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| Some lovely You Yoshinari scenes. |
The list below contains my recommended viewing as well as some extra information to help you appreciate some of the uniqueness of the work. Keep in mind that this is far from a comprehensive list. The list only contains shows and movies that I have personally seen, and usually only ones that I don’t think get mentioned enough outside of otaku anime-nerd media. There are many, many, many works not listed here and you should go find them yourself after you read this.
Some Movies (and studios):
note: order does not necessarily indicate relative quality, just order of recollection.
Tekkon Kinkreet (Studio 4ºC): Two homeless kids try to survive in a fantastic city as they deal with yakuza, aliens, and madness. Surprisingly intense.
Genius Party and Genius Party Beyond (Studio 4ºC): A collection of short animations, each exploring different subject matter and style. (A little hard to find.)
Tokyo Godfathers (Madhouse): A retelling of the John Wayne movie; 3 Godfathers set in Tokyo, but with homeless people instead of cowboys.
Paprika (Madhouse): I don’t even know, man. But it’s good. It has a lot of reference to the imagined/fantastic vs reality especially in the modern digital pop-culture age.
Millenium Actress (Madhouse): A documentary filmmaker attempts to chronicle the life of an actress, but the story of her life is mixed in and hidden in all the roles she played.
Summer Wars (Madhouse): A family comes together in order to defend each other, their honor and the world... on the internet! Totally stylish. Watch it if you want to cry like a small child due to family-love.
Laputa: Castle in the Sky (Ghibli): The requisite Ghibli film. Way too few people have seen it and it is as beautiful and charming as you’d expect.
Some TV-Shows (and studios).
note: order does not necessarily indicate relative quality, just order of recollection.
Cowboy Bebop (Sunrise): One of the greatest anime ever. I know everyone's heard of it, but anyone who hasn't seen it, should. It’s mature, romantic, funny, and action packed. It has a fantastic soundtrack and is watchable episode-by-episode or in large chunks. If you're trying to get someone you know to watch anime, this is a great place to start.
Opening animation: http://youtu.be/T6zDfxZ4NcE
FLCL (GAINAX): My favorite show ever. It's about a middle school boy coming of age while some truly strange shit is going on around him. Every damn thing in this show is symbolic, usually of some popular idealized definition of adult masculinity, but I don’t want to bore you with my theories. (All of the dub is on Netflix, and the dub is pretty good for this one).
From the first episode: http://youtu.be/uaPCgMCYef0
Paranoia Agent (Madhouse): Crazy social commentary about idols in pop culture, alienation, reality vs fantasy, and because it’s japan; Nukes. Directed by Satoshi Kon.
Opening animation: http://youtu.be/QtWJM25FwU0
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (Studio Bones): One of the best mainstream anime to come out this decade. It is political and personal and has great characterization and motivation (something that a lot of shonen series lack). It's a remake of the original with a bigger budget, improved animation, better pacing, and ending that actually make sense. They move through the early events of the story a little bit faster, so you get right into the new stuff.
Opening animation #2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAOfiob4TqQ&hd=1
Baccano! (Brain’s Base): Prohibition America gang wars + immortals + tons of characters + out of order storytelling = lots of fun. The last few episodes are kind of lame but the series is really good on the whole.
Opening animation: http://youtu.be/Msg8ypnLqaw
Neon Genesis Evangelion (GAINAX): Coming of age, giant robots, madness, responsibility, nukes, etc. Don’t bother watching the original series. It is incredibly influential and handles Christian symbolism better than any other series in Japan; but it is too slow, hits a brick wall with its budget about half-way through, has some awkward story choices, and is honestly kind of old at this point. BUT! They are remaking it as a series of movies, and those movies are just gorgeous. They show what one of the best animation houses in Japan can do when they have as much money to spend as they feel like. Virtuoso animation throughout.
Trailer: http://youtu.be/4vM_Ub231Vw
Some nice pencil tests & making-of footage: http://youtu.be/uVdyKcY9Nqc
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (GAINAX): Coming of age, giant robots, and GUTS!!!!! Television shows don’t get any more enthusiastic or shonen than this. Giant robots are powered by the pilot’s fighting spirit, explosions are everywhere, and every new episode plays a game of one-upsmanship with the previous one. Things get really big really fast. It is comedic and action packed while staying incredibly earnest the whole time. Unfortunately someone fell asleep on their keyboard on episode 4 and let it get art directed by someone who has no clue what he’s doing, so attempt to muddle through that one (there are some important story points and a couple good jokes hidden in it); but the series on the whole is well animated and extreme to the max! Exemplifies what is great about the “super robot” genres or anime.
Opening animation: http://youtu.be/DWGR4g78coc
Transformation: http://youtu.be/QB3dW9dqhcs
Gundam 08th MS Team (Sunrise): Romeo and Juliet with giant robots. Dramatic, grounded, and cool. Exemplifies what’s good about the “real robot” genre of anime.
Opening animation: http://youtu.be/sGtES1hS8Z4
Some Animation Studios
Studio Ghibli: You probably know them. They made Kiki’s Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke, Spriited Away, and many others. They are extremely consistent in terms of look and quality.
Studio 4ºC: These guys are like the punk-rock version of Ghibli. Their stuff ranges from extremely cartoony (Tekkon Kinkreet, Mind Game) to ridiculously and meticulously clean and realistic (Batman: Working Through the Pain). They are the most experimental animation group that I have found in Japan that still manages to stay employed. You might also know their work from The Animatrix.
GAINAX: My personal favorite studio. GAINAX has style coming out of their ears, and some of the best animators working today. They manage to make solid animations no matter the genre or theme. They are “anime” without being over-the-top. Their works are lush with interesting timing, solid drawing, good symbolism, and an earnestness of storytelling. You can tell that they don’t plan their movies and TV shows with a target demographic foremost in their mind. They’re willing to be weird in service of their work. (FLCL, Gurren Lagann, Evangelion, etc.)
Studio Bones: They handle a lot of major and popular series (though, almost never Shonen Jump Series). Their work as a studio is easy to pick out because it is extremely stylistically consistent between projects. All of their characters have a suppleness and level of solid drawing that is characteristic of Studio Bones. They also are very consistent about including Sakuga animation in their shows in order to punctuate major scenes. (Full Metal Alchemist, X’amd, Soul Eater, etc.)
Madhouse: Most notable for being the studio that the late Satoshi Kon worked at. As a studio they take on a lot of projects and are a little hit and miss when it comes to story and animation quality, but Satoshi Kon’s work and influence there have made for some great works. (Paprika, Millenium Actress, Summer Wars, Blue Submarine No. 6.)
Sunrise: Most notable for being the studio that produced the Gundam franchise. They also produced heavy hitters like Cowboy Bebop, Inuyasha, and Outlaw Star. They have won the Animage Anime Grand Prix more time than any other production company in history. Their animation style is often referred to as “Sunrise smooth” because of their comparatively high frame budget for their shows.
Some Sakuga Animators
You Yoshinari: He is my favorite because he has and incredible sense of timing and rhythm. Even in his television animation, his work has a great sense of economy and his willingness to exaggerate in really compelling ways. His stuff is easy to pick out because of its unique rhythm and how he does his motion blur on fast moving characters (their edges sort of break apart or as though they’re actually effects animation; so they always have a trail of dust following them.) He does a lot of work with GAINAX. http://youtu.be/kfMxXQqz_38 http://youtu.be/CVQzIpHOE9Q
Yutaka Nakamura: This guy can animate fight scenes like nobody else. He aslo is extremely capable when animating camera moves and effects like sparks, smoke, and explosions. His work is easy to pick out because of his choreography and his signature “blocky” rubble. You can learn a lot about his style as an animator here: http://youtu.be/tuHymXxUxW0 . He does a lot of work with Studio Bones. Here a couple of his scenes that I think are pretty neato (go ahead and turn off the sound in most of them, they’re not going to make any sense.) http://youtu.be/2StsgZu0gdg?t=14m22s http://youtu.be/n0nxQXTdu9c?t=4m23s
Hiroyuki Imaishi: Another major GAINAX animator. His work is snappy and awesomely cartoony. A lot less naturalistic than even You Yoshinari’s work, he’s easily the animator here that is the farthest from Disney’s house style. He’s worked on many different series including the original Fullmetal Alchemist series, Re: Cutie Honey, Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt, and Dead Leaves. http://youtu.be/iB_q9oYh6Fo
(small aside, Mitsuto Iso is the closest thing I've seen to Imaishi's opposite.)
http://youtu.be/p4fyehYpJpY
Norio Matsumoto: He regularly does work with Weekly Shonen Jump licenses. His stuff is easy to pick out because his characters are always fighting or running really really fast (usually both) and when they are fighting their features sort of smear behind them. http://youtu.be/s0c2uWTxr9U
Hiroyuki Yamashita: Much like Norio Matsumoto, he has been popular recently and he does a lot of work with Weekly Shonen Jump licenses. He is much more on-model with his action scenes, but tends to also have slower shots than Matsumoto. http://youtu.be/BKQZfB9rBco
Some advice for finding new series
There's a lot of stuff to dig through out there with more coming out all the time. So, how do you know what to watch?
Aside from recommendations by friends, go look for best-of (not most popular) lists online. People usually have decent taste. I personally like to look at the opening animation; if they can’t manage to make the opening animation look interesting, chances are they won’t be able to pick it up for the final production.
Alternatively, find a studio or animator whose work you trust and follow them. Check out new projects they’re working on by checking their wiki page from time to time.
Hopefully this guide will give you somewhere to start your search. Remember, new stuff is coming out all the time, don’t fall prey to the nostalgia trap that makes you feel like the best things have already been made.
Some More info
A really good explanation of “sakuga” animation/animators and anime in general;
That Scene was Awesome: Japan’s Iron Animators: http://youtu.be/4Pm8AYpOJMw
An interesting article contemplating what defines something “anime”: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/editorial/2002-07-26
Some animation/composite tests for Evangelion 2.22. It’s the same link as the one in Evangelion’s section, but you should watch it even if you aren’t interested in the series. http://youtu.be/uVdyKcY9Nqc
Here’s some nice keyframe breakdowns from Madhouse: http://youtu.be/2zXv2gqclx4
And from Studio Bones (showing X’amd):http://youtu.be/ecnKf4O4jzQ
And from GAINAX (showing Gurren Lagann): http://youtu.be/vTH6eQ6eLv8
Also, I’m not completely stuck up my own ass. I know anime can definitely be a pop-culture-focused mashup of tropes and moe with no particular message or or content required for production. The contents of this video is completely true: http://youtu.be/ibPCLMH1NM4
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