Going through the works I recall, here's a rough and very incomplete chronological list of some of the more impressive and iconic works produced by the animation industry in Japan. It's quite nice to see how it has developed by going through the visuals first-hand, and it's rather mind-blowing to see how even films from the last century have animation qualities that put 2010 shows (that have the aid of CGI, computerized cels, image manipulation tools, etc.) to shame.

I embedded sample clips I could find on Youtube of as high quality as possible. Unfortunately most uploads were of fight scenes (since those seem to be the most attractive to people), and it is difficult to isolate original content from all those AMVs (where A might as well stand for awful).

Watch these things full-screen.

DAICON IV Opening Animation clip: 1981
Even though it says "opening animation" this is sadly the whole thing. This was very good animation for the time, not to mention that it was an amateur production, making the creators instantly cooler than you will ever be. The people who made it went on to form studio GAINAX.


Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (film): 1984
The first work by the members of Studio Ghibli, who founded it after this film's production. Directed by Hayao Miyazaki.


Akira (film): 1988
160,000 cels; no "limited animation". Since it used cels, higher quality versions can be released without remastering. Go traditional animation!


Grave of the Fireflies (film): 1988
One of Studio Ghibli's earlier works, the animation quality is quite decent, and the film itself is very human as well, as a very emotionally touching and symbolically powerful production.


You're Under Arrest! (series): 1996
Despite being a TV series made by studio Deen in 1996 the animation is very fluid and consistent across the 51 episodes. It's proof that you do not need complicated details to have hax animation quality in the final product, because animation is, after all, about the movement, not the imagery.


End of Evangelion (film): 1997
Iconic production of the Evangelion franchise. Video may contain some spoilers for people who have not seen the film yet.

*I could not find HD clips that are available on youtube (copyright claims by Bandai), and I could not locate segments from the original 1995 show (Bandai flags everything and uploads their own dubbed trailers for 1.11).

Cowboy Bebop (series): 1998
The animation quality is completely hacked for 1998. Even Wikipedia describes it as "award-winning". Couldn't find a non-dubbed version that didn't have the intro sequence cut off unfortunately.


Serial Experiments Lain (series): 1998
Sometimes referred to as a "cult anime" of sorts, the short series is packed with philosophical commentary, psychological exploration, literary allusion, as well as many intellectually stimulating elements and themes. While the series lacks fluid and realistic animation, the artistic value is more than made up by its other aspects. Whenever it uses English, it does so accurately; no gratuitous "Engrish" anywhere. Looking back at it from 2010, it is actually a bit scary how accurate this series is even to this day. I highly recommend this series if you have not watched it yet.

"Present day; present time!" indeed.


Escaflowne (film): 2000
One of the most stunning visual masterpieces of the time, Escaflowne still outperforms many modern animated productions. More than one minute and thirty seconds of the below clip (the combat scene) was drawn by a single animator without assistance.


Spirited Away (film): 2001
Ah, this one. You probably saw the English version at some point before. I picked a subbed trailer for convenience.

Miyazaki is awesome.


Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (film): 2004
This is a 2004 animated film. Let that sink in for a while. 2004.


Karas (OVA): 2005+
Sadly, much of the later works in the GitS franchise failed to achieve a great blend of 2D animation and CGI, with the 2D standing out as "poorly animated" compared to the fluid movements of CGI figures. The Karas OVAs, however, performed much better where the GitS films failed, with its fusion of 2D and 3D art creating a visually stunning presentation,


Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance (film): 2010
Not animated by GAINAX, but the animation is surprisingly faithful to the original 1995 series. How much of it is CGI, and how much is hand-drawn? Guess the rule of thumb finally prevails: "If you think 'nice CG', then they did it wrong".


I will add more entries later once I get through the mess of useless AMVs and find original footage, but I just wanted to throw this thread out there in the meantime.

For reference:


Post has been edited 10 time(s), last time on Aug 7 2010, 1:53 am by Aristocrat.

Spirited away is the best anime I've ever seen.

Pretty much Miyazaki in general. His shit is gold. He is the japanese Disney.

You forgot that youtube sucks.
Here's you a real quality 2004 masterpiece: Air.

Gits innocence annoyed me because the stunning background images weren't reflected in the characters themselves. It was a mix between a cg and classic that didn't mesh well IMO. I don't notice it in Air, though it's clearly there in the water, and other sections. I can't really tell the difference between 2004 and 2010 though. You Can NOT Advance (2010) doesn't look any better than Air or Clannaids (2007), except nearly every scene looks stunning, so long as something is happening.

For reference:


You chose some REALLY poor choices to represent America. That being said, I think drawn/traditional animation is at its end. We may see some innovations later, but disney has completely moved to CG, and cartoons are for kids, who don't particularly care how pretty everything looks (though avatar looks the best imo). I can't find anything of similar quality to Key's or Hideki Anno's animes in America, much less the world.

W/e. Japan's best movie by far wasn't animated. Just goes to show you how much story matters compared to stunning visuals, though the visuals do help.

Can't really embed anything other than youtube on SEN unfortunately, although I did consider linking to them then decided against it.

Innocence's CGI + 2D approach was a bit poor as well; you could see it in the later parts of the clip I provided. Amazing details on the 3D just made the 2D characters stand out as being "poorly drawn", but the main point was to demonstrate how far animation has come now that CGI became a critical, almost essential, part of many recent productions.

(The Zelda CD-i should have given away the fact that I was joking about the "America" section, LOL )

If I really wanted:

Nineteen-fourty-fucking-two.

The first anime movie:


My first anime:


My favorite anime:


Currently watching:


Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Aug 6 2010, 12:58 am by LoTu)S.

Kanon > Clannad.

OH YES I DID!

How about some



Is Afro Samurai American made? If it is I'd like to nominate that.

Anime with rewatch value xp.


Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Aug 6 2010, 3:37 am by LoTu)S.

Uguu~


but seriously. Kanon was meet girl, fix problem, repeat 5 times. Clannad actually had a decent story, and avoided most of the supernatural crap.

This beats uguu~ anyday

Karas movies. Definitely impressive. The opening fight sequence just goes to show how well they blend the CG and classic, and how meticulous they made every bit of the fight sequences.

I've never liked Miyazaki's art style. It looks a bit too... American? Not sure if that's it, but nonetheless I don't like it.

If you want some awesome visual effects, I recommend watching something from Studio Rikka. Especially Pale Cocoon is fantastic.

Why isn't Pokemon up here?









Joking.

Grave of the Fireflies. Enuff said.

You forgot:
Spice and Wolf
Death Note
Pokemon
Bleach
Naruto (how the hell do you even forget this?! WTF!!!)
Ghost in a Shell: Stand Alone
Animatrix
and... uhh, I forgot the name of it, but it's a movie where some kid loses his father when earth is destroyed and he and the remaining survivors colonize space with these giant space ships and yeah... I fell asleep half way through because it was on at like 4 in the morning and it was like... 4-5 years ago so I don't remember much... but it was pretty good.

Are you describing Titan A.E.?

Just looked it up on netflix and I think that's it! THANK YOU! I have been looking for that for a while now.

Since when were overrated and Americanized anime considered classics?

THIS is a classic:


Actually, series wise, I prefer Doraemon.

I see......... well, still, how the hell do you forget naruto?! WTF!!!

>Naruto
>Visual Masterpiece

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA