Anime

I don't have a one-fits-all pick for visuals so I'll break it down into different sub-categories. (I also get to cheat this way and pick several)

Line art: Violet Evergarden

Composition: Hyouka

Cinematography: Wonder Egg Priority (early on at least)

Artistic style: Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

Atmosphere: Haibane Renmei

Choreography: Cowboy Bebop: Heaven's Door

Compositing (not to be confused with "composition" above): Sound! Euphonium

Background art: Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash (RIP Hidetoshi Kaneko)

Character animation: K-On!

ps.: OP gets an updood for Akebi's Sailor Uniform. It's one of my 10/10 and is criminally underrated.

Mononoke (NOT Princess Mononoke)

Counting movies , really Mamoru Hosoda's entire (Our War Game|Summer Wars|Belle) trilogy

Redline (2009). The plot is a bit silly but the artwork is amazing.

A recent example that comes to mind is Frieren. It has some really amazing background/landscape shots and just all around high quality animation

CITY: The Animation

My jaw hit the floor on the first trailer, and again on episode 5.

Nichijou, City, Lucky Star, Hidamari Sketch, Zetsubou sensei.

Nichijou and City have this very special thing where the foreground (mostly characters) and the background have this seamless harmony. Usually the characters are in a completely different art style and colour palette than the background.

Lucky Star's backgrounds are in that delicious water colour style. Hidamari and Zetsubou each have an iconic flat style that just has so much soul to it.

All my picks have an unrealistic style and most of them are very chibi. Much more can be said about their style but I'll keep it short, you'll just have to watch them :)

Good thread OP thank you

If it's based on visuals alone, Umamusume: Beginning of a New Era would definitely be among the top.

And as usual, Shinkai Makoto's movies deserve a mention.

Violet Evergarden was beautiful.

Hells Paradise/Jigokuraku would be my rec https://youtu.be/04WuoQMhhxw

FLCL is probably my overall favorite and I think this scene demonstrates a lot of its different styles with more silly and serious cuts. For just the best of the character animation, I think this scene is one of the best.

5 Centimeters Per Second is also one of my favorites and definitely my favorite of Shinkai Makoto's stuff. People talk about visuals where "you could pause it on any frame and have a beautiful image" and I think that's really true of this one. The honestly excessive use of really complex lighting gives it a really nice and unique vibe. The "ray racing on" of anime.

Kizumonogatari uses 2D animation on top of 3D backgrounds. Feels very unique, and on top of that, it's just really tryhard good animation. Each of the three movies have their own strengths, too. 1 is the most aesthetically consistent, with the artstyle giving off a really specific and deliberate vibe. 2 is overall the best looking and includes the most diverse character animations. 3 has its iconic final fight and mixes up the artstyle for a really climactic moment.

The iDOLM@STER Movie: Kagayaki no Mukougawa e! has amazing quantity and quality of character animation, but the emphasis is honestly on quantity. Skip to any random scene in the movie (even outside of the performances)and chances are there's an average of 4 moving characters on screen at any time. Really impressive, I kinda had my jaw dropped every time they do a wide cut of 20 characters, especially during the performances.

Quick bonus round: Kanon for the unique wintery aesthetic, Gunbuster for strong imagery, Evangelion also for strong imagery, Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou for expressive animation, Omoide Poroporo for great style, Welcome to the NHK! for color design, You're Under Arrest for great action cuts, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya for being overall beautiful in so many ways, Nichijou & CITY for style and animation, Soul Eater for the fight scenes, and I could maybe go on all day 😢 there's so much good visuals in anime

edited to include more animation links

I wouldn't presume to say they're the "best," but some of my favorites:

Casshern Sins - post-post-apocalyptic world in which the robots who displaced humanity are themselves falling into ruin. Mostly ruins, twisted rock formations and drifts of rust, all done in shades of gray.and against which the few remaining bits of power, light and unblemished form stand in sharp contrast.

Heike Monogatari - a Japanese epic tale with backgrounds that look like tapestries and foregrounds that look like woodblock prints. If anime had been made in the 13th century, this is what it would've looked like.

Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou - deceptively simple 1998 hand-drawn anime with exquisite attention to detail.

Serial Experiments Lain - a primer on how to depict loneliness and alienation in an anime.

Non Non Biyori - lush green countryside has never been done better.

5 Centimeters per Second - Just a succession of absolutely stunning backgrounds, and this is, IMO, quite possibly the most beautiful anime background ever:

No one does 3D graphics better in anime than Ufotable and KyoAni to an extent. If you want to find better 3D animation, you have to go west and look for the likes of Disney/Pixar.

I mostly agree, but I think studio Orange is missing from that list. They're the only studio that has made great-looking full 3D anime.

Which brings me to one of my favourites visually: Land of the Lustrous. Gorgeous 3D animation and great action scenes. The reflective "hair" of the characters is only possible due to the 3D.

Other favourites are:

• Violet Evergarden and Liz and the Blue Bird: KyoAni at their absolute best.
• Monogatari Series: it's not up there for animation (though it's not bad at all by any means), but it is for its style.
• Fate/Stay Night Heaven's Feel: absolutely gorgeous and crisp animation. Ufotable at their best (I haven't seen Demon Slayer past 9 eps in of S1, so can't comment on that).
• Garden of Words: the atmospherics and the rain are just gorgeous

Look Back is just stunning to watch!

I used to wait till blurays dropped so when i first watched Fate/Zero i was amazed at how great it looked. It even stuttered my pc with the kraken fight.

Edit: its the same studio who did demon slayer. All their animes are beautiful.

First episode of Dandadan was a visual masterpiece in animation. You could literally feel every frame.

Subsequent episodes dial back the effort a little, but that first episode re-awakened my love for anime again, after a decade of what seemed like endless low-effort fluff.

Promare is the most visually intense anime I've ever seen.

Demon Slayer, JuJutsu Kaisen, Solo Leveling

My favorites visually are Wonderful Days and Ergo Proxy. I guess I have a type.

Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika

Lycoris Recoil

Blue Eye Samurai!

I didn't see Akira mentioned, so I'll name drop it. The amount of movement, even for the lip syncing which is honestly kind of unheard of for anime, and the dynamic flowing camera all without the use of CGI. It's really bonkers how good it is.

Does Lord of the Mysteries count?