Yoru wa Mijikashi Arukeyo Otome

Fuji TV's noitaminA (ノイタミナ) late night programming block which currently broadcasts on Fridays from 00:45 to 1:45.

Looking to expand your horizons? This list will introduce you to a few anime with unconventional art styles that will surely take you on an unexpected journey.

From using 3D techniques, hand drawing, colourful or muted palettes, these anime will transport you into a world of their own through the use of those brilliant techniques and styles.
Those different characteristics will help broaden your opinion on how art can help enhance story telling by providing context clues crucial to the story, or strengthen a character's particular personality trait.
Pushing beyond the boundaries of what traditional anime should look like and what most are used to, these works are surely going to leave you with a lasting impression and possibly drive you towards more fantastically creative anime!

Films that won the Best Animation of the Year prize given by the Japan Academy Film Prize Association, first awarded in 2007.

Anime which takes place in a college.

Critics & Connoisseurs was a club that was founded in 2008 and ended club activities on the 31st of 2022.

The goal of the club was to come up with a list of highly recommended quality shows that are exemplary either within its genre or universally. An anime needed a 70% approval rate in our voting to get on the relation list. The following anime are all part of said list.

You can see the club page here:
https://myanimelist.net/clubs.php?cid=2913

Anime Relation List Part 1: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/324
Manga Relation List: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/334

Films with dramatic/abstract visual portrayal of emotional struggle.

A collection of shows featuring late-night city vibes.

Facing reality, rejecting the fantasy, and not running away from our issues. Embrace life!

Added Hayao Miyazaki's recent masterpiece, The Boy and the Heron. Mahito choosing to embrace reality, learning to value his current connections and partially overcome the immense grief caused by the death of his mother.

List is up to date as of 01/06/25

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.

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!

Anime with unique art-style/premise and or surreal/dreamlike sequences

Anime with small, close characters that make up a tightly knitted cast. A group of friends, a small town, a collection of people and their relationships. A sense of camaraderie, a diorama of humans, a fun time to feel close to fun people.

This stack contains a collection of anime that I think best falls into this category over anything else.

list of psychological, strange and experimental anime.

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

Shows/Movies of all kinds that are either meant for or can be enjoyed by an older audience. A treasure trove of excellence covering a wide range. Story-driven thrillers, well researched historical shows, brilliant world-constructions, poetic narrations, gripping thrillers, dark comedies, complex future visions, tightly packed action, avant-garde art, solid entertainment, tear-jerking dramas to light-hearted slices of lives.
No big-boob dumdums, high-pitched VAs, fan-/lip-service or plot-around-the-holes-type shows. Teenage angst and school-settings are rarities in these two lists.

pov: you are experiencing the ups and downs of life
watch them in order

This stack will balance between fairly conventional but beautiful art style -for example 3-gatsu no Lion- and unique artstyle -like Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei-, with some maybe not-so-worthy mentions in the middle.

So far I'm gonna add the ones I watched, so let's say that it's always in construction.

Oh, btw, for series with multiple entries, I'm gonna add the first one only. Enjoy!

Anime where characters aren't big eyed cute girls

I'll add more later

Anime with weird / surreal imagery. Picked purely on visuals, quality of these shows may vary (but most are good).

For those whose interest wanders.
11 episodes or less.