@tsubasachro:

I also admire the work of satoshi kon but another movie it calls parika. It's my favorite

@Pleiades Rising:

I feel the same way about watching an anime not based on who directed. Over the years, I just watch the anime for story. However, I do obsessively follow Leiji Matsumoto (the director of 1974's Space Battleship Yamato), though he has not served in the director position for an anime production since his co-directing of 1983's Final Yamato (a.k.a. "Space Battleship Yamato: The Final Battle").

I don't think I follow any director's works obsessively. I prefer to check out some anime as whole, rather than see who directed it first and decide later. That said, there are some directors who have created anime that really impressed me.

First up is Hideaki Anno. Neon Genesis Evangelion, of course. But there's also his stint with Kare Kano, which really shone when it was on its game (in other words, when Anno was in mad genius mode). When it came to exploring the human heart, with all its fragility, few came close to how Anno would articulate its rhythms and shudders.

Kenji Kamiyama also comes to mind, with his excellent work on Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. The first season was great; the second, somehow, was even better. I also can see a theme from GITS spilling over into his other project Eden of the East. To me, with EotE it seems that Kamiyama was exploring the same idea which drove the Laughing Man from the 1st season of GITS, except in EotE Kamiyama played it in a different key.

Three directors, in fact. First is Hiroyuki Imaishi, for his work at Studio Gainax and his founding of Studio Trigger. What can I say about the man that hasn't already been said about Hideaki Anno? Imaishi is Anno's protege through and through. He's the man who singlehandedly resurrected mecha with Gurren Lagann (though I cite IGPX as another minor aid), an anime that stretches the capabilities of animation and storytelling in a very classic format. The plot is wholly modernistic, and yet it honors very engrained tropes of anime. No doubt in my mind his greatest work to date and one of the top tier anime of all time. However, he also brings out the experimental side more often than his traditional side. Imaishi's work on FLCL Episode 5 "Brittle Bullet", Dead Leaves, Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt, and most recently Kill la Kill transcends what is even logical in animation. Redline may have shocked the world with pure, unadulterated, hand drawn goodness, but it's Imaishi that does it not only consistently, but on a budget. While I'm not entirely impressed with Kill la Kill as a whole, I'll stick this one out for the current season.

Secondly, there is Masaaki Yuasa, a director very much building a reputation on quality, not quantity. With a career that stretches back to the first Chibi Maruko-chan anime, his style reflects a very frenetic yet cool style. What springs to mind is his inspiration. His claims to fame are his directorial debut Mind Game, Kaiba, and The Tatami Galaxy, the third being, in my opinion, the greatest anime of the 2010s thusly, even surpassing works like Attack on Titan, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Steins;Gate, and Fate/Zero. He takes very personal subjects such as old loves, the price of memories, and the search for happiness and construes them to be abstract representations that work better than just telling you of the themes through any other style. Most recently, he made history by directing the first ever crowdfunded anime film, Kick Heart. While not his best, Yuasa proves time and again that he is leading the charge of abstract, inventing new ways of creating his vision. Also, fun fact: Only two directors were awarded one Excellence Prize and two Grand Prizes at the Japan Media Arts Festival over the course of their careers. They are Yuasa and Hayao Miyazaki.

Finally, as I want to promote new faces, I'd like to note Sayo Yamamoto, director of Michiko & Hatchin and Lupin III: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine. She got her start with Samurai Champloo, directing memorable episodes such as the episode where Jin falls in love, "Gamblers and Gallantry" and the graffiti episode, "War of the Words". It is here she met legendary director (who I don't even need to explain why he's fantastic) Shinichiro Watanabe. With his influence, she dove into the director's spot and just about made two perfect anime. She is the rare minority of anime directors, being not only a woman but under the age of 40. Yet I think she is the director who will carry on the tradition. Like Mamoru Hosoda and Isao Takahata are to Hayao Miyazaki, Yamamoto will easily fit into the style that Shinichiro Watanabe created.

Do I think there are other directors who deserve attention? Absolutely. However, it's these three names that will make anime what it should be. Experimental, personal, and honoring of the past.

@morbo86:

I was going to say him and Gen Fukanaga.

Easy, Shinichirō Watanabe. Cowboy Bebop, Macross Plus, Samurai Champloo, Kids on the Slope. Gonna check Space Dandy out once its released.