this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2025
40 points (97.6% liked)

Anime

3265 readers
62 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
 

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@lemmy.blahaj.zone 15 points 4 days ago (1 children)

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.