So now you’re scrolling on Netflix and wondering to yourself: what new anime movie should I watch? You can find the list here of the 15 best anime movies on Netflix that you should look at.
The list consists of many different types of genres so anyone can choose at least one movie that matches their interest. This also comes with some important additional information about anime movies.
You can find some top anime series on Netflix right here.
For example, the director, watch time, age recommendation, and genres of the movie. This makes it easier to make the right choice, for young people and adults.
Sidenote: The movies mentioned on this list are based on the European platform of Netflix. Secondly, this list is from October 2022 so the available content may differ over time.
Here is the list of the 15 Best Anime Movies on Netflix:
Follow the list all the way through and see what sparks your interest, let us know which anime movie you’re going to watch!
Table Of Contents
- 1. My Neighbor Totoro
- 2. Bubble
- 3. Violet Evergarden: The Movie (2020)
- 4. Spirited Away
- 5. Howl’s Moving Castle
- 6. Princess Mononoke
- 7. Mirai
- 8. Ponyo
- 9. Flavors of Youth
- 10. A Whisker Away
- 11. Blame!
- 12. The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf
- 13. Kuroko’s Basketball: Last Game
- 14. Castle In The Sky
- 15. Tokyo Godfathers
1. My Neighbor Totoro
My Neighbor Totoro is a classic Japanese fantasy movie from 1988 with a child-friendly animation style and an enjoyable story.
The story takes place in 1950 Japan and follows the adventure of the 10-year-old schoolgirl Satsuki and her younger sister Mei. They move with their father to an old house that is closer to the area hospital where their mother is recovering from a long-term illness.
The family does this with the hope that their mother recovers from her illness and that they can attend to her immediately when necessary. However, Satsuki and Mei explore their new place and find a couple of spirits that are small and dark but appear joyful and kind.
But it doesn’t end there, as Satsuki and Mei befriend these spirits and they lead them to a forest where they encounter another spirit. However, this spirit is pretty big and the sister’s name this being “Totoro”.
The story progresses with Satsuki and Mei living their daily life with Totoro suddenly appearing at unexpected times.
My Neighbor Totoro does a great job of keeping the story child-friendly but interesting enough for older ages.
Further information:
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Watch Time: 1 hour and 27 minutes
Genre: Slice of Life, Fantasy
Studio: Ghibli
Age Recommendation: 6+
2. Bubble
Bubble is a nice Netflix movie that comes with incredible directors, writers, designers, and more. For example, the production is done by a team of people who worked on Attack on Titan, Code Geass, and Death Note!
The Bubble anime movie takes place in Tokyo, this city was attacked by a mysterious amount of bubbles that fell from the sky defying the laws of gravity, and destroying almost all of the city. So now Tokyo is called ” the city of bubbles” and also isolated from the other parts of the world because of its dangers.
Not many people remain in this city now, mostly youngsters who lost their families because of the mysterious bubbles. Yet, some of the remaining bubbles in the city are now used to create a playfield for the youngsters there for their “parkour team battles”.
The main characters in Bubble are Hibiki and Uta. Hibiki is a young boy who is the ace of his parkour team due to his unorthodox and rather dangerous play style. He can easily leap from bubble to bubble because of his skill.
However, he one day makes a risky move and falls deeply into the dangerous and mysterious gravity-bending sea where he gets saved by the mysterious girl Uta. Then there is a mysterious and unique sound that only Hibiki and Uta can hear.
But where does this sound come from and what does it mean? And what is the identity behind the savior of Hibiki? This anime movie shows you the mysteries of the bubbles and it takes you on an exciting trip.
Further information:
Director: Tetsurô Araki
Watch Time: 1 hour and 40 minutes
Genre: Action and Adventure
Studio: Wit Studio
Age Recommendation: 16+
3. Violet Evergarden: The Movie (2020)
Violet Evergarden: The Movie takes you on an emotional rollercoaster with its beautiful message in the film. This Netflix movie is based on the events that take place in the Violet Evergarden light novel series by Kana Akatsuki. Secondly, this storyline is a sequel to the Violet Evergarden anime.
This story dives deep into trauma and how to overcome it. But what is Violet Evergarden about? Well, the movie begins with Violet who is a child soldier. However, she loses both her hands in battle and also her dear mentor Gilbert.
As a result, Violet turns into an Auto Memory Doll because of this awful experience. She now ghostwrites letters to people and in this way, she opens up and expresses her emotions in it.
Violet constantly gets reminded of her sad past and the loss of her loved one, the major. She just hopes to meet him one day and wishes for that opportunity to come.
The animation and background music is top-notch, one of the best there is among all the Netflix movies.
Further information:
Director: Taichi Ishidate
Watch Time: 2 hours and 20 minutes
Genre: Drama and Fantasy
Studio: Kyoto Animation
Age Recommendation: 13+
4. Spirited Away
Spirited Away directed by Hayao Miyazaki is regarded as one of the best anime movies of all time! Many otaku and anime fans simply call it ” peak fiction”, an absolute masterclass as it is. In addition, Spirited Away won the award for Best Animated Feature at the 75th Academy Awards.
The overall global impact ranks #1 amongst all the released anime movies. To clarify, Spirited Away is the highest-ever grossing movie made in Japan.
The story of Spirit Away is about Chihiro, she is a 10-year-old girl who lives with her parents in a rather unfamiliar and weird world. Chihiro and her parents come across an abandoned amusement park where her parents get turned into pigs by a curse from the witch Miyazaki.
She then meets Haku who tells her that this amusement park is actually a place for supernatural beings. These beings are here on a “break” from the earthly realm and rest here, Chihiro must work at the amusement park to free herself and her parents.
Chihiro meets numerous people on her journey, the just mentioned Haku for example. Secondly, she meets numerous witches and supernatural beings.
The message that Spirited Away tells you in its story can be perceived differently by every individual. So this makes it a unique experience for anyone who watches it.
Further information:
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Watch Time: 2 hours and 4 minutes
Genre: Drama and Fantasy
Studio: Studio Ghibli
Age Recommendation: 9+
5. Howl’s Moving Castle
Howl’s Moving Castle is another great masterpiece from director Hayao Miyazaki. Netflix does a great job of choosing the best anime movies for you to watch. This is also one of the highest-grossing anime movies in Japan from 2004.
The story is based on the work of Diana Wynne Jones, who is the writer of Howl’s Moving Castle British novel. So, all the events that take place in the storyline are based on this piece of work.
There are two main characters here, Howl and Sophie. The life of the young Sophie drastically changes after she meets the wizard Howl and becomes friends with him.
Howl is a wizard who lives in a magical moving castle. However, there is also a witch there who isn’t fond of their relationship and launches a spell on Sophie and she then becomes a 90-year-old grandma.
Howl is motivated to turn Sophie back into her younger self and decides to do whatever it takes to accomplish this goal. The two go on an adventure together and battle against the evil witch to turn Sophie back to normal...
Further information:
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Watch Time: 1 hour and 59 minutes
Genre: Fantasy
Studio: Studio Ghibli
Age Recommendation: 8+
6. Princess Mononoke
Princess Mononoke is a wonderful anime movie released in 1997 and the director took almost 20 years of creating the overall plot.
The story takes place during the 14th century, (the Muromachi Period), and the animation style portrays this time period beautifully. This anime movie is easy and enjoyable for anyone to watch on Netflix, especially younger children due to this art style.
The balance of harmony between all the humans, animals, and gods slowly begins to decrease. There are two main characters in Princess Mononoke, the tribe prince Ashitaka and San who is a young woman that spends her life being raised by wolves in the forest where she lives.
Ashitaka one day gets attacked by an animal which he gets a dangerous infection from and quickly searches for a cure. This cure needs to come from the god Shishigami who looks a bit like a deer.
Ashitaka travels to the west to find the cure but he stumbles upon unexpected sights, as he sees humans destroying the beautiful earth and nature he so greatly loves.
Princess Mononoke vows to do anything to get these humans out of her forest, the battle between humans and gods begins!
Further information:
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Watch Time: 2 hours and 13 minutes
Genre: Fantasy
Studio: Studio Ghibli
Age Recommendation: 13+
7. Mirai
Mirai is likely out of all the anime movies on Netflix the best suitable for children to watch, such a beautiful story with great music and animation. The film starts with Kun, a spoiled little boy.
He gets jealous of his newborn little sister Mirai because his parents are very busy taking care of her ( of course, she is a baby).
Kun runs away from home one day and stumbles upon a garden that has magical time-traveling powers. He then meets his little sister Mirai who traveled back in time from the future.
Kun also meets his mother as a little girl when he time-travels and goes on adventure after adventure. This opens his eyes differently as Kun now learns to view the world differently.
Beyond imagination, a young boy’s extraordinary adventure takes place with his beloved sister by his side.
Further information:
Director: Mamoru Hosoda
Watch Time: 1 hour and 38 minutes
Genre: Fantasy and Adventure
Studio: Studio Chizu
Age Recommendation: 8+
8. Ponyo
Ponyo is a great child-friendly movie well-known in the anime world, it is a great addition to all that Netflix has to offer. This anime movie is one of the top movies for children on Netflix to watch.
Nonetheless, Ponyo itself is enjoyable to watch even for adults. For example, the famous singer Dua Lipa said in an interview that she absolutely loves Ponyo!
There is a five-year-old child named Sosuke, who lives in a small town and is fond of the Inland Sea. Sosuke one day meets a goldfish princess there who is trapped in a small jam jar and he decides to save her and puts her in a green plastic bucket.
Sosuke decides to name the goldfish Ponyo and their friendship becomes better and better. Ponyo ultimately seeks to become a normal human and her bond with Sosuke helps her to understand humans better.
The adventures of Sosuke and the beings that live in the ocean begin! If you’re looking to watch some anime movies on Netflix with your younger sibling, this should be your pick!
Further information:
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Watch Time: 1 hour and 41 minutes
Genre: Comedy and Adventure
Studio: Studio Ghibli
Age Recommendation: 7+
9. Flavors of Youth
Flavors Of Youth is a beautiful Netflix original anime movie from Studio Ghibli. This film delivers three amazing separate stories that take place in three different Chinese cities, followed by top-tier animation and exciting plots.
All the stories in this film differ from one another in terms of style, storyline, length, and display. However, each story has its amazing features that make it so enjoyable to watch. Different topics such as love, romance, fashion, and even noodles play a part in this movie.
What makes this anime film so special is that you watch three rather short unique films in a row, so you basically can watch three amazing stories in only one movie!
Further information:
Directors: Li Haoling, Jiaoshou Yi Xiaoxing, and Yoshitaka Takeuchi
Watch Time: 1 hour and 15 minutes
Genre: Drama and Romance
Studio: Studio Ghibli
Age Recommendation: 8+
10. A Whisker Away
A Whisker Away is a Netflix anime movie from the same director as the Sailor Moon series. The story is about the girl Miyo Sasaki who turns into a cat to receive attention from the guy she has a crush on.
Miyo tries to get the attention of her crush Kento Hinode but is unsuccessful in doing so. However, the magic that helped Miyo transform into a cat lets her get close to Kento, as he absolutely loves the cat.
When Miyo transforms into a cat she goes by the name “Taro”.
However, one day Miyo finds the “city of cats” but these cats are actually humans who gave up on their human life and chose to run away from it. These cats find view their lives as ” miserable human existence”, so every one of them is depressed about this.
They have forgotten the feeling of being needed and loved by others and decide to abandon their human existence.
The line between Miyo’s human and animal life begins to blur further and further, as she forgets that there are many people close to her who care about her.
The Netflix anime movies mentioned have their uniqueness to them, however, this one tackles depression and shows the effect it has on individuals.
Further information:
Director: Junichi Satoh
Watch Time: 1 hour and 44 minutes
Genre: Fantasy and Romance
Studio: Studio Colorido
Age Recommendation: 11+
11. Blame!
Spark your Netflix adventures and choose Blame! as one of your anime movies to watch. Blame! takes place in a distant future ruled by technology. Whatever is left of the human race live within the Megastructure, a vast and dangerous labyrinth that has grown wild and out of control.
There is also the “Safeguard”, a defensive system that is capable of erasing all humans.
An example of one of the humans that live in this crazy world is the mysterious Killy. He is on a quest to bring society back to where it belongs and save it from oblivion.
Killy is in search of a human who possesses Net Terminal Genes. This isn’t your standard pick for an anime and chill day but Blame! is quite enjoyable, especially if you love CGI.
Further information:
Director: Hiroyuki Seshita
Watch Time: 1 hour and 46 minutes
Genre: Psychological Drama
Studio: Polygon Pictures
Age Recommendation: 10+
12. The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf
The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf is your ideal anime movie on Netflix to watch. If you love dark fantasy anime, then this is the right pick for you!
But what is The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf all about?
The main character is Vesemir, a poor young witcher who tries his best to earn money by slaying monsters for coins. Meanwhile, a newly dangerous power appears on the Continent.
Vesemir then comes to the understanding that these jobs he takes as a witcher do not only give him more money but it is about a lot more than that.
The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf takes place in a world where many witchers got slaughtered during an enemy’s attack, so there aren’t many left of this group.
There is this fear that the secrets and powers of these mages will go instinct because of this. So now there is only one last generation left of Witchers and Vesemir is one of them.
Further information:
Director: Kwang II Han
Watch Time: 1 hour and 23 minutes
Genre: Dark Fantasy and Adventure
Studio: Mir Little Schmidt Productions
Age Recommendation: 18+
13. Kuroko’s Basketball: Last Game
Finally, a sports anime movie to watch on Netflix! Kuroko’s Basketball: Last Game is the first movie of the anime Kuroko’s Basketball.
The whole crew of the Generation of Miracles reunites yet again after a U.S. basketball team called Jabberwock mocks Japanese basketball players and embarrasses them on the court.
You get to witness Kagami, Kuroko, and the others of the Generation of Miracles on the same team after all these years. Their team called “Vorpal Swords” plays against the U.S. team “Jabberwock”.
This is one of the top sports movies on Netflix that an anime fan has to watch, the animation is great and it’s certain to motivate you to pick up a basketball yourself.
Secondly, there are plenty of moments where you can enjoy the characteristics of the Generation of Miracles again.
The story progresses rather smoothly so it is easy to keep watching, especially with the intense basketball match you’re about to spectate!
Further information:
Director: Shunsuke Tada
Watch Time: 1 hour and 30 minutes
Genre: Sports and Shonen
Studio: Production I.G
Age Recommendation: 13+
14. Castle In The Sky
Castle In The Sky is one of the classic top anime movies to watch, this film is the oldest on this list as it comes from 1986! Very enjoyable to watch with your younger sibling, as it is a suitable pick for some children’s anime movies on Netflix.
So there are two main characters in Castle In The Sky, Pazu and Sheeta. Pazu is a young boy who is fond of engineering and he one day finds Sheeta. She wears a magical glowing pendant, and Sheeta and Pazu decide they want to discover the legendary floating castle Laputa.
They go on a journey together to find this legendary place along with a promise to discover the mystery of the magical pendant that Sheeta wears.
This won’t be an easy task, as there are pirates, secret agents, army members, and other obstacles that want to prevent Sheeta and Pazu from discovering the truth. This means that the castle Laputa and the magical crystal of Sheeta are of great value and pose a threat to these foes.
Pazu one day just finds the mysterious Sheeta floating down from the sky and off they go on an incredible adventure…
Further information:
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Watch Time: 2 hours and 4 minutes
Genre: Adventure and Steampunk
Studio: Studio Ghibli
Age Recommendation: 6+
15. Tokyo Godfathers
Tokyo Godfathers, the so-called” holiday classic” by master director Satoshi Kon. He is also the director of the anime movies Paprika and Perfect Blue. This is one of the charming anime movies that fit the criteria for a Christmas anime movie to watch on Netflix.
In modern-day Tokyo, three homeless people’s lives are changed forever when they discover a baby girl at a garbage dump on Christmas Eve. Middle-aged alcoholic Gin (Toru Emori), teenage runaway Miyuki (Aya Okamoto), and former drag queen Hana (Yoshiaki Umegaki) find the abandoned baby.
So now as New Year comes closer and closer, these three combine their efforts to solve the mystery of this abandoned child and to find the parents.
The trio encounters many irrelevant events that block them from their goal, and some people force them to confront their own haunted pasts.
This takes a big hit on them as they’re all homeless and get reminded of how it happened. But they have to stay strong and learn to face the reality and their future, together.
Tokyo Godfathers offers a cinematic masterpiece in terms of humor, originality, heartfelt feelings, a story of hope, and redemption that goes against all the odds.
Further information:
Director: Satoshi Kon
Watch Time: 1 hour and 31 minutes
Genre: Comedy, Adventure, and Drama
Studio: Studio Ghibli
Age Recommendation: 12+
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