RahXephon

The Animation Kobe (アニメーション神戸) was an event established by Kobe in 1996 to promote anime and other visual media. The Animation Kobe Awards (アニメーション神戸賞) were given annually until 2015 by Kobe and the Organizing Committee to creators and creations.

The TV animations broadcast in Japan from September of the previous year to August of the event year, excluding rebroadcasts, become candidates. The candidates are selected not only from Japan but also from other countries. However, the committee sees more importance in a point of view promoting young creators of Japan.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Anime with great worldbuilding, or the development of the fantastical environment and world! None of these anime take place in what you would call 'our universe', rather taking place in an alternative universe or fantasy/ sci-fi setting with amazingly well-tailored and fitting details in technologies and architecture that makes every world unique.


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

Interested in the genre? Despite what people might say, mecha is a rich character focused genre with a variety of incredibly unique stories to tell. Here's a collection of shows with short, straight-to-the-point descriptions about each. Note that some of these were translated by fans, and aren't available officially/legally. A good amount of these are available on various streaming services, tho as for all well you might have to sail the high seas a bit. Disregard my personal scores, as its subjective at end of the day and you might like it. Also please don't dismiss some of these just because they're really old, they pretty much all hold up well even today. Check each out, and see what strikes your fancy. Any shows I personally haven't watch I got info on from fellow mecha friends of mine:

Anime Unleashed was an anime block that was broadcast on the American cable TV network G4. Anime Current is its Canadian counterpart. The block is notable for having a unique catalog of sci-fi anime including popular titles such as Serial Experiments Lain and rather obscure titles such as Betterman. In my opinion, this is one of the strangest but also coolest block of anime to air on American TVs.

Every animated media that has been made has the idea to tell a story and to express a feeling on the watcher. But then, there are some series which has a particular way to evocate their sentiments and they use different tools to do that. Thought provoking writing, displaying the characters' internal monologues, their struggles and fears, using particular cinematographic angles and by blending contrasting styles of animation, coloring and highly symbolical and metaphorical imagery - these are some of the many hallmarks signifying the said animation has psychological themes, and that it is avant-garde in it's approach. This method of expression is not limited to any genre, as well.

I do realize that animation like this may not be for everyone, but I firmly believe in it's artistic merits and integrity. Media like this allows us to peek into the human psyche and probably our own too, and it provides us with often interesting viewpoints of our world, even if fractured through the prism of the animated fiction. Shows like that also likes to ask us questions without answers, to give us moral dilemmas without solid conclusion or in summary, to provoke us to think.

The shows that were picked follow a pattern - the ones which are more straightforward, less abstract and easier to get into will be first and the more complex and obscure the works will be at the end.

List of Original Anime Series' (not including sequels/specials/movies)
Original Anime are anime without source material

Seires debuted in SRW Alpha Gaiden-SRW J

Theses are the list of shows/movies that aired on the portuguese channel known as SIC Radical. a Portuguese TV network that airs shows made for much older audience.

List of anime for "elitist". These anime have been considered as "deep" animations by various critics and analysts.

In this compilation there are animes with quite complicated stories that are not recommended for all audiences. As they are: cult, artistic, experimental, avant-garde, underrated, psychological, philosophical, unique or mind-blowing anime.

This list has a part 2: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/4197

The mecha genre is specific to the anime medium, for the reason that what once started from an interesting concept, over the decades and the various artistic interpretations it had gone through, did managed to reach it's full development and thematic recognition.

It's origin can be traced way back to the end of World War 2, and the notion of the general populace at the time, that the technological breakthroughs, and their further usage to help and safeguard mankind are the way that we should develop as a species, so that's when the bipedal metal giants were born - a figures with humane limbs and features, that are controlled by a person and which allows them to wield this overwhelming power in service of a greater good.

In this interest stack, I've presented the ways in this genre had changed, and the specific shows which had major impact upon the development of the mecha as a concept, and the ways it had branched out of the established norm for this genre exploring a broad spectrum of themes. The order of the shows is in chronological order, since that way the slight alterations and changes can be presented in more simple and efficient manner.

This is a part of a series of stacks that are about artistic tendencies in anime (and that border the fine line between sophisticated and pretentious).

This stack is a work in progress.

Bibliography:
Bednorz, Maksymilian. “What is Sekai-kei? It’s Horseshit.” Bednorz: The Weeablogue. 26 July 2018.
Howard, Christopher. “The Ethics of Sekai-kei Reading Hiroki Azuma with Slavoj Žižek.” Science Fiction Film and Television 7:3 (2014): 366-368.
Tanaka, Motoko. “Trends of Fiction in 2000s Japanese Pop Culture.” Electronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies. 14:2 (2014).
Thomas, Stefanie. “‘You Cannot See Yourself Unless There Are Others’: Sekaikei as Exhortation of Societal Participation.” The Phoenix Papers. 2:2 (2016): 31-38.

While the exact definition is vague, "Sekai-Kei" media shares similar themes in reshaping/remaking/changing the world, typically as a result of things on a personal scale such as a relationship or impactful event. This could be literally, but also can be one's perception of the world. There are usually elements that make it not grounded in reality with vaguely explained mystic/religious/magic/fantasy/spiritual elements as opposed to science. Apocalyptic fiction is a common stage setting for sekai-kei, but it is not a condition.

The genre as a whole has existed in some way since the late 70s/early 80s (maybe even before that), but with the release of "Neon Genesis Evangelion" in 1995, the Japanese anime industry saw a boom of Sekai-Kei media with varying degrees of quality. While it was not the first, Evangelion is awarded as being the most influential and brought attention to a super niche genre that did not even have a proper name beforehand.

More non-animanga examples:
https://vndb.org/v7738
https://vndb.org/v97
https://vndb.org/v66
https://vndb.org/v648
https://vndb.org/v913
https://vndb.org/v1660
https://vndb.org/v51
https://letterboxd.com/film/pulse-2001/
https://backloggd.com/games/shin-megami-tensei-nocturne
https://backloggd.com/games/dark-souls

More info:
https://etd.ohiolink.edu/apexprod/rws_etd/send_file/send?accession=osu1397573383&disposition=i
https://www.para-site.art/programme/there-is-no-such-thing-as-society-the-sekaikei-imagination-and-narrative/

4chan post where I stole all this from: https://files.catbox.moe/hhaaaj.jpg

These are the anime that appear in Super Robot Wars MX for PlayStation 2, as well as its portable version, Super Robot Wars MX Portable for PSP.