Movies

Progressive anime is a subset of progressive animation that is produced in Japan. The term was first promoted by the Hayao Miyazaki Mailing List back in the early 1990s. Like the broader term progressive animation, progressive anime refers to anime that truly breaks boundaries and goes in the face of cliches in the medium. Again this is a very ambiguous definition, but people who tend to use this label are the kinds of people who appreciate artistically groundbreaking works in film. Due to the ultimate subjectivity of what is classified as "progressive", however, the genre is exceedingly hard to define. Anime itself, in fact, is hard to define in terms of genre, because there are nearly as many "types" of anime as there are anime themselves. There is considerable prejudice, for example, when a fan of only dramatic anime, which could be considered progressive, such as Only Yesterday, refuses to accept Neon Genesis Evangelion as such- and vice-versa. The following, therefore, should be understood as a list of what only some people consider as "progressive"- it should be kept in mind that the determination of what qualifies as "progressive" is almost entirely subjective and dependent on the tastes and artistic sensibilites of the individual.

Examples

Angel's Egg
Boogiepop Phantom
Cat Soup
Cowboy Bebop
Dead Leaves
Digital Juice
Earth Girl Arjuna (aka Chikyuu Shoujo Arjuna)
Ergo Proxy
FLCL (aka Furi Kuri)
Gankutsuou (aka The Count of Monte Cristo)
Ghost in the Shell (aka Koukaku Kidoutai)
Gilgamesh
Grave of the Fireflies (aka Hotaru no Haka)
Haibane Renmei
Key the Metal Idol
Kakurenbo
Katsuhiro Otomo's Memories
Manie Manie (aka Labyrinth Tales, aka Neo-Tokyo)
Mindgame
Neon Genesis Evangelion (aka Shin Seiki Evangelion)
Noiseman Sound Insect (aka Onkyou Seimetai Noizuman)
Now and Then, Here and There
Only Yesterday
Paranoia Agent
Phantasmagoria and its spin-off, Glassy Ocean
Revolutionary Girl Utena (aka Shoujo Kakumei Utena)
Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise (aka Oneamisu no Tsubasa - Ouritsu Uchuu-gun)
Serial Experiments Lain
Tamala 2010
Texhnolyze
Winter Days

External links

• The Hayao Miyazaki Mailing List The original place to discuss progressive anime generally focused towards Studio Ghibli's films.
• Forums of Production IG A studio that produces a lot of progressive films particularly Mamoru Oshii's works.
• A prototype for the Progressive Animation Review
• Anipages Daily A blog/site that focuses heavily on Japan's progressive and independent animation movements versus the otaku-centric slant most anime sites have. It focuses heavily on production aspects of animation in Japan.