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The 18 Greatest Anime Films of All Time

By YPB Team

Feature-length anime covers a lot of ground: bathhouse spirits, wartime siblings, biker gangs, a pop idol coming apart. Pick the one that holds up best.

  1. Spirited Away — ranked #11
    Spirited Away
    Hayao Miyazaki's 2001 film about a girl working in a bathhouse for spirits to free her parents.
    1000pts
  2. Akira — ranked #22
    Akira
    Katsuhiro Otomo's 1988 cyberpunk landmark about biker gangs and a psychic weapon in Neo-Tokyo.
    562pts
  3. Perfect Blue — ranked #33
    Perfect Blue
    Satoshi Kon's 1997 thriller about a pop idol whose reality comes apart on a film set.
    507pts
  4. A Silent Voice — ranked #44
    A Silent Voice
    Naoko Yamada's 2016 film about a boy trying to make amends with the deaf classmate he bullied.
    507pts
  5. Your Name. — ranked #55
    Your Name.
    Makoto Shinkai's 2016 body-swap romance that became one of the highest-grossing anime films ever.
    464pts
  6. The Tale of the Princess Kaguya — ranked #66
    The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
    Takahata's 2013 film drawn in charcoal and watercolour from a tenth-century folk tale.
    415pts
  7. Demon Slayer: Mugen Train — ranked #77
    Demon Slayer: Mugen Train
    The 2020 film that became the highest-grossing release in Japanese box-office history.
    360pts
  8. Princess Mononoke — ranked #88
    Princess Mononoke
    Miyazaki's 1997 epic pitting forest gods against an iron town, with no villain on either side.
    360pts
  9. Ghost in the Shell — ranked #99
    Ghost in the Shell
    Mamoru Oshii's 1995 cyberpunk thriller about identity inside a networked body.
    360pts
  10. Howl's Moving Castle — ranked #1010
    Howl's Moving Castle
    Miyazaki's 2004 adaptation of Diana Wynne Jones, about a cursed hatter and a walking house.
    360pts
  11. Ninja Scroll — ranked #1111
    Ninja Scroll
    Yoshiaki Kawajiri's 1993 action film that sold a generation of Western viewers on adult anime.
    297pts
  12. The End of Evangelion — ranked #1212
    The End of Evangelion
    Hideaki Anno's 1997 film that replayed the series finale as an apocalypse instead of an inner monologue.
    297pts
  13. Grave of the Fireflies — ranked #1313
    Grave of the Fireflies
    Isao Takahata's 1988 story of two siblings surviving the last months of the war.
    296pts
  14. Millennium Actress — ranked #1414
    Millennium Actress
    Satoshi Kon's 2001 film that walks a retired star back through her own films and century.
    223pts
  15. Paprika — ranked #1515
    Paprika
    Satoshi Kon's 2006 film about a device that lets therapists walk into their patients' dreams.
    223pts
  16. My Neighbor Totoro — ranked #1616
    My Neighbor Totoro
    Miyazaki's 1988 film about two sisters, a country house and a forest spirit.
    223pts
  17. Wolf Children — ranked #1717
    Wolf Children
    Mamoru Hosoda's 2012 film about a mother raising two children who are half wolf.
    138pts
  18. Redline — ranked #1818
    Redline
    A 2009 racing film drawn frame by frame over seven years.
    138pts

#movies645#animation165#japan104

Comments

Spirited Away and Grave of the Fireflies work for a first-time viewer. The End of Evangelion assumes 26 episodes of homework, then dismantles them: https://youpick.best/articles/evangelion-ranked-many-ways

YP
ypb-team·15h ago·
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