Anime to Watch just for the Craftsmanship of Animation

I feel like sometimes, anime fans get really caught up in the story being told, that they miss out on the techniques used in the animation. Other times, anime fans get so caught up in the animation, praising it non-stop or picking it apart until there’s nothing left that they miss out on the story. It can hard to find a balance when watching. I myself have those exact same moments, often.

In reflecting on this, and watching a fair amount of animated music videos as of late, I’ve come across some shorter animation pieces that really just had me marvel at the craftsmanship that goes into animation, and animating. With or without music, these short animations just ooze style, care, and dedication to making something that isn’t alive, feel like it is. So this is a short piece to cleanse your palate and give you a feast for the eyes.

PUPARIA

This is the official video by the way.

This was a piece I saw on tumblr, yes it’s limping along as a site, and immediately thought I missed something big. Those gif sets were gorgeous, stunning, and surely were part of a larger indie film that I missed. They weren’t. PUPARIA is just a three minute labor of love by Tamagawa Shingo, an animator at Studio Sunrise that he created for the sake of creating. I can’t express this enough, but plug this into google and watch at any cost. It’s worth it. If you only watch one thing on this list, PUPARIA should be it.

Rinkaku

Official Youtube version, this is about half of the material. Full versions can be found on unofficial channels if you’re a completionist.

I know that Dir en Grey is not everyone’s taste. Not lyrically, not vocally, and even the music video itself, content wise is not going to be everyone’s taste. However, Rinkaku is a hand drawn, six minute animated music video from Kurosaka Keita. HAND DRAWN people – you don’t get works like that too often these days. So, at your own discretion, I really think taking a look at the dedication and end result of such a work is well worth a look.

Sol Levante

This is NOT the anime in full – this is the BTS of it. It can be found on Netflix folks.

Sol Levante is something that will wow you once, and probably only once. Upon the second viewing, I was significantly less impressed. That first watch though made it worth mentioning. The sparkly clean look, the smooth flow of action shown through animation is amazing. All the different elements of fire, water, earth, darkness and light shown as close to life as possible was a very impressive flex from Netflix. Stylistically, I really like the design of our protagonist and would genuinely be interested in a feature length animation featuring her and her story. We shall see if Netflix allots it’s resources to this again…

Tsuki no Uta

Not an official source but… I doubt this will ever get one lol.

I promise this is the last call back to Visual Kei&Anime. I couldn’t help but include this one again, because it’s so cool. The early 2000’s was chock full of new ideas of where animation could go, and so many aspects of anime that we take for granted now were developed around. “Tsuki no Uta” being one of those projects that really encompass the possibilities of the future, even if it’s only in 240p.

Totsukuni no Shoujo (2019)

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I know by the time this post goes up the 2022 version will be up, but without the first OVA we wouldn’t be getting the new one! The animation style in this one is so unlike anything I’ve seen in awhile. There’s a certain amount of inconsistency that gives it such style and poise and suits the series, so well. It’s really one of those short pieces that made everyone crave more, and we’re getting it soon!

With that, I’d love to know what other short anime for the sake of animating pieces you’ve seen lately. I want more recommendations since I adore finding unique indie pieces of art that I can watch over and over again and just marvel at.

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