Anime is often wrongly considered to be for kids, which is, of course, because of its name, which stems from the English word ‘animation.’ Don’t be fooled, though, as anime itself is a whole field of cinema and TV to enjoy – it has a lot of intricate genres and various themes that show it can be relatable to all ages. Since it’s been established as a culturally and cinematically relevant genre, understanding it means one has to dive in head first and start with some of the most essential movies and shows.
From Makoto Shinkai to Hayao Miyazaki, some of the biggest names in anime have made waves with their anime movies; Studio Ghibli has some of the most loved and watched movies in the world, and the studio’s boss, Hayao Miyazaki, makes movies relevant to people of all ages, walks of life, and sexes. Others like Satoshi Kon and Katsuhiro Otomo changed the landscape of film with their work, with so many movies showing this genre has something special that will never be replicated in any Western remake attempt.
10
‘Vampire Hunter D’ (1985)
Directed by Toyou Ashida
The dark fantasy horror movie Vampire Hunter D has the sort of animation that will feel dated when watched. Still, it shows where and how the supernatural creature subgenre of anime evolved. Its animation style aside, the movie is essential viewing for fans of anime shows like Castlevania, Hellsing Ultimate, or Blood: The Last Vampire. It’s set in a distant future, sometime in 12,000 AD, and follows a human girl, Doris Lang, who gets bitten by the vampire count, Magnus Lee, and becomes promised to him as his future wife.
Doris, wishing to escape her fate as a vampiric bride, hires a half-human, half-vampire hunter only known as D to kill the count and set her free of the promise. The movie expertly blends the supernatural with the human, and doesn’t show any side as more virtuous or positive. Every character, whether vampire, werewolf, human, or otherwise, has personal motivations leading them to feelings of injustice, anger, and seeking revenge. Vampire Hunter D is an early example of a serious anime that tackles exceptionally adult topics like anger and forgiveness.
Vampire Hunter D
- Release Date
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March 26, 1993
- Runtime
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80 Minutes
- Director
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Toyoo Ashida
- Writers
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Hideyuki Kikuchi, Yasushi Hirano
Vampire Hunter D isn’t currently available for streaming.
9
‘The End of Evangelion’ (1997)
Directed by Hideaki Anno and Kazuya Tsurumaki
Technically, The End of Evangelion is connected to the series Neon Genesis: Evangelion, but it represents an alternative ending and can be observed as a standalone movie. The anime series Neon Genesis: Evangelion follows Shinji Ikari, a reclusive and shy teenager trained to pilot a massive cyborg designed to fight supernatural beings called Angels. As Shinji comes out of his shell and befriends a new pilot, Asuka, they experience their battle for humanity as a test of personal strength and purpose. The show itself holds numerous metaphysical topics, and is pretty existentialist.
The End of Evangelion is a massively complex feature that can be watched and rewatched to pick up on various themes and interpretations. This movie is as essential as the series, if not more, as it provides an interesting view into religion, philosophy, and even Greek mythology. It provides the ending with Shinji and Asuka that people felt they needed after a controversial series finale, but it’s also a stunning contribution to the apocalyptic sci-fi genre that can make even the most hardened minds feel in awe.
Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion
- Release Date
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March 17, 2024
- Runtime
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87 Minutes
- Director
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Hideaki Anno, Kazuya Tsurumaki
- Writers
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Hideaki Anno
- Producers
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Hiroyuki Yamaga
Cast
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Megumi Ogata
Shinji Ikari
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Megumi Hayashibara
Rei Ayanami / Yui Ikari
-
Kotono Mitsuishi
Misato Katsuragi
8
‘Your Name’ (2016)
Written and Directed by Makoto Shinkai
Despite being the most recent movie on the list, Your Name doesn’t lack influence, impact, or character; it shows how anime developed from its humble beginnings to a powerhouse genre with examples that understand the human psyche a lot better than some people understand themselves. Your Name is a beautifully crafted story that combines science fiction and romance, and it follows Mitsuha and Taki, two high school kids who accidentally body-swapped one day. When they realize their condition, they begin bonding and helping each other in various ways.
It’s hard to fully explain Your Name, but this short synopsis should be all anyone needs. Don’t think, just dive in, and watch as visual poetry unfolds; this movie had a massive impact on audiences and is one of the highest-grossing anime movies ever; while some anime movies are more impactful abroad, Your Name specifically became a bigger hit in its home country, where it was hard to achieve such widespread success unless a movie came from Studio Ghibli. This movie’s emotional impact lingers with the viewers for a long time after watching it and is one of the essential anime movies to understand its beauty and appeal.
Your Name
- Release Date
-
August 26, 2016
- Runtime
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106 minutes
- Director
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Makoto Shinkai
- Writers
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Makoto Shinkai
Cast
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Ryunosuke Kamiki (Taki Tachibana voice)
-
Mone Kamishiraishi (Mitsuha Miyamizu voice)
-
Ryo Narita (Katsuhiko Teshigawara voice)
7
‘Perfect Blue’ (1997)
Directed by Satoshi Kon
If anyone thought psychological thrillers couldn’t be translated into the field of animation, they definitely haven’t seen Satoshi Kon’s Perfect Blue. The heartbreaking, emotionally difficult, and eerie representation of a pop star and her stalker is one of the most important anime movies, but also one of the most intricate explorations of the human psyche. Perfect Blue follows J-pop idol Mima Kirigoe who leaves her girl group to pursue acting efforts; her debut role in a detective TV series proves mentally and physically challenging, and she struggles to put together her real identity with one of her pop star persona.
While every scene with Mima’s stalker, who calls himself Me-Mania online, is a masterclass in thriller (and even horror), the movie’s psychological impact comes from Mima herself, who can’t seem to escape the inevitable blurring of reality and fantasy in her mind. Perfect Blue is Satoshi Kon’s directorial debut, and it launched him into the ranks of the most elite and respected anime directors of all time. A lot of his work is very psychological, but Perfect Blue verges on the line of unsettling more than most of his movies.
Perfect Blue
- Release Date
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August 5, 1997
- Runtime
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81 Minutes
- Director
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Satoshi Kon
- Writers
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Sadayuki Murai, Yoshikazu Takeuchi, Lia Sargent
6
‘Tekkonkinkreet’ (2006)
Directed by Michael Arias and Hiroaki Andô
Tekkonkinkreet was a smash hit when it came out, mostly because of its unusual animation style, but also because of the touching story about two homeless kids finding their way around a violence-ridden city. The movie’s style was influenced by a combination of anime and Westernized animation styles, but it still closely follows the character design from the manga of the same name. Tekkonkinkreet follows two boys, Black – an older teenager with anger issues – and White – a younger boy who often falls into a fantasy world. Black and White are inseparable, but Black gets them in trouble when he kills a man who turns out to be a yakuza.
“shows a different side to anime by presenting a classic story in a visually different way.”
In the once sprawling metropolis, Black and White now traverse the ruins of the city’s former glory, fighting against the ongoing violence that takes numerous lives daily. When Black and White become separated, Black finds his anger and generally most of his emotions a lot harder to control. Tekkonkinkreet is heartbreaking but beautiful in many ways and shows a different side to anime by presenting a classic story in a visually different way.
5
‘Wolf Children’ (2012)
Directed by Mamoru Hosoda
Wolf Children is a pretty underrated anime movie, seemingly having gone under the radar in the West. As seems to have been the case with Your Name, the movie’s international “failure” proved nothing in Japan, where it was the second highest-grossing movie during the week of its release, and the fifth highest-grossing movie of all of 2012. Director Mamoru Hosoda opened up in an interview about directing a story driven by imagination yet being fully inspired by his parents and the commitment of parenting in general.
Indeed, Wolf Children follows thirteen years in the life of college student Hana, who falls in love with a wolfman and starts a family with him. When her partner suddenly dies, Hana must raise her daughter Yuki and son Ame alone; raising two kids who change form from human to wolf seems a lot more challenging than just raising human children, though their growing pains don’t escape her in any way. The story feels like a coming-of-age movie and a love letter to all parents out there; it also has elements of a slice-of-life story, where things are as they seem, and are beautiful just as they are.
Wolf Children
- Release Date
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July 12, 2012
- Runtime
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117 Minutes
- Director
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Mamoru Hosoda
- Writers
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Mamoru Hosoda, Satoko Okudera
Cast
-
-
-
Haru Kuroki
Yuki (shôjo-ki)
4
‘Ghost In the Shell’ (1995)
Directed by Mamoru Oshii
No list of influential or essential anime movies should go without Ghost in the Shell, one of the best dystopian sci-fi movies. It obviously combines inspiration from previous cyberpunk anime movies with Hollywood hits like Blade Runner and The Terminator, but it was also a universal inspiration for future cult classics, most notably The Matrix. Ghost in the Shell is a major inspiration for all future creations of the genre called “tech noir,” a phrase apparently coined by James Cameron. The definition of tech noir states it “presents technology as a destructive and dystopian force that threatens every aspect of our reality.”
Ghost in the Shell follows a public security agent and cyborg, Major Motoko Kusanagi; she becomes obsessed with tracking down a hacker called The Puppet Master, who turns out to be a human ghost in a cybernetic shell. With philosophical themes reflecting on humanity, the prevalence of technology, and struggles with self-understanding, the movie very directly asks – what does a human consist of? Ghost in the Shell is a brilliant piece of cinema loved by many globally, and a sensational story that makes people lie awake at night wondering what it all really means.
Ghost in the Shell
- Release Date
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December 8, 1995
- Runtime
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83 Minutes
- Director
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Mizuho Nishikubo, Mamoru Oshii
- Writers
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Shirow Masamune, Kazunori Itô
- Franchise(s)
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Ghost in the Shell
3
‘Spirited Away’ (2001)
Directed and Written by Hayao Miyazaki
Studio Ghibli paved its way onto global TV screens and cinemas through the help of its founder, Hayao Miyazaki. He writes and directs most Ghibli movies, and they’re all influential for very different reasons. Though each Ghibli movie tackles a different theme specifically, they all have the beauty and struggles of life intertwined as two complementing ideas; without one, the other wouldn’t feel as powerful. Yes, there’s Princess Mononoke and Grave of the Fireflies, but Spirited Away is the most essential Ghibli movie because of how brilliantly it united Japanese and global audiences in the search for answers to humanity’s biggest questions.
Spirited Away follows Chihiro, a young girl who, on a walk with her parents one day, enters the spirit world after they fall into a trap. There, she must find a way to get out of the spirit world and save her parents before they end up as spirits themselves. Spirited Away set a high bar for all anime movies following it; it’s not just a coming-of-age story, or a philosophical dive into the spiritual and physical worlds, but also one of the best movies about women that Hayao Miyazaki made. The spirit world and Chihiro are analyzed to this day, with numerous messages, ideas, and interpretations surfacing. This just shows the magnitude of the inspiration Spirited Away provides.
2
‘Paprika’ (2006)
Directed by Satoshi Kon
The second Satoshi Kon movie on the list doesn’t just prove he was a master of his own class; it also shows how much his movies impacted the anime and cinematic landscape. Paprika was most notably compared to Christopher Nolan‘s Inception, which Film School Rejects’ Ciara Wardlow analyzed almost frame by frame to draw parallels in understanding how the two movies impacted each other. But, as Wardlow said, to paraphrase, to compare the two movies is to take away from both, and Paprika deserves a lot better. The anime masterpiece is a trippy sci-fi journey into the human psyche, similar but ultimately very different from Perfect Blue, Kon’s directorial debut.
Paprika follows Dr. Atsuko Chiba, researcher and psychiatrist who uses a device called DC Mini to enter people’s dreams. She uses it to help her patients resolve the trauma of their dreams, and visits them in the form of a dream detective called Paprika. As Atsuko’s alter-ego, Paprika becomes more aware, while Atsuko begins to experience a blurring between reality and dreams. As it seems, this blurring between reality and fantasy is common for Satoshi Kon’s movies, but it also feels inherently Lynchian, making Paprika a complete cinematic success that can’t be replicated or imitated.
Paprika
- Release Date
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November 25, 2006
- Runtime
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90 Minutes
- Director
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Satoshi Kon
- Writers
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Yasutaka Tsutsui, Seishi Minakami, Satoshi Kon
1
‘Akira’ (1988)
Directed by Katsuhiro Otomo
In 1982, Katsuhiro Otomo wrote the manga that he later, in 1988, adapted into a feature film called Akira. Otomo made the story a little different from the one in the manga, though this doesn’t impact the movie in any way; it’s a complete cinematic feat that will basically never, ever be replicated; it can only be imitated. Akira is set in the dystopian 2019 in Neo-Tokyo, after a Third World War that ravaged the city. One evening, biker gang leader Shōtarō Kaneda leads an attack on a rival gang; as a result, his best friend, Tetsuo Shima, crashes on his motorcycle. Tetsuo begins experiencing powerful psychic powers which experts compare to those of Akira’s, an esper whose powers caused Neo-Tokyo’s destruction in 1988.
The symbol for Akira is Shōtarō Kaneda’s red outfit and his red motorcycle. As soon as someone sees this, they know they’re dealing with one of the greatest movies of all time, and one that many fans won’t back down from telling others exactly why it deserves that title. This is true, though, as Akira influenced a myriad of other movies later on, basically reinventing the dystopian sci-fi genre. There’s a lot to be said about why this simple animated movie from 1988 made such ripples through time, but how much time do you have? Let’s stay on the fact that Akira is the reason why so many Western audiences even enjoy anime today, making the genre mega-popular and giving all other movies in it a chance to win over hearts across the globe.
Akira
- Release Date
-
July 16, 1988
- Runtime
-
124 Minutes
- Director
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Katsuhiro Otomo
- Writers
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Katsuhiro Otomo, Izô Hashimoto
