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Comment by adriand | Hacker News Reader

I haven't seen this movie but will check it out. A little off-topic, but I wonder if any of you folks have some recommendations for newish anime/manga that is available to stream.

I'm a long-time fan of the classics (e.g. Ghost in the Shell) but until recently, haven't seen anything new that grabbed my attention, until I stumbled across "Blame!" on Netflix which I really enjoyed. So I spent some more time adding various titles to my playlist but they have all been rather unintelligent and uninspiring. I am especially interested in movies (as opposed to series) because I don't tend to want to spend dozens of hours watching anything, but I'm open to whatever. Any suggestions?

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Gundam: Hathaway is interesting; maybe not quite as disciplined as an Oshii outing, but it happily surfs the intricately constructed wave of UC worldbuilding.

Not an anime, but I recently watched a playthrough of the Project Wingman DLC, Frontline 59. It is admittedly the polar opposite of TFA, but if you go in with no knowledge of the original game's story and lore, like I did, it turns out to be decently challenging, thematically. Literal Pyrrhic victories abound.

Something completely different: Odd Taxi. Again, best to go in without any prior knowledge. Just vibe with it. Like Psycho-Pass, it's an encouraging example of the quality of stories you can have when someone who doesn't usually make anime makes an anime.

Seconding ODDTAXI. I've shown it to a few people who aren't usually into anime and they all really enjoyed it. I read an interview with the director where he said he considered Satoshi Kon to be one of his primary influences, which makes a lot of sense.

There's an 8 year old Psycho Pass movie you can probably watch cold. If you like it, you'd enjoy the series. There's also a new Psycho Pass movie that came out in July (I haven't seen it yet and I'm not sure if it is streaming yet). An unfairly high level overview of Psycho Pass is something like minority report meets blade runner.

It's not new at all, and you've probably already heard about it or seen it, but I'd be remiss if I didn't suggest Serial Experiments Lain for fans of SF anime.

I'll second Psycho pass -- Even ep1 of the first season if you want a "smaller lift". It's gory, so if that's not your thing be ready -- but I really enjoyed the story and universe.

I personally prefer more meat-y plots and stay away from series with scenes that are cute (or stylish) for the sake of being cute (or cool).

That said, here are some of my favorites:

https://myanimelist.net/anime/13125/Shinsekai_yori (2012)

https://myanimelist.net/anime/42310/Cyberpunk__Edgerunners (2022)

https://myanimelist.net/anime/23283/Zankyou_no_Terror (2014)

https://myanimelist.net/anime/2581/Kidou_Senshi_Gundam_00 (2007)

https://myanimelist.net/anime/50709/Lycoris_Recoil (2022)

Also an honorable mention for Pantheon. It's a western animation but season 2's finale was basically one of greg egan's books come to life.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11680642/

Some old stuff, because I'm old. But maybe some of it you haven't seen.

   Crusher Joe (Sunrise, 1983)
   Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (Sunrise, 1985)
   Serial Experiments Lain (Triangle Staff, 1998)
   Macross Zero (Satelight, 2002)
   Planetes (Sunrise, 2003)
   Terror in Resonance (MAPPA, 2014)

I just watched Planetes last weekend. I'd started it many times but never finished it. Once the main story arc with the main character gets rolling, it gets really good.

I wish more anime shows would be a one season and done affair, instead of the trend for shows to just go on and on indefinitely.

I have the same struggle in finding decent anime. Lately the anime world has deprioritized anime for art's sake in favor of commercial interests. It has led to a situation where anime quality has deteriorated. Mamoru Oishii spoke about this industry problem in an interview earlier this year: https://www.cinra.net/article/202303-oshiimamoru_ysdkrcl

As far as movies go, I can't think of any intelligent and inspiring ones from the past 15 years besides GitS: Solid State Society, however, the movie only makes sense if you've seen GitS: SAC season 1 and 2.

You might enjoy Redline (2009) for it's audaciousness, but it's not deep. The Deer King (2022) is one I've been meaning to watch, but is likely to just be more of a feel good movie.

I know you said you weren't interested in watching a series, but you might enjoy the plot of Ichirou Inuyashiki (2017). It's available on Crunchyroll.

I've had a lot of fun with the concepts and setting of the Gantz series. Gantz:O in particular is a blast of a CGI movie. The story devolves into nonsense, but if you stick it out it's an absolutely bonkers ride through the end of the Manga.

The tech in the series is also really creative in terms of ideas, aesthetic, and the risk-reward built into many of the items. There's some really iconic imagery in it that sort of starts from how the "teleporters" work.

https://youtu.be/HViJXK3DOLc

The anime and live action movies are "ok" though.

It has a weird way of kind of worming its way into your brain and leaves you always wanting more.

Be warned, parts of the media franchise are very NSFW.

It's not Japanese, but the animated series 'Pantheon' is very good.

I haven't actually got around to finishing it, but I've been enjoying 86: Eighty Six which is more grim military mecha stuff. Not particularly grounded but is definitely about certain real-world themes. It was apparently inspired by drone warfare (and I might extrapolate from there: the lies we tell ourselves about how "clean" that kind of warfare is).

In the movies category, it's a total 180 from Patlabor, but I highly recommend Wolf Children by Mamoru Hosoda. It's a masterpiece.

Also Millennium Actress.

If you liked Ghost in the Shell then Patlabor 2 is definitely the movie for you. I recall reading that Oshii and team got the offer to do GITS based on the strength of P2.

While I love GITS I think Patlabor 2 just might be the stronger film. More grounded and cerebral, and no distracting male gaze.

I wish we could get techno-thrillers like P2 rather than warmed over Tom Clancy nonsense, but that’s the film industry for you.

I know what you mean by "Tom Clancy nonsense" but I would like to point out that he did do some stuff in the genre of techno-thrillers. I long for the day we can get a _Red Storm Rising_ movie (ideally one which focuses on the hardware and not the romance of course) but until then there's always Fixedit's Red Storm Rising project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo8FhChnyq0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOiQhtMPe7Y

It's exists both as a series and a movie, I watched the series but the film tries to be close despite a limited runtime.

If you would try to look for the synopsis you probably would be spoiled one of the key elements, so be vary.

Thanks, this sounds great.

"Yakitori: Soldiers of Misfortune", also on Netflix, is a series but I enjoyed the military/diplomatic/political plot.

Not so new and a series, ghost in the shell standalone complex is still one of my all time favorites.

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