As anime franchises continue to run far longer than they did in the past, sequels are becoming more and more necessary. With waning quality or changing fan tastes, sequels are meant to bring in new fans and entice old ones to return.
Of course, no franchise can remain on top forever. When a sequel betrays what people loved about the original, that can mean the end of a series. Other times though, the popularity of the sequel can save a franchise. What that means varies depending on the series. Some shows, like Dragon Ball Super, become major players again, while others just get new content after years of dormancy.
10 Lupin III: Part IV
The Lupin franchise was a major part of anime throughout the ‘70s and ’80s, thanks to a combination of television series, films, and specials. By the ’90s though, the brand had begun to fade aside from the rare television special, and by the 2010s the gentleman thief’s star had nearly faded.
In 2015 though, Telecom Animation Film revived the franchise with Lupin III: Part IV. Also known as the Italian Adventure, the new series saw Lupin traveling through Italy and San Marino on a new caper. Chief director Kazuhide Tomonaga intentionally combined the different “flavors” of Lupin from other series into a single character. The result was a character who felt familiar to Lupin fans no matter how they were introduced. Since Part IV, Lupin has experienced a complete revival, with two sequel series and multiple movies set in that universe.
9 Naruto Shipuuden
When Naruto and Sasuke confronted each other in the Valley of the End, it solidified Naruto as one of the greatest shonen anime ever made. After that though, the series went on a filler run unlike anything seen in the industry before.
For two years, fans were treated to random adventures of Naruto and friends that had almost zero relevance to the plot. Once they finally decided to bring the series back, it was decided the series needed something else to make fans invested. The series was re-branded into Naruto Shipuuden, introducing the time skip and restarting the manga storyline. Unsurprisingly, fans flocked to the series again as Naruto‘s quest to become the Hokage began once more.
8 Beyblade Burst
The Beyblade franchise has been one of the longest running kids franchises ever, alongside series like Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh! Still, every franchise has its down moments. Despite the popularity of Beyblade Metal Fusion, once the series ended in 2012, the franchise vanished for a time. The only thing Beyblade fans had remaining was BeyWarriors, which felt a little different from what fans were looking for.
Beyblade Burst brought the franchise back in full though in 2016, introducing a new set of protagonists being pulled into the world of Beyblade. With Burst reaching well over 300 episodes and counting, the Beyblade franchise has been back stronger than ever, as the new generation continues to let it rip.
7 Macross Frontier
The original Macross series helped set the standard for mecha anime. By the time of Macross Frontier however, the Macross brand had been largely dormant for years. Despite the incredible success of Macross: Do You Remember Love and Macross Plus, several of their other projects didn’t achieve the same popularity. For the 25th anniversary though, the franchise received a new series in Macross Frontier.
With gorgeous animation from Satelite and the best love triangle since the original series, Macross was suddenly more mainstream than it had been in years. The series managed to maintain its popularity long enough to gain more new films and even another sequel in Macross Delta. While the series is a long way from being popular in America due to rights issues, the franchise has never been healthier in Japan.
6 Fate/Zero
Despite the popularity of the visual novel, Type Moon’s Fate/Stay Night franchise didn’t seem to have much staying power as an anime. After a middling adaptation of one of the routes in the mid-2000s, the franchise fell off the map. However, when Gen Urobuchi’s Fate/Zero prequel received an adaptation, things changed almost overnight.
An anime about the previous Holy Grail War, Fate/Zero caused a new generation of fans to take interest in the Fate series. After Fate/Zero, the remaining routes of the original Fate/stay night visual novel were adapted. Fans got to experience more of all their favorite servants and their masters through Unlimited Blade Works and Heaven’s Feel. Soon after, a number of spin-offs appeared, including one based on the popular mobile game, Fate/Grand Order.
5 Tenchi Muyo Ryo-Ohki Season 4
The Tenchi Muyo franchise has multiple canon universes thanks to its convoluted history. Its original timeline though has always been Tenchi Muyo Ryo-Ohki, the OVAs from Masaki Kajishima. While the franchise was huge in the ’90s, by the mid-2000s it had vanished, fans seemingly growing tired of Tenchi Muyo’s endless lore.
A decade later in 2016, Kajishima brought the franchise back with Ryo-Ohki season 4, which helped put the franchise back on top. Since then, Tenchi Muyo has gotten another spin-off series in Ai Tenchi Muyo, a fifth OVA season, and a prequel series for Kajishima’s novel, Paradise War.
4 Dragon Ball Super
Dragon Ball Z had its time in the sun as the most popular anime ever created. Then, after Dragon Ball GT, the series finally went into the sunset. Great anime never truly go away though, and decades later Toei decided to revive the Dragon Ball franchise.
First they began creating films like Battle of the Gods and Resurrection of F, eventually resulting in the full return of Dragon Ball Z to airwaves in the form of Dragon Ball Super. While the beginning ran into some animation issues, Dragon Ball Super put the franchise back on top as one of the biggest anime of all time.
3 Digimon Xros Wars
In the early 2000s, the Digimon brand was one of the strongest in children’s television. A new series aired every year, featuring new protagonists, new gimmicks, and most importantly, new partner Digimon. After Digimon Frontier however, the franchise hit a brick wall. Despite an attempt to revive it a few years later with Digimon Savers, it wasn’t until the series got another much-needed reboot that Digimon had any hope.
Digimon Xros Wars featured everything fans loved about prior seasons, combined with some fresh ideas in terms of Digivolutions to take things beyond what everyone was used to. Following Xros Wars, the franchise has had everything from new films featuring the classic Digimon Adventure class to entirely new shows like Digimon Ghost Stories.
2 Bleach: Thousand-Year War
As the years wore on, Bleach started having trouble maintaining the status it held in the late 2000s. It’s other contemporary series, Naruto and One Piece, remained on air in one form or another, years after the Bleach anime and manga had come to an end. Fortunately, just in time for its anniversary, Bleach got a sequel series, meant to adapt the last arc of the manga.
In the revival, Studio Pierrot showed off with their A-game, giving one of the best arcs in Bleach some of the best animation on television. This masterful adaptation once again made Bleach one of the most popular anime on-air, fueling hype for more set within that world, including the Burn the Witch spin-off and a potential sequel from the hints involved in Bleach chapter 687.
1 Mobile Fighter G Gundam
After years of Mobile Suit Gundam, the franchise was finally beginning to slow down in popularity. Rather than continue to tap series creator Yoshiyuki Tomino for new shows, Sunrise decided to go in a different direction. A subtle reboot to the franchise, Mobile Fighter G Gundam brought Gundam into the world of Super Robots. Rather than telling another complex tale of political intrigue, G Gundam was about a martial artist named Domon Kasshu who fought to become the winner of the Gundam Fight tournament.
Despite being nothing like the Gundam series that came before it though, G Gundam was a massive success. From then on, Sunrise began creating more Alternate Universe Gundam series, creating hits like Gundam Wing and critical darlings like Turn A Gundam.