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Curated playlist

Anime with original screenplays

  • Super Dimension Fortress MacrossA pop star who never existed had a real hit song in the anime Macross.
  • Cowboy BebopCowboy Bebop lost its toy company sponsor after early footage showed it would never sell spaceship toys.
  • Neon Genesis EvangelionDirector Hideaki Anno called Neon Genesis Evangelion a metaphor for his own four-year depression.
  • Dead LeavesIn the film Dead Leaves, the hero's head is a television set. Retro wakes with no memory on a dystopian Earth.
  • Kurau Phantom MemoryA lab accident scattered twelve-year-old Kurau into light. When she reformed, another being came back with her.
  • Mobile Suit GundamMobile Suit Gundam, a Japanese anime series created by Yoshiyuki Tomino, once drew a crowd of 15,000 people to a single film premiere on the 22nd of February 1981. Police and the media feared that the gathering could turn into a riot. The…
  • Paranoia AgentIn Paranoia Agent, a Japanese anime television series created by director Satoshi Kon, none of the victims can recall the face of the boy who attacks strangers in Musashino, Tokyo. Each of them remembers the same three things. Golden…
  • Puella Magi Madoka MagicaPuella Magi Madoka Magica hid its dark story behind cute, pastel marketing on purpose.
  • Panda! Go, Panda!In Panda Kopanda, a girl home alone finds a panda cub asleep on her back doorstep.
  • FLCLFLCL begins with a Vespa, a twelve-year-old boy, and a blue vintage Rickenbacker 4001 bass guitar. The boy is Naota Nandaba. The woman swinging a left-handed bass at his head is Haruko Haruhara, an alien who has just run him over. She…
  • Samurai ChamplooSamurai Champloo opens with a coin toss that decides whether two swordsmen keep trying to kill each other. Heads, and their duel goes on. Tails, and they must first help a young woman search for a samurai who smells of sunflowers. This…
  • Gurren LagannIn the anime Gurren Lagann, the hero Kamina dies in episode eight. Simon must then carry the story.
  • Flag (TV series)A stolen flag sends a covert army unit into a war zone in the anime FLAG.
  • Royal Space Force: The Wings of HonnêamiseA Bandai president liked a film pitch because he could not tell what it was about. It became Royal Space Force.
  • Serial Experiments LainThe anime Serial Experiments Lain begins with a dead girl's email.
  • Space Runaway IdeonSpace Runaway Ideon came straight out of director Yoshiyuki Tomino's studio after Mobile Suit Gundam, the signature work he had just finished. Sunrise produced it, and Tomino both created and directed it. The story sends ordinary human…
  • Panty & Stocking with GarterbeltPanty & Stocking with Garterbelt is a Japanese anime series that began with a director's blunt promise. Hiroyuki Imaishi said the theme of the show would be vulgar and indecent jokes. He added, "If we are going to do this, we will try it…
  • Yuri on IceDuring the autumn 2016 anime season, Yuri on Ice collected 1,440,596 tweets, according to the trend-analytics company Kadokawa Ascii Research Laboratories. Its closest rival, the volleyball series Haikyu!!, drew 348,109. That gap of more…
  • Lazarus (Japanese TV series)Lazarus is an anime series that begins with a video posted online in October 2052 by a man the world believed it had lost. He is Dr. Skinner, a celebrated neuroscientist who vanished three years earlier. His message is short and chilling.…
  • Code GeassCode Geass is a Japanese anime television series produced by the studio Sunrise, and its premise rests on a single dangerous gift. The gift is called Geass, and it is the power of absolute obedience. Whoever receives it can issue a command…

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