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18 MACROSS PLUS (1995)
It’s not “anime”, it’s… a terrifying vision of the future of the music industry. Plus, dogfights
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Macross is a well-established anime franchise, and throughout its history each series has had two elements in common: fantastic flight sequences and extensive soundtracks. Macross Plus is largely considered to lead the pack on both counts, seamlessly merging CGI and cel animation (before Ghost In The Shell did the same thing to great acclaim) and delivering a soundtrack by renowned composer Yoko Kanno (who also worked on Cowboy Bebop ) that moves from ambient song to technopop to smooth jazz. It’s also got the darkest plot of all the Macross series so far, featuring a new type of fighter plane controlled by brainwaves, a sinister pop idol who is also an entirely digital construct, and the fraught relationship between three old friends who share a terrible secret.
17 ROUJIN Z (1991)
It’s not “anime”, it’s… a heartwarming, Michel Gondry-esque comedy about an old man and his possessed bed
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There are big names in the credits of this bonkers comedy – written by Katsuhiro Otomo, directed by Hiroyuki Kitakubo ( Blood: The Last Vampire) and featuring a first-time art director by the name of Satoshi Kon – but it’s weirdly not as well-known as it should be. In an effort to deal with a growing elderly and infirm population, hospital administrators develop a new type of automated bed designed to attend to all its patient’s needs. Their test goes a bit wrong when the bed, hooked up to a dying widower, seemingly becomes possessed by his late wife and decides they’re going to have a lovely day out at the beach, rampaging across the city as it goes. It sounds insane – and we can’t really disagree – but it’s a sweet story really, funny and beautifully told.
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