As Haruo Sotozaki and Hikaru Kondô’s Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle arrives at the North American box office to an astonishing $70 million debut, shortly after Yu Yang’s Ne Zha 2 became the highest-grossing animated film ever with $2.2 billion worldwide, it’s crystal clear that animation from overseas continues to put asses in seats. To help celebrate this welcome upswing in anime’s visibility, we’re sussing out the Top 10 Anime Films of All Time!
A bold task, I know. I’m ready for your torches and pitchforks. However, before you burn me at the stake, consider the assignment. It’s damn-near impossible to play to all tastes, so I’m laying down the gauntlet with my gut, heart, and soul. Animation is one of humankind’s greatest gifts to art and entertainment, and the following films are the cream of the crop. Each title offers something special, infinitely imaginative, and game-changing about animation and expression through pictures and sound. Enjoy the list. Tell me why I’m wrong in the comments. Let’s do this!
1. Akira (1988)
If we were to carve a Mount Rushmore of Anime, Katsuhiro Ôtomo’s dystopian cyberpunk opus Akira would be the George Washington. In this universally celebrated epic, a secret military project endangers Neo-Tokyo when it turns a teenage biker gang member, Tetsuo Shima (Nozomu Sasaki), into a rampaging psychic psychopath whose best friend, Shôtarô Kaneda (Mitsuo Iwata), is the only one who can stop him.
Mention Akira to any anime fan, and they will immediately begin shouting at you, “Tetsuo! Kaneda! Help me!” And rightfully so. It’s impossible not to feel the power of this essential anime overflowing with pangs of Blade Runner, Alita: Battle Angel, and 12 Monkeys. In addition to featuring some of the most mind-blowing animation of the time, the soundtrack from Shōji Yamashiro, filled with ethereal chants, frenzied taiko drums, and atmospheric glitch pop, positively rips. If Tetsuo and Kaneda’s friendship is a legend, and it is, history will write their story in gold ink upon gilded pages in a tome kept safe in a diamond display.
2. Spirited Away (2001)
The debate about which Studio Ghibli film is the best is never-ending. However, if you plant your flag next to Spirited Away, the argument is over, and we can be friends. Hayao Miyazaki’s 2001 epic is a glittering gem in the Infinity Gauntlet of the anime genre. In case you’re wondering, it’s the Soul Stone. During her family’s move to the suburbs, a sullen 10-year-old girl, Chihiro (Daveigh Chase), wanders into a world ruled by gods, witches, and spirits, hoping to rescue her parents who have transformed into ravenous beasts.
After its initial and anniversary releases, Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away is one of the genre’s most successful films, with a global box office of $360M+. Numbers aside, Spirited Away is as whimsical as Labyrinth, as sinister as The Dark Crystal, and as intrepid as The Green Knight. Running rampant with drop-dead gorgeous visuals, a world-building narrative with endless possibilities, and a love everlasting between Chihiro (Rumi Hiiragi) and the mysterious Haku (Miyu Irino), it’s impossible not to feel the magic of one of the Godfather of Anime’s most enigmatic films.
3. Ghost in the Shell (1995)
I’m just going to say it. Masamune Shirow’s Ghost in the Shell walked so the Wachowskis’ The Matrix could run. Considered by many to be the pinnacle of science-fiction action anime, Ghost in the Shell is hard-coded into any 90s-era anime fan. The original film that started a cyberpunk franchise introduces Atsuko Tanaka (Kusanagi Motoko), a cyborg police woman, and her partner, Batô (Akio Ôtsuka), who hunt a mysterious and powerful hacker called the Puppet Master.
Easily one of the most recognizable anime ever, Shirow’s Ghost in the Shell is sleek, sexy, visually daring, action-packed, and relentlessly cerebral. Discussions about Ghost in the Shell could last until sun-up, with themes of identity, the dangers of technology, and organizations pulling strings from the shadows. The list of anime series and features inspired by Shirow’s classic film is infinite, with sci-fi as a genre altered by its influence. Whether Ghost in the Shell was your first anime, sexual awakening, or another feather in your cinephile cap, life is better because you’ve experienced this masterpiece.
4. Perfect Blue (1997)
Whenever someone mentions Satoshi Kon‘s deranged psychodrama Perfect Blue, the typical (and correct) response is, “Yo, that movie is f@&ked up!” Perfect Blue, a film about a pop singer turned actress, Mima Kirigoe (Junko Iwao), navigating stardom and an obsessed fan while descending into madness, is on par with films like The Substance, Promising Young Woman, and Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream. Flawless in its presentation, Perfect Blue taps into something dark and sinister as Kon 300 kicks audiences down a jagged rabbit hole of stardom, violence, and nightmarish truths.
Despite its overwhelmingly positive critical reception, Perfect Blue never fared well at the box office, but the film’s cult following is legion. Any anime fan worth their salt knows the traumatic power of Perfect Blue, and how Kon’s cautionary tale serves as a warning for the naive as they swim in shark-infested waters with open wounds.
5. Princess Mononoke (1997)
Hayao Miyazaki’s apologetic love letter to Mother Nature is an unstoppable force of character, confession, and harsh realities laid bare. While seeking to cure himself of a curse, young warrior Ashitaka (Yôji Matsuda) stumbles into a conflict between the people of Iron Town and Princess Mononoke (Yuriko Ishida), a girl raised by wolves, who will stop at nothing to prevent the destruction of her home.
Miyazaki’s cautionary tale about humankind’s hubris and abuse of nature hits hard. It reminds audiences of how greed extracts the planet’s lifeblood, adding its precious gifts to a machine that turns the liquid black and bubbling. Princess Mononoke marries Studio Ghibli’s strength of depicting natural splendor with Miyazaki’s heartfelt character dynamics, while warning of the hell hoisted upon us by war. Seeing Princess Mononoke on the silver screen is an unforgettable experience, though you could watch it on the back of an airplane chair and still feel enraptured by its beauty and power.
6. Your Name. (2016)
My love for Makoto Shinkai runs deep. After hitting me in the heart with back-to-back bangers, Voices of a Distant Star, The Place Promised in Our Early Days, and 5 Centimetres Per Second, his work became essential to shaping my identity as an anime fan. Shinkai started a revolution when he unleashed Your Name. in theaters. It grossed $357.9+M at the global box office, becoming the second-largest gross for a domestic film in North America, behind Spirited Away, and the fourth-largest ever, behind live-action runaway Titanic and Disney’s Frozen. Anime broke through, again. Analysts and critics must pay attention and give credit where it’s due.
In Your Name, two teenagers share a profound, magical connection upon discovering they are swapping bodies. Things become even more complicated when the boy and girl decide to meet in person. Hoisted onto the shoulders of animation greatness thanks partly to Shinkai’s dynamic camerawork, hypnotic lighting, and vivid, sweeping environments, Your Name. reminds us to carry on, that we’re never truly alone, and that connecting with others is essential to discovering parts unknown within ourselves.
7. Weathering With You (2019)
Three years after wowing audiences worldwide with Your Name. Makoto Shinkai returned with Weathering With You, a mesmerizing Shōjo-style teen romance set during stormy weather. High-school boy Hodaka Morishima (Kotaro Daigo) runs to Tokyo from his troubled rural home and befriends an orphan girl, Amano Hina (Nana Mori), who can manipulate the weather.
What Hina shows Morishima is nothing short of a miracle. Her magical ability lifts a veil from the young man’s heart, prompting him to see the world from alternate perspectives. Considered by many to be one of Shinkai’s most visually spellbinding animations, Weathering With You summoned $192.3M+ worldwide, once again breaking the box office for an underappreciated genre. I challenge anyone to watch Weathering With You with someone who’s never seen it and not witness that virgin viewer’s jaw drop to the floor. It’s a film that begs you to think about that special person in your life who serves as a lighthouse in the fog of your malaise.
8. Blood: The Last Vampire (2001)
Blood: The Last Vampire is often my go-to recommendation when someone is curious about watching anime. I don’t want to overwhelm this person with a 100+ episode series, and a feature too complex could scare them away from exploring all anime has to offer. With a runtime of 48 minutes, Hiroyuki Kitakubo’s Blood: The Last Vampire is an essential “get in, get ’em hooked,” experience.
The story revolves around Saya, a Japanese vampire slayer whose next mission is in a high school on a US military base in the 1960s. The animation is exquisite, beautifully lit, and meticulous in execution and style. The soundtrack drips with hot, sweaty jazz, thunderous orchestral pieces, darkwave, industrial constructs, and lo-fi beats to chill to. The vampiric events emerge on Halloween, adding an inherent spookiness to the Gothic themes, drama, and slice ‘n dice action. It’s a tradition in my house to watch Hiroyuki Kitakubo’s Blood: The Last Vampire once a year around Halloween season. It’s a ritual I’ve kept for 24 years counting, and I plan to make it 25 soon. While The Last Vampire didn’t break the bank, it’s a cult favorite among Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust and Kizumonogatari fans.
9. The Boy and the Heron (2023)
Despite Hayao Miyazaki touting The Boy and the Heron as his swan song, I never truly believed him. The Boy and the Heron is a beautiful, frequently trippy tribute to the act of honoring the memory of a loved one and forging a new path that begins with healing. After his mother dies during WW2, a young Japanese boy, Mahito Maki (Soma Santoki), is sent to live with his Aunt, Natsuko (Yoshino Kimura), with whom his munitions factory owner father is trying to start a new family. Traumatized by the death of his mother and struggling to accept his circumstances, Mahito finds himself lured into a fantasy world out of time and space by an antagonistic grey Heron (Masaki Suda). As Mahito struggles to make sense of the new macrocosm, he ends a vicious cycle of generational trauma, ultimately making peace with his new surroundings by accepting the winds of change.
Long-time Miyazaki collaborator and Japanese composer Joe Hisaishi (Spirited Away, Ponyo, Kiki’s Delivery Service) fills the air with melodic soundscapes throughout the adventure. Hisaishi dedicated five years of his life to the soundtrack, composing dreamy, urgent, and playful orchestral arrangements to guide audience members through a gauntlet of emotions and wondrous settings. Watching the film, I became lost in its themes, spellbinding animation, and layered storytelling. In addition to tackling feelings of loss, Miyazaki’s story questions loyalty toward a higher power, relinquishing control over what may come, and accepting that it’s not on us to make a better world but instead to take the world we live in and try to make it the best we can. In other words, by improving ourselves, we bring something better to the world we’ve got.
While other Studio Ghibli films like My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, and Howl’s Moving Castle hold a special place in the hallowed halls of anime history, The Boy and the Heron is a culmination of Miyazaki’s lasting legacy, imagination, and talent for establishing worlds unlike our own that still manage to reflect who we are and where we’re heading.
10. Tokyo Godfathers (2003)
The second film from Satoshi Kon to make our list is the legendary filmmaker’s tragic comedy Tokyo Godfathers. It revolves around three homeless individuals—middle-aged alcoholic Gin (Tôru Emori), transgender woman Hana (Yoshiaki Umegaki), and teenage runaway Miyuki (Aya Okamoto)—who discover an abandoned infant while dumpster diving for Christmas gifts. Left with clues about the child’s identity, the trio attempts to reunite the orphan with her biological family.
Tokyo Godfathers offers an escape from Kon’s headier and introspective features like Paprika and Millennium Actress for a grounded Christmas tale about a found family rescuing an innocent from hardships they’ve endured as societal castaways. Tender, beautifully rendered, and packed with emotional gut-punches, Tokyo Godfathers reminds us to care for one another and not measure a person’s worth by appearance, but by deeds, actions, and the kindness in their heart.
Honorable Mention: Summer Wars (2009)
Also known as my favorite anime, Mamoru Hosoda’s Summer Wars is a visual feast for the senses. It is filled with an unforgettable cast of characters, Defcon 1-level danger, and a budding romance that will have you cheering before the credits roll. Summer Wars tells the story of a student who tries to fix a problem he accidentally caused in OZ, a digital world, while pretending to be the fiancé of his friend at her grandmother’s 90th birthday.
Summer Wars is everything I want in an animated feature. Every time I watch it, I discover something new and fall deeper in love with Natsuki Shinohara and Kenji Koiso’s endearing relationship. Summer Wars is a film you surrender to, letting it take you deep inside OZ, where the film’s visuals surpass my wildest fever dreams and expectations. For me, this is the real number one.
Source:
JoBlo.com