[mauvia]

Have you tried any of Satoshi Kon's movies?

Tokyo Godfathers is an amazing and deeply human christmas comedy about homeless people in the Tokyo streets, filled with magical moments of cinematography.

Paprika is a less lighthearted story about inner lives, dreams and ambitions set across a sci fi backdrop where people are learning to enter each other's dreams and link them together. It has gorgeous dreamscapes and an amazing soundtrack as well as a fascinating plot and interesting characters.

Thre's also Makoto Shinkai's movies, which have good cinematography and interesting themes and soundtrack, as well as somewhat interesting characters (though a bit samey). Your Name is excellent, with Weathering with You and Suzume being good but not great. 5 Centimeters per second is nice as well. Children who chase lost voices underground is his most Ghibli movie and I'd say it definitely gets the tone and aesthetics right for the Nausica/Mononoke era of Ghibli.

On the Ghibli side, I quite enjoyed Studio Ponoc's Modest Heroes, which was a collection of shorts by Studio Ponoc (which has some Ghibli Veterans in it as well as younger talent I believe). Kanini and Kanino has the adventure elements and aesthetics, Life ain't gonna lose has the small child PoV element, Invisible has the social elements.

[DavidPiper]

Seconding: Paprika was amazing (and hard to avoid comparing to Inception, which came out a few years later). Millenium Actress and Perfect Blue are burning a hole in my bookshelf - still haven't got to them.

Also seconding Your Name - hits the whole emotional spectrum, even on second and third watch when you know what's happening.

As lesser-known recommendations from Ghibli, I think Porco Rosso and From Up On Poppy Hill are both underrated-and-good in their own way, though they don't quite leave the impact that some of the others do.

[livueta]

On Kon, Paranoia Agent is also excellent. And if we're taking 2000s shows into account, I also have to mention Kuuchuu Buranko in that category of Paranoia Agent-reminiscent sociologically interesting shows.

[Gigablah]

Satoshi Kon’s Millennium Actress is one of the best movies I have ever seen.

[nicolas_t]

Yes, it's one of those movies that marked movie. The music is also very interesting, distinctively different from most anime movies.

[spacechild1]

I was just about to recommend Satoshi Kon! Unfortunately, he only directed four movies before he died of cancer at the age of 47. What a tragic loss!

I also enjoyed "Your Name".

[ekianjo]

Your Name makes no sense at all in hindsight after the first watch but it was amusing.