Everything on 'Memories' is some of the best animation ever IMO, I personally consider it the high-water mark of anime. I've watched Magnetic Rose and Cannon Fodder probably dozens of times.
Another favorite is 'Construction Cancellation Order' from Neo Tokyo which feels like some kafkaesque nightmare.
If you haven't seen Redline, I highly, highly recommend it - I don't watch much anime, but I've seen that movie half a dozen times, and generally re-watch it at least once a year. (Usually when I'm reminded of how good it is by the soundtrack randomly coming on in my playlists.)
I haven't seen Construction Cancellation Order, so looked it up. From some fragments, the robots really remind me of the ones from the Mann vs Machine mode in Team Fortress 2, right down to the way they shudder while standing still. I wonder if the TF2 machines were inspired by it?
While on the topic of “lesser-known gems which came before”, if you enjoyed 1995’s Ghost in the Shell, check out 1993’s Patlabor 2: The Movie. Many similarities both visually and narratively, because a lot of the same folks worked on both.
It's below the article about "Magnetic Rose", and into the "Newsbits", but the page mentions "Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire", an Afro-futurist sci-fi animation anthology which came out recently on Disney+, and if you like animation or science fiction: go watch it, it's amazing.
(I'll admit I have an ulterior motive in telling people to watch it—given Disney+ is removing content, even recent content, I'm hoping enough people watch it so it doesn't get deleted, so that I can keep watching it.)
Stink bomb was honestly my 2nd favorite out of that collection (after magnetic rose). I think it was beautifully animated as well as just being really funny.
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Another favorite is 'Construction Cancellation Order' from Neo Tokyo which feels like some kafkaesque nightmare.
Roujin Z (1991)
If you've seen Stink Bomb in Memories, or Akira, you might notice some visual similarities in how the stories are told.
(I'll admit I have an ulterior motive in telling people to watch it—given Disney+ is removing content, even recent content, I'm hoping enough people watch it so it doesn't get deleted, so that I can keep watching it.)
Holy fucking shit.
The most wonderous thing about MR is what it does leave a lasting impression both in it's original form and the one quite condensed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChBFFoP-Ijc