Top 8 Anime Movies Americans Should Have Seen in 2009 By myko  [7 more lists]

This movie was released in the US in 2008 in limited showings, and on DVD and Blu-Ray in 2009. Also, this movie has won various awards and have become one of the candidates to be a nominee as best animation for 2009 Academy Awards. Therefore, you know that this movie is legit. The story is about a swordsman who enters into an friendship with an orphan that he saves. Without going too much into detail, I will say this, you will not be disappointed. This is an excellent anime that American animation should learn a few tricks from.

Afro Samurai Ressurection is an awesome movie because is it jam packed with loaded sword battles. The drawing is also different than the usual anime out there. It feels grimy and dark which fits the anime perfectly. If I didn't catch your attention yet, then... did I mention Samuel L. Jackson is in this! Yup, so you know it's going to be good!

While his film is only 2 hours, it feels like a lot longer because it is a drama. This movie is based on a novel written by Hiroshi Mori. The story is about 4 young fighter pilots set in a fictional world. With emotions running all over the map in this movies -hence the drama, the only thing certain is that the airplane flight/battle scenes are amazing. The visual effects is ridiculous! At one point I had to question whether I had been watch an anime or a live action movie, its that extraordinary.

Gurren Lagann debut in 2007 as an anime series and garnerished much praise by winning several animation awards in Japan. This movie has been created, because of Gurren Lagann's popularity. The movie only tells about half of the anime's 27 episode as it is condensed into a 2 hour movie to allow for easy viewing for the time constrained audience. Gurren Lagann tells of the story a young boy who loves to dig, gets trapped underground beneath Earth, and sees the open sky for the first time by realizing that his drill neckless that he wears actually controls a gunmen (a mecha type robot) that gives him extraordinary powers. This is a must see for any anime fans.

Cencoroll is yet another sci-fi anime short movie, but this one is quite interesting. Atsuya Uki is a one man factory as he wrote, designed, and directed this whole movie. In this movie, white shape shifting blobs come in control of humans who can communicate through telepathy shown by static hair. The movie is short, so I won't go into details about the plot, but in my opinion I though this showcased innovative characters and concepts, which is worth 30 minutes.