JCStaff

This was a reply to a specific comment so feel free to ignore this starting explanation portion:
As of 4/22/2015
I tried writing this a few ways and it was a pain, so I'm gonna just go the easy list route rather than listing off with a lot of comments as that was taking me fucking forever so I deleted it all. I also got lazy and just threw good-to-incredible into the same fucking category. You didn't ask for good/incredible but masterpieces, but I felt like including them mostly as a reply to you claiming they somehow make "more misses than hits" and "an average studio" while also basically being the production studio with the most anime created in the industry and the unarguably biggest impact on anime as a whole.

Also, keep in mind my profile states, I'm paraphrasing because I'm writing this in a notepad file with the list - that JC Staff has made more masterpieces and industry-changing shows THAN any other studio - not that "all they've made is masterpieces". Just a reminder. Basically I'm saying JC Staff has had more of an impact on the industry throughout history than any other studio.

Widely accepted as masterpieces (so not just my opinion to be fair) / Things that define or cemented genres, character archetypes, etc

Slayers
Slayers Next
Slayers Try

Revolutionary Girl Utena (I think it's total shit though)

Excel Saga

Azumanga Daioh (It's thanks to this that pretty much any group-of-friends style slice of life comedy actually exists today in the way it does - something would have done it eventually, but Azumanga was the first to be truly successful and cement the genre, the character types, and even a lot of jokes and designs that are both inspiring anime still to this day and being directly plagiarized at times)

Honey & Clover and Honey & Clover 2 (It's thanks to this that people finally realized 'slice of life' didn't have to mean storyless, overly lengthy, or comedic. It's also considered the best romance series ever made by many and features incredibly realistic characters and developments for said characters, which is fairly rare in anime. One of the most popular drama and romance series ever. It also set the new standard for what romance anime would aim for from then on)

Nodame Cantabile trilogy (See above, just add that it's one of the most successful romance and music anime ever made as well. On top of that H&C and Nodame are some of the first widely accepted Josei adaptations ever made, helping pave the way for more in the future. Just like the above I could split out the sequels and explain how each one did more in various ways for anime but this works well enough)

Toradora (Definitely set a revolution for romance and introduced a fuck ton of people into the genre who had prior avoided it, even while not being original, unique, or all that special it somehow hooked in thousands of people who would have avoided any romance)

Railgun and Railgun S (As I said already, S especially has pretty close to undeniably the best art, animation, cinematography, atmosphere, directing, and voice acting in the entire history of the medium outside of a couple UFOtable films which isn't fair to compare due to film budgets being much higher.)

Maid Sama (This is still seen as the defining series of shoujo romcom and is what they all still strive to be, and much like Azumanga what many just straight up try to recreate or ripoff)

Bakuman and sequels

Kare Kano (Co-produced with Gainax, still counts)

Loveless (Bit too gay for me, but that doesn't make it bad and it's one of the most popular shounen-ai ever really and brought a lot of people into anime and manga, mostly fujoshi both in Japan and in the west)

Hayate



Good to incredible but not quite masterpieces/not AS (or not at all) relevant to the industry as a whole. Though this does include some I'd say are masterpieces or close to it but also does not include some that are just below good or are plain mediocre/average.

Rune Soldier

A Little Snow Fairy Sugar

Ai Yori Aoshi
Ai Yori Aoshi Enishi

Nanaka 6/17

Someday's Dreamers

R.O.D. TV

Tsukihime (before you pretend it's shit, yeah it's a terrible adaptation - but on it's own it's actually a pretty good show if you ignore the source material which is already shit anyway but people like to pretend Type-Moon is capable of anything but turds outside of KNK. It also has a fantastic OST that was made just for the show.)

Doki Doki School Hours

Starship Operators

Mahoraba (NOT Maburaho)

Gokujou Seitokai

Yomigaeru Sora Rescue Wings

Ghost Hunt

Potemayo

Shigofumi

Aoi Hana

Taisho Baseball Girls

Otome Yokai Zakuro

Yumekui Merry

Kami-sama no Memo-chou

Kill Me Baby

Joshiraku

Little Busters and sequel

Sakurasou

Golden Time

Wixoss
Wixoss 2

DanMachi