(~1998)
Ninja Scroll was the anime that drew me into the genre. I'd seen perhaps a few television series before it (comprised mostly of Sailor Moon), and didn't care for anything that I'd watched. Until Warren sat me down to watch "this samurai anime" that he'd recently gotten from a friend. By fourteen seconds in, I was bespelled. A ronin gets drawn into supernatural events when he saves a girl from rape by a stone demon... I admit I may have been susceptible due to my already established love of samurai culture, but I fell in love with the gorgeous art, deep character interactions and development, beautiful art, intricate plot, absolutely mind-blowing art, and smoothly animated action scenes. Besides, it has lots of blood... what else could a girl want?
Akira is usually a person's first introduction into anime if they've avoided television series. I, on the other hand, almost intentionally avoided it for some time. Everyone had told me how wonderful a movie it was, and I can get a little spitefully obstinate when people do that. But I finally sat down to watch it, some two years after I'd seen Ninja Scroll. And lo, Jen was impressed. The story of a young man being slowly driven insane by his burgeoning psychic powers, and of the equally crazy world around him, appealed to me. The character designs aren't among my favorites, but the rest of the movie is a stunningly detailed cityscape, well worth gazing at. Akira is a powerful, chaotic movie, to be recommended to anyone who enjoys a look at human psychology, or, for that matter, to anyone who enjoys watching things blow up.
Mononoke Hime I first saw in the raw Japanese, haltingly translated by some guys in the ADP office. I didn't understand much of what was going on. But what I could understand, combined with the stunning visual world Miyazaki had created, had me eagerly awaiting the chance to see it again. A young man's quest to lift his curse and save a forest, all while getting the girl he loves, caught at me. Miyazaki's character design is a little unformed for me, but similiarly to Akira, the world surrounding the characters is so worth it. I knew that this was a movie I wanted my mother to watch, and I got the chance when Miramax recently released it theatrically as Princess Mononoke (I'm still not sure why they didn't translate the whole title, to Spirit Princess, or something similar). I highly recommend catching this one, even the dub (which was relatively decently done), if anyone hasn't had a chance to yet.
Perfect Blue is a mindscrew. It's great. I first saw it when the Varsity Theater ran the dubbed version for a two-week stint, and walked out of the theater dazed, vaguely disturbed, and having thoroughly enjoyed myself. I've heard that the makers of the film worried that it wouldn't do very well in the States, but all of my friends, at least, have loved it. It's a dreadfully twisted and surreal story of a pop idol who leaves singing to act in a soap opera, and her slowly eroding grip on reality as she gets harassed by a psychotic fan. I can vouch for the subtitled version being MUCH MUCH better than the dub, but I can't deny how happy seeing it in the theater, dubbed or not, made me. Perfect Blue's character art is gorgeously done (especially the flowing movements of the dance scenes), and the generally creepy aura of the story can follow one for days (that is, if you can get the frighteningly peppy song out of your head... those of you who have seen it... you know the one).