Alright I've been toying with the idea of getting into anime for a long time but the genre is vast and I'm not easily hooked. Pitch me a show or film that's really, REALLY different. Not necessarily out there for the sake of it but artistically or thematically in a class of its own.

  • Cromalin [she/her]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Revolutionary Girl Utena. Incredibly stylish. About gender roles and sexuality in a way thats a lot more nuanced than most modern shows. This was the show that convinced me that that one meme about the curtains being blue was actually bullshit, because all the symbolism is super dense, with some of it being obvious enough to penetrate my teenage skull and some of it only making sense on a 3rd or 4th rewatch. My favorite anime of all time, can make me cry and cheer out loud in the same episode. Incredibly queer, if that's a selling point, though it was limited in how explicit it could be since it aired in a children's timeslot in the 90s. Ikuhara (the director) went on to direct several other incredibly unique and fascinating anime that also fit your criteria, though I don't like them as much as Utena. On youtube.

    Madoka Magica has some great art direction, if you watch til the end of the first episode you'll see what I mean.

    The mid 2000s Higurashi anime is a fantastic horror series with a really cool concept and some fun twists. If you like it, you should read Umineko, which is by the same guy and is a 10/10 horror mystery about a shitty rich family being slowly killed off on their private island by a 'witch' that has supposedly haunted the island for decades, while the main character tries to prove that the witch doesn't exist. It's one of my favorite works of fiction ever, but the anime is dogshit.

    All of these have content warnings out the ass, so I can share those if you want.