Even if you aren’t a fan of a 100-episode anime series, you enjoy anime movies. Despite their short duration, famous movies by directors such as Makoto Shinkai are intriguing and captivating. To journey to the magical colorful world of anime movies, you only need to spend two hours watching them. Continue reading this article to learn about the top 5 best anime movies that you should watch.
Suzume
Introduction
Suzume is Mokoto Shinkai’s most recent anime film, produced by CoMix Wave Films. Even though it was released recently, this anime in the adventure and sci-fi genres has been successful in becoming a candidate for the best animation movie in Japan Academy Prize in 2023, and its music (Radwimps produced by Kazuma Jinnouchi) has received the best music award in 46th Japan Academy Award. This movie covers a variety of topics, including love, trauma, and memory!
Story
Suzume, a high school girl from a small town, is the anime’s main character. One day, she meets Souta, a young man in Japan who has the sacred job of saving people’s lives. Suzume enters Souta’s supernatural world out of curiosity and goes to whatever length to help him. Continuing her journey, she goes to her childhood to find answers to her recurring dreams and questions.
Review
Suzume is a 17-year-old girl who must cope with the world of grown-ups, and she does it admirably. One of the issues that has been eloquently depicted is the significance of the process of grieving and mourning for those who have passed away. Time does not always result in healing; on the contrary, it might cause old wounds to get infected.
Weathering with you (Tenki no Ko)
Introduction
Makoto Shinkai’s fantasy drama anime, Weathering with You, written and directed by him, was released in 2019. This anime grossed 193.8 million dollars at the time of its release, making it the best-selling anime film of the year. Following in the footsteps of legendary directors such as Hayao Miyazaki, this anime movie is the first to gross more than 10 billion Yen (or $100 million) in Japan. Weathering with You is still a must-watch not only for the beautiful visual effects but also for the engaging story and superb direction of Makoto Shinkai.
Story
Weathering with You takes the audience to modern Tokyo, where a 16-year-old teenager named Morishima Hodaka escapes from his village due to problems at home. He moves to Tokyo and tries to start a new life in this big, populated city, which is why he seeks a job. However, finding a job and living in a city for a lonely boy like Hodaka is very difficult and horrifying. Following that, Hodaka meets Hina, a girl with the ability to change the weather, and the two embark on some strange adventures that you should watch.
Review
This work, like others by Makoto Shinkai, highlights mythical and traditional beliefs, such as Sunshine Girl. The girl who sends wishes to the sky and causes the sun to shine.
Into the Forest of Firefly Lights (Hotarubi no Mori)
Introduction
The anime movie, Into the Forest of Firefly Lights, is based on the manga of the same name. Yuki Midorikawa created the manga, while Takahiro Omori directed the adaptation anime in 2011. It’s interesting to note that this 45-minute drama anime is one of the many captivating stories that captured the attention of its audience and became famous all over the world. However, the visuals and art of this anime fall short of the standards set by the other works discussed in this article.
Story
The story starts with the main character, Takegawa Hotaru, a 6-year-old girl who gets lost in a forest. This forest is known as the “jungle of ghosts,” and Hotaru meets a ghost named Gin, who wears a mask and takes him out of the forest. Following that, so many things happen for these two that you’d better watch on your own.
Review
Note: This review may contain some plot spoilers!
According to Japanese folklore, Shinto is the ghost of nature and ancestors who take care of people. The belief is strongly shown in “Into the Forest of Firefly Lights,” where the ghosts of the mountain forest take care of the newborn Gin and cast a spell to protect him.
Following that, Gin, who has never known normal people’s lives, discovers the meaning of life and love by having Hotaru in his life, and his life eventually takes on new meaning with his death. The central theme of this novel is forbidden love. Gin’s life is threatened by a forbidden love between a human and a ghost, and this is what gives his life meaning.
Your Name (Kimi no Na wa)
Introduction
Although Your Name was released in 2016, we believe it is still one of Makoto Shinkai’s best works. Your Name is based on a novel of the same name and spans several genres, including fantasy, drama, and even romance. Without exaggeration, we can say that this anime introduced new followers to Makoto Shinkai’s works and helped him establish an international reputation and success. Your Name, with a 380-million-dollar sale, became the second best-selling anime movie in history, trailing only Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away.
Story
The story starts by presenting us with the main characters, a high schooler girl named Mitsuha from Itomori and another teenager, a male named Taki from Tokyo. These two live in two very separate worlds. One night, Mitsuha, who is tired of the traditions of her little hometown, wishes to become a handsome guy in Tokyo in her future life.
When Mitsuha wakes up the next day, she finds herself in the body of a boy named Taki in Tokyo, and Taki happens to be in Mitsuha’s body. With so many questions and ambiguities on their minds, they have no choice but to continue and spend time with each other’s friends and acquaintances they never met. Such occasions continue until these two decide to meet.
Review
Your Name, like other works by Makoto Shinkai, explores natural disasters, this time meteorites, and Japanese folklore. Aside from that, the main characters in this anime struggle to save people’s lives.
In Your Name, Mitsuha’s grandma talks about Japanese folklore:
Musubi is the old way of calling the local guardian god. This word has profound meanings. Tying thread is Musubi. Connecting people is Musubi. The flow of time is Musubi. These are all the god’s power. So, the braided cords that we make are the god’s art and represent the flow of time itself. They converge and take shape. They twist, tangle, sometimes unravel, break, and then connect again. Musubi — knotting. That’s time.
Musubi is the philosophical traditional belief in Japanese culture. Musubi is a tying together, a joining together of people and things. This notion pervades the anime movie. When Mitsuha and her sister braid cords as is customary in her family, or when Mitsuha binds her hair with a thread and the thread on Taki’s hand, they all speak about time and fate. This film indicates elegantly about tradition, spirituality, nature, time and space, and cause and consequence. If you’re interested in these topics, you should watch Your Name!
A Silent Voice (Eiga Koe no Katachi)
Introduction
A Silent Voice is a 2016 anime movie written by Reiko Toshida and directed by Naoko Yamada in the drama and romance genres. It is based on a manga of the same name written by Yoshitoki Ōima. This anime movie shows the emotions and ups and downs of two teenagers’ lives in such a way that you will be glued to your seat until the finish. While you are watching, a silent voice may leave some emotional scars on you. So, don’t forget to keep some tissues on hand.
Story
Shoya Ishida, a boy who bullies his friends, is the main character of the anime. Even a deaf student named Shoko Nishimiya cannot escape him, and he mocks her to the point where Nishimiya leaves the school and attends another. Following that, Ishida’s pals abandon him, and when he goes to high school, he discovers that no one is left for him. He runs into Nishimiya again and wants to make amends for his previous wrongdoings.
Review
In this story, Nishimiya is a calm, humble, and kind-hearted girl who is deaf and represents everybody who cannot communicate with others; no one understands her, and everyone reacts differently.
Some classmates, such as Ishimida and Ueno, get angry because Nishimiya excuses them rather than defending herself and punishing the other person. They can’t bear Nishimiya’s meek demeanor because of their guilt, and they react rudely.
Finally, A Silent Voice emphasizes that whatever happens to someone during his or her upbringing has an impact on his or her life in the future.
Have you watched any of the anime movies discussed in this article? Let us know what you think!
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