The last club meeting was held by kleinbl00 six months ago (proposal, discussion) so let's do it again!
Let's pick a movie this time. No series, and nothing by Studio Ghibli please: we all love them and we've all seen them already.
My vote goes to Byōsoku Go Senchimētoru (5 Centimeters Per Second) by Makoto Shinkai. An hour-long romance/drama, simple story, outstanding artwork and music. I normally don't like romance but this one touched me deeply.
5 Centimeters is a good one for winter but I don't wanna be sad, so here's mine. Obligatory: TETSUOOOOOOOOO KANEDAAAAAAAAAAA Seriously though even though Akira is done way better as a 2,000 page manga, this movie is hella important. It straight up brought animuu to the west. I would not have been able to watch Waifu Magical Girls: Shit Just Got Real Parts 1, 2 and 3 without Akira. So thanks Johnny Bosch and Joshua Set. Really though. If you've watched a thing in the past 26(!) years, Akira has influenced it. Everything from the Matrix to freakin Adventure Time. I'm not kidding around. And it's still really pretty.
It's funny. I first saw Akira on VHS about 9 months after it came out. At the time it struck us as deeply derivative of lots that had come before (Blade Runner, Firestarter, Aliens, Poltergeist) while not adding much to the archetypal Japanese "monsters come world explodes" storyline we'd seen in every Godzilla movie ever. But you're right. It was the first real anime that Americans saw. The next year the local arthouse cinema ran Totoro. Then the next week, incongruously, they ran Urutsukidoji. Which we went to see not knowing what the hell to expect, this being the year before Eternal September. I remember a couple with a baby in the theater. Cartoons are for kids, right? The Matrix is a ripoff of everything Cyberpunk without any of the ethos but yeah - it steals heavily from Akira. I guess it kind of is Patient Zero for people who didn't watch anything earlier. And shit. I've already got it at 1080P. Awright. Akira's got my vote.
I had >12TB of anime last I checked, so I'm game. Giant Robo Inspite of what the name suggests, this isn't about awesome robots fighting each other. This is probably one of the most insane productions I've seen. The operatic soundtrack and the mish mash of Yokoyama's works create something I find hard to describe without spoiling it.
Tekkon kinkurîto Great story, beautiful animation. One of my favorites.
Oh man, this is a good one too, damn it. Kind of a simple story, but damn if it's not great. Loved the Graphic Novel too. Okay I'm not gonna change my vote because it'd confuse things. But I'm totally not against it if Akira gets outvoted. Also that Plaid Soundtrack is the bomb dot com. And the credits them from Asian Kung Fu Generation is killer.