east or western

Ghibli too ofc

And Trigger

Ufotable

Imaishi has my favorite visual style rn, dead leaves is beautiful

ghibli and Disney are undisputed

The fate series and demon slayer

Madhouse

Ufotable
Shaft
KyoAni

Golden age Shaft before everyone left. Most visually creative anime studio I've ever seen.

KyoAni because they actually train animators in-house and their products are actually a result of the studios work and not freelancers.

Trigger's mainstay duo of Imaishi and Yoshinari are great, and they have Ikarashi as an up and comer who has already dropped episode of the year contenders so they're pretty set unless everyone jumps ship.

Studio la cachette does Primal, that’s some high level non-anime. But idk how much of that show is tartakovsky and/or Cartoon Network studios

I’m late getting into anime, where should I start w shaft

EAST

Madhouse (RIP)

TL;DR - Start with 2011 Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei was the first show of their golden age and set the blueprint for Shaft's signature style. Its second season is still the most visually creative/deranged anime I've ever seen (the later seasons do get less experimental.) If you're still inexperienced with anime you might want to save this for later since it references a lot of other anime, so you'll be left out of the joke. But if you do want to start in chronological order, you could still give it a try. I watched it back when I was getting into anime, but even though I missed out on the references to other anime, I still had a good time with its satirization of politics, society, etc. I don't suggest this as a starting point, but I consider it one Shaft's pillar shows during its golden age so I felt I had to include it.

Bakemonogatari is one of the two Shaft starting points. 13 years later and it's still the 4th best selling anime of all time in terms of Blu-ray and DVD sales. Visually, it's not as creative/deranged as Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, but it does take its predecessor's blueprint and refine it. You could start here if you wanted to, but it's a fairly long series.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica is the last major show of Shaft's golden age and in my opinion the best starting point for people. 11 years later and it's the 5th best selling anime of all time in terms of Blu-ray and DVD sales, right under Bakemonogatari. It's probably their most consistent series from beginning to end, and it's only 12 episodes long + the "Rebellion" movie (you can skip the "Beginnings" and "Eternal" movies since they are recap films.) Please make sure you are watching the 2011 Madoka and not the recent spin-off series.