Sliding Scale of Anime Obscurity


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    On All The Tropes, There Is No Such Thing as Notability. But what if there were?

    This is an approximate categorization of how well-known or obscure anime series are. This list is to be used as a guideline. It may be handy as an informed guess as to whether your audience might know what series you're talking about.

    This list is divided into seven categories. They are:

    • Level 0: Series is so well-known that many people outside the anime fandom generally know about this. The series is to some extent part of worldwide pop culture (and usually dominates in Japan).
    • Level 1: Some people outside the anime fandom may have heard of this. Pretty much everyone in the fandom knows about the series. They may not know it in great detail, but they should know enough to talk about the series and likely have an opinion on it. You may find limited traces of it in pop culture.
    • Level 2: Detailed knowledge is mainly restricted to a specialized fandom, but most people in the fandom know about it enough to have some idea what it's about.
    • Level 3: General awareness is not guaranteed, but fandoms are sizable enough to be notable.
    • Level 4: Fandoms are small, but sizable enough that the series still shows up on some radars. For example, you may be able to find a number of fan-videos focused on these series, and chances are that in any bunch of 10-20 tropers you might have one or two who know the series in question other than you. The internet has really helped bring these fandoms together, due to how small and scattered they tend to be.
    • Level 5: Even more obscure. Fandoms very small, mainly because word hasn't really even got out about the existence of this series. You'd probably be lucky to find 1 out of those 20; you should be casting your net wider. If the series isn't current, you might be one of only a handful in a convention who knows of it.
    • Level 6: For things that, while they exist, seem to be impossible to find, even on the internet with modern proliferation of filesharing.

    Rules about this list:

    • The general anime fandom, as relevant to this list, is defined as being:
      • the English-speaking anime fandom[1], AND
      • as is present on the internet.
    • Substantially different adaptations that have led to split fandoms, such as between GoLion and Voltron, can be listed separately in this list.
    • This list pertains only to anime series. Do not include manga-only series. Only judge popularity of the anime itself; if the manga is very famous but few fans know about the existence of the anime version, it still counts as obscure.

    Things to remember when reading, editing, and using this list:

    • When editing this list, please give an edit reason, especially if you are moving a series from one category to another. Try to avoid edit wars if at all possible; if a dispute can't be resolved, take it to the fora.
    • This list is not a measure of the quality of a show. Very obscure series can be very good, pretty good, meh, pretty bad, and very bad. Try to think as objectively as possible about how many people within the groups stated in the criteria above would know the series.
    • If this article should be translated to another language, please make it pertain to the internet anime fandom in that language, not English. Rankings may obviously be different.
    • Please list series in alphabetical order, and please type out alternate names (such as "Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha" and "Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha"), so it's easier for other people to read the list and find series.
    • Recent series may be difficult to categorize. It can take some time for the hype to subside.

    The list is formatted in folders. The top folder is not part of the list, but a separate list of works that people have requested rankings for, but which they themselves have not been able to place. You, the reader, are requested to help out.

    Series requesting placement

    The List

    Level 0 series


    Level 1 series


    Level 2 series


    Level 3 series


    Level 4 series


    Level 5 series

    Level 6 series

    • Aku Daisakusen Srungle
    • California Crisis
    • Candy Candy
    • Garzeys Wing (possibly a level 5, but even then, only because of a single video which was linked to from This Wiki. As a testament to how obscure the series is, the video failed to spawn Memetic Mutation)
    • Eagle Riders
    • Goshogun Etranger (aka Time Stranger): Of the few who have seen this, no one seems to notice the connection between this movie and the Macekre known as Macron I.
    • Macron I (a Macekre of the anime series Goshogun of which the previous entry is a followup)
    • Idol Densetsu Eriko
    • Pokonyan!
    • Princess Rouge: The Legend of the Last Labyrinth
    • Windaria: The original Japanese non-Macekered version is impossible to find anywhere in the West although some have claimed to have seen it and universally declare its superiority.
    • Pretty much anything made before 1960 (although Japanese animation shorts from the '20s have been well preserved and are easily available on YouTube for viewing)
    1. ↑ Thus, Sazae-san is Level 5 for this list despite being the longest-running animated series on Earth (and Level 0 in Japan).
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