Anime movies are one of the most breathtaking masterpieces in the animation industry! They cover every kind of genre and have one of the best romance, action, and drama. But with this huge number of anime movies to pick from you might be thinking about which anime to watch, right? Worry no more! We got your back. Here are the top 25 anime that you must watch. Let’s dig in!
Your Name
Taki, Miki, and their friend Tsukasa travel by rail to Gifu in pursuit of Mitsuha. However, Taki does not remember the name of Itomori and relies on his memory sketches. Because he is originally from Hida, a restaurant owner identifies the town in the sketch. He brings Taki and his pals to the ruins of Itomori. It has been demolished and where 500 people were killed three years ago. Taki notices Mitsuha’s messages vanish from his phone and his memories of her fading. Recognizing the two are also separated by time, as he is in 2016.
Grave of the Fireflies
This animated story depicts Seita who is a teenager burdened with caring for his younger sister, Setsuko. She, after an American firebombing during World War II, separates the two youngsters from their parents. Their survival story is as devastating as it is true to reality. The siblings rely entirely on one another and fight against all odds to stay together and alive.
Princess Mononoke
The equilibrium that people, animals, and gods have enjoyed for centuries begins to unravel in the 14th century. Infected by an animal attack, the protagonist, young Ashitaka, seeks a cure from the deer-like god Shishigami. During his travels, he witnesses humanity ruining the world. Bringing the wrath of the wolf deity Moro and his human companion Princess Mononoke down on them. Hiskat’s attempts to mediate peace between her and the humans result in war.
Kiki’s Delivery Service
In this anime film, a 13-year-old Kiki moves to a coastal town with her talking cat, Jiji. In order to spend a year alone, as is customary for witches in training in her community. Kiki establishes a flying delivery service after learning to manage her broomstick and quickly becomes a fixture in the town. However, the insecure young witch begins to doubt herself and loses her magical skills. She must overcome her self-doubt to regain her powers.
Ghost in the Shell
Motoko Kusanagi is a cyborg federal agent who pursues “The Puppet Master”. The puppet master unlawfully hacks into the programmed minds of cyborg-human hybrids. Her pursuit of a guy who can transform the identity of strangers makes Motoko wondering her makeup and what life may be like if she had more human features. She cornered the hacker with her partner (Richard George), but her curiosity about her identity unexpectedly pushes the case.
Perfect Blue
Mima’s first employment is a little part in a television detective drama called Double Bind. However, Tadokoro contacts the producers of Double Bind. He is successful in gaining Mima a larger part that includes a rape scene. Despite Rumi’s misgivings, Mima accepts the position, even though it has a significant impact on her. On her walk home, she encounters a reflection of herself dressed in her former idol’s clothes. She would proclaim herself to be “the actual Mima.” Mima begins to suffer from psychosis as a result of the ongoing stresses of filming Double Bind. Her lingering regret over leaving CHAM!, her paranoia of being stalked. She struggles to distinguish real life from her work in show business.
A Silent Voice
Shoya Ishida is a high school student. He plans to commit suicide but changes his mind at the last minute and resolves to tie up loose ends. Shoya is shown in a flashback as a sixth-grade student in elementary school. This is when a new student called Shoko Nishimiya joins Shoya’s class and is shown to be deaf. She attempts to fit in, but she becomes an easy target for Shoya and his friends to bully. When word of the bullying reaches the principal, Shoya is singled out as the perpetrator by his teacher, causing the rest of the class to target him. Shoya accuses Shoko, and the two have a violent struggle.
Castle in the Sky
Sheeta, a young orphan, and her captor, Col. Muska, are on their way to a military jail when their jet is assaulted by an air pirate gang led by the matronly Dola. Sheeta meets fellow orphan Pazu after escaping a mid-air crash via a magical crystal around her neck, and the two join forces to find the mythical floating city of Laputa while being hunted by both Muska and pirates who yearn for the city’s numerous treasures.
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
After an apocalyptic conflict has ruined much of the world’s ecosystem, the few remaining humans live in isolated semi-hospitable environments within what has become a “toxic jungle” far in the future. Young Nausicaä dwells in the parched Valley of the Wind and can converse with the giant insects that populate the deadly jungle. Nausicaä attempts to restore peace to the shattered planet with the help of the pensive veteran warrior Lord Yupa.
Cowboy Bebop
The plot takes place in 2071, in a post-apocalyptic world where Earth has become largely uninhabitable and follows a motley crew of bounty hunters known as cowboys aboard the spaceship “Bebop.” As they travel between planets and moons in quest of wanted fugitives, each cowboy faces ghosts from his past that he cannot escape.
The Secret World of Arrietty
Arrietty, a little adolescent, lives in the shadows of a suburban home with her parents, unknown to the homeowner and housekeeper. Arrietty, like other members of her species, remains hidden from her human hosts, but occasionally emerges from beneath the floorboards to borrow sugar cubes and other supplies. When 12-year-old Shawn meets Arrietty, they begin a secret connection, but their bond could endanger Arrietty’s family.
Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion
Seele, the secretive committee, learns that Shinji’s father, Gendo Ikari, intends to exploit Nerv, the paramilitary group that deploys the Evangelion units, for his purposes. Seele sends the Japanese Strategic Self-Defense Force to seize Nerv, killing the majority of the employees. Misato Katsuragi, a Nerv major, orders Asuka to be transferred to Evangelion Unit 02 and placed at the bottom of a lake before rescuing Shinji from Self-Defense Force troops. He was determined to have Shinji defend Nerv, pulls him to the bay doors of Unit 01 but is shot in the process. Misato begs Shinji to pilot Unit 01 before she dies, kisses him, and forces him into the elevator. Shinji comes across Unit 01, which has been immobilized in bakelite.
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
Makoto utilizes most of her leaps frivolously to avoid unpleasant situations, such as an embarrassing love confession from her best friend, Chiaki Mamiya. She notices a numbered tattoo on her arm that indicates the limited number of times she can time leap. Makoto seeks to set things right for everyone by using her remaining time leaps. When Chiaki contacts Makoto to inquire if she has been time-leaping, Makoto uses her final time-leap to avoid Chiaki’s call. Meanwhile, Makoto’s friend Ksuke Tsuda and his new girlfriend, Kaho Fujitani, borrow her broken bike. Makoto tries to stop them, but because she had just used her final leap, she is unable to save them from the train.
Tokyo Godfathers
Gin, a middle-aged drunkard, Miyuki, a teenage runaway, and Hana, a former drag queen, are a trio of homeless people surviving as a makeshift family on Tokyo’s streets. On Christmas Eve, while scavenging among the trash for food, they come across an abandoned newborn infant in a trash container. With only a few hints as to the infant’s identity, the three misfits seek Tokyo’s streets for assistance in returning the baby to its parents.
Whisper of the Heart
When school resumes, Yuko is saddened when Sugimura asks her to respond to a love letter received by one of his teammates. Shizuku confronts Sugimura and chastises him for his behavior, only for him to confess that he had a crush on her. She rejects him, though, in order to avoid hurting Yuko. Shizuku walks away feeling satisfied. Shizuku, feeling depressed, chooses to go to the antique shop, where she runs into the boy again. He takes her to his workshop, where she discovers he is learning to construct violins in order to pursue his dream of becoming a master luthier. She begs him to play the violin for her, but he only agrees if she sings along. “Take Me Home, Country Roads” is performed by the duo.
When Marnie Was There
Anna encounters Hisako, an elderly painter. Hisako remarks that Anna’s sketches resemble a girl she knew when she was younger. The mansion is now occupied by a family. During the move-in, Anna meets Sayaka, who gives her Marnie’s diary, which had been stashed in a drawer. Anna informs Marnie that she discovered documentation proving her foster parents are paid to care for her. She assumes they simply pretend to love her for the money, and she claims she can’t forgive her biological family for abandoning her and dying. Marnie describes how her parents are constantly traveling abroad, leaving her behind with her harsh nanny.
A Letter to Momo
Momo Miyaura and her mother Ikuko travel from Tokyo to the Seto Inland Sea following the death of her father Kazuo. Momo carries Kazuo’s incomplete letter, which just says “Dear Momo.” They meet their relatives Sachio and Sae Sadahama, as well as Koichi, a postman and an old friend of Ikuko’s who has always had a crush on her, at her mother’s estate on Shio Island. Momo is heartbroken and misses Tokyo. In the attic, she discovers a present containing a rare picture book about goblins and Yōkai, acquired by Sachio’s father. Three droplets from the sky land on Ikuko’s estate and transform into three yokai: Kawa, Mame, and the group’s leader, Iwa.
Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust
Meier recruits the mutant Barbarois to protect him, which includes shapeshifter Caroline, shadow manipulator Benge, and werewolf Machira. Benge assassinates Nolt, causing the brothers to meet the Barbarois in their region at the same moment D visits them. Grove creates a commotion with his psychic abilities, and D is stuck in a void created by Benge. After D flees the vacuum, the Marcus Brothers avenge Nolt by killing Benge, but they are compelled to refill their supplies. They drive to a nearby western town, where Leila convinces law police and the town’s local sheriff to stop D, but they are unable to stop him from fleeing when he is assisted by an elderly man who remembers D rescuing him in childhood.
Wolf Children
Hana’s life as a single mother is stressful; Yuki and Ame regularly transform between human and wolf forms, get into fights, and Hana is forced to hide them from the rest of the world. Hana relocates the family to the countryside to avoid prying neighbors after receiving noise complaints and a visit from social workers concerned about the children’s lack of vaccines. She works hard to fix a decaying house, but the family cannot survive on their harvests. She learns to farm with the help of a severe old man named Nirasaki and makes friends with some of the villagers.
Tatsumi
Tatsumi’s stand-in protagonist, Hiroshi, faces his father’s financial burdens and his parents’ failing marriage, his jealous brother’s deteriorating health, and the innumerable pitfalls that await him in the competitive manga market of mid-twentieth-century Japan over fifteen years, from August 1945 to June 1960. He aspires to follow in the footsteps of his idol, manga artist Osamu Tezuka, with whom Tatsumi eventually became contemporaries and, at times, artistic rivals.
From Up on Poppy Hill
One day, a poem about flag-raising is published in the Isogo High School newspaper. The poem’s author, Shun Kazama, sees the flags from the sea as he rides his father’s tugboat to school. At first, Umi has a negative image of Shun because he pulls a risky stunt on behalf of the “Latin Quarter,” an old building that houses their high school’s clubs and is on the verge of being demolished. Umi goes to the Latin Quarter to get Shun’s autograph at the request of her sister. She discovers that Shun and Shir Mizunuma, the student government president, edit the school newspaper. Umi persuades Shir and Shun to rebuild the Latin Quarter, and all of the students, both boys and girls, pitch in.
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
Miyatsuko discovers riches and exquisite fabric in the bamboo forest, just as he did his daughter. He considers these to be proof of her divine royalty and begins making plans to make her a genuine princess. He takes the family to the capital, forcing the daughter to abandon her friends, and the family settles into a mansion complete with staff. The girl is assigned a governess who is tasked with taming her and turning her into a noblewoman. The girl struggles with the nobility’s constraints, wishing for her previous existence in the village.
Barefoot Gen
Gen and his mother see the horrors caused by the bomb in the days following the attack. Hiroshima is in ruins, and the city is teeming with people who have died or are dying as a result of severe burns and radiation sickness. Gen meets Natsue, a girl whose face has been burned. She tries to commit herself, but Gen persuades her to live. Gen and his mother adopt an orphan named Ryuta, who looks exactly like Gen’s deceased younger brother Shinji. Gen and his family move live with Kime’s friend Kiyo after returning to their burnt-out home and retrieving the remains of his father and brothers. Kiyo’s stingy mother-in-law, on the other hand, plots with her spoilt grandkids to force the Nakaokas out.
Ninja Scroll
In this anime film, Jubei, a highly talented ninja, is forced to assassinate his warrior clan. He becomes a roaming hired assassin after begrudgingly slaying his fellow swordsmen. During his travels, he must contend with the Devils of Kimon, a group of demonic ninjas seeking to seize control of Japan’s government. The Devils will stop at nothing and have the ability to wipe out entire villages. Only Jubei and a shogun spy named Dakuan are capable of stopping them now.
Sword of the Stranger
Kotaro meets Nanashi, a wandering swordsman while seeking refuge in an abandoned temple, but they are discovered by a search party of two Ming warriors accompanied by Akaike soldiers. Nanashi kills a Ming warrior who attacks the two, but Tobimaru is injured by a poisoned dagger. Kotaro employs Nanashi as a bodyguard and brings Tobimaru to a veterinarian for treatment. Meanwhile, Akaike soldiers kidnap the second Ming, Tu-Si, and torture him to reveal the purpose of the altar. Tu-Si discloses that they are on a mission from the Ming Emperor to manufacture Xian Medicine, an elixir of immortality. The blood of a prophesied child, the boy Kotaro, who can only be sacrificed at particular times, is required.
That’s all folks! These are the top 25 anime movies that you must watch. If you know any more anime movies then do mention them in the comment section below. We would love to hear from you. Happy binge-watching!
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