Not only Miyazaki: 15 anime series and features that deserve attention

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

This list can be seen both as an entry point into the fascinating world of anime, and as a way to learn something new.

1. Cowboy Bebop

• Adventure, Science Fiction, Comedy, Drama.
• Japan, 1998.
• Duration: 26 episodes of 25 minutes + full-length film.
• IMDb: 8, 9.

To a stunning soundtrack, the Bebop ship sails through space with its motley crew. Music, characters, scenery - everything is fine. The best description would be a phrase thrown by someone on the Internet: "Shinichiro Watanabe was able to draw the blues."

2. Death note

• Psychological thriller, mysticism, detective.
• Japan, 2006.
• Duration: 37 episodes of 24 minutes each + 2 full-length compilation films.
• IMDb: 9, 0.

Even the gods are bored, sometimes the god of death is bored too. What will happen if there is an artifact in our dimension that will kill anyone whose name you write? Detective, drama, philosophical problem of omnipotence.

3. She-wolf and spices

• Romance, fantasy, road movie, drama.
• Japan, 2008.
• Duration: 24 episodes of 25 minutes + 2 OVA OVA.
• IMDb: 8, 0.

How does the economy work and what is important to know for a itinerant trader who wants to start his own business? Why do people stop believing in deities? Why do werewolves love apples? You can find answers and new questions here.

4. Akira

• Post-apocalyptic, cyberpunk, action, dystopia.
• Japan, 1988.
• Duration: 125 minutes.
• IMDb: 8, 1.

The atomic war has died down. A new city has emerged in the ashes of Tokyo, mired in gang squabbles and anti-government protests. Members of a gang of bikers encounter a mysterious boy, after which they are all captured by the military and taken away somewhere.

To find a friend, the guys have to accomplish a lot, and a strange boy and a captive biker are under the close supervision of scientists.

5. Fury-Kuri

• Comedy, parody, fur Fur (genre), psychedelia, adventure, romantic drama.
• Japan, 2000.
• Duration: 6 episodes, 23–31 minutes each.
• IMDb: 8, 3.

Life is not a fairy tale. So Naota Nandaba thought so, until he became a victim of an accident, got hit on the head with a guitar and found out that a new maid had appeared in his house. All of these incidents are associated with the same person. A girl - an alien pirate.

6. Paprika

• Science fiction, psychological drama, mysticism, detective.
• Japan, 2006.
• Duration: 90 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 7.

Scientists are inventing a device that allows therapists to enter patients' dreams for the treatment of mental disorders. At the final stage of the development of the device, three samples are kidnapped by malefactors and begin to be used in order to drive people crazy. Laboratory workers, a detective and a mysterious girl from dreams, Paprika, are trying to find the devices.

7. Elven song

• Horror, etty etty (genre), fantasy, romantic drama, tragedy.
• Japan, 2004.
• Duration: 13 episodes of 24 minutes each + 1 OVA.
• IMDb: 8, 1.

As a result of mysterious mutations, a new race appears on Earth - the Diclonus. Another round of evolution. Humanity has always been wary of everything new and unknown, and of course, Diclonus will be afraid and vivisected in order to study.

Lots of blood, nudity and violence. Watch at your own risk.

8. Gurren Lagann

• Adventure, furs, drama, comedy, science fiction, action.
• Japan, 2007.
• Duration: 27 episodes of 25 minutes + 2 specials.
• IMDb: 8, 3.

People now live underground in constant fear - they are afraid of earthquakes and peace on the surface. Among them is young Simon, whose life changes after he finds an inconspicuous artifact.

The anime is about fortitude, the desire to break out of the dull reality and living heroes who want to empathize.

9. Cool teacher Onizuka

• Comedy, school.
• Japan, 1999.
• Duration: 43 episodes, 27 minutes each.
• IMDb: 8, 6.

Former bandit Onizuka Eikichi gets a job at school, because there are so many charming high school girls there. And he gets a class that has got out of hand, whose students are not averse to making fun of the teacher. However, our hero has a chance to change the state of affairs at school, the attitude of students towards themselves, and himself at the same time. See if he can do it.

10. Your name

• Drama, romance, adventure, mysticism.
• Japan, 2016.
• Duration: 107 minutes
• IMDb: 8, 4.

A guy and a girl involuntarily change bodies, and then another, and another, and another. At first, this leads to little pranks, the guys get into awkward situations, and then they decide to work out and accept some rules of behavior. Day after day they change each other's lives and change themselves, and gradually warm feelings arise between them.

How to find a person about whom you know nothing, except that you love him? A beautiful and original love story of two people who just can't find each other in time and space.

11. No game - no life

• Adventure, comedy, fantasy, etty.
• Japan, 2014.
• Duration: 12 episodes of 23 minutes each + full-length film.
• IMDb: 5, 9.

Game-obsessed brother and sister (adoptive) find themselves in a world where all issues are solved with the help of various games. Cards, chess, even "heads or tails" - everything is used. Where will the winding path from victory to victory lead our heroes?

12. Samurai Champloo

• Seinen Seinen (genre), adventure, chambara chambara (genre), road movie.
• Japan, 2004.
• Duration: 26 episodes, 24 minutes each.
• IMDb: 8, 6.

In the setting of feudal Japan in the Edo era, we are told the story of the adventures of a ronin, a swordsman and a girl who searches for a samurai who smells of sunflowers. An easy and exciting story, accompanied, oddly enough, by hip-hop.

13. Future Diary

• Adventure, mysticism, psychological thriller.
• Japan, 2011.
• Duration: 26 episodes, 25 minutes each.
• IMDb: 7, 7

The deity dies, and when it dies, our world will also perish. And so God initiates a survival game. Which of the 12 players will make it to the end and become the new god? Each of them has a diary - a mysterious artifact that describes the future, changing from actions in the present.

Intense narrative and manic love story. Is it love?

14. Welcome to NHK

• Everyday life, comedy, psychological drama.
• Japan, 2006.
• Duration: 24 episodes of 24 minutes.
• IMDb: 8, 3.

For more than three years now, Sato has led the life of a recluse: people like him are called hikki. He has no plans, no prospects, no girlfriend, and very soon there will be no friends. The guy who has lost touch with reality thinks that the NHK organization is to blame (Nihon Housou Kyoukai - "Japanese Broadcasting Corporation", the name of which he deciphers as Nihon Hikikomori Kyoukai - "Japanese Hikikomori Corporation"). According to him, the main goal of this corporation is to turn all people into hickey.

So the days of our hero pass, one more dreary than the other, until a mysterious girl appears at his door.

15. Penguin drum

• Mysticism, psychological drama, tragedy, comedy.
• Japan, 2011.
• 24 episodes of 25 minutes each.
• IMDb: 7, 4.

What would you do to save someone you love from death? The two brothers do not think about it, but simply do everything in their power to keep their sister alive. And she lives, but in symbiosis with a strange penguin hat, periodically becoming a completely different person. The funniest thing here is not the plot, but what is happening in the background, while the main characters talk about the world conspiracy and philosophy.