I saw almost whole Hellsing Ultimate. The thing is Ultimate is exactly the same as manga. Unlike previous Hellsing series. Fun fact: guy who wrote/drew Hellsing was previously creating porn.
Then I guess I won't be reading the manga either?
Anyway that's not really surprising or uncommon at all. Moribito, the series Makkon recommended a few posts up because it had a nonsexualized female main character, was designed by Gatou Asou who had also previously been (and still is to my knowledge) drawing porn.
Masamune Shirow, the guy who wrote Ghost in the Shell and Appleseed, mostly stopped doing manga to draw porn instead.
Hiroaki Samura, the writer/artist of Blade of the Immortal, has put out tons of VERY graphic/disturbing bondage artbooks.
Half the artists I follow on Tumblr, many of which are women, draw porn on side blogs. As one of them explained in an ask: "It's a special day in an artists life when they realize they can draw all the porn they want to their exact specifications". One of my friends even said it was weird that I DIDN'T draw porn...
I suppose if you've got the skills then hell, why not?
For the amount of porn that comes from the artists that worked on many of the shows I like and enjoy, I guess I'm not surprised, but I reserve the right to be disappointed.
+2 on summer wars, it was fun. Also +2 on Steamboy.
+3 for The Wind Rises. That was a beautiful film.
The Ghost in the Shel movies are very good!
Though I recommend you watch the first movie, then the first anime, then the second anime, then the second and third movies.
It's a lot of stuff to watch but if you want to kill time then I'd recommend go for it.
Other than that, I don't really know any standalone anime movies that are good, I'd recommend the Cowboy Bebop movie but you're best watching the anime of that as well.
Anything by Masaaki Yuasa:
Mind Game ( not strictly anime since there's some video in it ) is a must see.
Kemonozume ( tv series ) is great.
Happy Machine in the genius party omnibus is one of my all time favorite animated short.
Kaiba is strange and beautiful.
Kick Heart is kick ass.
Wings of Honneamise.
Planetes (was mentioned, but it is literally the best hard sci-fi in ANY medium i have ever seen)
Patlabor (detective movies crossed mechs, yes please)
Also Tokyo Godfathers which is on netflix i think. Also if you don't like trailers that tell you basically everything, don't watch the one i linked below.
No Game No Life (action/adventure/comedy/etc)
Sidonia no Kishi (dark/action/space)
Ping Pong the Animation (action/sports/drama)
Bokura wa Minna Kawaisou (romcom)
Isshuuken Friends (romance drama)
I'll jump on this train. But I'll start off addressing the original post's desire for shorter-form anime, leaning toward inspiring/interesting works. For my initial post I will limit it to films and shorter OVA series, less than the standard 13 episode season.
Anything by Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli: Seriously. You'll hear this recommendation all the time, but it's true. They are the Pixar of Japan. Even their worst efforts stand head and shoulders above the competition and are still worth seeing. Personal favorites are Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, and Grave of the Fireflies. If you don't cry when you watch Grave of the Fireflies, you have no soul. It should be required watching for pretty much everyone.
Memories: This is a 114 minute collection of three short stores curated by the producer of Akira. All three stories have different art styles, themes, and ideas. It is one of the better examples of science fiction in anime, as the short-story format lends itself much better to the exploration of ideas than the building of characters. An extremely effective way to get lots of inspiration quickly. Highly recommended.
Neo Tokyo: Another short-story compilation featuring three different tales. The first of the three stories has an art style even more disparate and surreal than anything featured in Memories. This one is a bit shorter, coming in at less than hour long. Still well worth seeing.
Metropolis: An anime re-imagining of Fritz Lang's science-fiction classic. This film is "hauntingly beautiful," with some truly inspired visuals and plenty of interesting ideas. An excellent feature-length exploration of industrialized dystopia and well worth a look.
Jin-Roh, the Wolf Brigade: A rather grim and serious tale about a soldier in an elite militarized police force. An unflinching look at the conflict between emotion and duty.
Iria, Zeiram the Animation: A brief six-episode OVA about a young interstellar bounty hunter, and the monstrous prey she is tracking. While the story and characters aren't particularly note-worthy, the art style in this series has always been very striking to me. Everything from the costume design to the vehicle design to the architecture has a distinct flavor that I rarely see anywhere else. I want to say that it draws influence from India and south-west Asia. Worth seeing for that alone, and the story is decent so it won't distract from the visuals.
Spriggan: Bizarre and strange without being surreal. A bit disjointed, but it is unafraid of throwing a lot ideas at the screen. Fantastic visuals.
Blue Submarine No. 6: A dark and brooding piece about a world consumed by oceans in the wake of an ecological disaster. Worth it for the tone it establishes alone.
Time of Eve: A fairly recent six-episode OVA. This is easily one of the best versions of classic science fiction ever interpreted into anime. It feels as though Isaac Asimov was around to produce it. A hopeful and heartfelt exploration of the nature of humanity. A must-see for any fan of classic literary science fiction.
Red Line: What the hell did I just see? Red line doesn't throw ideas at the wall to see what sticks, it turns a firehose of ideas on the wall to see how quickly it can knock the wall down. Equal parts exageration and attention-deficit-disorder, it is a glorious mess. While it doesn't have any real message or point, it does a superb job of capturing the "spirit" or racing. See it, just to revel in how over-the-top it can be.
Next post, I'll recommend some more standard-length anime series that haven't gotten much talk yet.
Anybody else following the live action dramedy series Blue Blazes / Aoi Honoo?
It's like "Bakuman" meets "Halt and Catch Fire".
It's 1980 and the uber ambitious protagonist is in art school and thinks he's hot shit. But he's in the same class as the future founders of Gainax - the studio that made Evangelion, FLCL, Gurren Lagann etc. Everytime he deludes himself that he can outdo the group, particularly future director Hideaki Anno, he's blown away (via wacky animeish facial expressions) by their art project submissions.
It's live action but the over the top acting totally reminds you of anime tropes and character expressions. The other cool thing for me is they drop a lot of old school otaku pop culture references which you can easily google or youtube if you want to find out more about them. Show's subtitled.
I want to make a few suggestions and make a few statements.
I would say that the manga for Attack on Titan is a bit better. The anime has some wonderfully animated segments and at times is awesome.However it does falter from time to time. Like most anime, it relies on wasting time with constant flashbacks in the midst of action. I mean constant unnecessary flashbacks.
Overall it does deliver the goods.A few things are altered from the manga, but nothing that I would say is too major. As of right now there are 60+ chapters and in my opinion it has really picked up. Although I will say this, once the manga hit it's first big twist/reveal, I bailed on it for a few months. Apparently I was the only person that hated it. I don't think a lot of people have an issue with it though. That is all I can say without going into spoilers.
If you are looking for another manga that has some amazing art and an awesome story, I would like to suggest Gantz. It is over 300 Chapters (3 major story arcs), but it is one of the best mangas I read in years. It doesn't follow traditional anime cliches, it establishes that right out the gate.And there is actual character development. The protagonist is a total asshole, but grows over time. I find that people often overlook it and sometimes play it off as being "simple" but it has a lot of depth beneath the surface. Stay away from the anime version. The anime lacks all the detail and subtly of the manga. Heads up, this manga is for mature audiences, +17 and over.
If you want something twisted and dark I would recommend Ichi the Killer. The manga is pretty damn good and the live action movie is a trip (watch after reading for max enjoyment). Not for the faint of heart by the way.
If you want to read something retro and completely nuts, I would suggest Fourteen aka 14 years. I don't even know where to begin with this one. It starts off insane and every step of the way it goes crazier and crazier. There is a rumor that the creator drove himself mad while writing it. It is an epic horror masterpiece that is both psychedelic/Japanese horror and B movie gold. I don't know where you would find it, I really appreciated the complete absurdity of it all.
Here's the class submission Hideaki Anno (Evangelion director) made on his own as an art school student. Apparently he hand animated on ones since he didn't have the funds or time to hire in-betweeners. And he could only use note pads instead of real animator paper with peg holes. Time period is early 1980s.
Replies
Anyway that's not really surprising or uncommon at all. Moribito, the series Makkon recommended a few posts up because it had a nonsexualized female main character, was designed by Gatou Asou who had also previously been (and still is to my knowledge) drawing porn.
Masamune Shirow, the guy who wrote Ghost in the Shell and Appleseed, mostly stopped doing manga to draw porn instead.
Hiroaki Samura, the writer/artist of Blade of the Immortal, has put out tons of VERY graphic/disturbing bondage artbooks.
Half the artists I follow on Tumblr, many of which are women, draw porn on side blogs. As one of them explained in an ask: "It's a special day in an artists life when they realize they can draw all the porn they want to their exact specifications". One of my friends even said it was weird that I DIDN'T draw porn...
I suppose if you've got the skills then hell, why not?
Imperial boy ( teikoku shounen ) specialized in anime environment art,
you can see his art here http://www.itsartmag.com/features/the-art-of-imperial-boy/
he worked in Tekkon Kinreet
[ame="
but
you never want to see his hentai art
[ame]www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXKAsybyIRw[/ame]
[ame="
Are you guys suggesting that I'm a little sexually skewed?
My advice to watch Ultimate was because of Manga. No one stops him from watching both
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTyRMfdDfc8
Fucking after story...
My neighbor Totoro is pretty good too. Very light movie
+2 on summer wars, it was fun. Also +2 on Steamboy.
+3 for The Wind Rises. That was a beautiful film.
Outlaw Star is almost like Firefly tv show ^^
Though I recommend you watch the first movie, then the first anime, then the second anime, then the second and third movies.
It's a lot of stuff to watch but if you want to kill time then I'd recommend go for it.
Other than that, I don't really know any standalone anime movies that are good, I'd recommend the Cowboy Bebop movie but you're best watching the anime of that as well.
Mind Game ( not strictly anime since there's some video in it ) is a must see.
Kemonozume ( tv series ) is great.
Happy Machine in the genius party omnibus is one of my all time favorite animated short.
Kaiba is strange and beautiful.
Kick Heart is kick ass.
Wings of Honneamise.
Planetes (was mentioned, but it is literally the best hard sci-fi in ANY medium i have ever seen)
Patlabor (detective movies crossed mechs, yes please)
Tatsumi is a collection of autobiographical stories by respected manga artist Yoshihiro Tatsumi using his own drawing style.
Here's the trailer:
[ame="
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJzEW_eE1G0
Also Tokyo Godfathers which is on netflix i think. Also if you don't like trailers that tell you basically everything, don't watch the one i linked below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Q6mcx2qF4Q
PS: how do youtube embeds work?
FLCL
Others have been named...
No Game No Life (action/adventure/comedy/etc)
Sidonia no Kishi (dark/action/space)
Ping Pong the Animation (action/sports/drama)
Bokura wa Minna Kawaisou (romcom)
Isshuuken Friends (romance drama)
Especially Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Totoro, Howl's moving castle.
Anything by Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli: Seriously. You'll hear this recommendation all the time, but it's true. They are the Pixar of Japan. Even their worst efforts stand head and shoulders above the competition and are still worth seeing. Personal favorites are Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, and Grave of the Fireflies. If you don't cry when you watch Grave of the Fireflies, you have no soul. It should be required watching for pretty much everyone.
Memories: This is a 114 minute collection of three short stores curated by the producer of Akira. All three stories have different art styles, themes, and ideas. It is one of the better examples of science fiction in anime, as the short-story format lends itself much better to the exploration of ideas than the building of characters. An extremely effective way to get lots of inspiration quickly. Highly recommended.
Neo Tokyo: Another short-story compilation featuring three different tales. The first of the three stories has an art style even more disparate and surreal than anything featured in Memories. This one is a bit shorter, coming in at less than hour long. Still well worth seeing.
Metropolis: An anime re-imagining of Fritz Lang's science-fiction classic. This film is "hauntingly beautiful," with some truly inspired visuals and plenty of interesting ideas. An excellent feature-length exploration of industrialized dystopia and well worth a look.
Jin-Roh, the Wolf Brigade: A rather grim and serious tale about a soldier in an elite militarized police force. An unflinching look at the conflict between emotion and duty.
Iria, Zeiram the Animation: A brief six-episode OVA about a young interstellar bounty hunter, and the monstrous prey she is tracking. While the story and characters aren't particularly note-worthy, the art style in this series has always been very striking to me. Everything from the costume design to the vehicle design to the architecture has a distinct flavor that I rarely see anywhere else. I want to say that it draws influence from India and south-west Asia. Worth seeing for that alone, and the story is decent so it won't distract from the visuals.
Spriggan: Bizarre and strange without being surreal. A bit disjointed, but it is unafraid of throwing a lot ideas at the screen. Fantastic visuals.
Blue Submarine No. 6: A dark and brooding piece about a world consumed by oceans in the wake of an ecological disaster. Worth it for the tone it establishes alone.
Time of Eve: A fairly recent six-episode OVA. This is easily one of the best versions of classic science fiction ever interpreted into anime. It feels as though Isaac Asimov was around to produce it. A hopeful and heartfelt exploration of the nature of humanity. A must-see for any fan of classic literary science fiction.
Red Line: What the hell did I just see? Red line doesn't throw ideas at the wall to see what sticks, it turns a firehose of ideas on the wall to see how quickly it can knock the wall down. Equal parts exageration and attention-deficit-disorder, it is a glorious mess. While it doesn't have any real message or point, it does a superb job of capturing the "spirit" or racing. See it, just to revel in how over-the-top it can be.
Next post, I'll recommend some more standard-length anime series that haven't gotten much talk yet.
It's like "Bakuman" meets "Halt and Catch Fire".
It's 1980 and the uber ambitious protagonist is in art school and thinks he's hot shit. But he's in the same class as the future founders of Gainax - the studio that made Evangelion, FLCL, Gurren Lagann etc. Everytime he deludes himself that he can outdo the group, particularly future director Hideaki Anno, he's blown away (via wacky animeish facial expressions) by their art project submissions.
It's live action but the over the top acting totally reminds you of anime tropes and character expressions. The other cool thing for me is they drop a lot of old school otaku pop culture references which you can easily google or youtube if you want to find out more about them. Show's subtitled.
I want to make a few suggestions and make a few statements.
I would say that the manga for Attack on Titan is a bit better. The anime has some wonderfully animated segments and at times is awesome.However it does falter from time to time. Like most anime, it relies on wasting time with constant flashbacks in the midst of action. I mean constant unnecessary flashbacks.
Overall it does deliver the goods.A few things are altered from the manga, but nothing that I would say is too major. As of right now there are 60+ chapters and in my opinion it has really picked up. Although I will say this, once the manga hit it's first big twist/reveal, I bailed on it for a few months. Apparently I was the only person that hated it. I don't think a lot of people have an issue with it though. That is all I can say without going into spoilers.
If you are looking for another manga that has some amazing art and an awesome story, I would like to suggest Gantz. It is over 300 Chapters (3 major story arcs), but it is one of the best mangas I read in years. It doesn't follow traditional anime cliches, it establishes that right out the gate.And there is actual character development. The protagonist is a total asshole, but grows over time. I find that people often overlook it and sometimes play it off as being "simple" but it has a lot of depth beneath the surface. Stay away from the anime version. The anime lacks all the detail and subtly of the manga. Heads up, this manga is for mature audiences, +17 and over.
If you want something twisted and dark I would recommend Ichi the Killer. The manga is pretty damn good and the live action movie is a trip (watch after reading for max enjoyment). Not for the faint of heart by the way.
If you want to read something retro and completely nuts, I would suggest Fourteen aka 14 years. I don't even know where to begin with this one. It starts off insane and every step of the way it goes crazier and crazier. There is a rumor that the creator drove himself mad while writing it. It is an epic horror masterpiece that is both psychedelic/Japanese horror and B movie gold. I don't know where you would find it, I really appreciated the complete absurdity of it all.
- D. Carmine
[ame="