Quality level of animation in Japanese films

[F-Man]

Purely on level of animation alone, what are some of the best animes you've seen? And how good were they?

As a huge lover of hand drawn animation and mostly character animation, I've been more and more drawn into Japanese animation lately, after having thoroughly explored American animation.

Because animation quality is the main grip here, I'm mostly aiming at feature-length films rather than TV series (although I loved Eva).

Other than movies I already watched (Paprika), my first attempt was with The Wings of Honneamise, and it quickly became one of my favorite movies, however the characters are a bit stiff and limited in their movements. Otherwise there was plenty to admire about the rest of the animation, background details, and deep story.

Akira was also impressive but didn't do much for me, and once again as I started to think was standard in Japanese animation, character animation was a far cry from Disney or even Don Bluth.

However I was pleasantly surprised with Steam Boy from the same director. Although the whole second half of the film really was one long action scene, animation was the best I'd seen so far from these films, and perfectly melded CGI with hand drawings. A trailer for Metropolis before the movie on the DVD blew me away, and I had rarely been that anxious to watch a movie based on its trailer.

Well, it totally delivered. The detailed backgrounds of Japanese animation was all there, plus the best CGI I've seen to enhance the animation, rather than replace it. The best part though for me was I could say without hesitation that the character animation was some of the best I've seen. It might have been helped from the cute design of the characters, which seems to makes movement rounder and more pleasing to the eyes.

I don't know, maybe I was just too much a fan of the character design. And I know I can thank Osamu Tezuka for it. The picture itself was directed by Rintaro (Astro Boy TV series), and I wonder if he's got other works this impressive.