rock-solid animation on action anime

[all_flying]

Next-door forum(s) failed me. So, I'm giving you my (last) hope, AniSuki.

I don't care about story, as long as it has animation to boot. Also, not limited to "fighting" scenes, something like Redline is good. And, something which has bad Background drawing but outstanding animation is also good (Look: Cencoroll)

Something which I'd rather avoid:

- choppy/stiff animation
- black screen + flashing animation to imply an action
- still images just sliding across the screen
- CGs (But a good ones like in "Cat Shit One" is acceptable)
- reused sample/cut/animation
- badly produced inbetweening

The list could go on, but you get the point (I hope).

Hard mode: 2011 and above
Lunatic mode: underrated

(inb4 champloo, hellsing ultimate, fate zero, angel beats, akira, gits, fma brotherhood, kara no kyoukai, afro samurai, gurren lagann)

[Lagann_Horizon]

IMO Attack on Titan has everything you are looking for. Also check out Gurren Lagunn. I am not into mech anime's, but this is one of my favorite animes I have seen.

Others on here will be better suited to help you, as I am a newbie lol.

[totoum]

Originally Posted by Lagann_Horizon

IMO Attack on Titan has everything you are looking for.

Attack on titan has some nice scenes here and there but there's plenty of time where it goes into "slideshow mode"

not that I don't like the show but I doubt it'd fit all_flying standards.

Anyway right now I don't have much to suggest, a letter to momo and uchouten kazoku but those aren't really action anime,I'll keep thinking.

edit: sword of the stranger but I figure you've probably seen it, maybe Dirty Pair: Project Eden.

edit 2: Gunsmith Cats is worth seeing just for the carchase sequence in ep. 2

[Sackett]

I would suggest first of all:

Space Battleship Yamato 2199 (Movie quality)
Katanagatari
Rebuild versions of Neon Genesis Evangelion
Movie versions of Madoka Magica (especially Rebellion - holy cow that Mami-Homura fight scene is incredible).

Generally any movie version/episode of an action show would be a good bet.

Others you might try:

Kyoukai no Kanata Koyani quality action anime.
Bodacious Space Pirates had pretty good animation. (Can't find a HQ youtube clip though)
Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood was commented on for the quality of the fight scenes (particularly the second half of the anime for Bradley's fights)
Full Metal Panic: Second Raid had some pretty good fight animation (no HQ youtube clip available) and season one wasn't bad either.

[kitten320]

FMA: Brotherhood
Fate/Zero

[Darthtabby]

Canaan has pretty awesome action scenes and generally good production values.

If you're into something more comedic, Ben-to! has some pretty decent fight scene animation at times, though I'm not sure its all that consistent and it does employ some of the tricks you weren't so big on. Still, who doesn't like a series where starving students beat the crap out of each other for the right to purchase leftover bento boxes when they go on sale at the end of the day?

[all_flying]

Originally Posted by totoum

Attack on titan has some nice scenes here and there but there's plenty of time where it goes into "slideshow mode"

not that I don't like the show but I doubt it'd fit all_flying standards.

Anyway right now I don't have much to suggest, a letter to momo and uchouten kazoku but those aren't really action anime,I'll keep thinking.

edit: sword of the stranger but I figure you've probably seen it, maybe Dirty Pair: Project Eden.

edit 2: Gunsmith Cats is worth seeing just for the carchase sequence in ep. 2

Now we're talking. Yes, Attack on Titan is pretty cool at first sight. But it has a lot of sliding images and reused animation which is outright annoying.

Well, movies having a good animation is a must. Uchouten Kazoku is a bit surprising since it came from PA Works which always well-known for their scenery background but quite infamous for their animation quality. Seems they've changed since that series though

I already have Sword of The Stranger, but still haven't watched it yet.

Dirty Pair, and gunsmith. I'll look it up.

[Tempester]

Would help if you showed us your anime list or at least an approximate list of notable action anime you've already seen.

I recommend you try out Gunbuster, Macross Plus and Little Witch Academia. Yeah, I took the easy way out with OVAs/movies. Sue me. On the off chance that you haven't watched anything in the Macross franchise, rest assured because Macross Plus stands on its own very well.

[GreyZone]

Attack on Titan's issues were resolved in the Blu-Ray version, I heard... but the problem is you will probably not find the BD version in the WWW subbed.

[all_flying]

Originally Posted by Tempester

Would help if you showed us your anime list or at least an approximate list of notable action anime you've already seen.

I recommend you try out Gunbuster, Macross Plus and Little Witch Academia. Yeah, I took the easy way out with OVAs/movies. Sue me. On the off chance that you haven't watched anything in the Macross franchise, rest assured because Macross Plus stands on its own very well.

Everything above post said, summarized (with addition):

- Redline
- Cencoroll
- Samurai Champloo
- Cowboy Bebop
- FMA: Brotherhood
- Ghost in The Shell (and all of it's meta series/movies)
- Rebuild of Evangelion
- Kyoukai no Kanata
- FMP: The Second Raid
- Little Witch Academia
- Guilty Crown
- Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta
- Bayonetta: Bloody fate
- Kyoukaisenjou no Horizon
- Nichijou (it has a lot of action shoot and better animation than most 'action anime')
- Eiyuu Densetsu: Sora no Kiseki
- Towa no Quon
- Fate Zero (only because it has good production value, but the key-animation itself is pretty stiff)
- Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn (or rather, every pretentious projects from Sunrise).

All above series have 8 ~ 10/10 in the term of action animation. My memories is a bit hazy but Hellsing Ultimate's action animation wasn't that great. Angel Beats! could make on the list if only they didn't try to hide the action scene and using very long still images with reused cut. What a shame, it was a beautiful anime on top of that. Kara no Kyoukai, I didn't remember if it actually has any 'good action animation' because it has abysmal action portion.

Those were from what I remember. Maybe, there are more, but I'm still unsure yet.

[cupumanager]

Sky Crawlers - CG Aerial Action, mind you; but its good enough
Seirei no Moribito - Not an action series, but the fights are well-choreographed
Blood: The Last Vampire
Psycho-Pass - about Ep 16-18 screams of QUALITY though...
Darker Than Black
Blade of The Immortals

Originally Posted by Sackett

Movie versions of Madoka Magica (especially Rebellion - holy cow that Mami-Homura fight scene is incredible).

Spoiler for That is...:

[Tempester]

Originally Posted by cupumanager

Psycho-Pass - about Ep 16-18 screams of QUALITY though...

BDs for the whole series have been out for a while and they've fixed most of the glaring QUALITY shots. That didn't make the action animation super-smooth though. Psycho-Pass has nice *art* but merely above-average animation.

[Darthtabby]

Originally Posted by all_flying

Well, movies having a good animation is a must. Uchouten Kazoku is a bit surprising since it came from PA Works which always well-known for their scenery background but quite infamous for their animation quality. Seems they've changed since that series though

Canaan is from PA Works as well, and it has very fluid fight scene animation.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Xam'd: Lost Memories

Set in Sentan, a lush, tranquil island embroiled in a war between the military and those with Hiruko, known as X'amd. The protagonist Akiyuki Takehara heads off to school one day and only to be caught in a raid by the creatures. Through a series of events he is transformed into a X'amd. With the help of a Tessikan woman Nakiami, along with his highschool friend Haru, Akiyuki is forced to learn to live with the Hiruko — or risk turning literally into stone.

It's a Bones project. It's got great animation, particularly in the first few episodes. But the story makes little sense, and was mostly a rip-off of Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaa manga.

YouTube

https://youtu.be/uNwiVoNPHi0

Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

[Goty]

Originally Posted by GreyZone

Attack on Titan's issues were resolved in the Blu-Ray version, I heard... but the problem is you will probably not find the BD version in the WWW subbed.

You can get the subs separated, though.

And it's true, the blu-ray version barely uses stills. Some scenes are completely different. For instance, there are moments of weird stills coupled with sound effects that were turned into nicely animated new sequences.
I was shocked after i compared a couple episodes with the tv edit (which i skipped). I found myself wondering how THAT one was such a hit.

[Jazzrat]

Here's a few anime that i remembered for it's animation

Baccano! - Mystery action set in the prohibition era. While mostly acclaimed for it's writing and unique direction, the animation is really slick.

Yukikaze Sentou Yousei - If you want some airplane dogfight porn, this is worth looking into. While planes are CG, it's well made and the battles are exciting.

Isekai no Sekishi Monogatari - A spin off of the classic Tenchi Muyo. Harem, Robot and tons of production value in animation.

Sword of the Stranger - Watch this, it's better than samurai champloo and ninja scroll.

Suisei no Gargantia - Sci-fi, character animation is very well done and high quality.

[SeijiSensei]

I'll add

Dennou Coil
Ghost Hound
Noein

And perhaps a surprising suggestion: AKB0048
The choreography during the battle scene in the first episode is excellent. The transition to the "girl-power" song "Shoujotachi, wo" when the "guardian angels" are launched is a prime example.

[sona-nyl]

Kara no Kyoukai
Anything by Kyoani (Most of their stuff isn't action but all their series has nice animation)
Most stuff by Sunrise
Guilty Crown (Pretty awful anime but I remember it being very pretty)

EDIT: Sorry missed the tiny text first time around

[furaiz]

I dunno if this fully fits your kind of idea, but it still is a very enjoyable anime to watch. Animation is quite beautiful in my opinion.

Oh well, don't flame me instantly. Because I know that there are people who do that ^^

Noragami

I still think it's a must watch for most people, just because it's actually memorable, compared to a lot of others.

It's a short 12 episode Anime, which somehow manages to pack in a lot of development. I like the art style, etc, but it might not be to everyone's taste. But do give it a try.

I have to say, it became a favourite of mine almost immediately. Very few animes match it, unless they're far more established and longer running imo.

[Ak3mi]

Hopefully Someone has mentioned Samurai Champloo hands down the animation is one of the best, plus the characters are loveable.