I am about 10 episodes into Planetes, and although I haven’t finished it yet, I have to agree with you about its quality. I love how different it is from most sci-fi, that it focuses more on the human aspect than on mind-blowing technology. And the poignancy of it depiction of the loneliness of space, of the costs of scientific progress, of the dark side of tech… really moved me. Plus the relationships are subtly drawn but real, and emotional. I’ll have to see what I think about the climax.

I have watched the live-action movie made based on H&C, which I really enjoyed. The anime is on my list, because I liked the movie for the same reasons you mentioned here.

Grave of the Fireflies definitely belongs on any top-ten list. Also, I am never watching it again.

I tried watching Maison Ikkaku because I’m a fan of Rumiko Takahashi, but the first episode didn’t grab me. Maybe it’s that while I love RK’s storytelling, I don’t like her art style much at all, and for me that can make or break the experience.

Thanks for the list! I might check out some of your recommendations that I’ve never heard of. You seem to look for similar things as me in anime. I also feel like it has to move me for me to love it.

P.S. I didn’t know this was a surprise, but Japanese anime has fans all around the world. From Canada to India to Japan to Australia.

My list is a bit different however.

I would put:

Starblazers: Part of this is nostalgia, as I remember watch Starblazers as a small boy, and it was quite meaningful for the time I grew up in. I was quite aware from an early age that the world was on the verge of nuclear holocaust. I think alot of people aren’t really aware of how dangerous and intense the Cold War was. A show about a post apocalyptic Earth there had meaning to me. However, most of all I remember 2 scenes, that I haven’t seen since I was eight, but I still remember very clearly. Both had to do with the communication between the sailors on the ship, and their families back home. The first was Derek Wildstar, when his turn came to use the limited ability to communicate with Earth he wasn’t there in line. His friends try to hunt him down and force him to talk to his family. He goes to the room, and his friends are waiting outside. They peek in and see him there just staring at an empty screen. So they come in and demand to know why he won’t talk to his family when everyone else would love to have his share of communication time. And then Derek answers in repressed anguish: “There’s nobody left on Earth for me to talk to.” He’s the only surviving member of his family. There simply isn’t anyone else. My poor description can’t do scene justice.

The second scene is when they are moving out of communication range and they won’t be able to talk to their families anymore. Erick Venture draws the final time, and is talking with his family. And you can just tell, that things are bad on Earth but his parents are trying to conceal it, and Erick is avoiding talking about the combat he’s been in, and they’re trying to just talk about good times and the little nothings of life. Then the time starts to run short and everybody starts trying to say the important things that they want to say but kept putting off. The mother is trying to make sure Erick remembers to do all the little things he should to stay in good health and out of danger, and the father is trying to be brave and say something inspirational, and Erick’s promising that they’ll see each other again soon, and the little girl just wants to talk to her brother for a bit longer… and then the screen shuts off, and the chance to talk is gone. Gah… I still choke up thinking about it. All I can say is that even though the dub toned a lot of stuff down it still had emotional peaks that rival “A Bridge Too Far”, or “Saving Private Ryan”.

Maison Ikkoku: For the same reasons given in the post

Fullmetal Alchemist: It’s packaged and sold as a shounen-action show based on the premise: “What if Alchemy actually worked?” In reality it’s all about sin and redemption.

Ed and Al, two brothers, two youngsters in the traditional shounen underage hero motif- except there is a reason they are so young. Only young boys like them would be so foolish, and make the error they do which triggers the rest of the story. They commit the ultimate sin of their world. When confronted, and asked why they would do something that they knew was forbidden, they answer with words that strike every man who was once a boy to the heart: “It was for our mother”. What can be said against such a motive?

Yet in this world good motives do not an excuse make. For every sin, there is a price, and Ed and Al pay that price and it is terrible- and as Ed once says, they keep on paying ever since. They drive themselves out from the Arcadia of their youth and enter the world of men- and a nasty brutish, violent world it is. Ed and Al face constant temptation to become like the world they now live in- and make others pay the price for their sin. Ed in particular, as the eldest, is tempted with finding a way to make his younger brother whole, and take the burden of their sin on to himself. All the other characters in the show are variations on the same theme: temptation, sin, repentance, condemnation, redemption, damnation. Ed and Al have one major advantage though, they learned a very harsh lesson from their sin, a lesson that is constantly before them, written into their very bodies- and so they never want to do evil again- thus they try to resist the temptations they face and find a way that they can fulfill all their obligations and be good people.

Of the two anime adaptations, the first has a much stronger opening and early development of the characters, later as it departs more from the manga storyline it tends to lose a bit of focus and direction. The second anime adaptation follows the manga exactly and so has weaker early character development, but soon develops and has strong later character development and a more satisfying ending (assuming it follows the manga). Personally I think they are both watching, and I just take them and splice them together in my mind. (If I ever become rich enough to blow money on a fantasy movie project I actually will splice them together.)

Maybe a few others, but I think that demonstrates the difference.

Just a bit of odd trivia, they switched illustrators for Banner of the Stars II for some reason. It was an obviously different style, but it wasn’t jarring (I’m kind of glad that the latter artists didn’t try to imitate the former’s style.)

A few less emotionally detached stories:

Eureka 7
Gunslinger Girl
Noein
5cm Per Second

The first three all have Science Fiction and Action elements, but all have very strong relationships at their core. I would guess that especially E7 and 5cm have a chance to make it onto this list someday (assuming you haven’t already seen them).

As for the Crest/Banner of the Stars manga, my understanding is it is a direct adaptation of the anime, with one volume for each of the series. I would expect that a lot is left out, and that the anime would be a much richer experience.