38
What anime has the best worldbuilding? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)
submitted 1 day ago by darkguyman@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/anime@ani.social
37 comments fedilink hide all child comments

For me, it has to be HXH and One Piece. Are there any other shows that can compete with those two's worldbuilding?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] djsoren19 19 points 1 day ago

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.

[-] mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 day ago

actually think One Piece worldbuilding is hilariously bad

Yeah, I'm not going to bother with the rest of your comment

[-] jacksilver@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

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).

[-] djsoren19 3 points 23 hours ago

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 MangaElbaph 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.

[-] jacksilver@lemmy.world 4 points 23 hours ago

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.

this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2025
38 points (100.0% liked)

Anime

3246 readers
121 users here now

This community is the place to discuss and ask questions about anime, anime news, and related topics.

Currently airing show discussion threads are created by our resident bot, rikka@ani.social. If it doesn't make a thread for an episode that you want to discuss, see the user guide on the wiki for instructions on how to ask rikka to make a thread for you to use.

Check out our wiki to find:

Rules

More complete rules on the wiki.

Post Tags

Post tags are completely optional, but some recommended tags would include:

Related General Communities

Discord

Thanks to @NineSwords@ani.social for running the discord!

rikka

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
hitagi@ani.social
wjs018@ani.social
wjs018@lemmy.world
rikka@ani.social
wjs018@piefed.social