T5W#129-Top 5 Anime that Deserve a Best Animated Feature Award

Last week the nominations for this years Academy Awards were announced.  While im glad that Anime has been recognized in some years, and even managed to win one thanks to Spirited Away, I still feel like the Academy is way unfair when it comes to handing out awards to Anime that truly deserve it.  Example: Your Name lost to…hmmm…think it was Finding Dory last year?  Suffice to say that most times Pixar puts anything out its garunteed to win Best Animated Feature but there have been years before Pixar came around (granted I don’t think the Best Animated Feature category is a super old one yet).  And while yes, Pixar is a great animation power house (for good reason), I still think that there may come a year when one Anime comes out that might have a chance at being an Anime remembered properly, not just by the core fandom.  I guess that was a pretty passionate intro there, sorry about that.  So, let’s get to the list of Top 5 Anime that Deserve a Best Animated Feature Award.  Im going to omit a couple of obvious choices for this list to keep things a bit open: Akira cause it is legend and Your Name because everyone has vented about how badly that movie got shafted last year, even if it only got a wide release this past year. 

 

#5-The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya

When youre thinking about a movie based on the bizarre and wacky world of Haruhi Suzumiya, are you really expecting to think of anything worthy of an Academy Award?  I’ll keep this one brief as ill be reviewing this one in depth later this year.  The sequel to The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya pulled off a win that I never expected, from stellar animation to one of the deepest stories in the entire saga.  Even if you’ve never seen the series, this film works just fine as a stand alone.  Again, I wont say more cause I want to save it for later but…wow…Haurhi Suzumiya and the Academy Awards…it really is a mad, mad Haruhi World.

 

#4-Galaxy Express 999

The oldest entry on this list, GX999 is an Anime fairy tale that still holds up decades after its release.  There’s an equal mix of imagination, wonder, danger, excitement, and just pure Anime magic on every frame from beginning to end.  Tetsuro and Maetel’s journey aboard the steam train across the cosmos appeals to all ages and all generations in a way even most modern day Anime cannot.  It’s a classic I don’t think should ever be forgotten…now the sequels, those are a different story.

 

#3-Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence

When this came out in 2004 I was surprised it never got nominated in ’05.  Ghost in the Shell 2 is still an Anime film that I can say has things ive never seen before or since.  The updated designs from the previous film: characters, mecha, setting, are gorgeous, the story chalk full of head Psychology 101 dialogue and theres even some action to keep things interesting.  Add in Mamoru Oshii’s serene style of directing and a brilliantly elegant and at times creepy score from Kenji Kawaii and you’ll see why this might be a heady entry for sure on this list but is still an incredible feat of animation that, personally, I think trumps the first film sometimes.

 

#2-The End of Evangelion

If Neon Genesis Evangelion pushed the limits of the giant robot genre on Television, The End of Evangelion pushed the envelope of how far mature animation has come in Anime since the late 80’s.  It’s bloody, it’s thought provoking, it’s unforgiving and it is still talked about today as one of the pinnacles of Animation in general.  As a finale, it offered fans of the series better closure and more to chew on well afterwards.  As a stand alone film, it could make anyone want to go back and figure out how the hell things got the way they were by this onslaught of a film.  The End of Evangelion took chances and proved it wasn’t for the feint of heart and as far from “childrens entertainment” as Animation could get…I think id deserves some recognition for that.

 

#1-Pretty Much 90% of Studio Ghibli’s Film Resume

My Neighbor Totoro, Grave of the Fireflies, Princess Mononoke, The Wind Rises.  I’m not saying that every film Studio Ghibli does is pure gold (Tales of Earthsea anyone?).  But if one studio has managed to get more film at least nominated for Best Animated Feature, it’s these guys, which means theyre doing something very right.  Whether its high fantasy like Laputa: Castle in the Sky, childrens stories like The Cat Returns, or the hard hitting reality of Grave of the Fireflies (The Academy eats up movies like that so it might’ve had a better chance back in the day), Ghibli continues to be one of the biggest entertainers of Animation in the world.  They’ve managed one win with Spirited Away, they deserve more.