Ghibli-esque anime?

Posted: Mon May 22, 2006 3:48 pm

Stuff like: Fantastic Children, Kamichu! (to some extent), Windy Tales, Hanada shonen-shi.

Mostly slice-of-life, but with a good pinch of fantasy in them. Maybe even YKK-ish. It's all good.

Well that's the sort of anime I adore, and most of the ones I named are so underappreciated. So if y'all know others like this, I'd be glad to hear about it. (or manga is always fine too, 'naturellement')

Posted: Tue May 23, 2006 3:52 am

barbapapa wrote:

Stuff like: Fantastic Children, Kamichu! (to some extent), Windy Tales, Hanada shonen-shi.

Mostly slice-of-life, but with a good pinch of fantasy in them.

Add a sort of sci-fi-ish vibe to that, and you could at least get in the vicinity of Zettai Shounen.
Or you could try Aria. It sucks, but I like it anyway.

And don't tell us you haven't been watching Mushishi.

Posted: Tue May 23, 2006 4:31 am

Wings of Honneamise from Gainax, one of the best animes ever, imo. And if you havent seen - Lupin III: TV and The Castle of Cagliostro from Miyazakis pre Ghibli times. its pure quality, all animes should be like it. Its my fave anime ever too :] and if you like sf you can try Planetes anime - its not as good as manga, but still better the most animes.

Posted: Tue May 23, 2006 6:24 am

Seen (and still watching) Mushishi, Castle of Cagliostro, Planetes

-> Loved them all.

Posted: Tue May 23, 2006 8:25 am

Well... If we add older things to the mix, no one should miss Haibane Renmei either.

Groupie Joined: 03 Apr 2004 Posts: 118

Woh, I also love Fantastic Children and Windy Tales, and I'd probably use the same words about Kamichu, I like it to some extent haha.

All the previous suggestions are better and closer to what you are looking for, but these are kinda/sorta in the same vein:

Catnapped is pretty cool. Maybe a little trippy for a kids' movie, more Ghibli-esque but extreme. Its not slice-of-life though.

Oh course if you like Fantastic Children check out the director's movie Tree of Palme. Its like a prototype of Fantastic Children, and is a creepy re-telling of Pinnochio. Has story flaws, but is interesting.

I have to recommend Princess Tutu. I know the name makes it sound retarded but its got some twisted fairy tale plot points, neat imagery, and surprising characterization. Probably closest to Fantastic Children on your list.

For slice of life with a sci-fi touch, Spirit of Wonder is a classic though I have reservations about it. I didn't really like the Spirit of Wonder anime all that much, but the manga is a bit closer to the whimsical nature of the shows you mentioned and the art is nice. (If the mangaka would abolish the dumb fanservice I would recomend it more heartily...)

Also Sping and Chaos: Kenji's Spring. Short OVA about the poet/writer Kenji Miyazawa, only all the characters are cats.

Posted: Tue May 23, 2006 2:54 pm

jennwenn wrote:

Catnapped is pretty cool. Maybe a little trippy for a kids' movie, more Ghibli-esque but extreme. Its not slice-of-life though.

Oh course if you like Fantastic Children check out the director's movie Tree of Palme. Its like a prototype of Fantastic Children, and is a creepy re-telling of Pinnochio. Has story flaws, but is interesting.

I have to recommend Princess Tutu. I know the name makes it sound retarded but its got some twisted fairy tale plot points, neat imagery, and surprising characterization. Probably closest to Fantastic Children on your list.

For slice of life with a sci-fi touch, Spirit of Wonder is a classic though I have reservations about it. I didn't really like the Spirit of Wonder anime all that much, but the manga is a bit closer to the whimsical nature of the shows you mentioned and the art is nice. (If the mangaka would abolish the dumb fanservice I would recomend it more heartily...)

Also Sping and Chaos: Kenji's Spring. Short OVA about the poet/writer Kenji Miyazawa, only all the characters are cats.

I've been meaning to check out Nakamura's Tree of Palme, tho it's not really easy to find it.
And I have a torrent of Kenji's Spring on my HD, so I'll be watching that as soon as I'm allowed to. Night on the Galactic Road too, if I can find it.

Thanks for the recomm's

Posted: Tue May 23, 2006 5:25 pm

I watched Princess Arete on a whim when someone subbed it a while ago, and it might appeal. Pretty odd movie and in some ways it's sort of intentionally unsatisfying but that makes it interesting. Rather serene as well.

Posted: Tue May 23, 2006 5:38 pm

Studio 4°C stuff is usually pretty great. Especially Mindgame was frickin' genius; and Kigeki was a very slick piece of work too.

I'm looking forward to the 'Black & White' anime-movie they're producing at the end of the year, based on the Taiyo Matsumoto manga.

Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2006 6:38 am

I really have no idea what's going on with any newer anime, but you should see Horus: Prince of the Sun (aka the little norse prince). It's old (1968) but as a feature film directed by Takahata it's got pretty much everything you would expect from Ghibli's fantasy stuff.

There are other, non-anime films that Miyazaki himself names as being influential (I personally don't see much similarity, but some of them are worth seeing anyway), particularly russian cartoons by guys like Lev Atamanov, Yuri Norstein, and Ivan Ivanov-Vano. My favorite of these is Norstein/Ivanov-Vano's Battle of Kerzhenets, which is available on a tape with another Norstein film, Tale of Tales (which I think Miyazaki named as "best film ever" at one point) in the masters of russian animation set.

Tales is pretty good, but it's a non-narrative short so don't expect the utterly convoluted cosmology you get in an anime. It's certainly a pretty film, one of the most unique animation styles I've seen, and I believe Takahata wrote a long essay about it.

Night on the Galactic Railroad is better than Spring and Chaos and Takahata's short version of Gorsch the Cellist is better than either.

Fan Boy Joined: 13 Jul 2006 Posts: 10

Well, even though, you named Studio 4C's stuff, I would like to point out the short animation called COMEDY. It has some truly beautiful animation and the story is more of a fairy tale than anything with a dark side to it; but strangely gives you a warm feeling at the end.

Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2006 5:12 pm

johngen wrote:

Well, even though, you named Studio 4C's stuff, I would like to point out the short animation called COMEDY. It has some truly beautiful animation and the story is more of a fairy tale than anything with a dark side to it; but strangely gives you a warm feeling at the end.

Well yeah, like I mentioned (Kigeki = Comedy).

Fan Boy Joined: 06 Dec 2006 Posts: 1

ion_ford wrote:

There are other, non-anime films that Miyazaki himself names as being influential (I personally don't see much similarity, but some of them are worth seeing anyway), particularly russian cartoons by guys like Lev Atamanov, Yuri Norstein, and Ivan Ivanov-Vano. My favorite of these is Norstein/Ivanov-Vano's Battle of Kerzhenets, which is available on a tape with another Norstein film, Tale of Tales (which I think Miyazaki named as "best film ever" at one point) in the masters of russian animation set.

Tales is pretty good, but it's a non-narrative short so don't expect the utterly convoluted cosmology you get in an anime. It's certainly a pretty film, one of the most unique animation styles I've seen, and I believe Takahata wrote a long essay about it.

I've seen all the 4 DVDs of "Masters of Russian Animation" and I'll agree.

animes that comes to mind:
Millenium Actress.
Angel's Egg
Hotori ~ Tada Saiwai wo Koinegau
Kakurenbo
Memories
Tale of Genji
Catsoup
Robot Carnival
Shinigami's Ballad
Wind named Amnesia

For animation outside Japan:
"Fantastic Planet" a 1973 French-Czechoslovakian feature
"Emperor's Nightingale" by Jiri Trnka
"Grandma and her ghosts" a 1998 Taiwanese/South Korean feature by Wang Shaudi and Huang Liming

there's also a movie called "More" by Mark Osborne that got an award
you can download it in Quicktime
http://happyproduct.com/more1.html

Fan Boy Joined: 21 Apr 2010 Posts: 1

johngen wrote:

Well, even though, you named Studio 4C's stuff, I would like to point out the short animation called COMEDY. It has some truly beautiful animation and the story is more of a fairy tale than anything with a dark side to it; but strangely gives you a warm feeling at the end.

yeah the story is little bit loss in middle but it is gives you shock at the end

Fan Boy Joined: 01 Feb 2013 Posts: 4

you like sf you can try Planetes anime - its not as good as manga, but still better the most animes.