I only just got round to seeing Princess Mononoke, and being a fan of Hayao Miyazaki I was really looking forward to it.
Now I know it's almost sacrilege to criticise anything done by him, but I have to say that was very disappointing for me.
The reaction of the characters is just really unrealistic, and not at all what you'd expect if you put yourself in that situation. It was as if a point was attempted to be made (man vs. nature) and yet the film couldn't make its mind up on which side to pick or what overall message was to be portrayed.
I really like Spirited Away, this one though was a bit of a let down for me.
On a side-note, I've been busy watching some anime series, and managed to complete Trigun and Ga Rei Zero. Two magnificent Anime series (thanks to you lads on RAWK for recommending them) totally got immersed into them, Trigun is my favourite series so far, the way it starts so comedic, camp even, I thought it was going to be too much, but with each episode it got more serious and by the end it was just pure epic.
I also saw Cowboy Bebop and it didn't do it for me, I could care less about the characters, none of them seem to give a damn about each other, no chemistry, a feeling of every man (or woman) for themselves, and just basically no drive, saw the film as well, not much better.
Finally, I just finished Shigurui (Death Frenzy) and the art of that series, the visuals (and audio) was just magnificent. Unfortunately, the story was too disjointed for me, it started on the first episode with a scene, flashback from the 2nd episode onwards, and by the end we reach another ending not related to the first episode ! (I understand that the animated series was only the first 12 parts or whatever of the whole thing) but it was just a shame the story telling for me didn't make sense, but you had to admire the visuals. Brutal and beautiful stuff at the same time.