Where have all of the anime movies gone?
In a recent set of conversations about having an anime film premiere at the Maelstrom International Fantastic Film Festival, or MIFFF, something was noted in my head. What have been the major anime movies of recent? I can think of a number of great anime movies in the last few years... most of them have been based on either an anime tv series or video games or were Studio Ghibli films.
What were the huge anime movies that weren't extensions of television series that you had to watch to understand, movie adaptations of a video game or Studio Ghibli movies?
Akira - 1988
Ghost in the Shell - 1995
Memories - 1995
Perfect Blue - 1997
Jin Roh - 1999
Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust - 2000
Metropolis - 2001
Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door - 2001 -- though based on an anime series, it was heralded as, and was, such an intensely good film that it could stand alone without the tv series
Steamboy - 2004 -- Steamboy was released in 2004, but it took ten years to make -- if it had been created in a reasonable amount of time, it would have been released within the same time frame as all of those films that were released three or more years before it.
Are there recent great anime movies that are missing from this list that aren't based on an anime tv series or made by Studio Ghibli? What happened to making unique creations that didn't need to have a previously established back story on the television or manga? Is this a telltale sign of the slump in creativity in anime or a slump in anime in general? Was nearly ten years ago the last of the Golden Age of anime?
What were the huge anime movies that weren't extensions of television series that you had to watch to understand, movie adaptations of a video game or Studio Ghibli movies?
Akira - 1988
Ghost in the Shell - 1995
Memories - 1995
Perfect Blue - 1997
Jin Roh - 1999
Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust - 2000
Metropolis - 2001
Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door - 2001 -- though based on an anime series, it was heralded as, and was, such an intensely good film that it could stand alone without the tv series
Steamboy - 2004 -- Steamboy was released in 2004, but it took ten years to make -- if it had been created in a reasonable amount of time, it would have been released within the same time frame as all of those films that were released three or more years before it.
Are there recent great anime movies that are missing from this list that aren't based on an anime tv series or made by Studio Ghibli? What happened to making unique creations that didn't need to have a previously established back story on the television or manga? Is this a telltale sign of the slump in creativity in anime or a slump in anime in general? Was nearly ten years ago the last of the Golden Age of anime?