There are few things in the world as big as Japanese anime. Few art forms originating from a single place can transcend language and cultural barriers to captivate fans around the world. But as big as anime might be, it's not without a few haters. Whether that's you or someone you know, here's a list of 32 anime movies and TV shows to change your tune.
From packed conventions in New York to hordes of spectators in Mexico, the best anime is the closest thing to a universal language. But while anime has been an institution in Japan, some audiences abroad are still wrapping their heads around it. It wasn't terribly long ago when cultural critics nicknamed it "Japanime" (clever!), or meme-worthy but wildly incorrect captions for characters and shows (such as "Cowboy BeBop at His Computer") were par for the course. Simply put, if you didn't catch onto anime at a certain age, there's a nonzero chance you feel it just isn't for you. But what if that isn't true?
If you think anime is nothing but buff dudes screaming their lungs out or magical school girls, think again. Here are 32 anime movies and TV shows that go against the grain to be something totally different – and maybe different enough to entertain even haters.
32. Shenmue: The Animation
Based on the open-world games released on the Sega Dreamcast and original Xbox, Shenmue: The Animation rewinds the clock to 1986 Japan to follow Ryo Hazuki, a teenager who seeks revenge for his father's murder by the head of a Chinese Triad. Owing more to classic gangster movies and martial arts tales than modern anime, Shenmue: The Animation is a grounded coming-of-age epic with an impressively rendered period setting and a truly majestic musical score. While Shenmue was canceled after one season, its lean 13-episode count makes it a casual commitment to finish.
31. Castlevania
Gory, gothic, and gorgeous, Castlevania is an anime for grownups who aren't queasy with bloodletting. Based on the classic Konami video game series, Castlevania is the story of a monster hunter, Trevor Belmont, who teams up with a witch and the dhampir son of Dracula, Alucard, to take down Alucard's father and end his horrific reign of terror. With just 32 episodes across its four seasons on Netflix, Castlevania is a compulsively binge-able anime possible to consume over one marathon weekend, an experience that feels buoyed by lively character dynamics and fist-pumping action that instills both awe and fear at once.
30. Tokyo Godfathers
Sweepingly beautiful and sentimental, but not without plenty of mischievous joy, Satoshi Kon's 2003 anime movie Tokyo Godfather is an unusual Christmas classic that deserves a place in your seasonal marathons. In Tokyo, three homeless people discover a crying baby in a heap of garbage and set out to find the baby's mother. Their efforts take them all across a snowfallen Japan, finding warmth in their togetherness. Featuring all of Kon's signature artistic touches, Tokyo Godfathers dispels notions that anime is only screaming protagonists and complicated worldbuilding. Sometimes, it's just unusual people trying to do the right thing.
29. Spirited Away
An undisputable classic in the Studio Ghibli library, Spirited Away is an elaborate and fantastical metaphor about the harsh realities of growing up. After a young girl's parents are transformed into pigs by a witch, the girl is put to work in a bathhouse attended by spirits, with the hope of someday restoring her parents and returning to their normal world. Featuring elegant animation and multi-layered storytelling by Hayao Miyazaki, a renowned master of the medium, Spirited Away is an anime epic that transcended boundaries to become one of the most adored and best anime movies of all time. It's simply magical.
28. The Red Ranger Becomes an Adventurer in Another World
If you still hold memories of Mighty Morphin' nostalgia, let The Red Ranger Becomes an Adventurer in Another World blow your expectations. An "isekai" anime – a popular subgenre that centers on characters navigating new worlds – the series follows the archetypal leader of a Power Rangers/Super Sentai-esque superhero team who is displaced to a parallel world of magic. Armed with high-tech gear that baffles the medieval locals, Togo Asagaki – aka, "Kizuna Red" – continues to fight evil while searching for a way home. While The Red Ranger Becomes an Adventurer in Another World is chock full of modern anime sensibilities, its dichotomy of a masculine superhero in a delicate storybook fantasy is refreshing to just about anybody.
27. Death Note
Write a name in the Death Note, and they die. This deceptively simple idea balloons into a modern epic of suspense, international espionage, and intoxicating God complexes in the smash hit anime Death Note. It is the story of Light, an academically gifted teenager suffering from ennui, when he finds a supernatural notebook belonging to a Shinigami, a Japanese spirit of death. Upon weaponizing it to kill those he feels deserve it, Light soon finds himself the target of a nationwide manhunt spearheaded by a gifted rival known as "L." While Death Note is one of the most popular anime of all time, its subversive storytelling centered on a sociopath anti-hero and moral questions about justice and free will made it a revelation that dramatically shook up mid-2000s era anime. It's also one of the best gateway anime series for fans of thrillers and crime dramas.
26. Black Lagoon
A bored corporate salaryman. An ice-cool crew of pirate mercenaries. One bodacious gal with a midriff and two loaded pistols. This is Black Lagoon, an anime that pays homage to Hong Kong and Hollywood action cinema. When a Japanese businessman is kidnapped in southeast Asia and left behind by his employers, he abandons his life of routine to join his kidnappers, adapting to their exciting outlaw lifestyle. Eschewing the muscle-forward heroics and superpowered mysticism of most other hit anime, Black Lagoon keeps its feet firmly planted on Earth with a deep immersion into underworld international crime. If your tastes skew toward the works of Quentin Tarantino and John Woo, Black Lagoon awaits your arrival.
25. Psycho-Pass
Stemming from studio Production I.G.'s intentions to create a successor to Ghost in the Shell, Psycho-Pass cultivated its own legacy as a new breed of cyberpunk science fiction. Psycho-Pass is set in a dystopian future where a powerful A.I. calculates an individual's propensity to commit a crime. The law is carried out by a police force made up of elite "Inspectors" and "Enforcers," the latter being latent criminals now working for the law. Heavily inspired by Western sci-fi films like Blade Runner, Minority Report, and Gattaca, Psycho-Pass is a visually spectacular meditation on the ethics of law enforcement, technological determinism, and a warning against an overwhelming surveillance state – ideas that resonated with both American and Japanese audiences circa 2014, an atmosphere underscored by NSA and Wikileaks.
24. Now and Then, Here and There
Although Byzantine distribution rights make it hard to find, Now and Then, Here and There is so worth the effort of tracking down. Released between 1999 and 2000 for an all-too-brief 13-episode run, Now and Then, Here and There is a bleak adventure epic in which an ordinary schoolboy, Shu, is flung to a dark parallel world depleted of water and natural resources that is ruled by a military dictatorship. A pitch-black exploration of the horrors of war and its exploitation of children, Now and Then, Here and There is like no anime you've seen before, with nary a cute animal or wisecracking sidekick in sight.
23. Slam Dunk
In the canon of sports anime, Slam Dunk might be the reigning king as one of the most popular sports manga and anime of all time. Its legendary profile inspired generations of Japanese youth to lace up sneakers and hit the court because they all wanted to be Hanamichi Sakuragi. That's the protagonist of Slam Dunk, a delinquent student who joins his high school's basketball team to impress a girl, only to discover his natural knack for ball. Slam Dunk isn't just cool basketball sequences, however, as it mines excitement in the slow-and-steady buildup of skill through patient practice. An underdog sports anime with a lot of heart and laughs, Slam Dunk is just that: a slam dunk of an anime that bridges the gap between athletics and art.
22. Terror in Resonance
A psychological thriller teeming with socio-political commentary, Terror in Resonance is a uniquely Japanese take on modern fears of terrorism, government corruption, and teenage rebellion. Terror in Resonance follows two punk teenagers who steal an atomic bomb and publicly threaten to use it to obliterate all of Tokyo as an act of revenge for their mysterious upbringing. Restrained yet poignant in tone and set against a highly realistic contemporary Japan, Terror in Resonance boldly stands out in an art form that too often exaggerates. At just 13 episodes, Terror in Resonance is low commitment with an extremely high yield.
21. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
Springing from Hayao Miyazaki's own manga series, Miyazaki's sophomore feature Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is a majestic animated adventure set against a unique post-apocalyptic world. Nausicaä is a brave princess and pilot who works to prevent a ruthless rival empire from eradicating a precious jungle populated by oversized mutant insects. A synthesis of all of Miyazaki's recurring themes, including aerospace, man's delicate relationship to nature, and hostility towards imperialist governments, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind takes flight as an inspiring all-ages adventure that isn't careless or mindless. Disney lovers who've not yet sampled Miyazaki may find a lot to love in Nausicaä.
20. Paprika
If you love Christopher Nolan's Inception, you might love Paprika. A sci-fi fantasy thriller replete with kaleidoscopic visuals, Paprika takes place in the world of dreams and toys with our desperate need to know what's real and what's the work of our subconscious. The anime takes place in a near future where it's possible to monitor dreams; an experimental device that allows one to physically enter other dreams is stolen, leading a detective and a therapist to team up and recover it before it falls into the hands of a "dream terrorist." A meditation on identity and the dangers of rapidly advancing technology, Paprika is an unforgettable experience, made more so thanks to Satoshi Kon's unrivaled artistic direction and effortless deception.
19. Belle
It's a tale as old as time – kind of. A metaverse spin on the French fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, Mamoru Hosoda's Belle is a stunning cover version that blends speculative science fiction, romance, and themes of identity and connection. It is the story of a shy high school teenager who recovers her lost talent for singing when she becomes the virtual pop star "'Belle" in the "U," an immersive online world. As Belle's fame grows, she meets an aggressive monster called "Beast" and works to help him, and soon finds his struggle is eerily close to her own. Belle's arrival in theaters in Covid-struck theaters in 2021 made its insight into human connections over virtual spaces all the more resonant, along with unstoppably gorgeous animation and art direction.
18. Weathering With You
Not long after the widespread acclaim of his 2016 feature Your Name, Makoto Shinkai released another banger of a cosmic young adult fantasy in 2019's Weathering With You. A teenage runaway in Tokyo, who has found work as a writer for an occult tabloid befriends a mysterious girl named Hina, who possesses the ability to control the weather. As the two bring sunshine back to a rain-soaked city, they discover the consequences of disrupting nature's balance. A teenage love story wrapped up in a disaster epic, Weathering With You shows more of Shinkai's sensibilities, where political and social commentary, young love, and eye-watering visuals are all in harmony.
17. Vinland Saga
For fans of the TV show Vikings or Robert Eggers' The Northman, Vinland Saga beckons. Based on the hit manga series, Vinland Saga loosely retells the story of 9th-century Icelandic explorer Thorfinn Karlsefni and his expedition to find Vinland – an area of North America centuries before Columbus set sail. In the series, Thorfinn is a teenage Viking who swears to kill his father's murderer before growing into a pacifist. Manga author Makoto Yukimura was prompted to write Vinland Saga after 9/11 to explore traumas and hope for a diverse world to coexist peacefully. Beyond its historical setting that is almost never explored in anime or manga, Vinland Saga's balance of fist-pumping action with meditations on the futility of violence and revenge make it a truly epic anime of a rare breed.
16. Monster
Originating from the acclaimed manga by Naoki Ursawa, Monster is a harrowing psychological thriller where a good deed goes severely punished. Monster is the story of Dr. Kenzo Tenma, a brilliant Japanese neurosurgeon in Germany whose decision to operate on a young boy instead of a politician costs him everything. Many years later, Tenma learns the boy whose life he saved has become a notorious serial killer and races to track him down and stop him. The anime, which drew praise for its extremely faithful recreation of the manga, is an uncompromising piece of psychological horror, one that wrestles with uncomfortable questions, including the limits of the Hippocratic Oath.
15. Ghost in the Shell
A cyberpunk masterwork that contributed to anime's popularity outside Japan in the 1990s, Mamoru Oshii's Ghost in the Shell grapples with humanity's slow but certain eradication through technology. Set in the near future, Ghost in the Shell follows Motoko Kusanagi, a cyborg police officer who hunts down a mysterious hacker who claims to know Motoko's true past. In addition to its exciting action set-pieces, Ghost in the Shell is characterized by sequences of quiet meditation that invites audiences to step back and consider what it means to be human. Ghost in the Shell has been an influence over a generation of Hollywood artists, including James Cameron and the Wachowskis, to name a few. If you want to know the source code for The Matrix, hack into Ghost in the Shell.
14. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
There have been many movies and shows based on Yasutaka Tsutsui's hit sci-fi novel The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, originally published in 1966. But the 2006 anime film by Mamoru Hosoda is maybe one of the best, being the work of a renowned industry auteur who almost never disappoints. A pseudo-sequel to Tsutsui's novel, Hosoda's movie follows a teenage girl who learns how to travel in time from her aunt. She uses this new ability to fix her menial problems before realizing the extensive damage she's inflicted on those around her. While The Girl Who Leapt Through Time isn't a terribly new take on sci-fi moral plays, Hosoda brings a lively and endearing coming-of-age tone to the table.
13. Samurai Champloo
A spiritual successor to Shinichirō Watanabe's international hit Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo injects cool hip-hop beats into an equally cool story about samurai in search of belonging. Set in Edo period Japan, Samurai Champloo follows two rival swordsmen who join a teahouse waitress to help her find a samurai "who smells of sunflowers." Their action-packed journey pits them against a wide array of friends and enemies. Samurai Champloo may not have drawn the same universal acclaim as Cowboy Bebop, but anime heads know it to be one of the coolest shows of the mid-2000s, a stand-out from the pack owing to its stylish swagger.
12. Yuri on Ice
If the catchy opening theme doesn't hook you in, then maybe its dazzling ice skating sequences or the squee-inducing romance between effeminate men will. Yuri on Ice, a late 2010s sensation that drew acclaim from anime critics and real-world ice skating pros alike, tells the story of an up-and-coming ice skating star from Japan who trains under his idol, a Russian legend, to compete in the ISU Grand Prix. A delicious sports romance with a queer bent, Yuri on Ice gets the gold for captivating animation while providing a positive and healthy depiction of gay romance in mainstream anime.
11. Grave of the Fireflies
Widely acclaimed as one of the greatest anti-war movies ever made, Grave of the Fireflies is a devastating portrait of the cost of war and the lengths we go to survive. Set in the waning days of World War 2, Grave of the Fireflies follows a teenager who takes care of his younger sister after an American firebomb attack destroys their home. As they navigate leveled cities and a hostile, equally traumatized populace, the siblings rely on each other – a microcosm for all of Japan in the following years. While Grave of the Fireflies is an uncompromising film set in a specific time and place, the fallout of its emotional impact is universal. If you think anime is nothing but candy-coated adventure and hot-headed heroes, let Grave of the Fireflies shine a different light.
10. Hajime no Ippo
The squared circle of boxing rings are an eternal invitation for all underdogs to become heroes. In Hajime no Ippo, its underdog is Ippo Makunouchi, a shy and bullied high school student who is rescued from a bad after-school beatdown by a middleweight pro. At the gym, Ippo discovers his natural strength and begins his training to become a proper pugilist. Originating as a best-selling sports manga, Hajime no Ippo is a world-class anime that punches far above its weight class, telling a quintessential rags-to-riches story about a champion on the rise.
9. Berserk
If your taste in media can be basically summed up as "sad dude with a big sword" (see: The Witcher, The Northman, The Mandalorian), you might dig Berserk. Based on the acclaimed best-selling manga by the late Kentaro Miura, Berserk takes place in a brutal medieval land ravaged by war and filled with monstrous threats. The story follows Guts, a tough lone-wolf swordsman who joins a mercenary band only to wind up betrayed and marked for death by dark forces. A brutal dark fantasy epic teeming with gothic atmospherics, Berserk is a masculine tragedy where fate and survival are locked in combat. Give it a watch and you'll see where Dark Souls and Elden Ring creator Hidetaka Miyazaki got all his ideas from.
8. Initial D
Amid the popularity of street racing in Japan, mangaka Shuichi Shigeno unleashed his urban sports epic Initial D, which became a hit anime series in 1998. The show follows Takumi Fujiwara, a teenager whose midnight drives delivering for his father's tofu shop passively trained him to become a top-tier drifter. Though his intentions to get a car is simply to impress a crush, Takumi winds up an ascendant superstar in the street racing scene, attracting rivals on the winding roads of Mount Akina. Whether you're a gearhead or you're just someone who has a favorite Fast & Furious sequel, Initial D makes for one heck of a ride.
7. Attack on Titan
If any anime defined the 2010s, it's Attack on Titan. An action-fantasy horror of immense scale, Hajime Isayama's Attack on Titan chronicles the remnants of humanity who've built up large walls to protect them from man-eating giants called "Titans." As the last humans survive, a select few sign up for the military, armed with special weapons that enable them to maneuver around and slay Titans. Eren Yeager, a young man who has sworn to kill all Titans, joins the army only to discover a shocking revelation that fundamentally alters humanity's understanding of Titans forever. A smash-hit pop culture phenomenon, Attack on Titan appeals even to the anime-averse for its mix of adrenaline-pumping action, Lovecraftian horror, and political intrigue.
6. Perfect Blue
As the 21st century fast approached and modern Japan underwent great societal changes due to mass media and internet connectivity, filmmaker Satoshi Kon saw something horrifying bubbling under the surface. In his acclaimed psychological thriller Perfect Blue, a retired pop star turned actress finds herself the victim of a deranged stalker. As gruesome murders pile up around her, she begins to lose all touch with reality. While Satoshi Kon revisits some of his familiar themes, Perfect Blue is a perfect concentration of his artistry, a movie layered with meditations on celebrity and laced with red herrings that throw off the viewer from what's real and what isn't. Give it a watch, and you'll see why it's considered to be one of the best horror movies of all time.
5. Cowboy Bebop
It may be one of the most popular and acclaimed anime shows of all time. But it's also many anime fans' first recommendation to their non-anime friends. Why? Because there's simply never been a show as cool as Cowboy Bebop. Its pastiche of sci-fi, gunslinger Westerns, and film noir created something never before seen and never seen again – not even with a disappointing live-action remake on Netflix that had left everyone singing the real folk blues. Set in a future where space travel is common, Cowboy Bebop follows the exploits of a bounty hunter crew who zip around from planet to planet, picking up freelance jobs for meager pay. A huge success around the world, Cowboy Bebop stood tall even during its release in the late '90s, when anime was largely characterized by for-kids mega-hits like Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball Z, and Pokemon. For the older crowd, there was and still is Cowboy Bebop.
4. Howl's Moving Castle
Furious over the Iraq War, anime auteur Hayao Miyazaki obtained the rights to adapt Diana Wynne Jones' 1986 novel and imbued a potent anti-war and anti-imperial message in his splendid feature film adaptation. The movie follows Sophie, a quiet girl who works at a hat shop who is swept away by a wizard named Howl. She soon attracts a curse from a vengeful witch that turns her into an old woman. Seeking to break the spell, Sophie climbs aboard Howl's impossibly moving castle only to discover a heated war between magic. Hayao Miyazaki's movie won international acclaim, and, for good reason, earning reverence for its imaginative storytelling and jaw-dropping animation. While Studio Ghibli faithful argue over which Miyazaki film is his single-greatest, there's no arguing that Howl's Moving Castle is in the conversation.
3. Ghost Stories (but only the English dub)
At the height of J-horror's popularity in the mid to late 1990s, the manga Ghost Stories by Toru Tsunemitsu strove to make horror appealing to a young audience. It's a misconception that the anime version, produced in 2000, was a flop in Japan. (It was actually a hit.) Nevertheless, ADV Films, a now-defunct American studio, was given free rein to rewrite the show with only a few caveats (like keeping character names intact). The result is a foul-mouthed farce full of improv dialogue, wildly offensive humor, and fourth-wall-breaking jokes that roast the show's low-rent animation and genre cliches. What was once a cutesy ghost show for kids transforms into something Mel Brooks might binge, where school children drop F-bombs and B-words and scathing rebukes to the Bush administration. (Again, it was the early 2000s.) The English dub of Ghost Stories remains legendary to this day, mostly because it made a boring anime actually worth watching.
2. Your Name
In 2016, Makoto Shinkai officially earned worldwide recognition for his cinematic vision with his glittering romantic comedy fantasy Your Name. The movie follows two high school students living across the country who awake one morning to find they've swapped bodies. As the two strangers get used to occasionally waking up like this, they work to find the root of their problem; their journey leads them to the center of a huge disaster. Inspired by the devastation of the 2011 earthquakes that rocked Japan, Shinkai's Your Name exists as a sweeping saga about connections that transcend time and space.
1. Akira
Roving bikers who light up Neo-Tokyo. A society on the brink of collapse. A government desperate to cover up its secrets. A teenage rebel with every cause. In 1988, Katsuhiro Otomo adapted his best-selling manga series Akira for the big screen, becoming one of the most acclaimed anime movies ever made and a seminal entry of 1980s cyberpunk sci-fi. Set in the aftermath of World War 3, Tokyo has risen from its ashes to be reborn as Neo-Tokyo, a neon-covered urban sprawl populated by political corruption, domestic terrorism, and gang violence. Hot-headed teen biker Kaneda races to save his troubled friend Tetsuo, who has developed eerie powers after a chance encounter. In its eternal depiction of youthful restlessness, Akira meditates on Japan's post-war existentialism and uncertain future amid a rapidly changing present. If nothing else, see it to know where the "Akira Bike Slide" actually came from.
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