7 anime · avg brightness 0.396 · dark ending

1996 is the post-Neon Genesis Evangelion moment. Anno's masterpiece aired 1995-96 and rewired what TV anime could do — psychologically, visually, structurally. Everything produced in 1996 exists in that shadow. The dataset shows a characteristically dark palette (avg brightness 0.396) and falling arcs, the visual fingerprint of an industry processing Evangelion's implications. The cel-animation era is at its technical peak: warm, slightly yellowed, impossibly labor-intensive frames.