Other than the Fate series, “Record of Ragnarok”, and “Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?” What others besides these?
How thin do you want to stretch it? Dragonball is based on the old Chinese myth of Journey to the West. Neon Genesis Evangelion is based on Christian myths.
NGE’s more skewed towards
RabbinicKabbalah Judaism. Still Abrahamic though.Anno has flat out said that Eva’s religious imagery was just an esthetic. If it’s based on any myth, it’s his fandom of Ultraman.
I’m aware of that, I just wanted to share where he got some of the imagery!
Yep, got my flavours of Judaism mixed-up.
…and it’s just Anno cherry picking “cool” stuff anyway ;-)
and I kinda love him for that!
“Dragonball is based on the old Chinese myth of Journey to the West”
I never made the connection between goku’s peculiarities and journey to the West, that’s interesting, thanks.
I mean this as politely as possible but you thought a man name Goku, who won martial arts tournaments through deceptive techniques, had a monkey tail, transformed into an ape, used a magic cloud as transportation, and had an extending pole as a weapon was unrelated to Journey to the West?
nope
Son Gokuu is the Japanese reading of the name Sun Wukong.
yup
Seven deadly sins uses a lot of biblical and mythical influences.
Trinity Blood uses the papal state as a government.
Hetalia Axis powers uses mythical representations of countries as characters, this might be a stretch.Noragami is a great one about Japanese mythology.
Ancient Magus Bride has lots of Anglo mythology.
Depends on how freely you assign historical tales mythical status, but Vinland Saga contains a lot of influence lifted directly from actual Viking stories like the Greenlander Saga.
There’s enough of the fantastical in both the historical sources and in the adaptation that I think it qualifies as an adaptation of folklore, if not myth.
Evangelion is based on christian mythology.
Saint Seya, Kamisama Hajimemashita, InuYasha and Natsume Yuujinchou series came first to my mind
The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun
It was originally suppose to be about the Ainu people of Japan, but that was vetoed by the executives.
Tatsuki’s Kemurikusa is based on
spoiler
Japan’s origin myth of Izanami and Izanagi
but you don’t realize that until the end.
Hozuki’s Coolheadedness is all about various Japanese and Chinese legends and afterlife myths. Europe’s Satan even pays a visit.
Blood of Zeus is an obvious one
xXx holic has a lot of japanese myth
Inuyasha is heavily influenced by it
The Monogatari series is…adapted?
Doro he doro a bit
Natsume’s book of friends has a lot about yokai and stuff, not as much mythology
The tale of princess Kaguya (one of my favorites) is a version of the old Chinese tale of the bamboo cutter
Ghost stories (English dub only - I promise) but it’s any ghost stories
Heike story - I think, follows a girl who plays the biwa and can see the future, more historical
Theater of darkness - a collection of scary stories that would have their origins in myth
Kyousougiga - a story about love, reincarnation, very Japanese myth. Hard to explain but one that I loved
Thunderbolt fantasy - actually puppets, physical puppets. But more Chinese myth than japanese. It was actually a good story too
Maybe kamisama hajimemashita - a girl becomes a shrine god, a rom-com
Mushi-shi - one of my favorites, there are these spirits called musho that are more like energy and the foundation of life. They can cause issues in the world and the MC is like a physician or detective
Yuyu Hakusho was inspired by it
A lot of ghibli movies
While it’s not fully based on mythology, there is a lot of it intertwined into Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. The meaning of Truth, the role of Sins in life, the role of Men and Women in society, the meaning of Life. A lot of it is covered in fairly abstract ways that only really reveal themselves after a few watches.
I don’t think I’ve seen anybody mention GeGeGe no Kitarō yet, the anime/manga that single handedly revived interest in Japanese folklore and mythology.
Dragonball
Well depends on your standards. Saint Seiya is one that comes to mind, because I’m old, but as with most animes the plot has hardly anything to do with actual myth. It’s just characters based lightly on mythical characters.
Using some concepts, but not really a retelling of the story:
Matantei Loki Ragnarok
Aa! Megami-sama!
Oh My Goddess! was a favorite of mine. Silly but emotionally poignant at the same time.
Fate.
the entire series is based on something else but it features a lot of mythical characters
I guess this got downvotes because it mostly has the mythical people by name only? Or is there anything else I’m missing?
OP already mentioned it.
