Madoka is also not the first magical girl series where the Mentor Mascot turns out not to be trustworthy and has ulterior motives for helping the protagonist. The sequel, Rebellion, is heavily inspired by The Nutcracker, and it's not the first anime to use that source material for a meta-fictional magical girl show. Just for starters, Revolutionary Girl Utena predates Madoka by 14 years, Shamanic Princess by 15, and Majokko Meg-chan by 37. The series is often called " Evangelion meets the Magical Girl genre" for supposedly being the first Magical Girl Genre Deconstruction (plus a heaping helping of Cosmic Horror Story in both). Yoshiaki Kawajiri, the director of Ninja Scroll, even cited Makai Tensho as the main inspiration for the film, down to basing most of its characters off of the cast of Makai Tensho, who themselves are based off of historical figures. Furthermore, the plot of Makai Tensho predates Ninja Scroll by a good 36 years, as it is based on a 1967 novel of the same name. However, in Japan, the anime isn't even called Ninja Resurrection: ADV Films renamed it from Makai Tensho to deliberately capitalize on Ninja Scroll's popularity. A rather infamous example, Ninja Resurrection has been accused of ripping off Ninja Scroll, due to both anime having a lead character called Jubei and the Ninja part in both logos looking dangerously identical. Also, Zambot 3 deconstructed the whole genre including the Kid Hero trope - in the late seventies, and Space Runaway Ideon in the early eighties. 
Also, Tetsuya Tsurugi from Great Mazinger deconstructed the arrogant, Hotblooded Ace Pilot archetype long before Asuka Langley Soryu. Most notably, the idea that giving a teenager the power to destroy the world will have bad consequences was used in Mazinger Z, right during the second chapter of the original manga, making it much of an Unbuilt Trope.
Speaking of Neon Genesis Evangelion, while it is commonly viewed as Deconstruction of old idealistic Super Robot shows, some of the more notable ones actually have been done before. Eva had spiral energy - background material gives the source of the S2 organ's power as the double helix of DNA (which may just be the reason why Gurren Lagann has its universe centered around it). Likewise, many elements and concepts that people assume originated in Gurren Lagann were actually derived from the Getter Robo series - particularly ludicrously oversized mecha, Combining Mecha that combined with anything, and the idea of an energy source that has strong links with the principle of evolution - and the risk of overusing it. The Rei Ayanami Expy was actually predated by Chirico Cuvie from Armored Trooper VOTOMS, which had come in 1983, 12 years before Evangelion premiered (and he also came to share many of the Unbuilt Trope qualities that Rei had come to epitomize). However, GaoGaiGar both did it long before Gurren Lagann by being specifically written as a Reconstruction of super-robot manga, which the author felt had been written from an increasingly dark and unpleasant angle. Many Gurren Lagann fans believe that it is the first anime to address this trend. Neon Genesis Evangelion was a culmination of increasingly darker takes on the Super Robot genre. Ironically, Naruto itself experienced this when it debuted in Japan the story came hot off the heels of the then-recent end of resident ninja powerhouse manga Ninku in Shonen Jump, prompting many who were fans of the latter to call the newcomer a ripoff. The idea of ninjas possessing all kinds of strange mystical powers and acting more like Kung Fu Wizards is also an important and long-lasting part of ninja folklore in Japan. Any series that features ninjutsu as a main theme will be accused of ripping off Naruto for example, Ranma ½ (manga 1987, anime 1989). The concept of a ninja named Sasuke is also far older than Naruto, and it's pretty much the standard "ninja name" in Japan, this is due one of the most famous Ninja of the Bakumatsu Period was Sarutobi Sasuke. 
They're characters from Japanese folklore.
This also applies to anyone who thinks Jiraiya, Orochimaru and Tsunade originated in Naruto. Tengai Makyou first came out 1989, 10 years before Naruto, and parodies much of the same Japanese mythology that Naruto draws on. Many people seem to complain that the video game series Tengai Makyou (AKA Far East of Eden) is a ripoff in many ways of Naruto, its main offenses being that it's overly Japanese, it features a character that can summon giant frogs, and has characters named Orochimaru, Jiriya (Ziria) and Tsunade. Wells had everyone beat by more than 50 years with a steam powered mechanical elephant and Martian Tripod Terror. Many people seem to think anime/manga invented the Mecha idea when actually Jules Verne and H.
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