Heart and Soul media preferences

[Nobu]

On the quest for new media and reevaluating the way I relate with the media I come across, I figured I'd pitch this idea to get insight on people's tastes (and share recommendations at the same time!)

"Heart" media is the stuff that resonates with you in particular on a deep level, but to a mixed audience is merely 'pretty' or 'really good'. This is the stuff where you'd have to do a good amount of scouting of another person's 'potential' before you share it with them, so neither of you are wasting time. Them with watching, and you with trying to pitch a series to someone unreceptive.

"Soul" media are those pieces of excellence that temporary suspend your objective observer, to where you think that either 1. Most everyone has a potential to enjoy regardless of taste, or 2. good enough that everyone *should* enjoy it. These are the things you'd put on a bucket list for someone if they wanted media to take with them to the afterlife. Alternatively, these are likely the first things you'd introduce to someone if it ever came about.


Heart:
Negima (manga)
K-On!
Gaki no Tsukai (variety show)
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Problem Sleuth
Touhou
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Community

Soul:
AnoHana
Clannad
Gurren Lagann
Nichijou
Homestuck
Scott Pilgrim
Toradora
Doctor Who

[Kilgamayan]

I'd have to sit down and do some extensive thinking, but I can think of two pieces of "Soul" media off the top of my head.

- Made in Heaven, a studio album by Queen. A breathtakingly uplifting fifty minutes made into something even greater when the listener considers the environment in which the album was constructed.
- The Concert at Shea Stadium, a live performance by Billy Joel. This was the last event ever at Shea, and Joel is one of the greatest entertainers in American history at resonating with the common blue-collar person.

[Jq1790]

Well, I don't have much to put right now since I've never thought about it too much, but there's definitely one for my "Heart" list, and that'd be Eureka Seven.  It resonated INCREDIBLY strongly with me when I'd been watching it while it originally aired here in the US....

I totally agree with AnoHana for a "Soul" pick, btw.  To a more limited extent, I'd also add Kotoura-san, or at LEAST put it in my "Heart" category.

Id need to think more to find other stuff, including things beyond the scope of anime since that's the media I consume most by far next to video/computer games.

[♛ Apher-Forte]

just for soul now:
 Cloud Atlas - I always fascinated with the idea of reincarnation - it is the only viable theistic example of thought that can explain why we keep making the same mistakes just differently each time. So I would love to not just being in awe for its method of writing and direction, but of its presentation. One of the things I don't like putting it in this category is because I can never quite find someone IRL who can discuss the level of depth this show bought forth and its themes beyond.  So sadly it is on a certain shelf of awesome movies and shows that I would put in a special place of me.

AIR - one of my favorites, I dunno about badly written KeY novels or whatever the method of direction that purportedly killed it, but in my mind, this remains one of the best and most tearjerking examples of anime I ever watched, watching the girl struggle to find her place when is so socially awkward, with a sickness that few in a small town can accept let alone the world can adapt to - fighting each day with her condition that only to be known all along that death was just some short time away... it really makes beautiful how short life is and how beautiful it could be if only we just get up and live it.