toll these shows are so fucking ugly
Look, nothing says “use a condom” like high school sex ed class where they show you those genital warts that what got antlions sticking out of the pus. I’m not saying all anime is like that. I’m saying you better be prepared.
#LifeGoals
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Wait a minute.
Is Aderack our Harlock? Just needs the bird. I assume everyone of a certain age has dead friends.
Man, this was The Anime the year it came out in the US, and I never actually got to watch it. I think it may be one of the ones that my brother said wasn’t that great and wasn’t worth buying for $16.99
I’m probably just going to say Patlabor again
Or maybe The Little Norse Prince
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Utena should be watched directly before, after, or during Evangelion. They occupy basically the same space in the general fandom, the fandom around each one is pretty gendered.
utena is at least 100x better than eva tho
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Pft. Of course you would say that; you’re a girl.
But yeah: Utena is really really great.
But obviously (to those who know my taste in anime) Eva was the greater influence on me. I def like Eva better, because it blew my mind when I was 8 and then again at 13 when the movie came out.
I promise you that if you watch all of these animes you will be the coolest person at your college.
Guitar stings will play when you tilt the sunglasses that will be grafted to your face.
Movies/OAV:
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Blood Reign - My default recommendation for a top-tier anime movie that was release in the US long ago and yet nobody has heard of or cares about. A haunting ghost story of a ninja making his way through the spiritually and politically corrupt world of the Warring States period. It features unusually realistic (thus: low-key) fight scenes and unusually painterly direction. First half episode is perfect, second gets a bit anime.
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The Ringing Bell - Fable of a baby lamb who must make its way in the world after its mother is killed by a wolf. Created by Sanrio, I think between Unico and Hello Kitty.
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Ursuei Yatsure: Beautiful Dreamer - Considered a classic. Basically a simple movie tie-in with the popular anime series created by the woman who would go on to create Ranma 1/2, it’s also an early Oshii work; and it shows.
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Gunbuster/Top no Ware - Just a wonderful Gundam-influenced anime that–in retrospect–forms Gainax’s bridge between the florid melodrama of Gundam to the florid melodrama of Evangelion. Also, just lots of wonderful little touches throughout. A true labor of love that put Gainax on the map (though maybe they were on the map already; I dunno).
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Angel’s Egg - There’s a movie that tries to follow Amano character and world designs as faithfully as possible, and that should really be enough for you. It also has cool direction and is in that tiny genre of anime art films.
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Birth/Planet Busters/The World of the Talisman - This is the only one I’m not sure holds up. Fun space romp with a very 70’s/80’s feel. Visual panache vaguely reminds me of Moebius.
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Wings of Honneamaise - Never actually watched this one, but Tulpa says it’s of equal quality to a Ghibli movie. Gainax’s attempt to prove that they’re the best, most ambitious animation house in the planet. Didn’t end up making them much money, so I think they scrapped the idea of doing films for a while.
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Belladonna of Sadness - I am shocked and horrified that nobody on goddamn SELECT BUTTON has recommended Beladonna of Sadness yet. What have we become? The most cult of cult anime, rivaled only by Suehiro Maruo’s movie, which is not as highly regarded.
Really, if you want to be a good pre-97 anime nerd, you should watch everything Gainax did up until that point, because each thing was a different type of classic. Nadia. Otaku no Video is a wonderful look into what it was to be an anime nerd in 1990. It’s meta as hell and features live gag footage of Otaku.
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it is not a Miyazaki movie its a Mamoru Oshii movie. How did you even confuse the two
I was thinking of Castle of Cagliostro
When it comes to series all that comes to mind other than Evangelion and Utena are Ranma 1/2 and Nadia.
I never actually watched Nadia, but it’s Gainax and people love it; so it’s probably genius.
I think I’m SB’s most die-hard Ranma 1/2 fan, which is–of course–a great sadness. Ranma is basically Japanese Archie, but so much more than that, because it has funny pictures.
Basically, Ranma is a will-they-won’t-they that feigns at becoming a love triangle and over time becomes a harem anime. Except it’s a harem anime based on a manga written by a woman; so the point is really more whackiness than it is about picking your personal waifu.
The OAV’s are definitely the best episodes in both humor and animation, but you should know the characters before watching them. Plus, I think the first couple seasons of the show are pretty damn entertaining. So I’d start the show and then just watch the OAV’s when you lose interest.
There are series that I think of and reference from time-to-time, but I pretty much only care about them out of retro nostalgia. These include Kimagure Orange Road and Yawara! A Fashionable Judo Girl.
but these are both better than Evangelion too
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Once again you let your fetish for delinquent schoolgirls playing sultry saxophone solos blind you to the truth.
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Tulpa, you’ll be happy to know that a YouTube search for Yawara quickly yields at least two AMV’s set to rap rock.
Oh man, I seriously always forget that the protag in KOR is telekinetic, because for me the show is so much more about the sultry saxophone solos.
Jesus, apparently Tezuka did a lot more (and more ambitious) animation than I realized.
Including–I think–a feature adaptation of a hit manga from the 70’s that only Tulpa’s Wife cares about these days:
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Definitely Iria: Zieram the Animation and Rurouni Kenshin Season 2, they can carry nostalgia payloads. Nadesico was great a lot of the time and hyper-concentrated in its tropiness, but I recall being pretty disappointed with where it ends up.
Often slow and sometimes awkward, but still pretty unique. I love Key The Metal Idol:
It has some aspects that feel like a precursor to Lain.
After Tenchi, still harem-ish, the more exotic adventurey El-Hazard (original) is pretty damn fun and entertaining.
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Blood potion for key the metal idol
It has an insane exposition laden penultimate episode that is a pain to get through yet I still ended up liking the show a lot overall.
Key the Metal Idol began a year before Evangelion and ended a year before Lain and it somehow anticipated both.
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