The Best Anime Movies You Can Watch On Netflix Right Now

In an age with an almost excessive number of streaming options, it's hard to remember the days when anime was much harder to access. Before shows and films had North American distribution, fans were ripping their own painstakingly subtitled versions onto VHS tapes and selling them to other fans. In the '90s, things got a little easier as shows like Sailor Moon and Pokemon started to air on children's television stations. But anime movies weren't really showing in American theaters yet. Eager viewers had to turn to their local library or to video rental stores. In both cases, the options were limited, and the staff not necessarily knowledgeable about what they were stocking.

Fast-forward to today, and there are anime-specific streaming services like Crunchyroll and Funimation, the latter of which is a long-running North American anime distribution company. But beyond that, streaming services that appeal to a larger variety of viewers than just anime fans have begun to add anime to their rotation, acknowledging that the medium is becoming ever-more ubiquitous in our society. On Netflix right now, there are anime films that run the gamut from old classics to modern hits to works created exclusively for Netflix. Here are some of the best.

Miyazaki is not the only director whose less widely-known works have found a niche at Netflix. Makoto Shinkai has recently enjoyed fame with his 2016 hit film Your Name. He was directing plenty of films before that, however, including 2013's Garden of Words. At the start of this short, moody film, high school student Takao Akizuki chooses to skip school in favor of sketching shoes in the garden at Shinjuku Gyoen, a large park in Tokyo. While there, he runs into Yukari Yukino, a mysterious 27-year-old woman who is skipping work to enjoy beer and chocolate in the park. 

All through the rainy season, the two meet up and get to know each other, and Takao becomes more and more invested in becoming a shoemaker and making a pair of shoes for Yukari. When Yukari's job — and her reasons for neglecting it — become known, the pair finds themselves being pulled apart by the pressures of society. There's heaps of drama to be had in only 46 minutes, and if you can get over the questionable adult-teen relationship, the film is an absolute treat for the eyes, especially the garden scenery.

Though high school dramas make up a great deal of anime offerings, there are a fair number of historical selections available, as well. It can be hard now to picture Japan as rural and war-torn when our modern image is of a technological superpower. In This Corner of the World gives viewers a glimpse into how an average woman's life was turned around by war. Suzu, an innocent young woman from Eba in Hiroshima, gets married to a man named Shusaku, a navy civilian. She moves to his family's home in Kure, and there must contend with the rapidly shifting expectations placed upon her as a housewife and as a citizen living during wartime, as well as the return of her childhood friend Tetsu. 

The film largely takes place from 1944-1945, toward the end of World War II, but also provides glimpses of pre- and post-atomic bomb Hiroshima, with the early war years depicted as more carefree and humorous, giving way to a more anxious tone as time passes. The fearsome tools of war — the ships and planes and bombs — are a grim contrast to the traditional, close-to-nature culture of Hiroshima. This is another film where a handkerchief would not go amiss!

Netflix may not have any of the Studio Ghibli films for North American streaming, but aside from Miyazaki's film debut with Lupin III, they also have Studio Ponoc's Mary and the Witch's Flower. Studio Ponoc was founded by Ghibli alumnus Yoshiaki Nishimura, and this initial work from the studio definitely bears a resemblance to the works of Ghibli, both visually and in tone and theme. The movie, based on Mary Stewart's novel The Little Broomstick, follows the young Mary Smith, who has just moved in to her great aunt Charlotte's very English estate. 

Mary is bored while she waits for her parents to arrive and for school to start, and she unfortunately has no aptitude for helping out with anything around the house. She chooses to explore the estate's grounds and finds herself following a pair of cats into the woods, where she discovers a strange purple flower. This flower grants her the power to fly a broomstick, which whisks her away to a magical school, where she learns that there are drawbacks to wielding magic powers. This is a very fun and sweet film, appropriate for the very young but still enjoyable for adult viewers who retain a sense of whimsy.

Relationships are at the core of the three stories in the Chinese-Japanese anthology film Flavors of Youth. The movie is split into three vignettes: "The Rice Noodles," "A Little Fashion Show," and "Love in Shanghai." All three are set in different areas of modern China, but they take plenty of time to look into each character's past as well. In "The Rice Noodles," Xiao Ming monologues about time spent with his grandmother while eating San Xian noodles, lamenting his inability to find quite the same flavor since he has grown up and moved out of his parents' home. 

"A Little Fashion Show" explores the relationship between a successful model, Yu Lin, who is providing for her younger sister, Lu Lu, a student with dreams of fashion design. Yu Lin is putting herself under extra pressure, concerned that her aging will get in the way of her career. She starves herself while Lu Lu tries to remind her to take care of herself. 

The final segment, "Love in Shanghai," chronicles the story of Li Mo, a too-serious architect, who discovers a cassette tape from his childhood friend, Xiao Yu, among his belongings after he moves. He had neglected to listen to Xiao Yu's message when they were still kids, and doing so would have changed the entire course of his life afterward. At about 75 minutes, this Netflix original anime film is beautifully animated and touchingly melancholy, ending on an overall positive note.

Though the Berserk manga has been running in Japan since the late '80s, and has seen various anime adaptations since the late '90s, there is something about Kentaro Miura's dark fantasy series that keeps cultivating new fans. Those fans can't possibly miss the three films that adapt the manga's "Golden Age" arc, all of which are available on Netflix. The first chapter in this series of films, The Egg of the King, follows series protagonist Guts, who finds himself forced to join the company of Griffith, leader of the Band of the Hawk. 

The two men come across a demon named Nosferatu Zodd, who warns Guts about Griffith. There is plenty of intrigue and violence, as a failed assassination attempt forces Guts to do something that, even though he is a hardened mercenary, fills him with guilt and regret. The Egg of the King sets the stage for the complicated relationship between Guts and Griffith, so viewers will want to follow this installment up with The Battle for Doldrey and The Advent, thus completing the arc.

Director Masaaki Yuasa, already an established director in Japan, skyrocketed to Western fame at the beginning of 2019 with his extremely successful adaptation of Go Nagai's Devilman in the Netflix original series Devilman: Crybaby. Since then, his films The Night Is Short, Walk On Girl, Lu Over the Wall, and Ride Your Wave have graced the big screen and movie theaters all over America. Lu Over the Wall is now streaming on Netflix, bringing Yuasa's delightfully strange animation style into living rooms everywhere. 

The film centers on moody high school student Kai, who lives in a quiet fishing village and enjoys mixing music in his spare time. When he posts a video of his work online, a couple of schoolmates, Yuho and Kunio, see it and convince him to join their band, SEIREN. They practice out on Merfolk Island, a place tied to the town's legends about fearsome mermaids. While playing music, Kai hears a mermaid's song and becomes friends with Lu, a tiny mermaid with a penchant for singing. Of course, he tries to keep Lu a secret from the town until she plays a concert with SEIREN and accidentally becomes famous. The movie explores the relationship between Kai and Lu, as well as the harmful prejudices humankind perpetuates. The visuals don't disappoint, with Yuasa's signature stretched-out movement sequences in full force for jazzed-up dance sequences and all kinds of water acrobatics.