Top 50 Japanese Animation or Manga Movies - Collectors Choice
by gtlondon-393-686222 | created - 12 Aug 2012 | updated - 18 Jun 2019 | PublicThis is my list of the best Japanese animation (MANGA) movie collection (not serials) and this is so far all the movies I could find... The list is not entirely in order and certainly not complete. Please let me know if I missed any good movies...
- Instant Watch Options
- Genres
- Movies or TV
- IMDb Rating
- In Theaters
- On TV
- Release Year
- Keywords
1. Spirited Away (2001)
PG | 125 min | Animation, Adventure, Family
During her family's move to the suburbs, a sullen 10-year-old girl wanders into a world ruled by gods, witches, and spirits, and where humans are changed into beasts.
Director: Hayao Miyazaki | Stars: Daveigh Chase, Suzanne Pleshette, Miyu Irino, Rumi Hiiragi
Votes: 649,957 | Gross: $10.06M
2. Akira (1988)
R | 124 min | Animation, Action, Sci-Fi
A secret military project endangers Neo-Tokyo when it turns a biker gang member into a rampaging psychic psychopath who can only be stopped by two teenagers and a group of psychics.
Director: Katsuhiro Ôtomo | Stars: Mitsuo Iwata, Nozomu Sasaki, Mami Koyama, Tesshô Genda
Votes: 164,658 | Gross: $0.55M
3. Howl's Moving Castle (2004)
PG | 119 min | Animation, Adventure, Family
When an unconfident young woman is cursed with an old body by a spiteful witch, her only chance of breaking the spell lies with a self-indulgent yet insecure young wizard and his companions in his legged, walking castle.
Director: Hayao Miyazaki | Stars: Chieko Baishô, Takuya Kimura, Tatsuya Gashûin, Akihiro Miwa
Votes: 333,144 | Gross: $4.71M
4. Your Name. (2016)
PG | 106 min | Animation, Drama, Fantasy
Two strangers find themselves linked in a bizarre way. When a connection forms, will distance be the only thing to keep them apart?
Director: Makoto Shinkai | Stars: Ryûnosuke Kamiki, Mone Kamishiraishi, Ryô Narita, Aoi Yûki
Votes: 193,922 | Gross: $5.02M
5. Princess Mononoke (1997)
PG-13 | 134 min | Animation, Action, Adventure
On a journey to find the cure for a Tatarigami's curse, Ashitaka finds himself in the middle of a war between the forest gods and Tatara, a mining colony. In this quest he also meets San, the Mononoke Hime.
Director: Hayao Miyazaki | Stars: Yôji Matsuda, Yuriko Ishida, Yûko Tanaka, Billy Crudup
Votes: 342,532 | Gross: $2.38M
6. Porco Rosso (1992)
PG | 94 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
In 1930s Italy, a veteran World War I pilot is cursed to look like an anthropomorphic pig.
Director: Hayao Miyazaki | Stars: Shûichirô Moriyama, Tokiko Katô, Bunshi Katsura Vi, Tsunehiko Kamijô
Votes: 77,612
7. Pom Poko (1994)
PG | 119 min | Animation, Comedy, Drama
A community of magical shape-shifting raccoon dogs struggle to prevent their forest home from being destroyed by urban development.
Director: Isao Takahata | Stars: Shinchô Kokontei, Makoto Nonomura, Yuriko Ishida, Norihei Miki
Votes: 25,269
8. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006)
TV-PG | 98 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
A high-school girl named Makoto acquires the power to travel back in time, and decides to use it for her own personal benefits. Little does she know that she is affecting the lives of others just as much as she is her own.
Director: Mamoru Hosoda | Stars: Riisa Naka, Takuya Ishida, Mitsutaka Itakura, Ayami Kakiuchi
Votes: 60,285
9. Tokyo Godfathers (2003)
PG-13 | 92 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
On Christmas Eve, three homeless people living on the streets of Tokyo discover a newborn baby among the trash and set out to find its parents.
Directors: Satoshi Kon, Shôgo Furuya | Stars: Tôru Emori, Yoshiaki Umegaki, Aya Okamoto, Shôzô Îzuka
Votes: 31,582 | Gross: $0.13M
10. My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
G | 86 min | Animation, Family, Fantasy
When two girls move to the country to be near their ailing mother, they have adventures with the wondrous forest spirits who live nearby.
Director: Hayao Miyazaki | Stars: Hitoshi Takagi, Noriko Hidaka, Chika Sakamoto, Shigesato Itoi
Votes: 290,459 | Gross: $1.11M
11. Paprika (2006)
R | 90 min | Animation, Drama, Fantasy
When a machine that allows therapists to enter their patients' dreams is stolen, all Hell breaks loose. Only a young female therapist, Paprika, can stop it.
Director: Satoshi Kon | Stars: Megumi Hayashibara, Tôru Emori, Katsunosuke Hori, Tôru Furuya
Votes: 71,211 | Gross: $0.88M
12. Ponyo (2008)
G | 101 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
A five-year-old boy develops a relationship with Ponyo, a young goldfish princess who longs to become a human after falling in love with him.
Director: Hayao Miyazaki | Stars: Cate Blanchett, Matt Damon, Liam Neeson, Tomoko Yamaguchi
Votes: 125,018 | Gross: $15.09M
13. Castle in the Sky (1986)
PG | 125 min | Animation, Adventure, Drama
A young boy and a girl with a magic crystal must race against pirates and foreign agents in a search for a legendary floating castle.
Director: Hayao Miyazaki | Stars: Mayumi Tanaka, Keiko Yokozawa, Kotoe Hatsui, Minori Terada
Votes: 149,908
14. Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
Not Rated | 89 min | Animation, Drama, War
A young boy and his little sister struggle to survive in Japan during World War II.
Director: Isao Takahata | Stars: Tsutomu Tatsumi, Ayano Shiraishi, Akemi Yamaguchi, Yoshiko Shinohara
Votes: 234,719
15. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
PG | 117 min | Animation, Adventure, Fantasy
Warrior and pacifist Princess Nausicaä desperately struggles to prevent two warring nations from destroying themselves and their dying planet.
Director: Hayao Miyazaki | Stars: Sumi Shimamoto, Mahito Tsujimura, Hisako Kyôda, Gorô Naya
Votes: 150,629 | Gross: $0.50M
16. Kiki's Delivery Service (1989)
G | 103 min | Animation, Adventure, Drama
A young witch, on her mandatory year of independent life, finds fitting into a new community difficult while she supports herself by running an air courier service.
Director: Hayao Miyazaki | Stars: Kirsten Dunst, Minami Takayama, Rei Sakuma, Kappei Yamaguchi
Votes: 123,843
17. The Cat Returns (2002)
G | 75 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
After helping a cat, a seventeen-year-old girl finds herself involuntarily engaged to a cat Prince in a magical world where her only hope of freedom lies with a dapper cat statuette come to life.
Director: Hiroyuki Morita | Stars: Chizuru Ikewaki, Yoshihiko Hakamada, Aki Maeda, Takayuki Yamada
Votes: 48,987
18. Ninja Scroll (1993)
Not Rated | 94 min | Animation, Action, Adventure
A vagabond swordsman is aided by a beautiful ninja girl and a crafty spy in confronting a demonic clan of killers - with a ghost from his past as their leader - who are bent on overthrowing the Tokugawa Shogunate.
Director: Yoshiaki Kawajiri | Stars: Kôichi Yamadera, Emi Shinohara, Takeshi Aono, Osamu Saka
Votes: 34,494
19. Perfect Blue (1997)
R | 81 min | Animation, Crime, Mystery
A pop singer gives up her career to become an actress, but she slowly goes insane when she starts being stalked by an obsessed fan and what seems to be a ghost of her past.
Director: Satoshi Kon | Stars: Junko Iwao, Rica Matsumoto, Shinpachi Tsuji, Masaaki Ôkura
Votes: 57,990 | Gross: $0.78M
20. Blood: The Last Vampire (2000)
Not Rated | 48 min | Animation, Action, Horror
Saya is a Japanese vampire slayer whose next mission is in a high school on a US military base in 1960s Japan, where she poses as a student. She uses a katana/samurai sword to kill vampires.
Director: Hiroyuki Kitakubo | Stars: Yûki Kudô, Saemi Nakamura, Joe Romersa, Rebecca Forstadt
Votes: 11,944
21. Sword of the Stranger (2007)
Not Rated | 103 min | Animation, Action, Adventure
A swordsman from a strange land is caught in a struggle between morality, righteousness, and devotion as he reluctantly agrees to take a raggedy boy and his dog to a remote, Buddhist temple.
Director: Masahiro Andô | Stars: Tomoya Nagase, Yuri Chinen, Kôichi Yamadera, Akio Ôtsuka
Votes: 14,959
22. The Animatrix (2003 Video)
Unrated | 100 min | Animation, Action, Adventure
A collection of nine short films featuring stories related to The Matrix (1999).
Directors: Peter Chung, Andrew R. Jones, Yoshiaki Kawajiri, Takeshi Koike, Mahiro Maeda, Kôji Morimoto, Shin'ichirô Watanabe | Stars: Kevin Michael Richardson, Pamela Adlon, John DiMaggio, Tom Kenny
Votes: 71,234
23. Whisper of the Heart (1995)
G | 111 min | Animation, Drama, Family
A love story between a girl who loves reading books, and a boy who has previously checked out all of the library books she chooses.
Director: Yoshifumi Kondô | Stars: Yoko Honna, Issey Takahashi, Takashi Tachibana, Shigeru Muroi
Votes: 51,768
24. A Chinese Ghost Story: The Tsui Hark Animation (1997)
84 min | Animation
A young man falls in love with a ghost and must avoid a variety of ghostbusters out to eliminate her and each other.
Director: Andrew Chan | Stars: Don Brown, Jordan Chan, Sylvia Chang, Kelly Chen
Votes: 737
25. Ghost in the Shell (1995)
TV-MA | 83 min | Animation, Action, Crime
A cyborg policewoman and her partner hunt a mysterious and powerful hacker called the Puppet Master.
Director: Mamoru Oshii | Stars: Atsuko Tanaka, Iemasa Kayumi, Akio Ôtsuka, Kôichi Yamadera
Votes: 129,037 | Gross: $0.52M
26. Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (2004)
PG-13 | 100 min | Animation, Action, Drama
In the year 2032, Batô, a cyborg detective for the anti-terrorist unit Public Security Section 9, investigates the case of a female robot--one created solely for sexual pleasure--who slaughtered her owner.
Director: Mamoru Oshii | Stars: Akio Ôtsuka, Atsuko Tanaka, Tamio Ôki, Kôichi Yamadera
Votes: 36,197 | Gross: $1.04M
27. Battle Angel (1993 Video)
Not Rated | 54 min | Animation, Action, Crime
In a distant future, a the young cyborg Gally is found on a scrapheap by the Cyberdoctor Daisuke Ido, who rebuilds her and becomes her surrogate father.
Director: Hiroshi Fukutomi | Stars: Miki Itô, Shunsuke Kariya, Kappei Yamaguchi, Edward Glen
Votes: 4,802
28. Tales from Earthsea (2006)
PG-13 | 115 min | Animation, Adventure, Fantasy
In a mythical land, a man and a young boy investigate a series of unusual occurrences.
Director: Gorô Miyazaki | Stars: Timothy Dalton, Willem Dafoe, Mariska Hargitay, Jun'ichi Okada
Votes: 35,355 | Gross: $0.05M
29. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)
PG-13 | 106 min | Animation, Action, Adventure
A scientist makes a last stand on Earth with the help of a ragtag team of soldiers against an invasion of alien phantoms.
Directors: Hironobu Sakaguchi, Motonori Sakakibara | Stars: Alec Baldwin, Steve Buscemi, Ming-Na Wen, Ving Rhames
Votes: 79,898 | Gross: $32.13M
30. Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (2005)
PG-13 | 101 min | Animation, Action, Adventure
An ex-mercenary is forced out of isolation when three mysterious men kidnap and brainwash the city's children afflicted with the Geostigma disease.
Directors: Tetsuya Nomura, Takeshi Nozue | Stars: Takahiro Sakurai, Ayumi Itô, Shôtarô Morikubo, Maaya Sakamoto
Votes: 54,941
31. Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade (1999)
R | 102 min | Animation, Drama, Fantasy
A traumatized member of an elite para-military police force falls for the sister of a female terrorist courier who died in front of him on duty.
Director: Hiroyuki Okiura | Stars: Michael Dobson, Yoshikazu Fujiki, Sumi Mutoh, Moneca Stori
Votes: 15,175 | Gross: $0.09M
32. Millennium Actress (2001)
PG | 87 min | Animation, Drama, Fantasy
A TV interviewer and his cameraman meet a former actress and travel through her memories and career.
Director: Satoshi Kon | Stars: Miyoko Shôji, Shôzô Îzuka, Mami Koyama, Fumiko Orikasa
Votes: 23,389 | Gross: $0.19M
33. Wolf Children (2012)
PG | 117 min | Animation, Drama, Fantasy
After her werewolf lover unexpectedly dies in an accident while hunting for food for their children, a young woman must find ways to raise the werewolf son and daughter that she had with him while keeping their trait hidden from society.
Director: Mamoru Hosoda | Stars: Aoi Miyazaki, Takao Osawa, Haru Kuroki, Yukito Nishii
Votes: 38,710
34. Memories (1995)
PG-13 | 113 min | Animation, Comedy, Fantasy
"Memories" is made up of three separate science-fiction stories. In the first, "Magnetic Rose," four space travelers are drawn into an abandoned spaceship that contains a world created by ... See full summary »
Directors: Kôji Morimoto, Tensai Okamura, Katsuhiro Ôtomo | Stars: Shigeru Chiba, Robbie Daymond, Hisao Egawa, Stephen Fu
Votes: 15,721
35. Steamboy (2004)
PG-13 | 126 min | Animation, Action, Adventure
In 1860s Britain, a boy inventor finds himself caught in the middle of a deadly conflict over a revolutionary advance in steam power.
Director: Katsuhiro Ôtomo | Stars: Anna Paquin, Patrick Stewart, Alfred Molina, Anne Suzuki
Votes: 16,687 | Gross: $0.41M
36. Tekkonkinkreet (2006)
R | 111 min | Animation, Action, Adventure
2 boys defend Treasure Town. Yakuza try to take over and clear it for new development.
Director: Michael Arias | Stars: Kazunari Ninomiya, Yû Aoi, Yûsuke Iseya, Kankurô Kudô
Votes: 12,610
37. Vexille (2007)
PG-13 | 109 min | Animation, Action, Sci-Fi
Japan, 2077: A female agent named Vexille is dispatched to Tokyo to investigate whether Japanese are developing robotic technology, which has been banned by the U.N. due to its potential threat to humankind.
Director: Fumihiko Sori | Stars: Meisa Kuroki, Shôsuke Tanihara, Yasuko Matsuyuki, Akio Ôtsuka
Votes: 7,413
38. The Secret World of Arrietty (2010)
G | 94 min | Animation, Adventure, Family
The Clock family are four-inch-tall people who live anonymously in another family's residence, borrowing simple items to make their home. Life changes for the Clocks when their teenage daughter, Arrietty, is discovered.
Director: Hiromasa Yonebayashi | Stars: Amy Poehler, Mirai Shida, Ryûnosuke Kamiki, Tatsuya Fujiwara
Votes: 80,767 | Gross: $19.20M
39. Summer Wars (2009)
PG | 114 min | Animation, Action, Adventure
A student 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.
Director: Mamoru Hosoda | Stars: Ryûnosuke Kamiki, Nanami Sakuraba, Mitsuki Tanimura, Takahiro Yokokawa
Votes: 26,174 | Gross: $0.08M
40. 5 Centimeters Per Second (2007)
TV-PG | 63 min | Animation, Drama, Family
Told in three interconnected segments, we follow a young man named Takaki through his life as cruel winters, cold technology, and finally, adult obligations and responsibility converge to test the delicate petals of love.
Director: Makoto Shinkai | Stars: Kenji Mizuhashi, Yoshimi Kondou, Satomi Hanamura, Ayaka Onoue
Votes: 51,071
41. Lupin the 3rd: Castle of Cagliostro (1979)
PG-13 | 102 min | Animation, Adventure, Family
A dashing thief, his gang of desperadoes and an intrepid policeman struggle to free a princess from an evil count's clutches, and learn the hidden secret to a fabulous treasure that she holds part of a key to.
Director: Hayao Miyazaki | Stars: Yasuo Yamada, Eiko Masuyama, Kiyoshi Kobayashi, Makio Inoue
Votes: 26,944
42. My Neighbors the Yamadas (1999)
PG | 104 min | Animation, Comedy, Family
The life and misadventures of a family in contemporary Japan.
Director: Isao Takahata | Stars: Yukiji Asaoka, Tôru Masuoka, Masako Araki, Hayato Isohata
Votes: 11,988
43. Only Yesterday (1991)
PG | 118 min | Animation, Drama, Romance
A twenty-seven-year-old office worker travels to the countryside while reminiscing about her childhood in Tokyo.
Director: Isao Takahata | Stars: Miki Imai, Toshirô Yanagiba, Yoko Honna, Mayumi Izuka
Votes: 26,984 | Gross: $0.45M
44. Metropolis (2001)
PG-13 | 108 min | Animation, Adventure, Drama
Kenichi and his uncle Shunsaku Ban must find the mystery behind robot girl Tima.
Director: Rintaro | Stars: Toshio Furukawa, Scott Weinger, Yuka Imoto, Kei Kobayashi
Votes: 20,169 | Gross: $0.64M
45. Wicked City (1987)
Not Rated | 82 min | Animation, Action, Fantasy
Two agents, a male human and a female demon, attempt to protect a signatory to a peace treaty ceremony between the human world and the demon world from radicalized demons.
Director: Yoshiaki Kawajiri | Stars: Yûsaku Yara, Toshiko Fujita, Ichirô Nagai, Takeshi Aono
Votes: 6,447
46. Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (2001)
115 min | Animation, Action, Crime