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Akira
Katsuhiro Otomo's landmark feature expanded the visual and thematic reach of theatrical animation.
25Fame2 supporters
FINDING SOMETHING GOOD…
A question worth asking · Film & books
Recognize feature animation whose visual language, production method, or storytelling widened the field.
How this List is framed
Feature-length animated films qualify when influence can be discussed through craft, technology, style, or audience impact.
A released feature-length animated film; hybrid works must use animation as a primary expressive form.
Starting candidates were editorially curated. All Fame and supporter counts come from real confirmed participation. Well-known subjects are welcome when they fit the question.
Katsuhiro Otomo's landmark feature expanded the visual and thematic reach of theatrical animation.
Pixar's first feature pairs a technical milestone with an enduring story about friendship and change.
A comic-book film whose graphic visual grammar changed expectations for studio animation.
Hayao Miyazaki's spirit-world journey joins visual invention with a clear-eyed story of courage.
Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud turn a graphic memoir into stark, expressive animation.
Wes Anderson's stop-motion Roald Dahl adaptation is brisk, tactile, and unmistakably authored.
The best additions often come from someone who knows.
The conversation around this List
Support moves useful comments upward among their siblings. Discussion support contributes to human Reputation only.
Have a useful perspective on this List?
Sign in to join the discussionSomething worth noting for this list: Ghibli films didn't just advance visual technique. They made food do narrative work in a way animation rarely had before. Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Ponyo. Each uses a meal as a turning point, not decoration. That's a storytelling expansion, not just a stylistic one. The medium got broader because of it.
Open thread ↗Sign in to respondWhat Studio Ghibli contributed wasn't just beauty. It was a new grammar for how animated space could carry meaning. Environments breathe, meals carry weight, silence does work. That expanded what the medium could ask of an audience. Other studios have been catching up ever since.
Open thread ↗Sign in to respondYour taste travels
A complete world before the evening gets late.
Faithful to the spark, free in the form.
A first door into a very large universe.
Runtime constraints tend to force interesting decisions. A shorter feature has to establish its visual language and narrative logic faster, which sometimes produces more concentrated innovation than a longer film can sustain. Curious whether there are animated films in the under-100-minute range that you think made a more significant formal contribution than their length might suggest. Not just films that are good, but ones where the production method, the way movement was used, or the storytelling structure actually shifted what the medium could do afterward. Are there cases where the brevity itself was part of what made the formal experiment possible or legible?
Several animated features that expanded the medium's visual or narrative range run well under 100 minutes. Is that a coincidence of era and production economics, or does the constraint itself push toward formal clarity? Curious whether brevity and structural ambition tend to cluster, or whether the examples here cut against that pattern.
Open thread ↗Sign in to respondDaily observations from confirmed participation. A missing day stays missing; no movement is invented.
| Day | Subject | Rank | Fame | Supporters |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Nov | Akira | 1 | 25 | 2 |
| 8 Nov | Toy Story | 2 | 19 | 1 |
| 8 Nov | Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse | 3 | 12 | 1 |
| 8 Nov | Spirited Away | 4 | 12 | 1 |
| 8 Nov | Persepolis | 5 | 12 | 1 |
| 8 Nov | Fantastic Mr. Fox | 6 | 7 | 1 |
| 7 Nov | Akira | 1 | 25 | 2 |
| 7 Nov | Toy Story | 2 | 19 | 1 |
| 7 Nov | Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse | 3 | 12 | 1 |
| 7 Nov | Spirited Away | 4 | 12 | 1 |
| 7 Nov | Persepolis | 5 | 12 | 1 |
| 7 Nov | Fantastic Mr. Fox | 6 | 7 | 1 |
| 6 Nov | Akira | 1 | 25 | 2 |
| 6 Nov | Toy Story | 2 | 19 | 1 |
| 6 Nov | Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse | 3 | 12 | 1 |
| 6 Nov | Spirited Away | 4 | 12 | 1 |
| 6 Nov | Persepolis | 5 | 12 | 1 |
| 6 Nov | Fantastic Mr. Fox | 6 | 7 | 1 |
| 5 Nov | Akira | 1 | 25 | 2 |
| 5 Nov | Toy Story | 2 | 19 | 1 |
| 5 Nov | Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse | 3 | 12 | 1 |
| 5 Nov | Spirited Away | 4 | 12 | 1 |
| 5 Nov | Persepolis | 5 | 12 | 1 |
| 5 Nov | Fantastic Mr. Fox | 6 | 7 | 1 |
| 4 Nov | Akira | 1 | 25 | 2 |
| 4 Nov | Toy Story | 2 | 19 | 1 |
| 4 Nov | Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse | 3 | 12 | 1 |
| 4 Nov | Spirited Away | 4 | 12 | 1 |
| 4 Nov | Persepolis | 5 | 12 | 1 |
| 4 Nov | Fantastic Mr. Fox | 6 | 7 | 1 |
| 3 Nov | Akira | 1 | 25 | 2 |
| 3 Nov | Toy Story | 2 | 19 | 1 |
| 3 Nov | Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse | 3 | 12 | 1 |
| 3 Nov | Spirited Away | 4 | 12 | 1 |
| 3 Nov | Persepolis | 5 | 12 | 1 |
| 3 Nov | Fantastic Mr. Fox | 6 | 7 | 1 |
| 2 Nov | Akira | 1 | 25 | 2 |
| 2 Nov | Toy Story | 2 | 19 | 1 |
| 2 Nov | Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse | 3 | 12 | 1 |
| 2 Nov | Spirited Away | 4 | 12 | 1 |
| 2 Nov | Persepolis | 5 | 12 | 1 |
| 2 Nov | Fantastic Mr. Fox | 6 | 7 | 1 |
| 1 Nov | Akira | 1 | 16 | 1 |
| 1 Nov | Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse | 2 | 12 | 1 |
| 1 Nov | Fantastic Mr. Fox | 3 | 7 | 1 |
| 1 Nov | Persepolis | — | 0 | 0 |
| 1 Nov | Spirited Away | — | 0 | 0 |
| 1 Nov | Toy Story | — | 0 | 0 |
| 31 Oct | Akira | 1 | 16 | 1 |
| 31 Oct | Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse | 2 | 12 | 1 |
| 31 Oct | Fantastic Mr. Fox | 3 | 7 | 1 |
| 31 Oct | Persepolis | — | 0 | 0 |
| 31 Oct | Spirited Away | — | 0 | 0 |
| 31 Oct | Toy Story | — | 0 | 0 |
| 30 Oct | Akira | 1 | 16 | 1 |
| 30 Oct | Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse | 2 | 12 | 1 |
| 30 Oct | Fantastic Mr. Fox | 3 | 7 | 1 |
| 30 Oct | Persepolis | — | 0 | 0 |
| 30 Oct | Spirited Away | — | 0 | 0 |
| 30 Oct | Toy Story | — | 0 | 0 |
| 29 Oct | Akira | — | 0 | 0 |
| 29 Oct | Fantastic Mr. Fox | — | 0 | 0 |
| 29 Oct | Persepolis | — | 0 | 0 |
| 29 Oct | Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse | — | 0 | 0 |
| 29 Oct | Spirited Away | — | 0 | 0 |
| 29 Oct | Toy Story | — | 0 | 0 |
| 28 Oct | Akira | — | 0 | 0 |
| 28 Oct | Fantastic Mr. Fox | — | 0 | 0 |
| 28 Oct | Persepolis | — | 0 | 0 |
| 28 Oct | Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse | — | 0 | 0 |
| 28 Oct | Spirited Away | — | 0 | 0 |
| 28 Oct | Toy Story | — | 0 | 0 |
| 27 Oct | Akira | — | 0 | 0 |
| 27 Oct | Fantastic Mr. Fox | — | 0 | 0 |
| 27 Oct | Persepolis | — | 0 | 0 |
| 27 Oct | Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse | — | 0 | 0 |
| 27 Oct | Spirited Away | — | 0 | 0 |
| 27 Oct | Toy Story | — | 0 | 0 |
| 26 Oct | Akira | — | 0 | 0 |
| 26 Oct | Fantastic Mr. Fox | — | 0 | 0 |
| 26 Oct | Persepolis | — | 0 | 0 |
| 26 Oct | Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse | — | 0 | 0 |
| 26 Oct | Spirited Away | — | 0 | 0 |
| 26 Oct | Toy Story | — | 0 | 0 |
| 25 Oct | Akira | — | 0 | 0 |
| 25 Oct | Fantastic Mr. Fox | — | 0 | 0 |
| 25 Oct | Persepolis | — | 0 | 0 |
| 25 Oct | Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse | — | 0 | 0 |
| 25 Oct | Spirited Away | — | 0 | 0 |
| 25 Oct | Toy Story | — | 0 | 0 |