Flag. It's a real robot mecha set in modern times, the mecha is basically a tank. And its told as a documentary.
Izetta and GOSICK come to mind
Does Grave of the Fireflies count? It isn't necessarily a war anime, but it does very much depict war and the reality of what it is like to the main characters despite not being in the war themselves.
And just like real war, it is absolutely fucked up.
Pumpkin Scissors.
War is easy. The aftermath is hard.
Now and Then, Here and There
It’s pretty unflinching but not nihilistic.
Grave of the Fireflies is a classic.
A Witch in Mongolia
War is barely in this movie directly, but it does a great job with what it's got.
The Saga of Tanya the Evil does a surprisingly good job of it, considering it's an isekai about flying mages.
Much of it is not-Germany fighting not-Russia while not-Italy are acting as neutral peace facilitators while not-UK are harrying the western flank, and they're worried about the not-US getting involved and screwing up the balance of power. Lots of politics and strategy mixed in with some good action.
Mainly in the show, Franz Ferdinand was never shot, so WWI didn't kick off until a decade later, but the Russian revolution still happened anyway (which is by far the weirdest historical detail about the show imo) and somehow their version of the USSR stabilizes 10 years early.
Since it takes place in interwar years, you effectively have Imperial Germany fighting in what's a blend of WWI and WWII. Since Germany's overall strategies (Schleifen Plan/Blitzkrieg) were effectively the same between both wars it's fairly believeable.
And in the show it's pretty clear that there's no side that's an unequivocal hero. They all sucked themselves into the war and are stuck in it, just like WWI.
I’ll argue the first Gundam
Yeah, just depends on which part of war you're trying to depict. Gundam kills it from the "how it feels to constantly have your life in danger" perspective!
I've heard good things about Vineland Saga not shying away from its depiction of generational war. Somebody told me it's one of those where everyone kind of sucks but it will give you context to why the violence is happening. Been on my watchlist but I haven't gotten to it yet (I'm dragging my feet because I've come to hate vikings in media)
Really depends on the era.
The Cockpit might be of interest (if you can find it—I'm not sure there's any current streaming license). Zipang, too. There are probably others I'm forgetting about.
I think "In This Corner of the World" does a pretty good job.
Gate is pretty realistic for the whole modern warfare vs ancient roman warfare.
edit: to be clear, the show was very creative on the effectiveness of the JSDF. watching the show would make one think they are some kind of supersoldiers. however, the tactics and the equipment used is consistent with modern military warfare. the only thing missing was drones, though that can be forgiven due to the age of the show and the source material.
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