Death Note

>Death Note
>Naruto
>Fullmetal Alchemist
>DBZ
>Attack on Titan
>Sword Art Online

What particular set of traits makes these gateway anime

Not losers.

toonami

The fact that they're popular, apparently.

Which doesn't actually make any sense, but at least Sup Forums has one thing they can agree on.

Marketing

The plots are more or less easy to understand and you don't need a background in Japanese customs to understand what's going on

Generally:
Clear and appealing premise
Simple and cliche stories and characters
Fights and action
Low levels of moe or fan service

They appeal to westerners

They're good anime

Cancer is popular

You've got your cause and effect mixed up hipster friend

/thread

Definitely not. Cancer is popular, but it isn't the only thing that is popular. That is to say, there are popular series that are not cancer

Have various elements that pull casuals in. Also the only one out of that list that I liked is FMA the rest are shit.

In what way

>Male hero
>Action
>Fast conflict
>World building
>No SOL
>No moe
>No heavy fanservice
>No school seting

More appealing for a broad public

Plenty of people only know anime was that featured on Toonami/WB/Fox and a few bothered to watch gurren lagann on sci-fi.

>No SOL
>No moe
>No heavy fanservice
>No school setting

Sounds to me like you're just describing anime that isn't fucking trash moeshit here, user.

It aired on Toonami.

I want to IMPREGNATE NICO NICO

I'd like to watch Nico Nico get fucked by a dog

Evangelion and Seraph of the End were my gateway animes, My weeb friend is a huge faggot...

The same thing that makes any anime popular anywhere. Advertising.

>easily accessable
>lots of episodes
>fantasy setting
>violence
>little referential humor or "sexual content"

They're popular with niggers and/or normie whites.

You forgot to add Sakurasou and Shigatsu. For some reason every time I see these shows being praised it's always coming from someone who watched less than 20 anime.