Many of the biggest anime phenomena are the ongoing series that have accrued hundreds, or even thousands, of episodes over the years. That said, anime feature films have the potential to hit even greater heights due to factors like bigger budgets and their compulsion to tell standalone stories.
Particular anime movies like Akira, Spirited Away, or even more recent fare like Promare have become evergreen classics that showcase what this medium can accomplish. However, there are many impressive anime movies that slip through the cracks and haven’t achieved the same notoriety, despite the level of excellence behind them.
Updated on May 8th, 2023 by Casey Coates: This list has been updated to include trailers and to reflect CBR’s current publishing style.
10 Belladonna Of Sadness
Release Date: June 30, 1973
Eiichi Yamamoto’s Belladonna of Sadness is 50 years old and yet modern anime movies struggle to replicate the mesmermizing visuals that are on display in this tragic experimental film. Belladonna of Sadness draws inspiration from the French text, Satanism and Witchcraft, and it tells a supernatural morality tale as Jeanne engages in a Faustian bargain with the Devil after her innocence is stolen.
This raw story is told through psychedelic and surreal visuals that make the movie a polarizing vehicle. Belladonna’s commercial failure even forced Mushi Production to declare bankruptcy. Belladonna of Sadness has become a cult classic over the past decade, but it’s still a widely unknown anime feature.
9 Dead Leaves
Release Date: January 17, 2004
Dead Leaves is an anime film that clocks in at just under an hour, but it moves at such a relentless pace that it still feels like it fits 90 minutes of movie into this tight package. Directed by Hiroyuki Imaishi of Studio TRIGGER and its famed works, Dead Leaves centers around one of the weirdest space prisons in the galaxy.
Pandy and Retro are two larger than life outlaws who spend the bulk of the movie orchestrating a grandiose prison break. This escape keeps Retro and Pandy busy, but the final act is full of strange surprises that add depth to this odd narrative.
8 Colorful
Release Date: August 21, 2010
Colorful, based on Eto Mori’s novel of the same name, presents a tragic story about loss, anxiety, and the malaise of life that feels like the depressing anime version of a Pixar film. Colorful begins with a lost soul who’s placed in the body of a young suicidal teenager, Makoto Kobayashi, and given six months to figure out his greatest sin in his past life, as well as what troubles his temporary human vessel.
Colorful features some beautiful impressionistic fantasy sequences that are powerfully juxtaposed against Makoto’s troubled existence. Colorful confidently highlights children’s pressures as they prepare for adulthood, which has perhaps kept Colorful from connecting with a larger audience.
7 Spriggan
Release Date: September 5, 1998
Spriggan is a unique action and science fiction series with Biblical undertones where shady secret organizations feud over the control of mysterious artifacts. Spriggan recently became a six-episode Netflix anime in 2022 that was able to properly adapt more of its source material manga’s story, but there’s also a 1998 feature film that’s one of the highlights of the decade.
Co-written by Katsuhiro Otomo, Spriggan presents a cyberpunk dystopia that doesn’t feel that far removed from Akira’s apocalyptic landscape. Spriggan goes for broke in its conclusion, but it’s still become a rarer anime relic.
6 Steamboy
Release Date: July 17, 2004
Steamboy is Katsuhiro Otomo’s feature film directorial follow-up to Akira and a labor of love that took more than a decade to bring to life. Otomo’s level of precision is a rarity in modern anime movies and the amount of work that’s present in this playful steampunk adventure makes it crushing that it’s not a universal hit and mostly discussed in die hard animation crowds.
Steamboy takes place in an alternate version of 19th century Europe where steam-powered technology sits at the precipice of a breakthrough. Steamboy looks at a creative lineage as Ray struggles to protect his grandfather’s invention and his family’s legacy.
5 Ride Your Wave
Release Date: June 21, 2019
Masaaki Yuasa is a modern anime master who’s responsible for iconic works across film and television that include the likes of Lu Over The Wall, Devilman Crybaby, and Inu-Oh. Ride Your Wave tells a fantasy-infused tale of star-crossed lovers that’s on par with the rest of Yuasa’s works, but it gets lost between his bigger projects.
Hinako’s heart is opened by a heroic firefighter, Minato, who tragically passes away during one of his rescue attempts. Hinako finds Minato reconstituted in water whenever she sings their special song. Ride Your Wave utilizes gorgeous water effects and animation, but at its core it’s a touching story about grief and acceptance.
4 A Letter To Momo
Release Date: April 21, 2012
Sometimes described as a more melancholy take on Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away, A Letter to Momo is a tender coming of age story that uses the absurdity of yokai to represent the confusion and pain of grief and loss. The young Momo and her mother move to a small town following the death of Momo’s father and the young girl struggles to acclimate.
Momo is haunted by one of her father’s unfinished letters to her, but she suddenly becomes followed by a group of demonic yokai that only she can see. A Letter to Momo artistically uses these mysterious manifestations as a way to unpack Momo’s repressed pain.
3 Memories
Release Date: December 23, 1995
Anime is quite receptive towards anthology storytelling and Memories is an anime relic from the 1990s whose reputation has never seemed to match its high level of quality, although a 2021 Blu-Ray release has helped increase Memories’ visibility. Memories is a collaboration between acclaimed anime storytellers like Satoshi Kon, Katushiro Otomo, and Koji Morimoto that’s divided into three diverse interpretations of sci-fi.
“Magnetic Rose” is frequently cited as the strongest of Memories’ segments and it elegantly taps into the longing feelings of loss. “Stink Bomb” leans more into comedy and “Cannon Fodder” is a stark war story and the tonal whiplash between these tales is a valid criticism towards Memories.
2 Millennium Actress
Release Date: September 14, 2002
Satoshi Kon passed away far too young, which gives each of his anime productions some extra gravitas. There are no weak links in Kon’s filmography, but Millennium Actress is arguably the least mainstream and accessible of the lot. The movie is obsessed with how cinema blurs the lines between fantasy and reality, which is powerfully conveyed through a retired actress looking back on her storied career with two documentarians.
Millennium Actress crafts such a moving, emotional story that will resonate with anyone, even if they’re not an actress or later on in life. Millennium Actress is a hard sell for some and it’s atypical from Kon’s more psychologically haunting works.
1 Children Of The Sea
Release Date: June 7, 2019
Studio 4°C has a track record for meticulously animated masterpieces and 2019’s Children of the Sea contains some of the most impressively animated visuals of aquatic life. So much of Children of the Sea simply celebrates this endangered ecosystem’s inherent beauty.
Children of the Sea turns into a coming of age narrative once teen outcast Ruka befriends two brothers who share a unique connection to the sea. It’s a movie that’s more interested in atmosphere than a complicated story. Children of the Sea tackles the complicated relationship between mankind and nature, which can make for an esoteric sell.
