The Sky Crawlers

The Animation Film Award (アニメーション映画賞) is an award given to the best animated feature film at the Mainichi Film Awards. The award was established to reward large scale cinematic animation, enabling the Oofuji Noburou Award to focus on shorter pieces. This award was first presented in 1989 for Kiki's Delivery Service by Hayao Miyazaki.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Films that were nominated for the Best Animation of the Year prize given by the Japan Academy Film Prize Association, first awarded in 2007. All five nominees are awarded the Excellent Animation of the Year (優秀アニメーション作品) by the association.

This list only contains entries which were nominated, but did not win the Best Animation of the Year prize.

What I look for the most in an anime above everything else is high-quality writing. That's not to say that manga, visual novel, and light novel adaptations are written poorly; in fact, there are some that have incredible, masterfully-crafted storylines. I have simply personally found that some of the most unforgettable series for me have been novel adaptations.

Given that there currently exists no anime search option for this, the basis of this interest stack is to provide a list of full-length novels that have been adapted into series or movie format.

*Disclaimer: not enough space to add children's classics to this, go check out Nippon Animation's studio page if you want more!

"Elitist" has been a very generic and broad term to generalise many types of not-so-mainstream or "deep" anime, so this list is very diverse and it's criteria are not always clear cut and objective. Nonetheless I try to provide a proper explanation for why each entry is included. Generally speaking these are shows that fit one OR more of these adjectives: Experimental, Avant-Garde, Psychological, Philosophical, Obscure, Classic, Critically Acclaimed, Artsy, Old, etc...

Some shows here are not necessarily obscure or underground at all, but they are still here because they have been stereotyped as "elitist" by the community over time, due to their experimental or artsy nature. Similarly, some shows here are not necessarily artsy or experimental in nature, but their old/underwatched/obscure nature gives them a reason to be here. Not all aspects have to be checked to be included. Only one per franchise.

I have personally watched the great majority of the anime in this list, but there are a couple which I haven't. Still added them because of how strongly they are stereotyped as "elitist" or have fitting characteristics to be classified as such. I know my list still lacks many essential classics, I will continue to add and expand into this list as I watch those personally.

For more recommendations, go to my other Interest Stacks, "Elitist Anime 2" , "Elitist Anime 3" and "Elitist Anime 4", whose links are:

- https://myanimelist.net/stacks/4256
- https://myanimelist.net/stacks/4756
- https://myanimelist.net/stacks/10188
- https://myanimelist.net/stacks/15961

Titles in which the characters are piloting flying devices (planes, brooms, etc) within the atmosphere. The characters being pilots is relevant to the plot, and during a big part of screen time there is action in the air.

Added one title per franchise.

Shows where ships play some fairly notable part in the story. Stack is biased toward ocean-going vessels. Submarines are also included.

Shows where there are characters that pilot airplanes, shows that just have some airplanes appear on them don't count.

Dieselpunk is a retrofuturistic subgenre of science fiction that combines the aesthetics of the diesel-based technology of the interwar period through to the 1950s with retro-futuristic technology.

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Collection of series that feature, provide commentary and explore themes heavily related to Cultural, Political, Religious, Sociological or Economic fields and the impact that those fields and processes that they contain have to the general population.

Japan has waged countless wars within its territories and beyond her shores for thousands of years now, and in anime we can see some of the perspectives, interpretations and depictions the Japanese people have developed with regards to this topic.

In this stack list I have gathered what I consider to be the essential anime with the theme of war, whether they show it from the perspective of the soldiers who fight them or from the experience of the bystander civilians who have to endure its effects on society and the environment. War is a theme that comes up, even tangentially, in most of everything, so I can't really make a list of every good anime that has some reference to war in it, so here I tried to put shows that either have a direct focus on war as a core theme, or shows whose main focus isn't war and only have war related elements in certain limited sections, but still do provide an interesting and valuable perspective on it when the theme of war eventually comes up.

I don't necessarily agree with all of these shows' views on war (I actively disagree with some), nor do I believe every show here is good. I just think that all of these could offer interesting insight on the different perspectives about war that come up in Japanese animation. You decide which view of war you agree with the most or find most emotionally genuine and politically nuanced.

These are the best works anime can offer.

Includes:
• Oscar nominated works/Award Winning Films
• Well perceived works by critics
• Works with well-crafted, compelling story and character interactions
• Well perceived avant-garde/daring works
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Disclaimer: These works won't always be magnum opus.

Probally not the best, nor my favorite

But they need to be remembered.

Only anime that seems to be forgotten.

(I'll update this if something new shows up)

Mamoru Oshii is a popular creator and has been involved in several anime in both major and minor roles.

This stack is intended as a guide to specifically just his own creative works, all anime listed here were either directed by Oshii or created by him.

Entries not directed by Oshii have a note explaining his involvement.

These anime have strong & dark depictions of suffering, mental illness, trauma violence, sex and various sociopolitical and economic problems in a grounded way and without sugarcoating it, although in fiction it is often impossible to completely avoid the distorting lense of epicness or melodrama when portraying reality.

When I say that these shows portray reality, I don't mean to say that they are necessarily based in material reality, as some are sci-fi or fantasy. What I mean, is that these shows portray the bleak and harrowing aspects of human condition without pulling any punches, and without romanticizing it (to some extent).

These shows often have a positive and hopeful overall message and/or ending sometimes, so I wouldn't call this a list of "depressing" shows. However, they have in common that they revolve around brutal and mature depictions of psychological, physical and spiritual pain of individuals and society, while also having a haunting and opressive feel to them.

This is a list of movies from the 90's till late 2020's. 99% are stand alone, otherwise, enjoy.