Lucky Star and K-on for CGDCT
Evangelion for meta-commentary and deconstruction, to the point that future works that qualify often get called the “Evangelion of <genre>”
Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood and Attack on Titan for battle shounen
Bocchi the Rock for girls band anime, specifically
Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro for pretty much all of Ghibli
Akira for 90s anime
I had to think a bit hard to identify and guesstimate what was some of my first “impactful” anime personally, and after dragon ball and doraemon that aired on national TV as our saturday morning cartoon (I wasn’t considering it “anime” yet as a child), it has to be ranma 1/2 and gensomaden saiyuki when I was a teenager and it was airing on axn when our family gotten satellite TV. And then it was gundam wing and seed after that, since those too got aired on national TV.
There’s actually another anime I’d like to include, but over the years scouring what AXN and toonami has shown back in the 90s and 00s, that was then imported a second time through my country’s first satellite TV network, I just couldn’t find it. And it even involved a small buckler sized shields and have time magic or something, and a woman chosen one or something. I just could not find it. Whenever I remember my crusade for this anime I am a bit upset>
Hm… Homura uses a small shield sometimes, she has time magic, and Madoka is about as chosen as it gets… are you thinking of Puella Magi Madoka Magica?
Nope, I was in my 20s back then. this is older. the same period as first ranma 1/2 anime. around that. and yes, as I was watching PMMM weekly back then, That Episode blew my head.