Short meta-feature: 5 Meta-Anime

It would take me days and days to write proper meta-reviews of these shows, or of meta in anime, so instead... I'm doing a brief, 5-anime feature about the first five meta-anime off the top of my head. Perhaps much, much more at a later date!¹

1. Dragon Half
Genre: Comedy
Director: Shinya Sadamitsu
Episodes: 2

This two-episode OVA was one of the first meta shows in anime history, particularly memorable due to having been licensed and released in the US since 1993 (the VHS era). Despite being less than an hour long altogether, this one is a fantasy-comedy about a half-dragon girl trying to win the love of her favorite pop-idol. There are scene-by-scene of references to not only Dragon-Half itself, but fantasy tropes in general, including senseless violence, ridiculous fan-service, and Dug Fin, whose scenes were all deleted.

Dug Fin doesn't care about story continuity

2. Perfect Blue
Genre: Drama/Suspense/Horror
Director: Satoshi Kon
Running length: 80 min.

Thought I'd drop something super dark and definitely not a comedy in here, so let's go with Perfect Blue, a full-length feature animated film from 1997 by Satoshi Kon. Perfect Blue relies heavily on voyeurism and sadism, themes commonly taken on in cinema analysis. Perfect Blue follows the tale of a young pop-artist -- or you could say it follows the tale of the deranged and obsessed stalker who is in love with her image from her constant media presence. The movie bears a strong resemblance to the metacinematic thrillers of Hitchcock and Lynch: Dark, unsettling, and pushing ideas of the objectification of women in film. Enjoy, but not with children in the room: This one is for adults only.

3. Excel Saga
Genre: Comedy
Director: Shinichi Watanabe
Episodes: 26

If you started watching anime within the past five years, you'll inevitably have come across Excel Saga, a loud and schizophrenic show about taking over the world. Every episode is a take on a different genre of anime, ranging from highschool drama to sports to sci-fi to jungle guerilla warfare. This show is nothing but meta -- the plot is marginal, and even when it does get "good" it's only a play on the genre of serious tragedy anime. The jokes get more pointed than in earlier works like Dragon Half; the imagery borders on plagiarism humor in certain parts, most noteably in the form of Nabeshin, an afro-sporting secret agent man, but also in the nostalgic visages and scenes that take on Cowboy Bebop, Captain Harlock, moe, the manga industry, and many more.

俺は。。。ナベシン。

Note: A really NICE thing about the American release is that the producers wanted to make sure everyone was catching all the jokes; there is a track on the DVDs that allows pop-ups of informational tags pointing out every single reference.

4. Slayers
Genre: Comedy/Fantasy Adventure
Director: Takashi Watanabe
Episodes: 104 + 7 movies & OVAs

An old favorite of mine. Slayers hails from the late 1990's and is a tongue-in-cheek comedy adventure jabbing fondly at the fantasy genre's most sensitive region: Dungeons & Dragons. Every character got a couple high rolls... and terribly low rolls in other areas. The best thing is that after three seasons and a handful of OVAs, Slayers took a break -- only to return in 2008 with a full 26-episode season (divided into two mini-seasons) that only serves to completely make fun of itself. If you can get through the first season and corny-as-hell jokes, you'll enjoy the whole thing.

5. Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei
Genre: Comedy/Highschool/Satire
Director: Akiyuki Shinbo
Episodes: 38 + 5 OVA

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is the cream of the crop when it comes to meta-anime. This one was first released in Japan in 2007 in manga form and has since been made into several animated series. SZS covers genre, copious commentary on anime and other traditional Japanese storytelling methods, the modern anime perspective, and popular media as a whole. There's nothing non-meta about this show, from the moe/stereotypical characters to the allegorical storytelling method. The animation style changes from time to time, seiyuu switching in and out, and plenty of background activity to keep you busy for at least four watches per episode. I highly recommend.

I'd tell you more about it, but as meta should, it speaks for itself:

^{1 Anyway, who really decides to watch a show because of what someone on a blog says about it? I'm just letting you know they're out there; you go watch it if you want! And I'll analyze it later. And ruin it for you.}