Nice to see the Major held in such high regard. The whole GITS saga is impressive stuff, although Arise maybe missed out a little on making the philosophical undertones as explicit as previous incarnations. Whatevs though, still great stuff.
I’m a little surprised no one has mentioned the two collections with stuff by Otomo (oops Memories was mentioned), he’s a god damn hero.
Memories is awesome scifi and even though the segment he directs in Short Peace isn’t set in the future, ‘A Farewell to Weapons’ is so it’s not too off topic. Watch them both and… try not to cry through one of the segments in Memories, fair warning!
The other, non-future stuff in Short Peace has got some scifi in it though.
GAMBO!
As for fun action stuff that blows your guts out through your shredded spine I notice no one has mentioned the venerable Dead Leaves
or Redline.
Fun fun fun.
Also ‘Paprika’ and ‘The Girl Who Leapt Through Time’ (technically set in the future I guess)… ummm, damn I’m missing one I meant to mention…
Also, question for you true believers.
Do you reckon Toki was more powerful than even Rao?
In the next sentences, I said the “musings” alone justify the movie, when I meant to say “the music” justifies the movie. But by happy coincidence, both statements are true
hehe, I’m about to go watch Tecxhnolyze based on your and @popobawa4u’s opinion of it
I guess I’ve missed a few good uns over the years, but trawling through all the absolute shite that’s come to dominate the anime market over the years has really sapped my enthusiasm. That said, I get to discover and inhale such gloriously rare vapours every now and again, so I’m not giving up on it.
Wow, that’s almost the exact list of anime I started with. Though I actually began with Texhnolyze and then Bubblegum Crisis because I had my extreme cyberpunk phase back then and pretty much exhausted the books I wanted to read. Longing for more, I discovered this great world of anime through these cyberpunk examples! I’ve watched all these examples you listed, along with the Ghost In The Shell Stand Alone Complexes between something like 2006 and 2008, I think, and still remember them vividly. One of the most gripping scenes was from Alita, when the Cyberphysician simply got reduced to her organs to be sold…
Texhnolyze is exceptionally bleak and still sticks with me, give it another try! Ergo Proxy I tried to watch, as well and gave up about four episodes in; didn’t capture my interest.
Though my personal cyberpunk favorites remain Bubblegum Crisis (how unfortunate that it got cut short!), AD Police Files and Cyber City Oedo 808, which are the few series/OVAs that I’ve re-watched multiple times through the years. I’m in love with their style; they’re exactly what I like. I’d also include Megazone 23, as it’s very close in style to these.
As I expanded beyond pure cyberpunk anime into more general Sci-Fi I discovered two other favorites of mine: The Irresponsible Captain Tylor and Martian Successor Nadesico. Ridiculous space operas on the surface, but with their own very unique twists and extremely likeable characters. Despite their often over-the-top silliness they did strike me very as very deep and emotional.
Memories and Planetes were already mentioned, both great stories and really nice hard science fiction in the latter’s case.
All this talk makes me want to start watching Anime again after a few years without any!
