The following list is effectively a shrine to genre and storytelling in Japanese cinema. This list will include horror, thriller and suspense, mystery, psychodrama, and sci-fi which is less like Star Wars and more introspective, unconventional or like Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989).
Melodrama, period drama, crime, chambara, fantasy and pinku (softcore) films which fit the above template will be included. Genres inherently of Japanese storytelling like their distinct take on cyberpunk and ero-guro will immediately be added. Certain subject matter, while in films that are not pulp material in the slightest, would also qualify as they tackle difficult and controversial subjects that follow the best of Japanese genre cinema of following stories and characters which would be viewed as "sorbid" by conservative society.
There's no distinction between live action and animation.
