Must see anime tv series
After more than six hundred movies and twenty years of love for anime and Japanese cinema, I think these titles are really worth watching. Only tv series on this list, no movies.
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22 titles
- CreatorHideaki AnnoStarsMegumi OgataMegumi HayashibaraKotono MitsuishiA teenage boy finds himself recruited as a member of an elite team of pilots by his father.Spare me the stupid remakes, this is the heart of it all: giant robots and traumatized children with a touch of unnerving classical music. Cliché background, marvellous foreground and living, suffering characters - canonical ending: The End of Evangelion.
- CreatorKentaro MiuraStarsMarc DiraisonNobutoshi CannaCarrie KeranenGuts, a wandering mercenary, joins the Band of the Hawk after being defeated in a duel by Griffith, the group's leader and founder. Together, they dominate every battle, but something menacing lurks in the shadows.The rise and fall of the Band of the Hawk. Medieval setting, one man against the odds - everything's futile in the end though. Stay away from the remake / new series, the manga is worth reading though.
- CreatorYasuyuki UedaStarsKaori ShimizuBridget HoffmanRandy McPhersonStrange things start happening when a withdrawn girl named Lain becomes obsessed with an interconnected virtual realm known as "The Wired".Surreal series of the upcoming wired world where the offline starts to merge with the online. Cyber-Christ and lonely teens with a touch of virtual reality.
- StarsTomoko KanedaYuki MatsuokaChieko HiguchiA humorous and highly unpredictable animated series following a group of high school girls and their teachers.Whacky, fun and silly: the bright side of being a student in the modern day Japan. Friends and school, distinct, simplistic style and weird, talking cats.
- CreatorMitsuo IsoStarsHilary HaagMonica RialTiffany GrantEleven years after the introduction of internet-connected, augmented reality eyeglasses and visors, Yuuko Okonogi moves with her family to Daikoku City, the technological center of the emerging half-virtual world.Augmented reality and transhumanism: can one's soul be trapped in a virtual reality limbo? Starts off as a tale of elementary school children playing hacking games in AR, ends up with something much more sinister, while still retaining its beauty and charm. Beautiful music, kinda feels like Bartok, but it isn't.
- CreatorNaoki UrasawaStarsHidenobu KiuchiLiam O'BrienEiji HanawaTenma, a brilliant neurosurgeon with a promising future, risks his career to save the life of a critically wounded young boy. The boy, now a charismatic young man, reappears 9 years later in the midst of a string of unusual serial murders.Germany, present day; surgeon saves a young boy, who then grows up to become a feared killer. Can the honest man undo his good deeds, can you raise children to be monsters? Very faithful adaptation of the same manga.
- CreatorShûkô MuraseStarsKôji YusaAkiko YajimaLiam O'BrienIn a post-apocalyptic future humans live in peace with androids in a domed city. However, a strange series of murders has intruded into bored inspector Re-l Mayer's life.The post apocalyptic world isn't that bad under the protecting city dome - until people realize they live on borrowed time. Futuristic picaresque with nice character development.
- CreatorYasuyuki UedaStarsLiam O'BrienPatrick SeitzMichael ForestIn a man-made underground society, descendants of a banished generation vie for control of the crumbling city of Lux. Ichise, an orphan turned prize fighter, loses a leg and an arm to satisfy an enraged fight promoter.An underground high-tech society with yakuza and replacable body parts - but is there anything up on the surface? What is the final stage of the human evolution?
- CreatorMasaaki YuasaStarsHouko KuwashimaRomi ParkMamiko NotoIn a futuristic dystopian world where memories are literally stored, bought and sold and rich have all the privileges, a young amnesiac is trying to find out who he is.A beautiful science fiction love story in the far future, where bodies can be swapped and can be constructed from scratch: they are mere vessels for the soul (see also: Kiln People, by Brim).
- CreatorShin'ichirô WatanabeStarsKôichi YamaderaUnshô IshizukaMegumi HayashibaraThe futuristic misadventures and tragedies of an easygoing bounty hunter and his partners.A cowboy in space: pretty much standalone episodes and marvellous character development. Firefly is just a dim shadow, compared to Cowboy Bebop.
- CreatorYoshitoshi AbeStarsRyô HirohashiJunko NodaEri MiyajimaA young girl is reborn as an angel-like creature called a haibane, with no memory of who she once was.Is there such place as afterlife? What happens to you in a reduced society with most memories (and conflicts) gone? - how long can you or want to stay in such a limbo? Slow pace, beautiful music; watch before Koreeda Hirokazu's "After Life".
- CreatorSatoshi KonStarsShôzô ÎzukaToshihiko SekiMamiko NotoSeemingly unconnected citizens of Tokyo are targeted for bludgeoning by a boy with a golden baseball bat. As detectives try to link the victims, they discover that following the assaults, the victims' lives have improved in some way.The darker side of modern day society - some of the problems are distinctly Japanese, but most of them are quite generic; when nothing works, you can always create an imaginary anti-hero for yourself, just be careful it won't develop into a collective neurosis. Watch it before Paprika.
- StarsMabuki AndôNaoto AdachiKôji TsujitaniWhen the crown prince, Chagum, is born with an ancient water spirit inside him, the emperor sends assassins to dispatch the child - but Balsa, a warrior hired by the empress to protect her son, won't let them murder Chagum without a fight.Chagum, the young prince has been infected by a water spirit - according to legend, the ruling king must destroy the vessel of this being or else a great drought will come. The desperate mother asks for the help of a female spear-wielder, Balsa. The animation is wonderfully high quality, the world is coherent, well structured (a feudal society with a hint of low fantasy) and the characters are alive with emotions, feelings, backstories. The very example of good narrative coupled with perfect dramaturgy.
- CreatorMahiro MaedaStarsMayumi AsanoChiwa SaitôPaul St. PeterIn a world of airships and civil war, two messengers come across a special girl who will change the course of history.Light hearted tale of airships and the war of the guild and humanity: nice pace and really loveable characters, no really dark tones here.
- StarsYûto NakanoTravis WillinghamKôjun Itô'Mushi' are the most basic forms of life in the world. While the majority of humans are unaware of their existence, there are a few like Ginko who is a 'Mushi-shi' that travels around to investigate and find out more about the 'Mushi.'A witch doctor cures people in an unspecified time and place - the irony is that the series must create a fake world in order to be able to bring harmony.
- StarsKaori ShimizuCrispin FreemanRachael LillisA light in the sky, followed by a strange aura and grisly murders. Each character tells their own connection to the event and to a similar murder spree 5 years ago. All of the different stories are slowly tied together by seemingly minute similarities and the story of Boogiepop is unraveled.A bit similar to Battle Royale: deals with schoolchildren growing up, young adults getting ready for the harsh reality of the "adult life". Where Lain uses a pure sci-fi background, Boogiepop transgresses to the genres of science fiction and horror.
- CreatorShûkô MuraseStarsAkeno WatanabeKari WahlgrenSteve BlumWitches exist, and it is the mysterious organization STNJ's job to hunt them down. Robin is a recent trainee who joins up, and begins unraveling the secrets of both the witches and STNJ.Fairly boring start: troubled teen with superpowers joins elite witch-hunter squad - but halfway through it does an astonishing U turn and starts to tackle with themes like genocide and racism.
- StarsHiroshi KamiyaAi NonakaMarina InoueA pessimistic high school teacher must somehow manage a class of eccentric students.Weird and whacky series about a young and overly pessimistic schoolteacher and his students - first set of the series is the best, the others are not that original and may be hard to follow. Beautiful art style and sarcastic humour ahead.
- StarsShinnosuke MitsushimaTao TsuchiyaMinami Takayama29-year-old Satoru Fujinuma is sent back in time 18 years to prevent the events leading to his mother's death, which began with a series of kidnappings while he was in 5th grade.Satoru can sometimes wind back time - when he is framed for murder, he involuntarily jumps back to childhood, into his younger self, trying desperately to fix the upcoming future. After multiple jumps the future gets more and more murky, the branching possibilites are messing up the timelines.
- StarsTakahiro SakuraiMichael C. PizzutoEiji TakemotoA mysterious man called the Medicine Seller travels along feudal Japan, uncovering and slaying evil spirits called "Mononoke".A medicine man roams a timeless Japan, hunting down ghosts of vengeance and suffering: the so called mononoke. He must see the act (form), understand the motive (truth) and must extract regret from the culprits - all crimes of passion, hatred or earthly desires. Beatiful art style with a somewhat cynical humour. Similar to Mushi-shi, but its world is colder and more coherent.
- CreatorGen UrobuchiStarsKana HanazawaMiyuki SawashiroNoriko HidakaBelieving in humanity and order, policewoman Akane Tsunemori obeys the ruling, computerized, precognitive Sibyl System. But when she faces a criminal mastermind who can elude this perfect system, she questions both Sibyl and herself.In a futuristic country governed by an all-seeing AI people are categorized by their psychological profile and are assigned to jobs, resources or are treated as criminals. Mostly Minority Report, with some Gattaca and Brave New World, but with a classical dramaturgy and strong philosophical roots - more subtle than Ghost in the Shell (SAC), no political overtones. Avoid season 2.
- StarsIan SinclairJustin BrinerAlejandro SaabThree boys are enchanted by a water spirit and must go on a quest to return to human.Whacky, weird, silly and in the meantime rather serious, Sarazanmai is about love, desire and friendship. Three elementary school kids are turned into frogs by the Kappa prince and are fighting to save the kappa kingdom.