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ANIME TOP TEN (LIST #2) FOLLOW-UP

List #2 took a little more decision-making on my part. I had to evaluate my current list and make a few choice corrections to reflect my current tastes. But there are still plenty of movies or single-part OVAs to praise, so here’s ten more, in short. 

  #s 11-20:   11. Farewell Space Battleship Yamato – The most memorable Yamato film, and an early attempt at capping the franchise, this movie has action, drama, romance, and plenty of large scale operatics.  12. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind – Miyazaki does what he does best in this adventure film with an environmental message. He transports the viewer to a foreign world, filled with wonder and danger, but without alienating the audience.  13. Lupin III: Episode 0: First Contact – This is probably the quintessential Lupin adventure, the jewel in the crown of Lupin’s grand age of TV specials and embodiment of Lupindom. Not only does it provide the story of how the Lupin gang met, but it’s also an exciting, funny romp through New York City, Lupin style. 14. Final Yamato – The climactic (then) final chapter of the Yamato franchise, Yamato goes again on a large scale mission, it’s last, to save the Earth from a Noahic disaster. Emotions run high, as does melodrama, but all in all a fine conclusion to the Yamato story.  15. Princess Mononoke – Another gorgeous, sprawling, sweeping story about so many things, such as perserverence, mercy, the environment, and coming of age, Miyazaki again hits a home run as he teaches us all the importance of respecting natural forces.  16. Lupin III: The Fuma Conspiracy – A lot like Castle of Cagliostro, but maybe not quite as beautiful. It does have the advantage of being more Lupin-ish than Cagliostro, with the characters acting a bit more like their usual selves. But also like Cagliostro, it has quite a bit going for it as an adventure movie. 

17. Patlabor: The Movie – read more

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ANIME TOP TEN (LIST #2) – #1: Royal Space Force: Wings of the Honneamise (1987)

 

 

Director(s): Hiroyuki Yamaga
Screenplay: Hiroyuki Yamaga
Music: Ryuichi Sakamoto
 
"Reach for the stars" is a cliche motivational phrase denoting a desire to go as far as you possibly can to obtain your goals in life. In this movie, you can actually imagine the people who worked on it as desiring just that, not just the characters. It was an ambitious project for the fledgling studio Gainax and it unfortunately didn’t really make too many waves in Japan. But it’s a criminally underrated film that expresses its themes with thoughtfulness and doesn’t try to sugar-coat or talk down to its audience. 
 
Royal Space Force is about a lost generation. Most of its main characters are a disillusioned, cynical bunch who don’t hold a lot of respect for their lots in life. The huge undertaking of a space program is something they don’t fully appreciate at first. In fact, it’s not until towards the end that these characters even come out of the fog of their stagnation and steel their determination to make the project work. 
 
I love the details in the film. The studio clearly poured enormous attention into the film. The backgrounds are lush, the detail of the machines and the expressions of the characters and their movement are all excellent. The explosions are even well-drawn and have seemingly realistic physics to it. If nothing else, the movie is surely a visual feast, taking us into a world much like our own, with some slight, but vital differences. 
 
Of course, one would be amiss if one didn’t mention a certain scene towards the end of the movie. It’s not a pleasant scene. If you’re any kind of decent person, you’ll probably feel disgust towards our "hero", Shiro. It even seems a bit too sudden and probably a bit too far to take the situation. The movie could have skipped that scene entirely and it probably would have been fine. Shiro is still a guy who needs to turn away from his life of decadence and sluggishness. However, in the scene’s defense, it creates a bigger need for Shiro to redeem himself, at the risk of his own life and well being. I also have an alternative view of the scene, if anyone’s interested. Not that it excuses Shiro’s behavior. 
 
Wings of the Honneamise is a triumph of Japanese animation about the triumph of a man looking for a purpose in his life as well as others.  It is as inspirational as much as it is well-crafted. It’s a must see. 
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ANIME TOP TEN (LIST #2) – #3: Cowboy Bebop: Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door (2001)

 

Director(s): Shinichiro Watanabe
Screenplay: Keiko Nobumoto
Music: Yoko Kanno
A great companion piece to the television series, this movie captures the flavor of Cowboy Bebop in a one-off that feels like a single episode type story but is on a grander scale that suits a movie. It has high production quality, to begin with. The art and animation are stunning. Everything is very detailed and the flow of animation is stunning, especially during the fight scenes, which are brilliantly coreographed. The music is yet another great accomplishment of Yoko Kanno and The Seatbelts, with each piece reflecting the atmosphere of the setting and situations given. The city (cities?) the movie takes place in are intricately drawn and have an active personality, as though it were a real place. There is a grittiness and activity that helps the city seem so real. The movie adds in slightly more insight into Spike’s personality and I personally couldn’t  help sitting at the edge of my seat, rooting for him. Fans of the series shouldn’t miss it. 
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ANIME TOP TEN (LIST #2) – #4: Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

 

 

Director(s): Isao Takahata
Screenplay: Isao Takahata
Music: Masahiko Satoh, Michio Mamiya
Original Novel: Akiyuki Nosaka
 
Grave of the Fireflies isn’t just a fantastic anime film. It’s not even just one of my favorites. It actually seems to be something important, something one can’t possibly ignore or miss out on. It’s a vital, mandatory watch, not just for anime fans, not just for animation fans, and not just for movie buffs. It’s a must see for everybody. The gravity of the film reaches across borders, that’s how well-crafted and emotionally realized the film is. It’s a harsh, heartbreaking movie about two children, an older brother and a younger sister, who suffer loss after loss during a difficult time in history. They suffer most of all from the older brother’s pride, mind you, but this is no love note to war either. Whatever your stance on in history for what was done at that time, it’s easy to reconcile with the pain of innocents caught in the middle of a horrible situation. In fact, the author of the original novel it’s based on suffers from survivor’s guilt, a fact which helps to further color this important movie. If you haven’t seen this movie yet, you owe it to yourself to do so. 
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ANIME TOP TEN (LIST #2) – #5 Mobile Suit Gundam Movie Trilogy (I – 1981, II – 1981, III – 1982)

 

 

Director(s): Yoshiyuki Tomino, Ryoji Fujiwara, Yoshikazu Yasuhiko Screenplay: Kenichi Matsuzaki Music: Hiroshi Matsuyama, Takeo Watanabe   As I said about the TV series, the now classic Mobile Suit Gundam wasn’t very popular at first. But due to its popularity in repeats, it garnered enough attention to warrent a film series adaptation. The TV series is a classic, but most of what it does, the movies do better. Some of the more garish toy advertisement elements were replaced with better looking alternatives and the story and themes are streamlined, without some of the clunkiness of the show. The new animation, most present in the third movie, is good enough to impress, but is also flawlessly in tune with the old animation. The new footage was headed by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, so perhaps more credit can be given to him than for Tomino for the films. 
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ANIME TOP TEN (LIST #2) – #6: Castle of Cagliostro (1979)

 

 

Director(s): Hayao Miyazaki
Script: Haruya Yamazaki, Hayao Miyazaki
Music: Yuji Ohno
 
Actually, Castle of Cagliostro is pretty middling as a Lupin III feature. Lupin is more of a white knight than a rarely chivalrous pervert. Jigen and Goemon are barely there. Fujiko is obviously toned down. The feeling produced by the film is more of a storybook than a wild romp with the greatest thief in the world. But despite all that, or maybe even because of it, (depending on how you feel about Lupin’s usual adventures) this is an amazing film. Visually, it still looks gorgeous today. It’s stunning. Just the amount of detail is more than enough to make this a masterpiece on style alone. But it’s such an exciting movie, too. Lupin breaking into the titular castle is some of the best material committed to film. It really puts the viewer on the edge of their seat at the right moments, and at the back of their seat when it needs to be emotional (though sometimes overly sentimental). It’s such a well-crafted movie, one of Miyazaki’s best, and it definitely deserved this spot on the list, but it’s definitely more a Miyazaki work than a Lupin III film.  
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ANIME TOP TEN (LIST #2) – #7: Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack (1988)

 

 

 

Director(s): Yoshiyuki Tomino Script: Yoshiyuki Tomino Music: Shigeaki Saegusa   Yoshiyuki Tomino is not for everyone, and nothing highlights it more than this movie. People tend to either love it or hate it. I can’t really blame some people for disliking it. The movie starts in medias res and many details as to how the conflict started are merely inferred. The movie will not hold your hand. The characters of Quess Paraya and Hathaway Noa are difficult to sympathize with, and their storylines seem to obscure more pressing matters, like the rivalry between Amuro Ray and Char Aznable. But I like the in medias res, myself, and really enjoy this movie for the large-scale final battle that was years in coming. What I like about the Quess and Hathaway portions is that Tomino’s highlighting the problems that the future generation have. The movie is all about wanting humanity itself to grow up, but that means also throwing away self-destructive stubbornness, and I think it does that justice. It also has some pretty good production values which still hold up to this day. Can one man change humanity? You might wish he can.     
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ANIME TOP TEN (LIST #2) – #8: End of Evangelion (1997)

 

 

Director(s): Hideaki Anno, Kazuya Tsurumaki
Screenplay: Hideaki Anno
Music: Shiro Sagisu
All things must come to an end and in End of Evangelion, pretty much everything does (at least for a while). When the plans of SEELE and Gendo Ikari clash, Shinji, Asuka, and NERV all get caught in the crossfire of their grand schemes. Again the themes of alienation, of miscommunication, come to light as Human Instrumentality comes to fruition. Shinji experiences a frightening truth about himself and the world around him. He is forced to confront himself and this new world, and what it says about him as a human being, and what it says about all human beings. The production values are quite good, though the visuals can be needlessly trippy at times, and the action is brutal and unforgiving. End of Evangelion is a great capper to a great series. 
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ANIME TOP TEN (LIST #2) – #9: Patlabor 2 (1993)

 

 

Director(s): Mamoru Oshii Screenplay: Kazunori Ito Music: Kenji Kawai   This is Patlabor at its best. Casting aside most of the comedic elements of the OVA or TV series, this movie is more of a political thriller, commenting on society through the lense of these characters and the world they live in, which is much like our own. More than that, it concentrates on my two favorite Patlabor characters, Keniichi Gotoh and Shinobu Nagumo. In a more sophisticated version of "The SV2’s Longest Day" from the original OVA, a terrorist causes mass panic and political strife through a few actions, using the city and its people as a petri dish to grow his scenario in twisted revenge, and Shinobu has to deal with this old figure of her past, deciding what sort of action to take against this man she loved. I believe this was intended to be the finale for the Patlabor saga, showing the development of the characters and showcasing their abilities and personalities one last time, and it works as both that and with the intended themes of the film as a film all on its own.
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ANIME TOP TEN (LIST #2) – #10: Metropolis (2001)

 

 

Director(s): Rintaro
Screenplay: Katsuhiro Otomo
Music: Toshiyuki Honda
Metropolis is more of an atmospheric movie than a story or characters one. I enjoyed the old-timey looking character designs, the architecture of the city, and the dixie jazz more than anything. Not that the story or characters were slouches, mind you, but less interesting than the visual and audio aspects, the production values. It’s a beautiful-looking film, even the CG is not too bad. It’s got a pretty conventional storyline, and the only characters I was emotionally invested in were Kenichi and Tima, and even then, pretty superficially. The style of the film may hold domination over the substance, but it’s still a damn good ride. 
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