Japan’s Best Anime Movies: A Guide to Fantasy Adventure Films

The Japanese film industry is one of the most prolific and influential in the world, but if you’re like me, you probably only know it for its animated films. And that’s a shame, because Japan has produced some genuinely fantastic live-action movies over the years. In this post, I’m going to break down some of my favorites into four neat categories so that you can see what kinds of movies are worth your time (and which ones are just plain weird).

Kiki’s Delivery Service

Kiki’s Delivery Service initially released in Japan as Majo no Takkyūbin (魔女の宅急便), is a 1989 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Based on the children’s novel of the same name by Eiko Kadono tells the story of a 13-year-old witch who leaves home for a year to test her independence. In doing so, she becomes a part of a close-knit community of witches and begins to learn about herself and others around her.

Kiki, a young witch who serves as the film’s heroine, is thrust into the role of having to care for herself in a foreign environment after her mother unexpectedly relocates to another country for business. She meets Jiji, an adorable black cat, just before she embarks on what seems like an adventure at first glance but turns out to be quite challenging upon arrival (the city life isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be), and Jiji becomes her familiar or companion throughout this coming-of-age tale as they adjust together while learning valuable lessons along the way like growing up means facing challenges headfirst with support from those closest around us rather than relying solely on our own resources rather than relying solely on our

Totoro

Totoro is a forest spirit that appears in the movie, My Neighbor Totoro. He’s also the film’s main character and is depicted as a cat-like creature that can easily fly and move through trees.

Totoro has a reputation for being one of Japan’s most beloved anime characters, but he also happens to be one of its few gods of nature—or at least that’s how I’ve heard it described. Suppose you were to ask me where I’d like to be reincarnated after death (which I haven’t). In that case, there are two answers: either into another human being or into a giant bear who flies around on mushrooms eating fish from rivers that run through mountains made entirely out of ice cream sandwiches.

Howl’s Moving Castle

Howl’s Moving Castle is a story about a girl who is cursed to turn into an old woman every night. She meets a magician named Howl, who turns her back into her young self. The two fall in love but must face difficult choices as war breaks out and she has to decide between staying with Howl or returning home.

Spirited Away

Spirited Away is the tale of Chihiro Ogino, a young girl who must navigate a strange new world when her family takes a wrong turn on the way to their new home. Chihiro’s name means “a thousand generations,” which she carries as an important symbol throughout the film. Her eye color is blue, like the sky or water (both of which are important in Japanese culture).

Chihiro’s hair color is black, but it changes from time to time depending on her age and what happens to her in the storyline.

She starts with black hair, then loses some of it after her parents abandon her at Kamaji’s bathhouse and run away from Yubaba into the woods, where she finds Haku and Zeniba. When she returns to Yubaba’s house with Boh, they give him coal dust, which turns his white hair black again and restores his powers as a dragon prince. This allows him to save Chihiro and her friends from being turned into pigs by No Face, who stole their names while sleeping outside under bushes near the riverbank. Chihiro and her friends had their names stolen while sleeping outside under bushes near the riverbank (riverbanks are another symbol used throughout Japanese literature).

Ponyo

Ponyo is the latest film from Japan’s most acclaimed anime director, Hayao Miyazaki. It’s the story of a 5-year old boy and a goldfish who fall in love and decide to be together forever. The movie is based on Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, but with a twist: instead of having the little mermaid turn into a human woman at the end of her transformation process (and then live happily ever after), Ponyo grows into an adult with legs. While that might seem like an odd choice for such an exciting event in this children’s movie, it actually makes sense when you watch it—it’s one of those stories where everything falls into place perfectly by accident while still being realistic enough that no one can complain about what happens next!

The film was released in Japan on July 19th, 2008; its US release date was April 10th, 2010.

Don’t take advice from witchy girl who can’t fly.

• Don’t take advice from the witchy girl who can’t fly.
• Avoid the temptation to do something dangerous because a girl told you to.
• If she’s not flying, keep your distance and don’t trust her—she may be a witch or just an ordinary girl trying to lure you into doing something dangerous as part of some nefarious plot.

Bonus: Fall 2022

The excitement surrounding Makoto Shinkai’s upcoming film is infectious because of his career’s meteoric rise from its modest beginnings as one person’s low-budget passion projects to some of the most popular animated pictures in recent years. Suzume no Tojimari, also known as Suzume’s door locking, is the newest film. Its ambitions and real inspirations make it worth keeping an eye on as if people weren’t already eager to do so anyway. Suzume’s Door-Locking was inspired by a true story about a woman raped and murdered by her husband.

Conclusion

This list is by no means exhaustive, but it should give you a good start on your quest for the best anime movies. If you’re not into fantasy adventure films or don’t think any of these are right for you, there are many other genres out there! I hope this guide has been helpful and will lead you to more anime goodness in the future.