I think that the manga industry acting as a sort of startup incubator for future anime adaptations helps a lot. That being said, some of my favorite series are

I think that the manga industry acting as a sort of startup incubator for future anime adaptations helps a lot. That being said, some of my favorite series are not based on a manga original work, such as Cowboy Bebop, Sonny Boy, Serial Experiments Lain, and Psycho-Pass. https://myanimelist.net/anime/1/Cowboy_Bebop https://myanimelist.net/anime/1/Cowboy_Bebop https://myanimelist.net/anime/48849/Sonny_Boy https://myanimelist.net/anime/48849/Sonny_Boy https://myanimelist.net/anime/339/Serial_Experiments_Lain https://myanimelist.net/anime/339/Serial_Experiments_Lain https://myanimelist.net/anime/13601/Psycho-Pass https://myanimelist.net/anime/13601/Psycho-Pass Your comment made me think about this aspect of Lain specifically: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_Experiments_Lain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_Experiments_Lain > Ueda had to answer repeated queries about a statement he had made in an Animerica interview where he claimed that Lain was "a sort of cultural war against American culture and the American sense of values we [Japan] adopted after World War II". He later explained in numerous interviews that he created Lain with a set of values he viewed as distinctly Japanese; he hoped Americans would not understand the series as the Japanese would. This would lead to a "war of ideas" over the meaning of the anime, hopefully culminating in new communication between the two cultures. When Ueda discovered that the American audience held most of the same views on the series as the Japanese did, he was disappointed. Somehow, I view that as a success instead of a failure; somehow doing your job so well as a creator that despite your low expectations of your audience, your efforts are not in vain.