41.
Gunbuster (1988) (Anno, Japan)
Train harder!
Hideaki Anno's directorial debut, whose Japanese title was based on that cheesy American movie, Top Gun, is a masterpiece of science fiction. Many regard it as Anno's masterpiece and superior to EVA, though it lacks the (abundant) experimental elements of EVA it is still a more conventional title, with linear narrative with clearly defined beginning middle and ending.
Anno was only 27-28 at the time he was directing Gunbuster and it shows it was something made by a young nerd for young nerds.
It contains all the elements associated with nerdy anime and in generous quantities. Including abusive use of the sense of scale with battles involving millions of enemies as it follows the lives of mecha pilots (all girls, of course) through interstellar warfare.
Tells the story of Earth's desperate struggle to fight "space monsters", which according to the Gunbuster mythology are the galaxy's natural anti-bodies against humanity, which Via Lactea apparently regards as a disease. So to deal with the menace of the constant flux of space monsters coming into the solar system, humanity has a plan to destroy the blackhole at the center of the galaxy, so as "to kill the galaxy" and hence it's anti-bodies.
Gunbuster known's it's references
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To fight the space monsters, mankind's technological development is sent into overdrive mode as it is supposed to be set in the early to mid 21st century and technology apparently progressed much faster than historically happened after 1988, by now we would be supposedly building hundreds of massive spaceships and giant combat mechas (with terribly poor taste in design):
Also, 1/6 of it's run-time it is in black and white:
Which makes it artsy.
It's a great animated science fiction classic.