my favorites

Cowboy Bebop

everybody loves this show, and for good reason. it's well-written and paced. it's playfully tropey one moment, brutally gripping the next. it has some of the best animation, with plenty of expressiveness. it has martial arts and space dogfights. the soundtrack is a fusion of several different genres, with an emphasis on bebop jazz, with most tracks being good enough to stand on their own apart from the show. it's culturally diverse and philosophically intriguing. every dub of this show has stellar voice-acting. no matter what i watch, this is always numero uno in my mind. i've watched it at the very least 7 times, and i could keep going.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica

this show is a fascinating twist on the mahou shoujo (magical girl) genre of anime, in which girls receive magical powers and the ability to transform into an alter ego capable of combating evil. focusing on themes such as youth, femininity, romance and friendship, these shows were often lighthearted and aimed at younger audiences until PMMM pioneered introducing shockingly mature themes into the formulaic structure of these plots. most people might coyly deny how dark this show can get, but i won't. it dances around it a bit, until a few episodes in when it proudly wears it like a badge. however, this is not done tactlessly. No, not in the least. this show has incredible artistic direction. the animation troupe Gekidan Inu Curry (劇団イヌカレー), with a style inspired by the Russian and Czech, bring a sort of surreal picture book quality to the psychological horror aspects of the show, like something out of a strange fucked up fairy tale. the show has lots of allusions to Buddhism and Christianity, as well as the German legend of Faust. the music is a mix of classical and rock, with lyrics in a made up language reminiscent of latin. the creators, interestingly enough, created an alphanumerical replacement script, referred to by fans as "witch runes", corresponding to German, English, and Romanji characters. these appear in the background of specific scenes and when deciphered, are names or poetic phrases relating to the main ensemble.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie -Rebellion-

as if me infodumping on the show wasn't enough, all of it would be for naught if i didn't mention this film. this is the third madoka magica movie, with the other two being mostly condensed recaps with some new animation and contextual scenes. this one, however, is an entirely new story. if you even think you enjoyed a fraction of what the show had to offer, you cannot skip this. it's like the show cranked up to 12. it had me on the edge of my seat the whole time. this has one of the best action scenes i've seen in anime, and one of the best romances i've seen in fiction.