Ihatov Gensou: Kenji no Haru

Films with dramatic/abstract visual portrayal of emotional struggle.

This list consists of psychological titles, which helped me to accept inevitability and cope with fears, thus affected my personality above all others. Anime that makes you realise a lot about the meaning of human life and death, relationships, principles and most important: "self-concept".

Nearly all of them induce depressive thoughts, portray social problems that we face IRL, have biblical references and slow pacing. So be sure that you are in the right mood and prepared to face dark side of reality.

P.S. Despite the hopelessness and predestination you may feel while watching, these works of art still bestow warmth and hope through understanding the uniqueness of existence. The world is truly a cruel place and life is lacking meaning and purpose, yet we got the flustering chance to experience ourselves and the universe we share.

This is the kind of stuff you'll want to show to your older relatives or a friend / significant other who isn't into anime in particular but is open to new experiences. Not necessarily to hook them on anime but simply to share a good time together.

What helps an anime end up on this list:
* either subdued or distinctly avant-garde appearance that transcends common anime design sensibilities;
* mature, adult-life-related themes;
* well-crafted, compelling story and character interactions;
* fresh and daring ideas or their execution;
* being otherwise remarkable as an art piece;
* moderate length.

What DOESN'T help an anime end up on the list:
* referencing or pandering to otaku culture, incessant fan service, and all that crap;
* slow-burn slice-of-life narrative;
* overly random, absurdist, reference-heavy humor;
* being too long or narratively incomplete;
* being too tropey;
* not being very good in general (regrettably, this includes bad and mediocre adaptations of good manga/LNs, so no Berserk, My Home Hero, or Golden Kamuy on the list).

These aren't absolute rules but they're hard enough that I would only consider minor exceptions. There is most certainly not enough room for every single piece that fits the bill, so take this as my personal, heavily curated top-50. If there is a sequel or a side-story that also deserves attention (or, conversely, one you should skip), I will mention it in the annotations, so please watch them.

List is subject to revisions and reordering.

Animes starring anthropomorphic animals.


Part 2: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/3720
Part 3: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/6893
part 4: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/56914

100% purity here! Not a single bit of nonsense relating to sex.

I can't believe I had such a hard time making this stack >:'[ I'm a poor Christian boy


((If you find anything here with a sex joke please contact me immediately I want this place to be a light in the ecchi-filled darkness))

Part 2: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/11405


Feel free to DM or message me about any questions, suggestions, or opinions about this stack!

Although none of these anime have a tag/theme that denotes them as psychological, they all use cinematographic tactics often seen in psychological media to explore different aspects of the human condition and tackle atypical and philosophical topics.


Feel free to DM or message me about any questions, suggestions, or opinions about this stack!

Collection of historical semi-realistic (minimal fantasy) or realistic (no superpowers or fantasy) works that detail the historical events of Japan or daily life of people in Japanese historical context.

Reference:

794 – 1185 - Heian period
1185 – 1336 - Kamakura period
1336 – 1573 - Muromachi period
1336 – 1392 - Nanbokucho period
1467 – 1590 - Sengoku period
1568 – 1603 - Azuchi-Momoyama period
1603 – 1868 - Edo period
1853 – 1868 - Bakumatsu (final years of the Edo period)
1868 – 1912 - Meiji period
1912 – 1926 - Taisho period
1926 – 1989 - Showa period
1989 – 2019 - Heisei period

Movies that bang
Some of them are short movies

Featuring little to no dialogue and/or characters and the experience is carried by the music and/or visual atmosphere.

Part 1 - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/311
Part 2 - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/5128
Part 3 - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/8036
Part 4 - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/8173
Part 5 - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/9135
Part 6 - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/9240
Part 7 - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/9448
Part 8 - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/9461
Part 9 - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/20874

This list includes arthouse/avantgarde anime movies, so that's anything over 50 minutes, for example: Angel's Egg, Mindgame, Belladonna of Sadness.

Do you want to spend time with pleasure and learn some information about pioneers, chinese generals, strategists, writers or maybe aircraft designers?

Here is the list of worth watching anime, where the main characters are real-life historical figures or based on them. During the view I reccomend to use wiki or other internet sources to learn even more about these people and the historical events they were involved in.

Choosen titles are as close to realism as possible and give accurate information about the historical periods/events, achievements of historical figures, names. Thus Fate series are excluded.

A list for those who like anime with anthropomorphic animal characters.

Anime that uses music very sparingly, or uses silence as key means to emphasize emotion or narrative.

No OST? No problem! It's just you and your thoughts now.
Yeah, we hate music here.
Get out, sound.


Feel free to DM or message me about any questions, suggestions, or opinions about this stack!

Movies from before 2000 that are not tied to other series

Spiritual & Ethereal anime, anime that are Metaphysical or Existential or Philosophical journeys, or an Ontological Odyssey, or Transcendentals, Epistemological Enigmas, or Metaphoricals, or Existentialist Experiments or Cosmic Contemplations.

Standalone Animes Movies & OVAs from the 80s & 90s that I want to watch.
Only a few notable ones are apart of a series.
Two of the movies are from the 1970s.

More: Twilight Of The Dark Master

A list of non-Macross Anime series that was created and/or directed by Shouji Kawamori.
Its ordered from oldest anime series to newest. (Anime that was not animated by Satelight comes first).

This does not include any anime where he only directed for one episode.
All contents of a non-Macross series is included if he is the series creator with the exception of recaps.

The stack description of each anime will clarify if he was the director of an anime but not the creator.
Contact me if I missed anything and I'll update the stack.