The definition of anime has lengthy been a supply for debate amongst followers. In Japan, the phrase “anime” is solely Japanese for animation, regardless of the media or its origin. But outdoors of Japan, the phrase has come to be related particularly to animation being produced in Japan or from Japanese creators.
This will get a bit sophisticated, as loads of cartoons from the West like Transformersand even Animaniacshave been at the least partially animated by Japanese studios, and exhibits like The Last Airbenderand flicks like The Matrixhave been closely influenced by anime. With Netflix now changing into a powerhouse within the anime trade, issues get much more sophisticated, as they’ve exhibits made by Western creators like Castlevania and Seis Manoshowever are advertising and marketing them as anime.
For this explicit listing, we’ve determined to go by Netflix’s personal anime class, selecting from the flicks listed inside it, regardless of its origin. We’ve combed by the out there titles to convey you the perfect of the very best. There is one thing on this listing for everybody, from children being launched to the style, anime motion pictures geared toward a younger grownup viewers, complicated or franchise titles not beneficial for newbies, to critically acclaimed classics for all audiences. Whether you’re a long-time fan or simply trying to get into the medium, there’s something for everybody.
For extra suggestions, take a look at our listing of the greatest motion pictures on Netflix, greatest anime exhibits on Netflix, and greatest cartoons for adults.
Editor’s word: This listing has been up to date February 2023 to incorporate Altered Carbon: Resleeved.
A Whisker Away (2020)
Run Time: 1 hr 44 min | Genre: Fantasy Romance | Director: Jun’ichi Satô, Tomotaka Shibayama
Cast: Mirai Shida, Natsuki Hanae, Hiroaki Ogi
A narrative of affection and cats, the anime A Whisker Away is a pure cinematic deal with from starting to finish that may go away you smiling from ear to ear and purring in contentment. The authentic Japanese title interprets to Wanting to Cry, I Pretend to Be a Cat, a poetic encapsulation of the playful spirit of this fantasy journey that will go away you wishing you, too, may turn out to be a part of the feline world. Overflowing with whimsy, it facilities on younger Miyo Sasaki, who tries to get the eye of a classmate by turning right into a cat. However, this finally ends up changing into much less about younger love and extra about her personal private exploration of how she needs to reside her life. As Miyo tries to flee the unhappy emotions of her life by this transformation, the animation ensures that there’s pleasure and sweetness to be discovered there as effectively. It all turns into a novel expertise that speaks to the pains of rising up with how all of us should attempt to discover a solution to work by the inevitable challenges of life — even when it means turning right into a cat from time to time. – Chase Hutchinson
Altered Carbon: Resleeved (2020)
Run Time: 1 hr 14 min | Director: Takeru Nakajima, Yoshiyuki Okada, Shouta Kitamoto
Cast: Ray Chase, Doug Stone, Kaiji Tang, Chris Conner, Brittany Cox
Set a pair hundred years earlier than the short-lived Altered Carboncollection, Altered Carbon: Resleeved is an animated spin-off movie with unbelievable animation and hovering motion. Expanding the universe in pleasing, albeit anticipated, methods, Altered Carbon: Resleeved stars Ray Chase, Doug Stone, Kaiji Tang, Chris Conner, and Brittany Cox. Taking place on the planet of Latimer, Altered Carbon: Resleeved follows Takeshi Kovacs (Chase) on his investigation into the dying of a yakuza boss whereas making an attempt to guard a tattoo artist named Holly (Cox). Directors Takeru Nakajima, Yoshiyuki Okada, and Shouta Kitamoto deal with the techno-orientalist backdrop with superbly choreographed combat sequences, weaving every little thing collectively. – Yael Tygiel
Drifting Home (2022)
Run Time: 1 hr 59 min | Genre: Fantasy Adventure | Director: Hiroyasu Ishida
Cast: Mutsumi Tamura, Ayumu Murase, Yumiko Kobayashi, Asami Seto
Directed by Hiroyasu Ishida, who co-wrote the refreshing movie with Hayashi Mori, Drifting Home is a narrative a few group of neighborhood youngsters who discover themselves and their complete condo complicated drifting throughout a mysterious sea. Along their journey, they uncover sudden secrets and techniques. Drifting Home is a superbly animated movie that gingerly addresses themes of grief, household, and new beginnings. With a splendidly charming solid, together with the voices of Mutsumi Tamura, Ayumu Murase, Yumiko Kobayashi, and Asami Seto, and thru deliberate storytelling, Drifting Home is a heartwarming journey film for audiences of all ages. – Yael Tygiel
Lu Over the Wall (2017)
Run Time: 1 hr 52 min | Genre: Fantasy Family | Director: Masaaki Yuasa
Cast: Kanon Tani, Shōta Shimoda, Shinichi Shinohara, Akira Emoto
A charmingly stunning fantasy movie, Lu Over the Wall tells the story of Kai (Shōta Shimoda), a depressed and lonely center schooler who lives together with his father and grandfather. Kai’s gloomy existence begins to brighten as soon as he comes head to head with a mermaid named Lu (Kanon Tani). From legendary directorMasaaki Yuasa, Lu Over the Wall is a playful, high-energy story that transitions from sorrow to jubilation by its use of coloration and elegance. With a pleasant message and upbeat soundtrack, Lu Over the Wall evokes feelings in each scene and seascape. – Yael Tygiel
Bubble (2022)
Run Time: 1 hr 40 min | Genre: Action Adventure | Director: Tetsurô Araki
Cast: Jun Shison, riria., Mamoru Miyano
From director Tetsurô Araki (Attack on Titan) comes Bubble, an enchanting anime movie that takes place after Tokyo is attacked by bubbles, leaving the town destroyed and remoted from the remainder of the world. Produced by an all-star group within the anime sphere, together with writers Gen Urobuchi, Renji Ooki, and Naoko Satou, Bubble permits skilled filmmakers to convey their visions to life. With gravity as damaged as the town, Tokyo turns into a parkour battlefield. When a few younger folks unexpectedly meet throughout a reckless bounce, it appears their encounter is likely to be extra fortuitous than they thought. – Yael Tygiel
Seven Deadly Sins: Cursed By Light (2021)
Run Time: 1 hr 19 min | Genre: Action Fantasy | Director: Takayuki Hamana
Cast: Yūki Kaji, Sora Amamiya, Misaki Kuno, Aoi Yūki, Tatsuhisa Suzuki, Jun Fukuyama, Yūhei Takagi, Maaya Sakamoto, Tomokazu Sugita
A sequel to The Seven Deadly Sins the Movie: Prisoners of the Sky, Seven Deadly Sins: Cursed By Light picks up six months after the Seven Deadly Sins have disbanded after defeating the Demon King and Cath Palug and shedding their expensive good friend Escanor. This movie sees Meliodas and his pals pressured to leap again into motion once more when a strong new magical alliance threatens to disrupt the newfound peace and put everybody in grave hazard. Fans of the present are positive to take pleasure in this fearless, jam-packed installment stuffed with journey and aptitude. – Taylor Gates
Violet Evergarden: The Movie (2020)
Run Time: 2 hr 20 min | Genre: Drama Fantasy | Director: Taichi Ishidate
Cast: Yui Ishikawa, Daisuke Namikawa
Emotional and honest, Violet Evergarden: The Movie is a shocking movie that tackles the theme of overcoming trauma. As a toddler, Violet was made to be a soldier, and through battle, she misplaced each her palms and her beloved mentor, Gilbert. To overcome her painful previous, she grew to become a Doll: somebody who ghostwrites letters to assist folks specific their emotions. After encountering a terminally in poor health boy named Yurith, Violet is pressured to confront painful reminiscences in addition to her love for the person she misplaced. The animation and story are equally beautiful, however beware: you’re going to need to seize some tissues earlier than tuning into this stunning story. – Taylor Gates
Child of Kamiari Month (2021)
Run Time: 1 hr 39 min | Genre: Adventure Drama | Director: Takana Shirai
Cast: Aju Makita, Maaya Sakamoto, Miyu Irino, Riko Nagase, Ko Shibasaki, Minako Kotobuki, Akira Kamiya, Chafurin, Wataru Takagi
Child of Kamiari Month effortlessly combines enjoyable, lighthearted moments with severe matters like grief. The movie facilities round an elementary faculty woman named Kanna, who has a ardour for operating, which she inherited from her mom. However, after her mom passes away, Kanna struggles to manage and loses her love for it. But when Kanna is shipped on an sudden journey, joined by a rabbit named Shiro and a demon named Yasha, she could refind her enjoyment for the game – and refind herself within the course of. With a touching plot and lovely animation, Child of Kamiari Month is a must-see. – Taylor Gates
NiNoKuni (2019)
Run Time: 1 hr 46 min | Genre: Action Adventure | Director: Yoshiyuki Momose
Cast: Kento Yamazaki, Mackenyu Arata, Mei Nagano, Maaya Sakamoto, Mamoru Miyano, Yuki Kaji, Kenjiro Tsuda
Based on the online game collection of the identical title, NiNoKuni is a fantasy movie a few trio of youngsters who get swept up right into a magical kingdom known as Evermore. As they bounce backwards and forwards between worlds, they uncover how actions in a single have an effect on the opposite. Eventually, as with every nice magical film, there’s an epic battle between good and evil they need to combat in. NiNoKuni seems like a mix of classics, like Spirited Away meets The Wizard of Oz. If you’re on the lookout for a stable journey flick that may transport you to a faraway land, look no additional. – Taylor Gates
New Gods: Nezha Reborn (2021)
Run Time: 1 hr 56 min | Genre: Action Adventure | Director: Zhao Ji
Cast: Yang Tianxiang, Zhang He, Xuan Xiaoming, Li Shimeng, Zhu Ke’er, King Zhenhe,
New Gods: Nezha Reborn takes a traditional character from a well-liked Ming dynasty-era novel and offers it a steampunk twist. The movie tells the story of Li Yunxiang, a motorcyclist who learns that he’s really the nice deity Nezha reborn. However, earlier than he can absolutely course of this and are available into his powers, outdated enemies begin cropping up, placing him in peril. New Gods: Nezha Reborn does a wonderful job mixing realism with extra surrealist facets, providing an attention-grabbing and contemporary method to conventional mythology. – Taylor Gates
Blame! (2017)
Run Time: 1 hr 46 min | Genre: Action Drama | Director: Hiroyuki Seshita
Cast: Takahiro Sakurai, Kana Hanazawa, Sora Amamiya, Mamoru Miyano, Aya Suzaki, Nobunaga Shimazaki
If you’re frightened of know-how rising increasingly highly effective, Blame! won’t be the very best look ahead to you. (Or, when you’re on the lookout for a terrifying horror film, possibly the proper one.) The movie takes place within the distant future, the place people are thought-about unlawful residents and hunted by robots. One day, nonetheless, a gaggle of survivors comes throughout Killy: an artificial human who could possibly be the important thing to survival. Sci-fi followers who’re craving atmospheric drama are positive to search out heaps to like on this movie. – Taylor Gates
The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf (2021)
Run Time: 1 hr 23 min | Genre: Action Adventure | Director: Kwang Il Han
Cast: Theo James, Lara Pulver, Mary McDonnell, Graham McTavish
A prelude to the principle story of TheWitcher franchise, The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf is a shocking action-packed peak right into a younger Vesemir’s (Theo James) life and a glance into the world previous to Geralt’s adventures. Tasked with searching down Kitsu (Kari Wahlgren), a lacking elf turned evil mage, Vesemir and the witch, Tetra (Lara Pulver), slowly start to uncover a extra sinister plot brewing within the shadows of the land. Fluid animation and superbly rendered backgrounds create an immersive world that each followers of the franchise and newcomers will take pleasure in, and the noteworthy voice appearing solely provides to the expertise. Be ready for chilling monster designs and many carnage, in addition to a pleasantly shocking quantity of that darkish humor that Netflix Anime has come to be identified for. The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf excels at defying expectations, revealing an exciting story stuffed with love, loss, and lies. – Olivia Fitzpatrick
A Silent Voice: The Movie (2016)
Run Time: 2 hr 9 min | Genre: Drama | Director: Naoko Yamada
Cast: Miyu Irino, Saori Hayami, Aoi Yûki
An exquisite journey into the usually damaged and dangerous expertise of rising up, A Silent Voice: The Movietakes the story from the beloved manga to the massive display screen to exceptional impact. It all facilities on a gaggle of scholars and the lengthy, painful course of of constructing amends for previous harms on a rocky path to redemption. Specifically, it’s all about how one younger boy bullied one other woman who’s deaf to the purpose the place she left the varsity. There isn’t any straightforward solution to make up for such horrible issues, and the movie doesn’t draw back from this, pushing characters to actually grapple with the hurt they’ve brought about. It does so with each vibrant and sensible animation that masks a extra profound disappointment that solely will get extra overwhelming at each flip. Spanning a number of years because the characters develop into early maturity, it’s a movie that tackles typically heavy material with a way of grace and pleasure that greater than earns its bittersweet ending. – Chase Hutchinson
Flavors of Youth (2018)
Run Time: 1 hr 15 min | Genre: Drama Romance | Director: Haoling Li, Yoshitaka Takeuch, Xiaoxing Yi
Cast: Taito Ban, Mariya Ise, Takeo Otsuka, Ikumi Hasegawa, Minako Kotobuki, Haruka Shiraishi, Hiroki Yasumoto
A movie made up of three distinct and wonderful vignettes that come collectively into one thing magnificent, Flavors of Youth captures a chic sense of tragedy blended with triumph. Following three completely different tales of rising up in three completely different cities in China, the movie is centered round love and loss as they play out throughout the lives of disconnected strangers who all are on the similar airport. They additionally are sometimes linked to meals, not simply as one thing to eat however as a sensory connection to reminiscence that sticks with us lengthy into maturity. There is simply a lot to latch onto with every particular person story, as they’re all lovingly crafted. From the detailed animation to the robust writing, they’re all completely different whilst all of them function in dialog with lots of the themes of the opposite tales. Though you might really feel unhappy that they’re typically fleeting experiences, that is the purpose, as you quickly get swept up within the subsequent story with the understanding that it too received’t final endlessly. The solely draw back? It will doubtless make you extremely hungry for one of many many scrumptious meals you see delivered to life. – Chase Hutchinson
Mirai (2018)
Run Time: 1 hr 38 min | Genre: Adventure Drama | Director: Mamoru Hosoda
Cast: Rebecca Hall, Daniel Dae Kim, John Cho, Victoria Grace, Haru Kuroki
Mirai is the most recent family-friendly movie from acclaimed Japanese filmmaker Mamoru Hosoda (Wolf Children). The story of Mirai follows four-year-old Kun as he makes an attempt to cope with the arrival of a brand new member of the household, his child sister Mirai. When Kun finds himself unable to deal with the lack of his mother and father’ consideration and the altering dynamics inside the family, he seeks solace in a magical, indoor backyard that permits him to journey by time and work together with some shocking characters. Mirai is effectively value a watch, as evidenced by the anime movie incomes an Oscar nomination for the Best Animated Feature Film. – Dave Trumbore
Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters (2017)
Run Time: 1 hr 28 min | Genre: Action Adventure | Director: Kōbun Shizuno
Cast: Mamoru Miyano, Takahiro Sakurai, Tomokazu Sugita / Chris Niosi, Lucien Dodge, Edward Brosco
After greater than 60 years and over 30 movies, Planet of the Monsters is the primary animated movie within the Godzillafranchise and the primary movie in a trilogy a few future the place people try to recolonize Earth 20,000 years after the planet was taken over by Godzilla.
Though the CGI animation might take a while getting used to, there are some stunning photographs and beautiful motion scenes that may even go up towards the big-budget live-action King of the Monsters. This trilogy can also be true to the unique motion pictures within the franchise in that it’s extra of a drama with monsters in them than full-out motion on a regular basis. Planet of the Monsters and its sequels additionally ask some attention-grabbing questions on philosophy and faith by way of two alien species in battle whereas giving us a real sci-fi epic a few large monster with an unimaginable soundtrack.
The End of Evangelion (1997)
Run Time: 1 hr 27 min | Genre: Action Drama | Director: Hideaki Anno, Kazuya Tsurumaki
Cast: Megumi Ogata, Megumi Hayashibara, Yūko Miyamura, Kotono Mitsuishi / Casey Mongillo, Ryan Bartley, Stephanie McKeon, Carrie Keranen
First of all, don’t, underneath any circumstances, try to observe The End of Evangelion with out having seen Neon Genesis Evangelion. This is essentially the most complicated, difficult film on this listing, however watching it’s going to really feel like a life-changing expertise.
After an ambiguous ending that some followers thought-about to be unsatisfying and inconclusive, dying threats have been despatched to creator Hideaki Anno. Prompted by the manufacturing firm’s needs to create a movie ending to the collection, Anno labored on End of Evangelion, a direct response to the backlash that actually incorporates the dying threats into the film for a break up second. Taking place over the last two episodes of the present, the film provides an alternate purpose for Shinji’s breakdown and likewise exhibits the Evangelions’ group NERV come underneath assault by shadowy company SEELE and the Japanese authorities, who’re making an attempt to convey concerning the world-ending Third Impact.
It is a fascinatingly private take a look at Anno’s personal mentality as he brings the viewers in on his mind-set, whereas additionally pointing the digital camera again on the viewers and condemning them for demanding one thing aside from what the creator supposed. It’s a masterwork of filmmaking, mixing animation with live-action scenes in what’s in all probability essentially the most direct response to fan entitlement and toxicity in anime historical past.