Ranking Non-Ghibli Anime Movies List
by SerJaimeLannister | created - 04 Jan 2022 | updated - 5 months ago | PublicFilms attached to a series not included. So no Ghost in the Shell films or Cowboy Bebop Movie for instance.
Rewatching many of these, list changing.
Last Seen: Jin-Rou - 3/10, Tunnel to Summer - 7/10
To Rewatch:
Perfect Blue
I Want to Eat Your Pancreas
- Instant Watch Options
- Genres
- Movies or TV
- IMDb Rating
- In Theaters
- Release Year
- Keywords
1. Your Name. (2016)
PG | 106 min | Animation, Drama, Fantasy
Two teenagers share a profound, magical connection upon discovering they are swapping bodies. Things manage to become even more complicated when the boy and girl decide to meet in person.
Director: Makoto Shinkai | Stars: Ryunosuke Kamiki, Mone Kamishiraishi, Ryo Narita, Aoi Yûki
Votes: 320,985 | Gross: $5.02M
9/10, my favorite of these films. Never would think a body swap romance would get such praise but the story is simply fantastic.
2. 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: 70,921
9/10, Learning to time travel certainly has its dangers as Marty McFly proved. This film takes the concept and gives a new flavor to it, love it. Fun and emotional both.
3. Redline (2009)
Not Rated | 102 min | Animation, Action, Sci-Fi
A story about the most popular racing event in the galaxy, the Redline, and the various racers who compete in it.
Director: Takeshi Koike | Stars: Takuya Kimura, Yû Aoi, Tadanobu Asano, Yoshiyuki Morishita
Votes: 17,237
9/10, A badass racing film with great stylistic animation. Lots of fun to be had here with characters if on the simple side, the rule of cool applies and carries them.
4. I Want to Eat Your Pancreas (2018)
Not Rated | 109 min | Animation, Drama, Family
A high school student discovers one of his classmates, Sakura Yamauchi, is suffering from a terminal illness. This secret brings the two together, as she lives out her final moments.
Directors: Jun'ichi Fujise, Tomoyuki Itamura, Masaharu Tomoda, Shin'ichirô Ushijima, Daisuke Yoshida, Fumihiro Yoshimura | Stars: Mahiro Takasugi, Lynn, Yukiyo Fujii, Yuma Uchida
Votes: 24,324 | Gross: $0.28M
9/10, Well if you feel like a good cry this is one for you.
5. 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: Shôgo Furuya, Satoshi Kon | Stars: Tôru Emori, Yoshiaki Umegaki, Aya Okamoto, Shôzô Îzuka
Votes: 46,805 | Gross: $0.13M
9/10, This trio could have their own sitcom I think. Fun and heartwarming filled with happenstance (from Christmas magic I suppose), this film made me smile.
6. Josee, the Tiger and the Fish (2020)
99 min | Animation, Drama, Romance
After befriending a marine biology student, a sarcastic artist living with paraplegia begins to experience the world beyond her home.
Director: Kôtarô Tamura | Stars: Kaya Kiyohara, Taishi Nakagawa, Matsutera Chiemi, Kengo Kawanishi
Votes: 7,927
9.0/10, A sweet film that reminds me of A Silent Voice. If you like one, will like the other I believe.
7. A Silent Voice: The Movie (2016)
Not Rated | 130 min | Animation, Drama
A young man is ostracized by his classmates after he bullies a deaf girl to the point where she moves away. Years later, he sets off on a path for redemption.
Directors: Taichi Ishidate, Naoko Yamada | Stars: Miyu Irino, Saori Hayami, Aoi Yûki, Kenshô Ono
Votes: 101,512
8/10, A boy looking for redemption to the cruelty he did to a girl in his past. Getting that and well as forgiving himself is an emotional journey to watch.
8. Akira (1988)
R | 124 min | Animation, Action, Drama
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 a teenager, his gang of biker friends and a group of psychics.
Director: Katsuhiro Ôtomo | Stars: Mitsuo Iwata, Nozomu Sasaki, Mami Koyama, Tesshô Genda
Votes: 205,460 | Gross: $0.55M
8/10, I understand why this film has its place in anime history, its animation for the time certainly pleases the eye with the suspense and body transformations engaging. Don't really find the characters engaging though and the story is simple and leaves too much open ended to praise too high though. Solid if overrated imo.
9. Dead Leaves (2004)
Not Rated | 55 min | Animation, Action, Adventure
Two aliens awaken on Earth with no recollection of their past and embark on a devastating crime spree but are sent to an infamous lunar penitentiary named Dead Leaves.
Director: Hiroyuki Imaishi | Stars: Kappei Yamaguchi, Takako Honda, Yûko Mizutani, Mitsuo Iwata
Votes: 4,416
8/10, Hard to rank this precisely. It is a crazy watch, basically one long plotless action sequence and insane animation and characters. Not what can really be called a "good" film but was entertaining. Similar to FLCL and Gurren Laggen only more wild.
10. 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: 97,062 | Gross: $0.88M
8/10, Can see inspiration to Inception here certainly. Entering the dreams of someone certainly leads to some dangerous and zany moments.
11. 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: 18,317
8/10, some of the best looking animated sword fighting to be found here. Simple story of wandering samurai protecting a boy and dog from mysterious group but works.
12. The Boy and the Beast (2015)
PG-13 | 119 min | Animation, Action, Adventure
When a young orphaned boy living on the streets of Shibuya stumbles upon a fantastic world of beasts, he's taken in by a gruff warrior beast looking for an apprentice.
Director: Mamoru Hosoda | Stars: Koji Yakusho, Aoi Miyazaki, Shôta Sometani, Suzu Hirose
Votes: 26,952 | Gross: $0.45M
8/10, Found the time spent outside the beast world to be more interesting than inside, character of Kumatetsu was too loud and straightforward to really engage me like the human boy he adopted. So the teenage boy returning and catching up on his schoolwork interested me more than Beast swordmaster shenanigans. Climax at the end was fun to watch even if events leading up to it not so much.
13. Weathering with You (2019)
PG-13 | 112 min | Animation, Drama, Fantasy
Set during a period of exceptionally rainy weather, high-school boy Hodaka Morishima runs away from his troubled rural home to Tokyo and befriends an orphan girl who can manipulate the weather.
Director: Makoto Shinkai | Stars: Kotaro Daigo, Nana Mori, Tsubasa Honda, Sakura Kiryu
Votes: 55,750 | Gross: $7.80M
8/10, Not as strong as "Your Name" that came before this but still a beautiful watch with an interesting premise. Third act goes a bit too far with the drama but not enough to hurt the rating too much.
14. Perfect Blue (1997)
R | 81 min | Animation, Crime, Drama
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: 95,764 | Gross: $0.78M
8/10, To Rewatch
15. Appleseed (2004)
R | 101 min | Animation, Action, Adventure
In a utopian society created at the end of the third world war, a female warrior who has been plucked from the badlands begins to see cracks in this new facade. And what does this community have planned for the rest of humankind?
Director: Shinji Aramaki | Stars: Ai Kobayashi, Jûrôta Kosugi, Yuki Matsuoka, Mami Koyama
Votes: 18,546 | Gross: $0.13M
8.0/10, CGI might not be the best and the dialogue can be a bit cheesy but this was one of my first anime movies I watched in the mid 2000s and I guess nostalgia makes me keep this rated around a flat 8.
16. 5 Centimeters per Second (2007)
TV-PG | 63 min | Animation, Drama, Family
Told in three interconnected segments, Takaki tells the story of 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: 63,831
8/10, Well this certainly leaves me feeling dead emotionally. Getting stuck in the past can destroy opportunities in front of you and leave one unable to move forward.
17. Wolf Children (2012)
PG | 117 min | Animation, Drama, Family
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: 49,541
7/10, "Ma'am where is your son?". Suppose I shouldn't think this question, though I find this a big plot hole. Good film even with this problem.
18. The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes (2022)
TV-14 | 85 min | Animation, Drama, Fantasy
In a sleepy country town, a traumatized boy and a transfer student from Tokyo stumble upon a time-bending tunnel that may grant them their every wish.
Director: Tomohisa Taguchi | Stars: Oji Suzuka, Marie Iitoyo, Tasuku Hatanaka, Arisa Komiya
Votes: 2,179
7/10, I found the movie to be beautiful to look at, had a good soundtrack and had a great concept that I feel was fumbled in making the film so short. There wasn't enough time to get me to care about this couple. I also find it doubtful that a grown woman would still be so attached to a month long teenage romance but it being fiction I can give this more of a pass.
This film could have been a masterpiece if it was longer to give more time to these characters but as it is the film is merely "good".
19. Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (2000)
R | 103 min | Animation, Action, Drama
A legendary dhampir competes with a motley family of bounty hunters to return a young woman, who has been seemingly abducted by a vampire, to her family.
Director: Yoshiaki Kawajiri | Stars: Andrew Philpot, John Rafter Lee, Pamela Adlon, Wendee Lee
Votes: 35,848 | Gross: $0.15M
7/10, Wish Leila was more useful in the film but I suppose she was mainly there to learn a lesson and give up hunting vampires and make a life of her own. Still didn't like her needing to be saved by D though, be nice to of been able to accomplish more in her final "mission".
The characters down to "D" himself weren't anything special though the fights were entertaining enough. Even if it felt like Character A battling Character B. Only basic information given on the world this takes place in but was enough to get invested in. Mid 7 score I think fits. Good if nothing special.
20. 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: Ryunosuke Kamiki, Nanami Sakuraba, Mitsuki Tanimura, Takahiro Yokokawa
Votes: 31,806 | Gross: $0.08M
7/10, Think I'll have to drop from 8 to 7, the characters really aren't strong enough to care about and beating a villain in a card game doesn't really have the oomph from when I first watched. Decent watch but not an "8" decent.
21. Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms (2018)
Not Rated | 115 min | Animation, Adventure, Drama
Escaping war, an immortal girl blessed with Eternal Youth finds a lone surviving infant and decides to raise him as her son.
Directors: Masakazu Hashimoto, Jong Heo, Tadashi Hiramatsu, Tatsuyuki Nagai, Mari Okada, Toshiya Shinohara | Stars: Manaka Iwami, Miyu Irino, Yôko Hikasa, Hiroaki Hirata
Votes: 8,417
7/10, Can't help but feel the film tries too hard to get the tears going, can predict when swelling music is going to appear. Decent story though I felt a hard time caring about anything outside the main duo and even with them there wasn't the needed emotional connection to cry when the movie wanted me to. Decent, not great.
22. Mirai (2018)
PG | 98 min | Animation, Adventure, Drama
A young boy encounters a magical garden which enables him to travel through time and meet his relatives from different eras, with guidance by his younger sister from the future.
Director: Mamoru Hosoda | Stars: Rebecca Hall, Daniel Dae Kim, Koji Yakusho, John Cho
Votes: 18,117 | Gross: $0.81M
7.0/10, Can give a flat 7 I think. Cute little movie, seems to be something that would be more attractive to young parents or pre teens or so with little siblings to relate more. Still, brings a smile regardless.
23. Pengin haiwei (2018)
Not Rated | 117 min | Animation, Adventure, Family
A fourth-grader, Aoyama-kun, investigates the mysterious reason behind the sudden appearance of penguins in his village, which is somehow related to a power from a young woman working at a dental clinic.
Director: Hiroyasu Ishida | Stars: Kana Kita, Yû Aoi, Rie Kugimiya, Megumi Han
Votes: 3,844
6/10, Felt more for kids with the poor simplistic dialogue and fantastic elements that aren't ever really explained, just throwing water and penguins and mystery around to really wow younger viewers. For me was a passable watch in a lighthearted wistful way.
24. The Garden of Words (2013)
TV-14 | 46 min | Animation, Drama, Romance
On a rainy morning in Tokyo, 15-year-old Takao, an aspiring shoemaker, decides to skip class to sketch designs in a beautiful garden. This is where he meets Yukari, a beautiful yet mysterious woman. They strike an unlikely friendship.
Director: Makoto Shinkai | Stars: Miyu Irino, Kana Hanazawa, Fumi Hirano, Gou Maeda
Votes: 52,665
6/10, Could have been something great I think but got muffled in the script somewhere and didn't do what was trying to. Swing and miss.
25. 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.
Directors: Satoshi Kon, Kô Matsuo | Stars: Miyoko Shôji, Shôzô Îzuka, Mami Koyama, Fumiko Orikasa
Votes: 32,108 | Gross: $0.19M
6/10, Interconnecting the various film roles the actress had with her search for her "lost love" was an interesting tactic but my main issue was that this guy was someone she met for a short time and kept obsessing over for decades, was pitiful and unrealistic.
26. Suzume (2022)
PG | 122 min | Animation, Action, Adventure
A modern action adventure road story where a 17-year-old girl named Suzume helps a mysterious young man close doors from the other side that are releasing disasters all over in Japan.
Director: Makoto Shinkai | Stars: Nanoka Hara, Hokuto Matsumura, Eri Fukatsu, Shôta Sometani
Votes: 39,629
6/10, Just to start off the animation of this film is truly spectacular. The best part of it for sure. The landscapes and the action sequences were entertaining (some of the action anyway). Makes sense from same director as Your Name and Weathering With You. Past that though I was quite let down. I found Suzume herself to be quite a brat whenever she receives pushback from her aunt but is supposed to be sympathetic given her backstory but it simply didn't fly with me. Her relationship with her adult co-star (22, 23?) was also more creepy to me than anything that would make me smile. Felt very shallow as well. The guy himself turns into a chair at the beginning as well and I felt the rest of the film involving him moving around as a childrens chair to be more stupid than funny.
There is complete trickery as well with one of the characters to make you think one thing about them than to throw down a reverse uno card and say "sucker!" Not a twist to mislead your audience like that, I simply felt nothing when the "twist" came regarding them. Other characters simply felt superfluous. The antagonistic force Suzume and Chair-Kun are up against also felt quite unclear to me, the rules seems wishy-washy. Movie was a miss for me.
27. Mary and the Witch's Flower (2017)
PG | 103 min | Animation, Adventure, Family
Based on "The Little Broomstick" by Mary Stewart, a strange flower grants a girl magic powers.
Director: Hiromasa Yonebayashi | Stars: Hana Sugisaki, Ryunosuke Kamiki, Yûki Amami, Fumiyo Kohinata
Votes: 16,248 | Gross: $2.42M
6/10, Alright story that doesn't really land with me.
28. Ninja Scroll (1993)
Not Rated | 94 min | Animation, Action, Adventure
A vagabond swordsman is aided by a kunoichi and a spy in battling a demonic clan of killers - led by a ghost from his past - who are bent on overthrowing the Tokugawa Shogunate.
Director: Yoshiaki Kawajiri | Stars: Kôichi Yamadera, Emi Shinohara, Takeshi Aono, Osamu Saka
Votes: 40,755
6/10, rewatched this after 15 yrs or so and it was a letdown. Film expected the violence to carry it I suppose and it doesn't. Plot almost nonexistant, bad ninja want to overthrow the government, a few ninja try to stop him. Nothing is worth remembering, the blood is the brightest color and plenty of sexual violence that was most unappealing. The character Kagero was the only one with any kind of personality at all and it was mostly spent weeping. A female ninja who helps a couple of times but spends most of the film getting captured. Released in '93 but is an 80s film really, the violence and big muscled men looking "cool" dominating. Meh.
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: 84,097 | Gross: $32.13M
6/10, How much money did this cost? Something that looked so good (for the time) but was so forgettable in story and characters? Such a disappointment.
30. Liz and the Blue Bird (2018)
90 min | Animation, Drama, Fantasy
Best friends in their last year of high school realise there is no such thing as being together forever.
Directors: Tatsuya Ishihara, Yasuhiro Takemoto, Naoko Yamada | Stars: Atsumi Tanezaki, Nao Tôyama, Miyu Honda, Konomi Fujimura
Votes: 2,266
6/10, Won't bother with films below here, boring would be easiest way to describe most. Bad enough from here on down to not bother ever rewatching and adding any comments.
31. Appleseed: Ex Machina (2007)
PG-13 | 105 min | Animation, Action, Adventure
With Brialeos convalescing after a mission, Deunan is assigned a new and remarkably familiar partner as a strange wave of terrorist attacks plague Olympus.
Director: Shinji Aramaki | Stars: Ai Kobayashi, Kôichi Yamadera, Yûji Kishi, Kong Kuwata
Votes: 9,841
6/10
32. The Murder Case of Hana & Alice (2015)
100 min | Animation, Comedy, Drama
Alice transfers to a new school, where students believe that one student per school year is cursed, whom they call Judas Iscariot. Alice is deemed the new Judas, but what happened to the former Judas?
Director: Shunji Iwai | Stars: Yû Aoi, Anne Suzuki, Shôko Aida, Sei Hiraizumi
Votes: 2,326
5/10
33. In This Corner (and Other Corners) of the World (2016)
PG-13 | 129 min | Animation, Drama, Family
A spirited 18-year-old woman is married off to a man she barely knows as she combats the daily struggles of living in Hiroshima during World War II.
Director: Sunao Katabuchi | Stars: Non, Ava Pickard, Kenna Pickard, Karen Strassman
Votes: 12,464 | Gross: $0.17M
5/10
34. Belladonna of Sadness (1973)
Unrated | 86 min | Animation, Drama, Fantasy
After being raped by an evil feudal lord and subsequently getting banished from her village, a peasant girl makes a pact with the Devil to gain magical powers and take her revenge.
Director: Eiichi Yamamoto | Stars: Aiko Nagayama, Chinatsu Nakayama, Masaya Takahashi, Masakane Yonekura
Votes: 7,778 | Gross: $0.11M
5/10
35. 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 Ito, Shôtarô Morikubo, Maaya Sakamoto
Votes: 58,232
4/10
36. Angel's Egg (1985 Video)
Not Rated | 71 min | Animation, Drama, Fantasy
A mysterious young girl wanders a desolate, otherworldly landscape, carrying a large egg.
Director: Mamoru Oshii | Stars: Mako Hyôdô, Jinpachi Nezu, Keiichi Noda
Votes: 12,025
4/10, Boring film for those who like arthouse and who sniff their own farts
37. Promare (2019)
PG-13 | 111 min | Animation, Action, Adventure
A futuristic firefighting mecha service is created to protect the world.
Director: Hiroyuki Imaishi | Stars: John Eric Bentley, Steve Blum, Johnny Yong Bosch, Melissa Fahn
Votes: 5,212
3/10
38. Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade (1999)
R | 102 min | Animation, Action, Drama
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.
Directors: Kenji Kamiyama, Hiroyuki Okiura | Stars: Michael Dobson, Yoshikazu Fujiki, Sumi Mutoh, Moneca Stori
Votes: 18,778 | Gross: $0.09M
3/10, Clearly wants to be deep but feels so superficial and stupid. Dumb twists and dumb people in a "dark" plot. Stupid Red Riding Hood references. Inconstant MC who has PTSD symptoms until... he doesn't. Now he's cold blooded. Whatever.
39. The Island of Giant Insects (2020)
TV-MA | 80 min | Animation, Adventure, Horror
Students from Hosho Academy High School were aboard a plane when it crash lands under mysterious circumstances. The heroine, Oribe Mutsumi and her classmates wash ashore on an island. The ... See full summary »
Directors: Takeo Takahashi, Naoyuki Tatsuwa | Stars: Mao Ichimichi, Rika Tachibana, Momo Asakura, Misato Fukuen
Votes: 311
2/10, worst I've seen
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