Most Beautiful Anime?
 

I hear a lot of people discussing their choices for the most beautifully-illustrated manga, but what abut anime? In my experience, beautiful manga art doesn't necessarily translate into a good-looking anime -- and vice versa.

Myself, I think one of the most gorgeous anime I've ever watched is Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo. (You can watch a trailer here: http://bit.ly/zixgay). The style is so fantastically original, even though it tends to cause motion sickness in the uninitiated. :P

How about you guys?

Five Centimeters per Second and The Place From Our Earliest Days are both breathtakingly beautiful imo.

I'm torn by many issues here. It's incredibly hard to narrow down even a few titles, let alone define beauty.

For instance, Mononoke had a very unique art style I consider beautiful, though most would probably look at it and think of a bad acid trip.

Many Ghibli films have gorgeous artwork, with all kinds of detailing that is often shunned in series production for TV.

Macross Zero had absolutely stunning flight sequences, and amazing scenery. A lot of effort put in to the visual quality.

Eve no Jikan (the movie) many may consider a bit plain, because it isn't action, and doesn't have bright colours and sparkles or anything, but in its "plainness" I found it to be very visually appealing.

And I'm sure people will mention things like 5cm, ef and such, which are certainly attractive though I personally think overrated (just speaking visually, story and such aside).

It's a problem with the new/younger generation of viewers only used to modern digital animation; if you go back a decade and beyond, many films and OVAs were much more detailed than digital art of the modern era, even series could have much richer backgrounds and motion than a lot of generic stuff these days with blobby or sketchy crowds, or static backdrops despite the scene being in a busy place. Much, much more common now, which despite the "crispness" of modern art and animation, I think removes quite a lot of life.

That said, I generally prefer modern art too. I love HD on modern screens, and find myself rewatching more new series or going for newer BD series more than older ones, despite my rather large DVD collection spanning some three decades. Thus why I mention three newer titles here first.

Yes - the Ghibli films and Eve no Jikan were beautiful as well.

In terms of recent series I liked the backdrops of Ikoku Meiro, Hanasaku Iroha and Tamayura Hitotose.

I assume that the OP is primarily speaking of series they thought were visually beautiful - and of course personal tastes enter in.

Heh, my intention is not to start a philosophical debate about the nature of beauty -- that's a whole can of worms that doesn't need to be opened here. This is purely opinion -- I make no claims as to the superiority of one anime over the other. I'm just curious about others' opinions.

I thought Mushishi looked gorgeous.

Something that may surprise many: last year, I think A-Channel did pretty well. (Watch the opening of episode 10, where Tooru is cracking ice puddles, to see an example of what I mean.)

House of Five Leaves was quite stunning because it had styles as well as the whole traditional atmosphere. The fantastic art was part of the reason I stuck with this show.

Katanagatari from 1 episode I watched was beautiful too. I guess I just dig the whole canvas painting style and everything was colourful in a good way. I will have to finish this one day.

I'm very fond of anime under the direction of Akiyuki Shinbo. Although he may go overboard with the aesthetics at times, it usually goes well with the source material. It's very avant-garde and sleek looking, I have to often rewatch the anime to get everything after I get bombarded with full of texts, cutouts and random references. With anime that is comedy, it's like a pefect match. So I'll just say any recent comic anime done by Shaft.

Redline has gorgeous art style too

5 CM per Second for me. Not even close.

Mmm? I always admired Rosario Vampires art style.

Hanasaku Iroha the backgrounds where just terrific

Yeah, I've got a handful of anime series I considered gorgeous... but there's a few minutes in 5cm/sec that just stopped my breath.

5cm/sec is the best imho. Eve no Jikan is a close second.

I notice a lot of these titles we are talking about are anime movies rather than series. Probably because they are shorter and more time and budget can be focused on each scene.

For series, I think Ef series is up there.

On the topic of older series. There are series out there that are old and are beautiful, but I think if a modern anime and an older anime that had the same amount of effort/budget put in, the modern anime will look better definitely. Thinking that older animation is better than modern animation is sorta like thinking that LP's provide higher quality than modern digital formats--Liking the defects imho.

For me it's My Neighbor Totoro. Miyazaki captures both the wonder of childhood and it's fleeting nature. Optimistic and melancholic at the same time. It has a beatuiful soundtrack and gorgeous artwork. The scenes of the busstop in the rain and the flight with the umbrella are still amazing every time I watch it.

Akira is still the most impressive anime for me in terms of pure animation. So much detail and movement all the time and so fluid.

Recently Makoto Shinkai's latest movie Children Who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below has left me also impressed in both visuals as in concept.

We can choose movies? I thought this refered to anime series

In that case, then definitely Spirited Away.

Mine would be Yosuga no Sora. While it may not the prettiest anime ever made but consider that it wasn't made by huge and famous studio like KyoAni, Ghibli, Bones and Sunrise it is a pleasant surprise.

I have a feeling these choices are heavily influenced by *where* you saw it. My top choice is Spirited Away, but perhaps because it is the only Ghibli movie I saw in a theater? I'm not sure. Most of the Ghibli movies would rank really high.

Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust and Rurouni Kenshin: Tsuiokuhen also stand out to me as among the most beautiful.

Katanagatari deserves a mention for its colors and unique style.

Kanon 2006 (KyoAni's tear scene is still hard to beat imo.)
Children Who Chase Lost Voices From Deep Below
GitS 2: Innocence
Another

well, i have one Anime which i can talking about the topic:Twin Spica, perhaps this anime don't have perfect Artwork, but the escence, the history, this wish of superation of the main character i like it.

is an anime worthwhile seeing.


you right it's a fantastic history, when i saw of first time was captivated, Hayao Miyazaki knows how to express the feelings of the purest way.


http://o2.t26.net/images/smiles/bang.gif

even violent, bloody and not have beautiful drawings, is a work of Japanese animation, it takes several generations in a single trip.

Air, Half Broken Music Box, Five Centimeters Per Second; and Wolf's Rain were the most beautiful I've ever watched.