actually think One Piece worldbuilding is hilariously bad, so wild to see it used as a good example.
I think most of the anime I’ve watched that I’d consider to have decent worldbuilding usually cheat by basing it either directly or indirectly on the modern world. Something like Solo Leveling, which I think actually does a great job exploring how human society would react to videogame dungeons suddenly appearing, still gets the benefit of world cultures and how they act already being in place. Similarly, I think a lot of cyberpunk anime cheats in the same way; it’s more like a modern society getting extra bits and bobs added to it than an originally built world.
Honestly, thinking about this has made me realize no anime I’ve watched is stacking up against the serious juggernauts like Tolkien or Pratchett. Pre-Shippuden Naruto is pretty close, but I think the world becomes increasingly nonsensical as the series goes on. Dr Stone would be towards the top if everything in its world didn’t revolve around Senku, though it also cheats a little bit by having those connections to the modern world.
I think my answer, as boring as it is, will actually be Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. I think the country of Amestris and its history are really well realized, other countries in the world are fleshed out pretty well, and while they are clearly based on real world archetypes, there’s enough magical additions to make them a little distinct. The alchemical rules are simple, but understandable, and they don’t get broken by nonsense powerscaling. You can put a lot of the story together ahead of the big reveal by understanding the world and it’s logic, which I consider the mark of really great worldbuilding.
I mean, there is a lot that doesn’t really make sense.
A simple example - the geography and navigation in one piece is just broken. Look at any map that exists and none of the way they travel seems logical (especially given all the crazy powers). Not to mention the inconsistency in how fast people can travel.
Its a fun show, but the rules/world change as the story needs it (a good example is shanks, who is both super strong yet losses an arm to save luffy as a child).
The biggest change that I loathe is the Void Century. The initial concept seemed too fantastical to be true. A 100 year chunk of history that has been cut out and scrubbed from the record? So there was contiguous history from before that, right?..right?
Spoilers for Manga
Elbaph has been good so far, but learning that actually there’s a shitton of history from before the Void Century that has all been covered up, and actually it would be more correct to just call the Void Century the start of recorded modern history, was a huge let down. That’s just Big Brother from 1984, it’s not nearly as impressive that the WG was able to craft their own narrative when they were the only ones coming out of an apocalypse.
Oda’s really big on rule of cool and having flashy setpieces in the moment, and that’s fun. It’s just a very disappointing world when there are so many examples of the audience being told one thing, only for the information to be changed later.
actually think One Piece worldbuilding is hilariously bad, so wild to see it used as a good example.
I think most of the anime I’ve watched that I’d consider to have decent worldbuilding usually cheat by basing it either directly or indirectly on the modern world. Something like Solo Leveling, which I think actually does a great job exploring how human society would react to videogame dungeons suddenly appearing, still gets the benefit of world cultures and how they act already being in place. Similarly, I think a lot of cyberpunk anime cheats in the same way; it’s more like a modern society getting extra bits and bobs added to it than an originally built world.
Honestly, thinking about this has made me realize no anime I’ve watched is stacking up against the serious juggernauts like Tolkien or Pratchett. Pre-Shippuden Naruto is pretty close, but I think the world becomes increasingly nonsensical as the series goes on. Dr Stone would be towards the top if everything in its world didn’t revolve around Senku, though it also cheats a little bit by having those connections to the modern world.
I think my answer, as boring as it is, will actually be Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. I think the country of Amestris and its history are really well realized, other countries in the world are fleshed out pretty well, and while they are clearly based on real world archetypes, there’s enough magical additions to make them a little distinct. The alchemical rules are simple, but understandable, and they don’t get broken by nonsense powerscaling. You can put a lot of the story together ahead of the big reveal by understanding the world and it’s logic, which I consider the mark of really great worldbuilding.
Yeah, I’m not going to bother with the rest of your comment
I mean, there is a lot that doesn’t really make sense.
A simple example - the geography and navigation in one piece is just broken. Look at any map that exists and none of the way they travel seems logical (especially given all the crazy powers). Not to mention the inconsistency in how fast people can travel.
Its a fun show, but the rules/world change as the story needs it (a good example is shanks, who is both super strong yet losses an arm to save luffy as a child).
The biggest change that I loathe is the Void Century. The initial concept seemed too fantastical to be true. A 100 year chunk of history that has been cut out and scrubbed from the record? So there was contiguous history from before that, right?..right?
Spoilers for Manga
Elbaph has been good so far, but learning that actually there’s a shitton of history from before the Void Century that has all been covered up, and actually it would be more correct to just call the Void Century the start of recorded modern history, was a huge let down. That’s just Big Brother from 1984, it’s not nearly as impressive that the WG was able to craft their own narrative when they were the only ones coming out of an apocalypse.
Oda’s really big on rule of cool and having flashy setpieces in the moment, and that’s fun. It’s just a very disappointing world when there are so many examples of the audience being told one thing, only for the information to be changed later.
That must be in some of the newer content, but yeah that sucks.
And yeah, it’s definitely rule of cool, which is fine and lot of fun, but doesn’t make for consistency/good world building.
deleted by creator
Spoiler
If Lor D. Coast was strong enough to remove the mark of the Abyss from Shanks’ arm, what does this mean for my base Luffy stonks?