Rock on. It's always good to find another Seed Racer supporter

I think other action movies (and even action games) get caught up with looking cool, resolving love interests, or tacking situations that are outside of the main character's control to create satisfying action endings.

Ah, Cromartie High School. I've seen an episode or two. Good example. You also described the weird elements of the show very well.

Keep it up.

Cromartie High School is an Anime parody series about punk high school students. Some of the weirdness is shock value. For instance, when the main character first comes to the school, he drops a pencil, and the person next to him eats the pencil. Then the main character dumps all his pencils, and the person eats them all at once. This was a demonstration that the punks at this school are tough, but sometimes tough in ways that people aren't supposed to be.

Better examples include some of the other students / classmates. One of the students is a robot. Only a few of the students realize he is a robot, despite looking like a giant tin can with arms and legs. Several times throughout the series, he gets broken and repaired, and despite the weird effects of that repair (turned into a motorcycle once), everyone else still treats him as another human student. His own dialog shows he even treats himself as a human student, sometimes talking about his emotions. This goes so far that the people who know he is a robot question their own observations. He has a "smaller brother" who looks very similar but is smaller and speaks in bleeps. the smaller brother has smaller versions of the same weirdness.

One of the students is a gorilla. Throughout the series, the gorilla participates in activities with the other students, despite not being able to speak. This includes at least playing baseball and apprenticing at a Sushi restaurant. Especially at the sushi restaurant, the owner treats him as his own son after he teaches the owner and his real son valuable lessons in the importance of family. Finally, the gorilla is led away by the police and the father is grounded again in reality.

Other weird situations include someone who masquerades as another person, a man who uses puppets to talk and the leader treats the puppets as real while his subordinates do not, to their demise. One character mistakenly came to the wrong school with the intention of becoming the local school leader with the support of his parent's power. After that failed, he started a series of ridiculous lies, gathering the support of the people he tried to control earlier, but forcing him to tell even more ridiculous stories.

Almost every episode focuses on the differences in perception between different people, including the viewer, the source, and different mixes of people in the classroom. Often, people try to make a situation better by proposing a complicated explanation or solution that only makes things worse for the person with the hidden knowledge.

Some other series I have called weird that I still remember include Earth Defender Mao-chan, Ranma 1/2, Urusei Yatsura, High School Kimengumi, Martian Successor Nadesico (A lot more going on here than just weird), and a ton of others that I can't remember.
Besides the differing perceptions theme, a common weirdness is using everyday objects for purposes they weren't intended for. Often they will be used as a weapon, which often adds new "game mechanics" and shock value, but the weirdness is all the same. The fighting game Guilty Gear did a lot of this, including at least an anchor, teddy bear, yoyo, and monstrous creatures as weapons in weird ways.

Webcomics have a lot of weirdness too, including some which definitely have some interesting variations.

The basic creative twist to each animation is neat, but I didn't like just about everything else about them. The cuts were too long. The animation quality was lazy. The gore was a bit over the top in the golf short.

I don't mean to slam the videos you brought up. Do you have any thing else from Japan that you think/like for its weirdness?

I've grown up on Japanese weirdness so perhaps I'm a bit used to it. Or perhaps a lot of their weirdness falls under the low level "shock value" category. hmmm.

http://www.pinktentacle.com/2009/03/video-nonsense-animations-by-shintaro-kago/

The golf one does a neat twist on the angry golfer. This golfer seems to be rather calm and playing the game correctly and with good form. Unfortunately, the course still doesn't agree, and it actively prevents him from finishing the whole. Then it uses some odd applications of Form fits Function, and the situation gets even worse.

The mermaid one mixes up our conceptions of mermaids as cute and innocent (The Little Mermaid, Weeki Wachi Springs) with older, more dangerous legends, such as the sirens in Greek mythology. I don't think this one is as weird or good as the first one though.

You're right on with the Bonsai example. In fact, Bonsai, Yoga, Tai Chi, and meditation are all good examples of slow actions that happen to be Eastern in origin (I believe).

Most people aren't naturally slow, methodical, or fluid with their thoughts, movements, or actions. You're right. Structure is needed.

Bangai-O Spirits slowed down when a lot enemies/game elements were present in the level. In this way, the more (threatening) things get on the screen, the slower the game becomes. Though the game time remains constant, the player's real time in relation to the game time changes. When the game slows down, each individual action can become more accurate, deliberate, and calm. Being calm in the face of incredible danger/odds is a funny feelings. It's similar to the "out of body" "time slows down" effect people get in high stress situations. When you have time to look around the crowded screen between each shot of your rapid fire gun, even though there's more on the screen to see, you take in more than you would if the game were running at normal speed.

What a great example to bring up for this post.

Good thoughts. Thanks.

PS. If I can't get the system to email you when I respond, I'll just do it manually.

I know Kingdom of Loathing
www.kingdomofloathing.com
an online adventure game, forced a maximum number of actions per day. It was also turn based. People focused their actions to make sure they did everything they wanted to that day. Unfortunately, their didn't seem to be much strategy.

Apparently the Japanese art of Banzai is also structured around slow, thoughtful pruning and contemplation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonsai

If you let people move at their own pace, they will move too quickly to get this effect. There needs to be some structure to slow them down, such as the sheet music, director, or game mechanics.

Didn't Bangai O-Spirits have something like this?

How do I know when you reply here by the way? I haven't been getting notifications like the old site.