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Other than Evangelion, what are the best anime series/films by general consensus?
- Thread starter ToddBonzalez
- Start date
So you've never seen the works of Masaaki Yuasa?
If not, please rectify:
Mind Game
Ping Pong The Animation
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Obviously Satoshi Kon's oeuvre.
Magnetic Rose was the short film in the anthology movie Memories that first put him on peoples' radar:
Millennium Actress:
Ohayou (Good Morning)
And of course The Dreaming Machine, which is totally coming out some day because of course they aren't just going to leave it completely storyboarded and half animated. Why would they do that? I'm not crying, you're crying.
Every Frame a Painting did a video essay on him that I feel clinically compelled to share:
Satoshi Kon is criminally underappreciated in the US. You can't even get any of his films on Blu-ray aside from Paprika.
I know. GKids is actually doing an updated release of Perfect Blue in March 2019, though, and hopefully his other work will follow.
No other recommendations for A Silent Voice. You all have no souls. >:(
It's a shame such a masterpiece had to be so overshadowed by Your Name.
It's a shame such a masterpiece had to be so overshadowed by Your Name.
Did they announce that? I know they were involved in the new restoration and theatrical release, but didn't realize they'd announced a home release.
I need Tokyo Godfathers and Paranoia Agent in HD.
Angel's Egg is probably my all time favorite anime film. Don't know if I'd quantify it as one of the "best", but to me it's just so profoundly engaging.
The ones I've seen that are considered all-time greats:
Cowboy Bebop
Steins;Gate
Gurren Lagann
Madoka Magicka
Monster
Fullmetal Alchemist
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (generally considered to be an improvement, especially where the final arc+ending are concerned but there are still a lot of defenders of the first series)
The ones I haven't yet seen that are considered greats:
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Planetes
FLCL
Ping Pong
Kill la Kill (hated it. The pervy fan-service, parody or not, was unbearable)
Space Brothers
Clannad
Your Lie in April
Serial Experiments Lain
Hunter x Hunter (need to push through Greed Island)
Pyscho-Pass (lost interest and people telling me that Season 2 is awful didn't help)
Code Geass (couldn't finish it after a certain tragic moment)
Cowboy Bebop
Steins;Gate
Gurren Lagann
Madoka Magicka
Monster
Fullmetal Alchemist
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (generally considered to be an improvement, especially where the final arc+ending are concerned but there are still a lot of defenders of the first series)
The ones I haven't yet seen that are considered greats:
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Planetes
FLCL
Ping Pong
Kill la Kill (hated it. The pervy fan-service, parody or not, was unbearable)
Space Brothers
Clannad
Your Lie in April
Serial Experiments Lain
Hunter x Hunter (need to push through Greed Island)
Pyscho-Pass (lost interest and people telling me that Season 2 is awful didn't help)
Code Geass (couldn't finish it after a certain tragic moment)
Fullmetal Alchemist Original and Brotherhood (I generally prefer Brotherhood as it becomes much more "epic blockbuster" towards the end of the series, but the Original is excellent in its own way and some of the arcs are done better in this version. I suggest you watch both and make your own decision)
Trigun
Outlaw Star
The Big O (If anything the noir art style of the show makes it an enjoyable watch, Roger Smith's car is something I want to drive)
Steins;Gate
Devilman Crybaby (This one is just completely bonkers, but a hell of a ride. It definitely isn't for everyone due to its violence/subject matter/sexual themes and the art style is quite different from other shows)
Cowboy Bebop
Trigun
Outlaw Star
The Big O (If anything the noir art style of the show makes it an enjoyable watch, Roger Smith's car is something I want to drive)
Steins;Gate
Devilman Crybaby (This one is just completely bonkers, but a hell of a ride. It definitely isn't for everyone due to its violence/subject matter/sexual themes and the art style is quite different from other shows)
Cowboy Bebop
If you didn't like Millennium Actress or Tokyo Godfathers then you have no soul.
However, Paprika and Paranoia Agent (excluding *that episode*) are crap and Perfect Blue is massively overrated.
In no way would I ever describe any of those as crappy. There is a lot more deserving of that description.
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Yeah that might be going a bit too far. Paprika isn't terrible but its by far his worse film. And I think Perfect Blue is really overrated and it being held up as his magnum opus is more a product of it having the most exposure to western audiences than its actual quality.
I do think most of Paranoia Agent is bad though, but it does have some brilliant moments
The suicide pact episode and the episode where the detective's dying wife "defeats" lil slugger by coming to terms with her life regrets were both great
I never watched these.
I tried watching PA later, but I never finished for whatever reason, so it's hard to remember if I was positive on it or not. Paprika and Perfect Blue I have seen, and yea, didn't like them, especially the latter. Honestly, any hardcore Perfect Blue fan would hate me and my friends' when we watched it, the only enjoyment we got out of it was an unintentionally hilarious moment towards the end. I wished I had watched it while drunk/high in hindsight.
Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, Samurai Champloo, and FLCL are my favorites.
Paranoia Agent is also great.
Paranoia Agent is also great.
Pistols at dawn. Paranoia Agent is a masterpiece and Paprika is one of the best dream-logic movies ever made.
Doing my annual viewing this weekend.
You've given some great recommendations so I'm curious what you thought about Belladonna of Sadness.
I watched it a few months ago and while it was interesting, I didn't really enjoy it.
It's pretty wild, man. A fascinating film but not a good film.
As a work of avant garde animation, peak counter-culture adult animation, I think it's absolutely worth watching. But I would pretty much only recommend it to fans of such things.
The film did prompt a thought in my mind: does something have to be good to be Great? The film is undeniably beautiful and one of a kind. I've never seen anything like it before. The illustrations are gorgeous, the animations (when present) are stunning, shocking, mind-melting sequences.
Art for art's sake. Hedonistic. That's how I would describe the film.
But it's also a failure, IMO, when it comes to storytelling and Big Ideas. There's the undeniably uncomfortable dissonance between what appears to be the message of the film and the way that the artists portray Jeanne.
I think the film sits comfortably in the pantheon of arthouse animation, which is to say that I think it justifies its own existence by simply being so goddamn beautiful, and certainly it had an effect on Japanese animation, but I don't see it ever having much appeal to the majority.
FWIW, Miyazaki hated it.
Still, difficult to hate imagery like this, IMO:
The above sequence, much longer in the film, really blew my mind.
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I think that's a pretty great description of the film.
Out of curiousity, have you seen Cat Soup? It's not as wild visually, but to me it felt like it fills a similar place as a film, but does a better job of it. Maybe it's a weird comparison, but something feels parallel to the two.
Ctrl + F "Planetes". 1 result per page.
Fuck this life.
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Watch Utena, OP. And Planetes (if you can find it somewhere).
Fuck this life.
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Watch Utena, OP. And Planetes (if you can find it somewhere).
UTENA
Akira
Cowboy Bebop
Mushishi
Your Name
Summer Wars
Perfect Blue
Millenium Actress
Space Brothers
Paprika
Tokyo Godfathers
Rahxephon
Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust (ridiculous animation)
Redline film (also insane animation)
Paranoia Agent (good luck finding it)
Ghost in the Shell (movies and both seasons of SAC)
Almost all of Ghibli
Yesssss
Akira
Cowboy Bebop
Mushishi
Your Name
Summer Wars
Perfect Blue
Millenium Actress
Space Brothers
Paprika
Tokyo Godfathers
Rahxephon
Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust (ridiculous animation)
Redline film (also insane animation)
Paranoia Agent (good luck finding it)
Ghost in the Shell (movies and both seasons of SAC)
Almost all of Ghibli
Yesssss
Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day.
I've watched A LOT of anime. This one sticks out the most for whatever reason.
I've watched A LOT of anime. This one sticks out the most for whatever reason.
Oh, tons of tangible parallels. Japanese surrealist animation is clearly informed by Belladonna of Sadness and its contemporaries. Certainly you can see it in the works of Masaaki Yuasa and he was the art director & screenplay author for Cat Soup.
Look at this scene from his masterpiece Mind Game and tell me you don't see the influence:
(This is obvs NSFW but not graphic, just suggestive really)
A parallel sequence in Belladonna of Sadness:
Incidentally, those might be my favorite sequences from each respective film.
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My man.............
Dragon Ball Z.
However, if you're looking for something more along the line of Eva, I'm going to echo the recommendations for Ghost in the Shell, Akira, and many of Ghibli's films.
In terms of general consensus, easily Revolutionary Girl Utena, Cowboy Bebop and most recently Shirobako.
For me personally Nichijou is a masterpiece but I know a lot of people find it's sense of humour too surreal for their tastes, so it doesn't really count.
For me personally Nichijou is a masterpiece but I know a lot of people find it's sense of humour too surreal for their tastes, so it doesn't really count.