The 10 Best Anime Movies of All Time, Ranked
Two hours, no commitment, and some of the most beautiful and heartbreaking work the medium has ever produced.
An anime film is the easiest way into the medium: no seasons to catch up on, no filler, just one complete story told with the biggest budget the studio could find. It is also where anime has done its most ambitious work.
These ten are the films that critics, fans and box offices keep coming back to, ranked by how hard they still land.
1. Spirited Away (2001)
2001 · Film · Studio Ghibli
The film that made the whole world take anime seriously.
Chihiro is a sulky, frightened kid, and by the end of a single night in the spirit world she is someone else entirely. Miyazaki fills the bathhouse with gods, radish spirits and a lonely masked creature who just wants to be noticed.
It won the Oscar, it became the highest grossing film in Japan for nearly two decades, and it still feels like a dream you are lucky to have had.
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2. Akira (1988)
1988 · Film · TMS Entertainment
The film that opened the door for anime in the West, and still kicks it down.
Kaneda's red bike sliding to a stop, Tetsuo's arm becoming something monstrous, a stadium full of psychic children: Akira is a string of images that have been copied for nearly forty years.
Under the spectacle it is a story about friends, envy and a government that cannot control what it made. It is loud, furious and still ahead of its time.
3. Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
1988 · Film · Studio Ghibli
The most powerful anti-war film ever animated.
Isao Takahata follows two children in the last months of the war and never looks away. There are no battles, only hunger, pride, and a little girl who keeps finding joy in small things.
It was released on a double bill with My Neighbor Totoro, which tells you something about the range of the studio. Prepare yourself before you press play.
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4. Your Name (2016)
2016 · Film · CoMix Wave Films
A body-swap comedy that turns into the most romantic disaster film ever made.
Makoto Shinkai gives a boy in Tokyo and a girl in a mountain town a connection neither can explain, then pulls it away from them. The comet over Itomori is one of the most beautiful shots in animation.
It became one of the highest grossing anime films ever, and on rewatch the clues are everywhere.
5. Princess Mononoke (1997)
1997 · Film · Studio Ghibli
Gods, wolves and iron, in a war where everyone is a little right.
Ashitaka's journey west takes him into the middle of a war between Irontown and the ancient forest. San, raised by wolves, hates humanity. Lady Eboshi, who frees lepers and sold women, wants the forest gone.
It is Miyazaki at his most ferocious, with a score by Joe Hisaishi that sounds like the whole forest breathing.
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6. Perfect Blue (1997)
1997 · Film · Madhouse
Satoshi Kon's debut, and still one of the most unnerving films in any medium.
Mima trades pop stardom for acting, and as her new role gets darker, someone begins living her old life for her. Kon cuts from reality to dream to set so smoothly you stop trusting your own eyes.
It feels more relevant every year, a story about fame, obsession and the internet, made before most people were online.
7. Ghost in the Shell (1995)
1995 · Film · Production I.G
A cyborg, a hacker and a question about the soul that cinema has not stopped asking.
Mamoru Oshii's film follows Major Kusanagi through a city of canals and neon, chasing a criminal who turns out to be something new. The action is sharp, but the quiet scenes are the reason it lasts.
Its influence on sci-fi cinema is huge, and Kenji Kawai's choral theme is one of the great opening themes in film.
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8. A Silent Voice (2016)
2016 · Film · Kyoto Animation
A former bully tries to make things right with the deaf girl he tormented.
Shoya bullied Shoko in primary school until it cost her a transfer and cost him every friend he had. Years later, alone and ready to give up, he goes looking for her to apologise.
Naoko Yamada's film is about guilt, loneliness and learning to look people in the eye. It is gentle, painful and one of the most humane anime ever made.
9. The First Slam Dunk (2022)
2022 · Film · Toei Animation
One basketball game, a lifetime of grief, and the best sports film anime has made.
Creator Takehiko Inoue directed this himself, retelling Shohoku's biggest match through the eyes of point guard Ryota Miyagi and the brother he lost.
The game is animated with such weight that the final seconds are almost unbearable. You do not need to know Slam Dunk to love it.
10. Demon Slayer: Mugen Train (2020)
2020 · Film · ufotable
A demon on a train, a dream you never want to leave, and the Flame Hashira.
Tanjiro, Nezuko, Zenitsu and Inosuke join Rengoku on a train where passengers keep vanishing. The demon traps them in their happiest dreams, and Tanjiro has to choose to wake up.
It became the highest grossing film in Japanese history, and Rengoku's final fight is the reason fans still cry about him.
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For a first anime film, Spirited Away or Your Name. For a film night that will start an argument, Perfect Blue or Ghost in the Shell. For something you will think about for years, Grave of the Fireflies, but not on a night you need cheering up.
How we ranked: drawn from the anime films that appear most often across critic scores and the major fan rankings, then ordered by Anime Crush on how well each one plays for someone pressing play today.