8 anime · avg brightness 0.425 · dark ending

1997 is a transitional year: Utena's formal experimentation, Berserk's medieval grimness, the industry beginning to fragment into distinct aesthetic schools. The arc-down pattern across the year's top titles suggests a structural sophistication — openings that promise, midpoints that interrogate, endings that don't restore. Director Kunihiko Ikuhara's influence from his Sailor Moon work bleeds into the era's willingness to use visual structure as narrative argument.