I did want to note something since like half of twitter is now talking about this. I've been interested in how the top creators in anime were able to produce films that feel more like modern cinema vs how Disney was stuck in a musicals for children rut for many years. https://twitter.com/julie_neuhouser/status/1263660628431892485
Like in the 1960s in Japan there was this amazing cultural ferment that produced a lot of great art in general - watch this documentary for some more general examples: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANPO:_Art_X_War
Though what is most striking is how these movements were closely tied to the works of anime and manga. Manga IMO was reaching its golden age, when gekiga and mainstream comics were merging - the old lending libraries closing down lead to a flood of new talent for instance...
Much of this talent were already outcasts in society and much of the culture surrounding this was the counter culture in Japan. Even the anime industry was affected by this, the 1960s is when anime became anime but even more amazing is how someone like Isao Takahata would rise
A filmmaker who really pushed boundaries of animation as a film medium (not the technical medium of animation itself but the kinds of stories that could be told through said medium). His work along with some interesting experiments by Tezuka
Let to a whole wave of really unique and interesting filmmakers who were thrust into a chaotic blend making it perfect for some really great works to emerge by the 1980s. Films like Angels Egg, or Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind or Grave of the Fireflies were all possible
due to this cultural fermet. So I guess this thread is looking kind of into the why - what inspired so much creativity from this era in an industry that is pretty ghettoized in many places (even Japan to some degree to this day)?