Seirei Tsukai

Before the likes of Saint Seiya, Dragon Ball Z and Pokemon conquering the kids in the west, it was actually Akira that opened the door and made people realize that the cartoons coming from Japan weren't what you would expect from Disney or your TV channels.
A huge flood of VHS tapes came showing animations with mature themes, absurd plots, and enough graphic sex and violence to make parents freak out... what a glorious time!
They don't make cartoons like this anymore.

This is a comprehensive list with stuff from very good to very trashy, but all in the same spirit.
Some early 00's also included.

ps: I also recommend, but can't include here, Kage (OVA).

Glorious 80's and 90's (Sci-Fi, Neo-Noir and Crime Drama)
https://myanimelist.net/stacks/30604

Every cinema or direct to video anime film that came out in 1995.

1994: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/34759
1996: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/34762

Disclaimer: There are a few hentai movies, that could be counted as well:
- Dragon Knight Gaiden (1995)

Short form anime series on this site can often be underappreciated. In the same way poetry is radically different from fiction novels, which are radically different from screenplays and so forth, I view shorter series, typically OVAs, in the same way. Too frequently they're compared to TV series, and there will be many comparative allusions roughly paraphrasing, "You can't expect much from the story/characters because of how short it is", or other similar comments. The value of the efficacy of the presentation in both shorter and longer series are for the most part incomparable to each other. They both strive to do very different things through very different means despite the shared medium of "anime". Of course, what constitutes the differences or goals of a creator is quite vast, but the point is that from my personal view, because the context of the existence of shows that would either be shorter in length or longer are so different and require much different means for communicating the information that they present, I think they should be judged by different standards. How a person judges them is up to themselves, but I do believe short series are worthy of the praise that many would only attribute to more lengthy series. What I want to do is give reverence for the fun-sized length series I have come across and enjoyed to some degree.

What constitutes a “short” series is something shorter in length than a standard minimum length TV series, which is 12 episodes in length. The focus is not on the number of episodes, but rather judging roughly the amount of time. So, if there is a series with 24 episodes, but they are only 3 minutes in length, for example, that would constitute a short series.

This is the interest stack version of this AWCc listing (https://myanimelist.net/forum/?goto=post&topicid=1479639&id=58843764) to make it easier to see what I've finished. It was made for my own convenience and is public for your convenience.

There have been some database changes that affect the listing. The ones I have noticed include title and type.

The listing was last updated Sep 16, 2023 11:09 PM as of this stack's publishing.