[kstenerud]

Tokyo Godfathers

Cowboy Bebop

A Wind Named Amnesia

The Girl who Leapt Through Time

The Place Promised in our Early Days

Macross Plus (Watch Super Dimensional Fortress Macross to get the background, even though it's not that good)

As for Ghibli, Miyazaki's most moving work is Grave of the Fireflies.

[moogly]

Miyazaki was not involved in Grave of the Fireflies. It was written and directed by Isao Takahata.

[sireat]

For darker stuff pretty much any https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshiaki_Kawajiri film will be good. Ninja Scroll is very violent but worth a watch for the animation at least.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo_Tokyo_(film) is a good 80s compilation.

Otomo has another nice anthology: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memories_(1995_film)

From Oshii related work - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jin-Roh:_The_Wolf_Brigade is fantastic (but slow moving except for a few places)

[livueta]

Since we're talking Oshii works, I feel obligated to bring up Patlabor 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patlabor_2:_The_Movie

It's a good example of extraordinary detail in design and animation around mechs/military vehicles, cityscapes, and retro UI designs, plus Oshii's proven directorial chops.

I also quite like the plot, which is an unexpectedly serious look at things like the JSDF's case for existence and the danger of military/intelligence bureaucracies to democratic governments.

The opening sequence, which these days looks super vaporwave: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsMTpSDAGxM

[sireat]

Quite right, Patlabor 2 is fantastic as well!

It does go well together with synthwave: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=redlketVxn4