Tsumiki no Ie

The Japan Media Arts Festival is an annual festival held since 1997 by Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs. The festival begins with an open competition and culminates with the awarding of several prizes and an exhibition.

Based on judging by a jury of artistic peers, awards are given in four categories: Art (formerly called Non-Interactive Digital Art), Entertainment (formerly called Interactive Art; including video games and websites), animation, and manga. Within each category, one Grand Prize, four Excellence Prizes, and (since 2002) one Encouragement Prize are awarded.

(Source: Wikipedia)

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

Anime with a loner protagonist. Well, at least at the start since introducing new characters is unavoidable. I'm only including the ones where the solitary mindset has been somewhat emphasised.

short anime with less than the standard 12 episodes, including some movies under an hour long and a select few ONA projects

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.

A Comprehensive and Chronological List of Japanese Animated works that have been nominated for an Academy Award.

Arranged by score

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

"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

The scent of the sea, the smell of chlorine from the pool, and the tears that roll down your cheeks. The sea is as abundant as the sand. Below are animes where the MC is associated with the theme of water, or entities that belong to the sea. Water can be raindrops, the sea, the pool, and tears. It is the foundation of water that leads them to love, find purpose, compete, live or just have fun


More: https://myanimelist.net/profile/RokkanShojo/stacks

100% purity here! Not a single bit of nonsense relating to sex.

I can't believe I had such a hard time making this stack >:'[ I'm a poor Christian boy


((If you find anything here with a sex joke please contact me immediately I want this place to be a light in the ecchi-filled darkness))

Part 2: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/11405


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

Anime that looks like a painting, sorted from A to Z. Mostly watercolor or pastel style with soft and soothing color palette. This list doesn't include Ghibli-esque style. Feel free to comment on my profile if you have some suggestions, and enjoy :)

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

Anime is a visual medium and these are the series and movies that knock it out of the park in terms of being a treat for the eyes.

A big part of what makes anime so interesting is the fact that it’s all animated. So you get to see color palettes and sceneries that you would never see in real life.

And there’s definitely a few anime that are just more visually pleasing than others.

So to celebrate this beautiful art, I'm going to list down some of the most aesthetically pleasing anime ever made. If you’re big into anime you’ll probably like a lot on this list, and even more so if you’re into art too.

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.

Continuation of the first stack.
https://myanimelist.net/stacks/10500

This should be about it.
While I could keep adding more by digging deeper, especially into the older stuff, or just adding even more mainstream titles... I feel like that'd be excessive - as I want to keep these stacks somewhat balanced and easy to digest for a broad range of people: whether you're someone who mostly watches modern anime or an oldhead that still has VHS anime.
As long as the person reading this is okay with something outside of their comfort zone - they will find something for themselves.