After consuming every classic Disney and Pixar film, the next stop for every aspiring anglophone animation expert is often the world of anime. And what a marvellous place to explore it is! The best Japanese animated films are as intelligent and nuanced as any live-action drama, employing magnificent visuals and inventive universe-building to produce tales that are frequently imaginative and exhilarating, but also deliver powerful emotional blows.
1. The movie Cowboy Bebop (2001)
The 2001 release of Cowboy Bebop: THE MOVIE is a film version of the well-known 1999 television broadcast of the same name. The movie takes place on Mars in the days before Halloween in the year 2071. A Bebop team investigates a terrorist assault that claimed nearly 400 lives.
Action and science fiction genres Director: Shinichiro Watanabe
2. The Anthem of the Heart (2015)
A little girl named Jun Naruse has lost her ability to talk and sing as a result of her tragic background (her parents’ divorce). She gets chosen to play the lead role in a musical performed by her class as part of the school festival.
- Dramatic genre
- Director: Tatsuyuki Nagai
3. Penguin Highway (2018)
Based on Tomihiko Morimi’s science fiction novel, Penguin Highway was produced in 2018 by the young Japanese animation firm Studio Coloride. The narrative focuses on the remarkable experiences of fourth-grader Aoyama and an enigmatic woman he refers to as “Ojou-sama.” One day a penguin arrives out of nowhere in their village.
- Fantasy and slice-of-life
- Hiroyasu Ishida is the director.
4. Her Blue Sky (2019)
Tatsuyuki Nagai, who also directed “Kokoro no Anthem” and “Anohana The Flower I Saw That Day,” directed the modern animation film “Kanojo no Blue Sky” that was released in 2019. overseen by The location of the stage is Chichibu City, Saitama City, much like in the previous two productions. Akane’s former boyfriend Shinno, who left her 13 years ago, shows up in front of the heroine Aoi and her elder sister Akane, who are both orphans.
- Dramatic, fantastical genres
- Tatsuyuki Nagai is the director
5. Jujutsu Kaisen 0: The movie version (2021)
Late in 2021, for release. Since 2018, the original manga has been published, and in 2020, animation will begin. The main character of Jujutsu Kaisen 0 is Okkotsu Yuta, who possesses the strongest cursed spirit abilities. One year before the main character, Yuji Itadori, who was presented by Satoru Gojo, he enrolled in the Tokyo Metropolitan Magic College.
- Dark Fantasy is a genre.
- Park Sung Hoo directed the film
6. Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The movie (2012- 2013)
Pokémon Magi Shaft Animation’s Madoka Magica: The Movie is a fantastic production. Three segments make up this animated movie: His Origin and Eternity in 2012; His Rebellion in 2013. The first and second sections are made up of episodes that serve as a recap of the TV anime series, while the last episode tells a brand-new tale. Madoka Kaname, a student in middle school, encounters Kyubey, a being that resembles a dog or a cat. It offers her the chance to turn into a magical girl and save the planet. One of the most well-known anime, Stand by Doraemon was one of the first 3D computer animated films in the franchise to be released in 2014.
Introducing the first and last seven episodes of the anime series Doraemon. The narrative will make both adults and kids laugh, weep, and appreciate it.
- Dramatic Science Fiction
- Takashi Yamazaki, director
7. Memories (1995)
Memories, an anthology by the equally well-known Katsuhiro Otomo of his AKIRA, was published in 1995. includes three of his comic-based short tales.
Inductive Rose Tensai Okamura’s Stink Weapon and Katsuhiro Otomo’s Canon Fodder were both directed by Koji Morimoto.
In Magnetic Rose, a gigantic damaged starship is located by numerous crew members of a spaceship called Corona who respond to a distress call. Researchers are seeing hallucinations of historical objects connected to the opera diva Eva, who lived roughly a century ago. A 23-year-old researcher at a Japanese pharmaceutical business located in Yamanashi Prefecture is the subject of the film Stink Bomb.
Inadvertently taking a study subject’s experimental medicine, he shocked everyone around him by unleashing a poisonous vapor.
The plot of Cannon Fodder, which is set in a city with cannons, centres on a family whose young son has aspirations of becoming a gunner. his father, a gunner at work. a mother who works in the production of weaponry.
- Science fiction is a genre.
- Koji Morimoto, Tensai Okamura, and Katsuhiro Otomo are the directors.
8. In this Corner of the World (2016)
One of the most earning anime movies worldwide in 2016 was In this Corner of the World, which was entirely based on the manga that ran from 2007 to 2009. The anime movie is about Hiroshima during World War II, and Suzu is the only character to live through the battle despite having been exposed to the atomic bomb. In This Corner (and Other Corners) of the World, a new version of the anime that added additional sequences lasting another forty minutes to the original was released in 2019.
- Dramatic genre
- Director: Sunao Katabuchi
9. A Silent Voice (2016)
A Silent Voice, an anime film adaptation of the seven-volume manga published in 2013–2014, was created by Kyoto Animation. The moving animation touches on sensitive societal issues like teenage bullying, death, impairments, parental divorce, and more. The main protagonists of this anime movie are a deaf woman named Shoko Nishimiya and the bully Shoya Ishida who tormented her at the college.
- Dramatic genre
- Director: Naoko Yamada
10. Belle (2021)
Following the release of Mamoru Hosoda’s last film Mirai in 2018, Belle, his sixth full-length original animation film, was released in 2021. Being distributed all around the world, the legendary cutting-edge anime movie gains a reputation on a worldwide scale. With some inspiration from the classic love story Beauty and the Beast, Mamoru Hosoda completed Belle.
The setting of Belle is in the Kochi Prefecture, and it centres on Suzu, a high school student who lives with her father. The story develops when she joins a big digital community called U as Belle, an avatar, and performs there with her own songs. It illustrates the merging of the internet and the real world using a large number of key individual characters.
- Dramatic fantasy as a genre
- Mamoru Hosoda as the director
