I'm hardly knowledgeable when it comes to the topic of anime, but I have recently developed cravings for highly refined, artistic anime such as: Jin-Roh: the wolf brigade; Princess Mononoke; Animatrix; etc. Stuff that looks almost realistic. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

you mentioned princess mononoke. anything by miyazaki would probably be good for you. spirited away is my favorite.

some older movies like akira, perfect blue, and ghost in the shell were considered visually stunning for their time. not so much anymore, but they're still worth taking a look at. the more recent ghost in the shell movies and series are ohhhh so fucking pretty to look at.

my favorite anime of all time, especially for the visual stimulus, is blue submarine #6. a lot of people didn't like the mix of drawing and cg, but i thought it was fucking awesome.

and if you liked the animatrix, a lot of the same people are involved in batman: gotham knight. it's basically a bunch of anime artists' interpretations of the comic series. it should be coming out soon and the previews look spectacular.

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-yar.

Thanks for the suggestions. I've watched a hefty amount of Miyazaki, and love all of them. I've also seen akira, perfect blue (weird) and GiTS. I bought batman: GK. I highly recommend it.

I will check out blue submarine #6.

Haibane Renmei. That series is a work of art.

Sword of the Stranger.

Mushishi.

This.

It's beautiful

Blood+.

Ergo Proxy!!

I'd go out on a limb and say just about anything by Studio Ghibli, Miyazaki's work or not. Branching out a bit you'll find Tales from Earthsea, Whisper of the Heart, and to a lesser extent The Cat Returns (it had its charm). There's also Grave of the Firefiles.

On the Ghibli front, one of my favorite examples for people is to have them watch Totoro and then compare it to what Disney, et. all were up to around 1988. Oliver and Company? The Great Mouse Detective? No fucking comparison.

Metropolis is also very good and has very unique and stylized artwork. Calling it "beautiful" would be pretty subjective, but I thought it was great.

Depends on what you consider beautiful.

Visually?

Or story-wise? If so, then Honey&Clover cannot be beat.

Ergo Proxy is provocative rather than beautiful.

*ObZ