cartoon almost always a very expressive medium, and here are 10 anime that pushed animation to its limits. Animation isn’t bound by the same limitations as live-action vehicles, and it’s not uncommon for the people who work on it to take advantage of that. In both Eastern and Western animation, animation is often used to convey images that are not possible in live-action films because of its complexity or because of its apparent surrealism, and to do so often elevates a series to the next level. level beyond what it can be achieved just by having good art and choreography.
Animation is always at its best when it’s as creative as possible with the medium, and here are 10 cartoons that have gone above and beyond with their animation. Some of the anime listed here are included to represent surreal visuals, but many of the anime here are included to alter the art style or blend other mediums at random. Whatever the case, every entry here goes very far with their visual aesthetic, and they’ve all earned rave reviews for that.
ten JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure
The first anime with unique animation to discuss is JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. In addition to each season featuring amazing combat animations and choreography, many of the scenes show the characters and their surroundings suddenly changing color, a perfect agreement on how Hirohiko Araki adds flair. special for manga by using various color schemes in his coloring art. The constant color shift always adds something new to each episode, and the anime’s commitment to that is none other than showing off its overall quality.
9 cartoon
Animatrix’s success in taking advantage of its medium is largely due to the fact that it’s an anthology, but it’s impressive nonetheless. In addition to having very solid animation, in general, each short uses a completely different animation style than the previous one. Some use traditional 2D animation, but other short films combine everything to include things like complete CGI and even spin. The constant change of animation styles gives the anthology a completely unique feel, and it serves as a perfect example of how much variation in expressive animation allows.
8 Monogatari . series
Studio SHAFT is an animation studio known for producing bizarre and surreal animated films, and one of their works that best embodies that idea is the Monogatari series. Due to the surreal nature of the series, Monogatari constantly uses strange editing and animation techniques to tell its various stories, such as randomly incorporating CGI, setting up a scene with render text and completely change the way a character or scene looks for an off-limits joke. simply change the art style. Each season of Monogatari ends up being completely unremarkable with its writing, and the absurd nature of its animation allows for a perfect representation of all of that.
7 Magical girl Magi Madokes
Puella Magi Madoka Magica is another notable anime from Studio SHAFT, and like the Monogatari series, it can take full advantage of animation. Each witch the characters battle creates a work that combines the more traditional 2D animation of the series with stylized 2D animation that resembles anything between comic book imagery, high fashion and even Even Western cartoons. Additionally, Kyoko’s flashbacks are drawn to resemble children’s scribbles, and one of the final episodes depicts her relationship with Sayaka through a shadow-like image created by her blood. . The series is nothing short of surreal from start to finish, and it certainly uses that to incredible effect.
6 Epic pop team
Pop Team Epic is a series of completely nonsensical comedies that constantly churn out crazy pranks on audiences, and its animations are very consistent. While Popuko and Pipimi are drawn very simply, the anime consistently features segments using doodles, CGI, stop-motion, and animated music sequences entirely made of felt dolls. Episode 2 even featured a scene where Popuko and Pipimi complained about how long the animation studio took to finish the film, which even led their voice actors to complain to the staff. recorder. All in all, Pop Team Epic is definitely one of the most creative weird anime to come out in recent years.
5 FLCL
Studio Gainax is another anime studio known for making extremely weird anime series, and the animation included in FLCL perfectly represents that. In addition to having one of the characters digitally scanned with seaweed for eyebrows, the art and animation are constantly changing into things like live life, South Park parody, and even still images like manga panel, the last one even being criticized by one of the characters. character in the fourth wall moment. Every moment FLCL uses that kind of deranged animation highlights just how surrealistic and creative the series is overall, and that’s certainly a key factor in the anime’s ability to stay relevant for more than 20 years. next year.
4 Panty & Stocking With Garterbelt
Regarding Studio Gainax animation, one that even takes advantage of animation better than FLCL has to be Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt. While anime is often like The Powerpuff Girls, each episode will feature moments where the art moves into a more detailed style and even ventures into rotoscoping and Flash animation for certain sequences. There’s also live-action whenever a Ghost is defeated to show one of their dolls blown up and a real pair of women appearing in the final episode to represent God. Each episode goes further with its animation, and with any luck, the upcoming sequel will go even further.
3 Annihilation of La Extinction
Kill la Kill is the first full-length anime from Studio Trigger, a studio founded by many of the employees of Panty & Stocking, and it certainly uses the same creativity. Each episode revolves around its image not only by switching between animation and detail art, but also as a vehicle for developing its characters. For example, Gamagoori’s fearsome personality is shown by always making him the biggest character on screen, regardless of logic, and Nui’s deranged personality is shown by the fact that she mostly just moves transitions with rigid, limited animation. All of this helped Kill la Kill instantly make a name for itself, and Studio Trigger is still a big name a decade later.
2 Neon Genesis Mission
Neon Genesis Evangelion doesn’t usually play around with its medium, but two notable exceptions come from The End of Evangelion and Thrice Upon a Time. The End of Evangelion’s explanation of humanity’s connection to the Angels comes with a live-action look at real-life Tokyo, with some of the voice actors even dressing up as their characters. . Meanwhile, Thrice Upon a Time uses its hyper-fictional nature to justify bad CGI by revealing that a real action scene is taking place on the tokusatsu setting and by letting the film gradually split up. into storyboards. It’s not much compared to the other entries on this list, but the execution and intent are great nonetheless.
first Bocchi The Rock!
The final anime discussed is the breakout hit of 2022, Bocchi the Rock! While Bocchi the Rock! seems like a typical slice of life anime, each episode is filled with crazy and creative visuals. Bocchi’s social anxiety is often expressed through her exploding, glitching like a computer program or even her animation gradually being broken down into a basic 3D model and the anime seamlessly linking together. incorporate other devices such as close-up real-life footage and even 3D zoetrope. Bocchi Stone! demonstrates how far animation can go, and given the versatility of its general animation, it’s hard not to see how this cartoon became such a big hit in 2022.