Inaka Isha

The Oofuji Noburou Award (大藤信郎賞) is an animation award given at the Mainichi Film Awards. It is named after Japanese animator Noburou Oofuji.

Following the death of Noburou Oofuji in 1961, Mainichi established a new award in his honor to recognize animation excellence. A specialist in silhouette animation, Oofuji was one of the earliest Japanese animators to gain international recognition.

With the growth of the animation industry in Japan, the award in the 1980s came to be dominated by big budget studio productions, over the work of the independent animators for whose efforts it was originally established. To address this concern, the Animation Grand Award was established to reward large scale cinematic animation, enabling the Oofuji award to focus on shorter pieces again.

(Source: Wikipedia)

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.

This is an early list that I made and quite frankly it's a mess, I decided to make a more comprehensive thematic series, check them out:

- An introduction to short animations
https://myanimelist.net/stacks/29151

- Short animations getting artsy
https://myanimelist.net/stacks/29178

- Short animations getting dark
https://myanimelist.net/stacks/29194

- Short animations getting scientific
https://myanimelist.net/stacks/29216

The weirdest and cringe anime.

list of psychological, strange and experimental anime.

This list has a part 1: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/3795

Art house, in relation to cinema, is a genre of films that are intended to be serious artistic works rather than merely popular entertainment but the descriptor can also be applied to anime. Furthermore, avant-garde refers to innovative, experimental, radical or unorthodox concepts and techniques. This can of course also be used in reference to anime and manga.

As MAL currently sadly only allows a max of 50 entries on interests stacks this list mainly prioritises the stand out and most high quality examples of avant-garde and art house anime television shows, feature films, OVAs and short film compilations. For a more comprehensive list which features the numerous experimental short films on the site as well as manga, I direct you to my accompanying Art house, Avant-Garde and Experimental club of the same name.

As far as I'm concerned there's an anime about pretty much everything if you look hard enough: diving, underwear design, insurance investigation (yup!) and don't even get me started on cooking. So there, picked titles with main characters directly involved and at least some focus on whatever they're doing for a living or a hobby or both.

Part two^ https://myanimelist.net/stacks/30206 (it's a work in progress though)

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

Do you want to watch anime so artsy that will either relate to the deepest part of your soul or completely confuse you?
Well here you go, and since they are so short you don't have to feel like you wasted your time.

This list includes arthouse anime that are around 15 minutes or less, so movie length (Angel's Egg) or OVA/episode length (Cat Soup) are not in here.

Some of this may be a bit challenging to find, some are up on youtube and for some you'll have to get creative, buying or streaming them is probably out of the question.

Includes regular anime series, movies, experimental shorts, and even music videos. Anything that can be considered unique in either its art style or method of animation. Probably not every entry in this list will be suited to one's taste, but as we all know, art is subjective.

Also, I've tried to limit the entries to one per style.

Works that aren't here on MAL:
- Our House, by Murata Caori

Anime that feels absent and empty, due to it's deafening silence and overwhelming atmosphere by which it permeates.

Rendering a state without people nor narrative action, yet somehow convey the sense of their being within the space — a lingering life force as if someone has just departed or is about to arrive. A quiet, strange moment is swallowed by the emotional power of absence, or a mystery that is brewing with undercurrent of danger, hopelessness and the unknown.

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)

good anime with a score of 6 or less.

varying levels of surreal imagery, fluid animation, mixed media, unusual aesthetics, or just plain avant garde

These pieces have a harmony, uniqueness or just an x-factor to their overall aesthetic presence, to include music/sound design.

This is not to be confused with animation though. While the two intersect, if something is interesting only for its animation quality, hopefully it's not here.

Feel free to message me if you think I should check something out that could be here. And if you disagree or think there is a better representative of something, let's talk.

Grupinho de amigos vendo filmes aleatórios
Little group of friends watching random movies



/// Indications:



🐭Hanabi (https://myanimelist.net/profile/Kiridoo)

『Perfect Blue
    Tenshi no Tamago
    Mind Game
    Summer Wars
    Tsumiki no Ie
    Sennen Joyuu
    Kokoro ga Sakebitagatterunda.
    Koukaku Kidoutai』


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🐷Under (https://myanimelist.net/profile/UnderlineN)

『Penguin's Memory: Shiawase Monogatari
    Dead Leaves
    Giovanni no Shima
    Inaka Isha
    Buttobi! CPU
    Macross: Do You Remember Love?
    Mimi wo Sumaseba
    Robot Carnival
    Memories』


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🐶Lupagon (https://myanimelist.net/profile/Lupagom)

『Hello World
    Boku no Hero Academia the Movie 3
    Howl no Ugoku Shiro
    Majo no Takkyuubin
    Kaguya-hime no Monogatari
    Fate/stay night: Heaven's Feel - I. Presage Flower
    Fate/stay night: Heaven's Feel - II. Lost Butterfly
    Fate/stay night: Heaven's Feel - III. Spring Song
』


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🐮Gabriel (https://myanimelist.net/profile/Gabriel10419)

『Genocyber
    Nakitai Watashi wa Neko wo Kaburu
    Hotarubi no Mori e
    Saint☆Oniisan (Movie)
    Blame! Movie
    Juubee Ninpuuchou』


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🐵Caroline (https://myanimelist.net/profile/Caroline32)

『Lupin III: The first
    Ongaku
    Lupin III: Fuuma Ichizoku no Inbou
    Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo
    Tenki no Ko
    Entotsu Machi no Poupelle
    Hadashi no Gen』
   

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