases a viewer's interest in the original story. The spinoff reimagines Attack on Titan as if it played out in the less dire walls of a junior high school, with Eren Yeager, who has a palpable dislike for Titans because one stole his lunch, and enlists the help of his classmates Mikasa Ackerman and Armin Arlelt to stand up to the "Big Titans on Campus".
While the story is self-contained, it's best enjoyed by viewers who have some knowledge of the parent series, as most of the funniest situations play off well-known scenes, characters, and themes from the original.
4 Demon Slayer Academy
While Demon Slayer may not be a classic in the traditional sense, its immense popularity has made it something of a modern classic. The same can be said of its spinoff series Demon Slayer Academy, which borrows the AOT Junior High approach to use parody as a vector to reimagine the Demon Slayer Corps century-long battle against Muzan.
Parody on its own is hard to get right, and this is even more so when parodying a story as serious as Demon Slayer. However, Demon Slayer Academy gets the feel of the original series right while creatively adapting the original art style and character attitudes, blending them seamlessly with the far more lighthearted setting.
3 One Piece Film: Red
Like Dragon Ball, the eye-popping, decades worth of world-building that Oda Eiichiro has accomplished in One Piece over the last 25 years makes it a spinoff-rich property. Goro Taniguchi's One Piece Film: Red stands out as the best series spinoff - and likely the best movie - because it combines the charm of the original series with plenty of engaging new content.
First, it introduces a new character in Uta, with links to major characters' backstories – namely, Luffy and Shanks, which is a first for the movies of the franchise. Second, it expands the story with the revelation of Uta's Sing-Sing Fruit power and her desire to use it to end the Age of the Pirates, a relevant and ongoing issue in the original series. Lastly, it allows secondary characters space to develop such as Robin, Usopp, and of the World Government.
2 Boruto: Naruto Next Generations
While commonly thought of as a sequel, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations is actually a spinoff in that it expands on characters or themes introduced in the original series while still keeping everything in the original universe. While Boruto has its share of critics, it accomplishes all the goals of a successful spinoff, including cameos from the original series' most important characters.
More importantly, it establishes the spinoff series as its own independent aspect of the greater universe. When all is said and done in Boruto, no one would think twice about a crossover series featuring Naruto and Boruto on a special mission.
1 Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury
As one of the most popular anime in the last year, it's safe to say that Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch of Mercury is as good as the original Gundam animated series. In fact, like many of the best spinoffs of all time, its main characters Suletta Mercury, Miorine Rembran, and the mobile suit Aerial are likely to go down as the most well-known Gundam characters in the history of the franchise. While the story would not be as compelling without the original series' background and context, The Witch of Mercury takes the franchise to a place it's never been before.
While spinoffs are used for various reasons in anime from exploring fan-favorite characters who otherwise would not get the attention they deserve in the main story to further developing subjects and themes that help build on the underlying anime universe, they're rarely as popular or as well-regarded as the original. However, in rare cases, an anime spinoff can be just as entertaining as the original, or even more.
