Best Anime Films of All Time Worldwide Collections
1. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - The Movie: Mugen Train
Original title: Gekijô-ban Kimetsu no Yaiba Mugen Ressha-hen
🎬 Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The
Movie: Mugen Train became a global phenomenon by
Haruo Sotozaki, grossing around $486 million worldwide. It stands as the
highest-grossing anime film of all time, breaking records across Japan
and international markets.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train
(Japanese: 劇場版「鬼滅の刃」無限列車編, Hepburn: Gekijō-ban Kimetsu
no Yaiba: Mugen Ressha-hen), is a 2020 Japanese animated dark fantasy action film based on the
"Mugen Train" arc of the 2016–20 manga series Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no
Yaiba by Koyoharu Gotouge. It is a direct sequel to the first season of
the anime television series as well as its first film adaptation. The
film was directed by Haruo Sotozaki and produced by Ufotable, and
written by the studio's staff members. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba –
The Movie: Mugen Train was released during the COVID-19 pandemic,
premiering in Japan on October 16, 2020, by Aniplex and Toho, and late
2020 to mid-2021 outside Japan by Crunchyroll through Sony Pictures
Releasing. The film was a critical and commercial success, grossing over
$512.7 million worldwide and making it the highest-grossing film of
2020.It marked the first time ever that a non-American production topped
the annual global box office, and it set a number of other box office
records, including the highest-grossing Japanese film both in Japan and
worldwide, two titles previously held by Spirited Away (2001) and Your
Name (2016), respectively, until it was surpassed in 2025 by the later
installment, Infinity Castle – Part 1: Akaza Returns, as the highest
grossing Japanese film worldwide. It was also being the first Japanese
film to gross over the half-billion dollar mark. It also has received
numerous awards, including Animation of the Year at the 44th Japan
Academy Film Prize, Best Film at the 6th Crunchyroll Anime Awards, and
Best Animation Film at the 45th Hochi Film Award. A sequel set after the
events of the second season, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – To the
Swordsmith Village, was released on February 3, 2023, with a third film
set after the events of the third season, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba
– To the Hashira Training, released on February 2, 2024. A film trilogy
titled Infinity Castle, set after the events of the fourth season has
been confirmed, with the first installment, Part 1: Akaza Returns,
released on July 18, 2025.
Plot:
Demon Slayer Corps leader Kagaya Ubuyashiki and his wife Amane visits a
graveyard where fallen Demon Slayers are buried. Lamenting those who
died in the war against Muzan Kibutsuji, he declares that the human
spirit will always rise to the challenge. Tanjiro Kamado, his demon
sister Nezuko, and his friends Zenitsu Agatsuma and Inosuke Hashibira
board the Mugen Train to assist Flame Hashira Kyojuro Rengoku in finding
a demon onboard.[N 1] When two demons appear, Kyojuro kills them and
they are awed by his power and skill. Later, all of them fall into a
deep sleep, the work of Enmu, Lower Rank One of Muzan's Twelve Kizuki.
Enmu instructs four insomniac passengers to enter their dreams and
destroy their spiritual cores, in exchange for a peaceful sleep. The
Demon Slayers have idealistic dreams; Tanjiro reunites with his deceased
family, Kyojuro reminisces on his past with his brother and father,
Zenitsu envisions a life with Nezuko, and Inosuke imagines himself as a
leader. The intruders fail to destroy their cores, while Tanjiro, aided
by the unaffected Nezuko, realizes that he is dreaming. He abandons his
family and wakes up when a vision of his father instructs him to commit
suicide. Nezuko uses her pyrokinetic Blood Demon Art to sever the
intruders' connection to the others. Angered at being denied their own
dreams, they attack Tanjiro, who knocks them unconscious except his
intruder, after he refused to harm him despite suffering from
tuberculosis. While Nezuko wakes up the others, Tanjiro confronts and
beheads Enmu, but he is revealed to have fused with the train and
prepares to devour the passengers.
Kyojuro instructs Inosuke and Tanjiro to cut Enmu's neck as he, Nezuko,
and Zenitsu protects the passengers. They find it in the locomotive but
are attacked by its defenses, including a Blood Demon Art that puts them
to sleep. The conductor, under Enmu's control, stabs Tanjiro in his
stomach amidst the chaos. With his mask making him immune to Emnu's
attacks, Inosuke exposes his vertebra. Tanjiro slashes it with his
newfound Hinokami Kagura, killing Enmu and derailing the train. As
Tanjiro attempts to recover from his wound, Kyojuro teaches him how to
stabilize it with his breathing techniques. They are then confronted by
Upper Rank Three Akaza, who tries to persuade Kyojuro into becoming a
demon. Kyojuro refuses and fights Akaza, but he cannot overcome his
regeneration and is severely wounded as Tanjiro and Inosuke look on.
After attempting his most powerful move as a last resort, Akaza fatally
injures him by impaling his solar plexus. With his remaining strength,
Kyojuro attempts to restrain Akaza until sunrise and sever his neck, but
Akaza breaks free and flees into a nearby forest.
Tanjiro throws his sword at Akaza and impales his chest, though he
escapes. He breaks down, calling the demon a coward and declaring
Kyojuro victorious for fulfilling his duty to keep everyone safe. In his
last moments, Kyojuro tells Tanjiro to visit his family's estate to
ascertain writings from the past Flame Hashiras, which may help him
learn about his Hinokami Kagura. He encourages Tanjiro and his friends
to continue on their paths to greater strength, telling them to never
give up in protecting others, before succumbing to his injuries and
reuniting with his mother in the afterlife. While Tanjiro and his
friends mourn Kyojuro's death, the Hashira receive the news. Kagaya
honors him for not letting anyone else die in his presence, stating that
he will be glad to reunite with him when he too passes.
2. Spirited Away
Original title: Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi
🎥 Spirited Away (2001), directed by
Hayao Miyazaki, earned around $395 million worldwide. It held the title
of highest-grossing anime film for nearly two decades and remains a
timeless Studio Ghibli masterpiece loved across generations.
Spirited Away is a 2001 Japanese animated fantasy film
written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. It was produced by Toshio
Suzuki, animated by Studio Ghibli, and distributed by Toho.[7] The film
stars Rumi Hiiragi, alongside Miyu Irino, Mari Natsuki, Takashi Naito,
Yasuko Sawaguchi, Tsunehiko Kamijō, Takehiko Ono, and Bunta Sugawara. It
follows a young girl named Chihiro "Sen" Ogino, who moves to a new
neighborhood and inadvertently enters the world of kami (spirits of
Japanese Shinto folklore).[8] After her parents are turned into pigs by
the witch Yubaba, Chihiro takes a job working in Yubaba's bathhouse to
find a way to free herself and her parents and return to the human
world. Miyazaki wrote the screenplay after he decided the film would be
based on the ten-year-old daughter of his friend Seiji Okuda, the film's
associate producer, who came to visit his house each summer.[9] At the
time, Miyazaki was developing two personal projects, but they were
rejected. With a budget of US$19 million, production of Spirited Away
began in 2000. Pixar animator John Lasseter, a fan and friend of
Miyazaki, convinced Walt Disney Pictures to buy the film's North
American distribution rights, and served as executive producer of its
English-dubbed version.[10] Lasseter then hired Kirk Wise as director
and Donald W. Ernst as producer, while screenwriters Cindy and Donald
Hewitt wrote the English-language dialogue to match the characters'
original Japanese-language lip movements.
Plot:
Ten-year-old Chihiro Ogino and her parents Akio and Yūko travel to their
new home. Akio, taking a shortcut, stops in front of a tunnel leading to
what appears to be an abandoned resort town, which Yūko insists on
exploring over Chihiro's protestations. Upon finding a seemingly empty
restaurant stocked with food, Chihiro's parents immediately begin to
eat. While exploring further, Chihiro finds an enormous bathhouse and
meets a boy named Haku, who warns her to return across the riverbed
before sunset. However, spirits begin to appear, and Chihiro discovers
that her parents have been transformed into pigs and that she cannot
cross the now-flooded river. Haku finds Chihiro and instructs her to ask
for a job from the bathhouse's boiler-man, Kamaji, a yōkai spirit
commanding soot sprites known as susuwatari. Kamaji instead asks a
worker named Lin to bring Chihiro to Kamaji's master Yubaba, the witch
who runs the bathhouse and who cursed Chihiro's parents. Yubaba tries to
frighten Chihiro away but eventually gives her a work contract. As
Chihiro signs the contract with her name (千尋), Yubaba takes away the
second kanji in her name, renaming her Sen (千). She soon forgets her
real name, and Haku later explains that Yubaba controls people by taking
their names; if Chihiro completely forgets hers like he once did, she
will never be able to leave the spirit world.
The other workers, except for Kamaji and Lin, frequently mock Sen. While
working, she invites a silent creature named No-Face inside, believing
him to be a customer. The spirit of a polluted river arrives as Sen's
first customer. After she cleans him, he gives her a magic emetic
dumpling as a token of gratitude. Meanwhile, No-Face demands food from
the bathhouse workers, granting gold copied from the river spirit in
exchange. However, when Sen declines the gold and leaves to find Haku,
No-Face angrily swallows some workers. Sen sees paper shikigami spirits
attacking a dragon and recognizes the dragon as a metamorphosed Haku.
When the seriously injured Haku crashes into Yubaba's penthouse, Sen
follows him upstairs. A shikigami that stowed away on her back
shapeshifts into Yubaba's twin sister Zeniba, who turns Yubaba's son,
Boh, into a mouse and creates a false copy of him. Zeniba tells Sen that
Haku has stolen a magic golden seal from her that carries a deadly
curse. Haku strikes the shikigami, causing Zeniba to vanish. Sen and
Haku fall into the boiler room, where she feeds him part of the emetic
dumpling. He vomits up the seal and a slug that a disgusted Sen kills.
Sen resolves to return the seal and apologize to Zeniba. She confronts
an engorged No-Face and feeds him the rest of the dumpling, forcing him
to regurgitate the workers. No-Face follows Sen out of the bathhouse,
and Lin helps them leave. Sen, No-Face, and Boh travel to see Zeniba
using train tickets from Kamaji. Meanwhile, Yubaba nearly orders Sen's
parents slaughtered, but Haku reveals Boh is missing and offers to
retrieve him if Yubaba releases Sen and her parents. Yubaba agrees, but
only if Sen can pass a final test.
The train crosses a sea to a land where Sen meets Zeniba, who reveals
that Yubaba used the slug to control Haku. Zeniba tells Sen that she
can't help her parents, but she makes her a magic protective hairband.
Using his dragon form, Haku flies Sen and Boh back, while No-Face
decides to stay with Zeniba. Mid-flight, Sen recalls falling into the
Kohaku River years earlier and being washed safely ashore, correctly
guessing Haku's real identity as the spirit of the Kohaku River and
restoring his memory. When they arrive at the bathhouse, Yubaba tests
Sen, asking her to identify her parents among a group of pigs. After she
answers correctly that none of the pigs are her parents, her contract
disappears and she is given back her real name. Haku takes her to the
now-dry riverbed and vows to meet her again. Chihiro crosses the
riverbed to her restored parents. Shortly before leaving for her new
home, Chihiro looks back at the tunnel, still wearing her hairband from
Zeniba.
3. Your Name
Original title: Kimi no Na wa.
🎬 Your Name (Kimi no Na wa.) became a
global anime sensation,
grossing around $382 million worldwide. The film, directed
by Makoto Shinkai, is celebrated for its stunning animation, emotional storytelling, and
unforgettable soundtrack.
Your Name (Japanese: 君の名は。, Hepburn: Kimi no Na wa.;
lit. 'Your Name is...')
is a 2016 Japanese animated romantic fantasy film written and directed
by Makoto Shinkai, produced by CoMix Wave Films, and distributed by
Toho. The first installment of what critics deem Shinkai's "disaster
trilogy," whose three entries each share themes inspired by the
frequency of natural disasters in Japan, it depicts the story of high
school students Taki Tachibana and Mitsuha Miyamizu, who suddenly begin
to swap bodies despite having never met, unleashing chaos onto each
other's lives. The film features the voices of Ryunosuke Kamiki and Mone
Kamishiraishi as Taki and Mitsuha respectively, with animation direction
by Masashi Ando, character design by Masayoshi Tanaka [ja], and its
orchestral score and soundtrack composed by the rock band Radwimps. A
light novel of the same name, also written by Shinkai, was published a
month prior to the film's première.Your Name premièred at the 2016 Anime
Expo in Los Angeles on July 3, 2016, and was theatrically released in
Japan on August 26, 2016; it was released internationally by several
distributors in 2017. The film received widespread critical acclaim,
with praise for its story, animation, music, visuals, and emotional
weight.
Plot:
Mitsuha Miyamizu is a high school student in Itomori,[note 1] a rural
town in the Gifu prefecture of central Japan. Having grown bored of her
provincial life, she wishes to be reborn as a boy from Tokyo. Soon,[c]
she begins to intermittently switch bodies with Taki Tachibana, a high
school student (and part-time waiter) from Tokyo's ward of Shinjuku. On
certain days, Taki and Mitsuha wake up in each other's bodies and must
live the entire day as the other, reverting when they sleep. The two set
up ground rules for sharing their bodies, communicating via writing
messages on paper, their phones, and their skin. Mitsuha (in Taki's
body) sets Taki up on a date with his coworker, Miki Okudera, while Taki
(in Mitsuha's body) helps Mitsuha become more popular at school. While
in Mitsuha's body, Taki accompanies Mitsuha's grandmother Hitoha and
younger sister Yotsuha to a Shinto shrine in the Goshintai[note 2]
crater near Itomori,[d] leaving an offering of kuchikamizake fermented
with Mitsuha's saliva. Hitoha explains that God is sovereign over both
time and the connections between humans. Mitsuha informs Taki[e] that
the comet Tiamat is expected to pass nearest to Earth on the day of the
autumn festival. The next day,[f] Taki goes on a date (at the National
Art Center in Roppongi) with Okudera in his own body; Okudera enjoys the
date but says she can tell Taki is preoccupied with someone else, owing
to his unusual behavior. Realizing he is falling for Mitsuha,[g] Taki
attempts to dial her number, but cannot reach her. The body-switching
stops as inexplicably as it started.
Taki, Okudera, and his classmate Tsukasa Fujii travel to Hida to search
for Mitsuha.[h] As Taki does not know the name of her village, he
sketches its landscape from memory. A ramen-shop owner in Takayama
recognizes the town as Itomori and offers to take the trio there. When
they arrive, they find the town completely in ruins (with Mitsuha's
messages simultaneously vanishing from his phone), having been almost
entirely decimated by fragments that fell from Tiamat. Since the comet
passed three years earlier, Taki realizes that he and Mitsuha were
separated by three years, with her living in 2013 and him in 2016. At
Hida City Library, the three discover that Mitsuha, her family members,
and friends were among the five-hundred victims killed by the comet's
impact. Taki then begins to lose his memories of Mitsuha. Frantically,
Taki leaves his inn accommodation[i] and rushes to the shrine at
Goshintai to imbibe Mitsuha's kuchikamizake. Upon doing so, he faints,
undergoing a vision chronicling much of her life, and realizes that she
once came to Tokyo to find him.[j] Although he was unaware of whom she
was, she passed her crimson kumihimo braid to him, which he has worn as
a good-luck bracelet ever since. He then awakens in Mitsuha's body on
the morning of the festival.[k] Hitoha undergoes an epiphany upon
observing "Mitsuha's" uncharacteristic behavior; speaking directly to
Taki, she reveals that the body-switching phenomenon has been in their
family for centuries. Realizing he has a chance to save Mitsuha and the
entire town, Taki convinces Mitsuha's friends, Sayaka and Tessie, to
assist in broadcasting an emergency signal to evacuate Itomori before
the meteor fragments strike. He then rushes to the shrine, where Mitsuha
has just woken up in Taki's body. As twilight falls,[note 3] their
timelines intersect, allowing them to finally meet in person. Taki
returns Mitsuha's braid, and they attempt to write their names on each
other's palms, but twilight ends before Mitsuha can write hers.
Returning to Itomori by foot, Mitsuha observes that the evacuation plan
had failed. She then successfully convinces the mayor, her estranged
father Toshiki, to order an evacuation drill. Beginning to forget Taki,
she discovers that he had written "I love you" on her hand instead of
his name.[note 4] Taki awakens in his own time with no memory of
Mitsuha.[l] Five years later, Taki, who has graduated from university,
struggles to find a job: he is haunted by persistent feelings of longing
and emptiness.[m] He has continuously fixated on the impact of Tiamat,
from which the residents of Itomori were miraculously saved by a
fortuitous evacuation drill, but is unable to determine why. Eventually,
on April 8, 2022, he glimpses Mitsuha, who has moved to Tokyo, on a
parallel metro train, and they race to find each other. On the steps of
Suga Shrine [ja], Taki calls out to Mitsuha, and the two simultaneously
ask for each other's names, declaiming the film's title (Your Name).
4. Suzume
Original title: Suzume no Tojimari
🎥 Suzume (2022), directed by
Makoto Shinkai, earned around $323 million worldwide. The film
captivated audiences with its breathtaking visuals and heartfelt story,
becoming one of the highest-grossing anime films of all time.
Suzume (Japanese: すずめの戸締まり, Hepburn: Suzume no
Tojimari; lit. 'Suzume's Locking Up')
is a 2022 Japanese animated coming-of-age fantasy adventure film written
and directed by Makoto Shinkai. The third and final installment of
Shinkai's disaster trilogy, following Your Name (2016) and Weathering
with You (2019), the film follows 17-year-old high school girl Suzume
Iwato and young stranger Souta Munakata, who team up to prevent a series
of disasters across Japan by sealing doors from the colossal,
supernatural worm that causes earthquakes after being released. Produced
by CoMix Wave Films, it features the voices of Nanoka Hara and Hokuto
Matsumura, with character designs by Masayoshi Tanaka, animation
direction by Kenichi Tsuchiya, art direction by Takumi Tanji, and its
musical score was composed by Radwimps and Kazuma Jinnouchi, making it
Shinkai's third collaboration with Tanaka and Radwimps. The film began
production in early 2020, eventually being announced as completed by
October 2022. Its themes were inspired by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and
tsunami. A novel adaptation, also written by Shinkai, and a manga series
illustrated by Denki Amashima both debuted prior to the film's release.
Suzume first premiered in IMAX in Japan on November 7, 2022, followed by
a theatrical release by Toho on November 11. It received largely
positive reviews from critics, with praise directed towards the
characters, animation, visuals, music, and emotional story. The film
grossed over US$314 million worldwide, making it the fourth
highest-grossing Japanese film of all time as well as the fourth
highest-grossing film of 2022 in Japan. Among its numerous accolades,
the film was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 81st Golden
Globe Awards and received seven nominations at the 51st Annie Awards
losing to both The Boy and the Heron (2023) and Spider-Man: Across the
Spider-Verse (2023) respectively.
Plot:
Suzume Iwato is a high-school girl living with her aunt Tamaki in a town
in Kyushu. She has recurring dreams of her childhood self walking
through a ruined cityscape at night, before running into a shadowy
figure resembling her late mother. On her way to school one morning,
Suzume meets a young man searching for abandoned locations with doors,
and tells him of a nearby abandoned onsen resort. Following him there,
Suzume discovers a free-standing door, which she opens to find a starlit
field that she cannot enter. She trips over a cat statue on the floor,
which turns into a real cat and flees. Frightened, Suzume rushes to
school. During lunch, Suzume notices a huge column of smoke from the
location of the abandoned resort, which no one else can see. She returns
there and finds the man from earlier struggling to close the door
through which the smoke is escaping. Suzume helps him lock the door with
an old key. The smoke disappears, but not before causing earthquake
damage to the town.
Suzume takes the injured man, Souta Munakata, to her home. He explains
that he is a "Closer" and must locate and lock specific doors in
abandoned places throughout Japan to prevent a supernatural "worm" from
being released and causing earthquakes. As they talk, the cat from the
resort appears and turns Souta into the chair he was sitting on. Souta,
now an animated three-legged chair, chases the cat onto a ferry headed
for Ehime, with Suzume following. Souta tells Suzume that the cat is a
"keystone", and that the worm was released after the keystone's removal
from the resort door. Upon reaching Ehime, Suzume and Souta find social
media posts from locals, who have photographed and named the cat
"Daijin". They locate the worm again and close the door it is escaping
from in an abandoned school. Suzume and Souta hitch a ride to Kobe, and
Daijin leads them to an abandoned amusement park, where they stop the
worm from emerging again through a Ferris wheel gondola. Souta explains
that the portal within the doors leads to the Ever-After, where souls go
after death.
After tracking Daijin to Tokyo, Souta asks Suzume to take them to his
apartment. He explains the legend of the worm, and that he is the last
descendant of a family that, for generations, had been responsible for
locking doors which lead to the Ever-After. Souta speaks of two
keystones that seal the worm: the western keystone has become Daijin,
while the location of the eastern keystone is unknown. He warns that if
the worm tries to emerge in Tokyo, it could cause damage similar to the
1923 Great Kantō earthquake. Suzume notices the worm emerging again, and
the two head towards it. Daijin reappears and reveals that he has passed
on his function as keystone to Souta. Souta suddenly turns into the new
keystone and Suzume reluctantly uses him to seal the worm. Awakening at
a shrine housing the Tokyo gate, Suzume sees Souta within the Ever-After
but is unable to enter. Suzume visits Souta's grandfather Hitsujirō at
the hospital, hoping to discover how to rescue Souta. Hitsujirō explains
that Suzume's ability to see the worm and the Ever-After through the
doors means that at some point in her life she entered the realm through
one such door. Moreover, the doorway she first used is the only place
where she can re-enter the Ever-After.
5. The First Slam Dunk
🏀 The First Slam Dunk (2022) scored big at
the box office, grossing around $282 million worldwide.
Directed by Takehiko Inoue, it became one of the top-grossing sports anime films ever, winning
praise for its animation, emotion, and nostalgia.
The First Slam Dunk (stylized in all caps[6]) is a 2022
Japanese animated sports film written and directed by Takehiko Inoue,
produced by Toei Animation and DandeLion Animation Studio. It is based
on Inoue's Slam Dunk manga series. It was released theatrically in Japan
on December 3, 2022. In 2023, The First Slam Dunk won the Japan Academy
Prize for Animation of the Year. The film grossed $279 million
worldwide, becoming the sixth highest-grossing Japanese film, and the
highest grossing basketball film of all time.The film follows Ryota
Miyagi, the point guard of Shohoku High School's basketball team. He had
a brother, Sota, who was three years older than him and inspired his
love for basketball. Ryota and his teammates Hanamichi Sakuragi,
Takenori Akagi, Hisashi Mitsui, and Kaede Rukawa challenge the
inter-high basketball champions, Sannoh Kogyo High School.[6] The film
adapts the final match depicted in the manga and features original
flashbacks and a new epilogue, all centered on Ryota.
Plot:
Hanamichi Sakuragi is a high school delinquent and gang leader. He is
very unpopular among girls, having been rejected fifty times. In his
first year at Shohoku High School, Sakuragi meets Haruko Akagi, the girl
of his dreams, and is overjoyed when she is not repulsed or frightened
of him like other girls. Haruko recognizes Sakuragi's athleticism and
introduces him to the Shohoku basketball team. Sakuragi is reluctant to
play basketball due to his inexperience with sports and his belief that
basketball is a game for losers. This belief came about because the most
recent girl to reject him had favored a basketball player. Despite his
immaturity and temper, he joins the team to impress Haruko, and proves
to be a natural athlete.
Sakuragi later develops a genuine love for the sport despite initially
playing because of his crush. Around this time, the star rookie and
"girl magnet" Kaede Rukawa joins the team. Sakuragi views him as a
bitter rival in basketball and romance, as Haruko has an unrequited
crush on Rukawa. Shortly after, two additional members rejoin the team:
Hisashi Mitsui, a skilled three-point shooter and ex–junior high school
MVP; and Ryota Miyagi, a short but fast point guard. The four players
work together to fulfill team captain Takenori Akagi's dream of winning
the national championship. After defeating one of the powerhouse teams
at the national high school championship, the misfits gain publicity,
and the once little-known Shohoku basketball team becomes an all-star
contender in Japan.