These days it's generally accepted that Generation X was born after the Baby Boomers but before the Millennials. That's a narrow window of time that stretches between 1965 and 1981, an era when media and entertainment were going through a lot of changes.
It wasn't called anime then, and was just a niche of a much larger animation genre, but was referred to as "japanamation" if someone recognized it. Some of the most influential anime was released during this era, and Generation X got to see these fantastic anime first while the Boomers were working and the Millennials were having nap time.
7 Mobile Suit Gundam (1979)
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Mobile Suit Gundham paved the way for virtually every big giant robot show that would come after it, and introduced the genre of mecha into the world of entertainment. The stories of the Earth Federation, the Principality of Zeon, and their conflicts with the mobile suits in the space age known as the Universal Century appealed to a wide age group of viewers. With all these factors combined, it was one of the earliest anime to make an international impression.
Mobile Suit Gundam was released in English in 1980, and although it didn't have a huge impact on North American audiences at the time, it foreshadowed the giant franchise that would come in the future. This was the first of many other series, movies, and video games in the Gundam IP that would last into the present day.
6 Astro-Boy (1980)
Astro-boy was syndicated on several different networks in the early 1980s, and that made it the first anime that most Gen Xers saw if they were too young for Mobile Suit Gundam. Their Boomer parents might have known the character from the earlier version of the show that dates from the 1960s but wasn't seen widely outside of Japan.
A modern version of old stories like Pinocchio or Frankenstein, this series had unique features that made it distinctive and endearing. Robots and humans share the world in which the story takes place, but the titular Astro-boy is the only robot of his kind that can feel emotions, a question for AI in contemporary real life.
5 The Last Unicorn (1982)
This dark, twisted fairy tale teaches us that there is no such thing as a happy ending, making it the perfect anime for the jaded Generation X. The Last Unicorn was one of the first movies to combine a book adaptation with a Japanese animation studio and the most 1980s soundtrack ever, but it would not be the last.
Author Peter S. Beagle wrote the screenplay for the movie, which was drawn by the same animators that would go on to create Studio Ghibli, and rock band America took care of the music. It had wide appeal when it was released, and enjoyed some time in North American theaters where it was the first movie many Gen Xers would see.
4 Robotech (1985)
Robotech retained most of the complex story and characters that were meant for older audiences and often got lost in the localization process, which was unusual for an anime released in the mid-1980s. This is when cartoons were still only for children and were often edited accordingly. These stories would evolve into the Macross franchise, along with other spinoffs that also included novels and video games.
The adaptation was developed for English-speaking audiences from a few different anime series, and only one of them was originally from the same franchise; The Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber Mospeada.
3 Vampire Hunter D (1985)
Fantasy and horror are early examples of two genres that would become more popular as Gen X got older, and this movie combined both of them. Like so many other anime adaptations, it was based on a popular novel and takes place in a post-nuclear apocalyptic reality that includes vampires, among other monsters.
A mysterious figure named D appears when a powerful vampire, Count Magnus Lee, rises after a long slumber to harass the local populace. His secret identity is connected to his mysterious powers, including his ability to both resist the power of vampires and being able to fight against them. The concept of a dampyr, or a creature that is half human and half vampire, would become even more popular during the Millennial era.
2 Akira (1988)
As the 1980s came to a close, Generation X came of age, and started to look at the world with a more global view. The impact that Akira made when it hit international theaters put anime in the mainstream, and only Boomers referred to the genre as "Japanamation" after this point in time.
Strange, visceral, and not for kids, the story follows the misadventures of a motorcycle gang in a dystopian modern version of Tokyo. Things take a serious and terrifying turn when the gang runs afoul of some escaped psychics during a car accident. The film is so iconic that many Millennials would see the memes before the movie.
1 Ghost In The Shell (1994)
The echoes of the World Wide Web that started with stories like Akira and Robotech would turn into a rousing chorus with Ghost In The Shell. The movie was released late enough that Gen Xers were able to share it with some of their Millennial siblings, who would embrace the new genre of cyberpunk as part of the mainstream.
The main character of the movie is a full-replacement cyborg who starts to question her own existence. To further complicate her situation, her extensive cybernetic implants are owned by the government agency that employs her, making it impossible for her to quit her job. In the end, she enjoys an unconventional kind of freedom that Generation X would appreciate.