Kaiba

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!

insert wojak meme

Worldbuilding - "the process of constructing a world, originally an imaginary one, sometimes associated with a fictional universe." These kinds of shows are usually set in a fantasy and/or sci-fi world, and excel at establishing & showcasing the rules/history/economy of their fictional universe. List was created through collective data from multiple websites of people's answers as to what shows are considered to have great world building.

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 2: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/328
Manga Relation List: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/334

Anime that contain the otherworldly and enigmatic beings from space!
Even if it's just for a single scene, if it has 'em, it's here.


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

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!

Some are franchises, so only one entry per franchise.

anime featuring liminal spaces and which may or may not also embody the liminal. a transitional space, unsettling un-belonging, altered reality

"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

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

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

Surreal anime that have an upbeat tone!


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

the ultimate chronically online girl stack

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.

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

Associated words: Light (Visually and/or Thematically), Character-centric, Dialogue-heavy, Personal, Artsy, Trippy, Existential, AND/OR Satiric
(Emphasis on AND/OR)



Do check out the other 'half': https://myanimelist.net/stacks/4922 (Some shows could also fit here)

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!