Seeing frequent posts in threads asking for suggestions so I thought I'd make a list. These aren't guaranteed to be leftist in their politics, or even politically driven, but these are anime that always get suggested whenever anyone asks a leftist what anime they should watch. Feel free to add to it.
The following anime I have seen and also recommend:
- Ghost in the Shell 1995 film
- Ghost in the Shell Innocence
- Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex (2002) & 2nd Gig (2004)
- Jin Roh
- Patlabor films 1 & 2
- Angel's Egg
- Cowboy Bebop (series & film)
- Legend of the Galactic Heroes (1988-1997 OVAs)
- Serial Experiments Lain
- Haibane Renmei
- Texhnolyze
- Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood
- Berserk (1997)
- Mushishi (all series & films)
- Evangelion (all series & films)
- Death Note
- Satoshi Kon films (Perfect Blue, Millenium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers, Paprika)
- Paranoia Agent
- Planetes
- Kino's Journey (2003)
- All the famous Studio Ghibli films
- FLCL (2000)
- Akira
- Steins; Gate (2011)
- Little Witch Academia
- Kaiba (not Yu-gi-oh)
These are anime that I have seen and personally would not recommend, but they frequently come up as suggestions and are very popular:
- Madoka Magica
- Gurren Lagann
- Psycho Pass (except season 2)
- Shinsekai Yori
- Monster
- Trigun
- Ergo Proxy
- Code Geass
The following are anime that I have not seen but are also frequently suggested:
- Gundam (I haven't seen any so I can't say which series or films are recommended)
- Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
- Revolutionary Girl Utena
- Hunter x Hunter
- The Rose of Versailles
- Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor
- Ranma 1/2
- Sailor Moon
- Mob Psycho 100
That's about as far as it goes for anime that leftists regularly recommend for others to watch from my experience, but I'm sure I'm forgetting some, especially older anime.
I'm happy to suggest anime that I would recommend that don't fall in this list as well, especially for romance/comedy since they rarely get talked about in leftist groups.
Hunter x Hunter is super weird, I watched the whole show and I'm still not sure how I feel about it. The morality of the characters is super gray but I'm not sure what the show is trying to say with that. Gon and Killua are awesome characters but idk why they team up with the pedo murder clown to win a video game
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It does showcase a lot of settler mentality, in which the world is a place to explore, exploit and discover, disregarding anything else. Hunters in many cases are barely anything but very specialized extractors of wealth. That's about the only moral throughline i can find in it.
I think that show is more interested in exploring anime tropes and vibes than anything else. Its kind of just playing in the genre sandbox.
It's a mixed bag I think. Most of the time I'm enjoying my show about the craziest 2 kids to ever exist but certain plot points make me curious about the author's intentions. At least it has the guts to take risks, I'd take it over a generic isekai any day
I'd like to see what you mean by this! I haven't watched it in a long time, and to be honest i just watched it as a fun watch which made me turn off my criticism brain.
Haha it's been awhile since that post so I don't have my full argument prepared, but I get weird vibes about how "might makes right" the world is. Like Kurapika giving up on fighting the Phantom Troupe through some weird truce, Gon justifying his dad's death game, the main characters teaming up with the killer clown
It's mostly just weird that the protagonists don't really care about saving the world or fighting injustice, they only wanna fulfill their own goals (which isn't entirely bad, just gives weird vibes)
If I wanted to be an angry communist about it I could get mad at their portrayal of North Korea but i didn't really expect the author to be pro-juche anyway
Lol gotcha, i'm kind of on the same boat. Since i'm coming from a more agroecological and rural perspective i find the fact that the figure of the hunter is pretty much a wealth/resource extractor with zero regard for ecological connection to people or land, which it's a big no-no. So yeah, we can be angry communists at a whole bunch of things.