We all know the drill. You have a night off and decide that you want to watch a movie. After narrowing down which streaming service you’ll be using (which is a whole thing now), let’s say you land on Netflix. Now you have to figure out what kind of movie you’re in the mood for. Comedy or drama? Romance or horror? Live-action or animated? After 20 minutes of endless menu scrolling, you finally narrow your choices down to anime films. Netflix isn’t really known as an anime streamer, so they can’t have that many choices, right?
Well, I have bad news—or good news, depending on your point of view. Netflix’s library of anime films has been actively improving in recent years. Of course, Crunchyroll’s film library is always adding new titles, and Max has all the Studio Ghibli films. But Netflix has some incredible movies too. Most importantly, they have the One Piece movies. So, 40 minutes after you first fired up your TV, let’s help you pick a film, shall we?
This list is up-to-date as of June 2023.
The End of Evangelion
Neon Genesis Evangelion is one of the best anime ever made. I think enough people share that point of view for it to be treated as fact. But many fans disagree about the series ending. If you ask me, it’s one of the greatest endings to anything, ever. But many don’t share my views. Hideaki Anno, Evangelion‘s director/creator, even got death threats in the mail following the end of the series. Take it down a notch, people.
Cue The End of Evangelion, which Anno made as the “real life” interpretation of what was “actually” going on during the series’ cerebral final episodes. The result is a piece of iconic cinema. The final shot, in particular, is often referenced in TV and film across the world. But definitely do not watch it if you haven’t already watched the series. In which case: what are you doing, go watch Evangelion right now!
One Piece Film: Strong World
Netflix actually has a growing library of One Piece films. It makes sense, given their live-action adaptation of the series. It’s great that these films are on Netflix because until recently, they were ridiculously hard to find in the U.S. Now, not all of them are worth watching, but of the 15 One Piece films, Strong World is among the best.
Strong World and the most recent One Piece film, Red, are the only two movies in which the series’ mangaka, Eiichiro Oda, has been deeply involved. This definitely speaks to their quality, as both are joyful romps. Strong World introduced the now-treasured phenomenon of epic end-of-film costumes for the Straw Hats. Very importantly, the film also features Billy, a large and delightful bird who constantly has a booger dripping out of his beak. Peak bird.
One Piece Film: Gold
A more recent addition to Netflix’s One Piece library is 2016’s One Piece Film: Gold, which ranks in my personal top three One Piece films. Part of that high ranking is nostalgia—I got to see Gold in theaters on opening weekend during my first trip to Japan. But no matter how many times I watch it, it never gets old.
Gold is simply a ton of fun, which is borne out in its plot, which answers the question, “What if the Straw Hats went to Vegas?” Gold is a heist film, clearly taking cues from the likes of Ocean’s Eleven. Except it’s One Piece, so it’s complete mayhem. The film is wildly over the top at every turn, which is exactly what you want in a One Piece movie experience. Highly recommended, even as a first One Piece experience.
Bubble
Bubble is a positively gorgeous film with a sweet and engaging narrative. The story takes place in a version of Tokyo that has been abandoned after mysterious bubbles appeared, upending the laws of gravity in the city and making it a wasteland—and playground for rebellious youth.
If you pay attention to the modern anime landscape, you might recognize this film’s production studio, Wit Studio. In fact, the animation producers and respective animation teams responsible for Bubble went straight from this project to work on Spy x Family.
Flavors of Youth
Flavors of Youth has the distinction of being the only film CoMix Wave Films has released that was not directed by Makoto Shinkai (of Your Name and Suzume fame) since 2011. Intriguingly, it’s also a collaboration with a Chinese studio, Haoliners Animation League. The character animation is perhaps slightly less polished than in a Shinkai film, but the backgrounds are simply stunning. And honestly, the number of people who watch these films for their pretty environments might surprise you.
Flavors of Youth is an anthology film about (you guessed it) youth in three different Chinese cities. It’s lovely, though sometimes melancholy and bittersweet. Which is, of course, what you’d expect from CoMix.
A Whisker Away
Who doesn’t love a movie about cats?! Except for, of course, the movie Cats. But Taylor Swift as a supposedly sexy cat having weird cat cleavage is a different matter.
Instead, A Whisker Away is a nice little love story about a teenage girl who finds a magical mask that gives her the ability to transform into a cat. Pretty Majora’s Mask, right? The film’s team is nothing to scoff at, sharing a director with Sailor Moon and a scriptwriter with Anohana. If you know anything about Anohana, that might clue you in that this movie is sad. It deals with depression quite explicitly.
Child of Kamiari Month
You can definitely think of Child of Kamiari Month as a “Ghibli-like.” It’s a deeply touching and gorgeously animated story grounded in the grief a child feels after losing a parent, but which explores that grief through magic. In the trailer alone, you see a dragon and a talking rabbits. That being said, Child of Kamiari Month has bigger action stakes than a Ghibli film and is strong enough to not need the comparison as more than a hook to lure in new audiences.
Mobile Suit Gundam I
Mobile Suit Gundam is a tentpole of the entire anime genre. It’s the reason why mechs are a trope in the first place. It remains such a beloved franchise that there is a life-sized, multi-story moving Gundam in Yokohama, Japan. So using this moment of movie indecisiveness to educate yourself on the world of Gundam is not a bad move at all. Mobile Suit Gundam I is part of a three-movie compilation of the original Gundam series which started it all.
Related: The 10 Best Anime Soundtracks, Ranked on We Got This Covered
Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop
Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop is a beautifully animated film with a truly excellent name. Its protagonists are named Smile and Cherry. One of them only speaks in haiku. The other is self-conscious and provides us with one of the few examples of the masking that we were all doing IRL in the heat of the pandemic. It’s a love story, and it’s cute as hell.
Drifting Home
Ads for Drifting Home were unavoidable in the fall of 2022 in Tokyo, and they always elicited the same response from me: “Wow, that movie looks gorgeous.” Studio Colorido gets a little less fanfare stateside than Studio Chizu or the aforementioned CoMix, but they deserve much more. Drifting Home is a wonderful example of what they do best. The premise is bizarre—sixth graders go to play in an abandoned apartment building and suddenly find themselves in the middle of the ocean. But that bizarre premise is used expertly as a vehicle for a bittersweet coming-of-age story.
Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal
The original Sailor Moon series from the 90s served as a whole generation’s entry point to anime. But there’s still new Sailor Moon to be had, and as the 2021 film Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal shows, Sailor Moon is still as excellent as ever. Eternal is both a welcome new story to satiate fans and an excellent introduction for those who never watched the classic series. The 21st century could do with more Sailor Moon.
Violet Evergarden: Eternity and the Auto Memory Doll
Netflix has quite a few films around Violet Evergarden, an incredibly beloved and critically acclaimed dramatic fantasy series. While Violet Evergarden: The Movie serves as the finale of the series (casually curious viewers, beware!), Violet Evergarden: Eternity and the Auto Memory Doll is a standalone, spin-off story which takes place three years after the main series. As with many televised anime spin-off films, fans familiar with the original series might get the most out of it, but Eternity and the Auto Memory Doll can also stand on its own. It’s a valid check-in point for a gorgeous series.
Black Clover: Sword of the Wizard King
Black Clover is a widely popular shounen series whose manga just ended this year. But just because the manga’s over doesn’t mean the anime is—or that there won’t be new films, too. Sword of the Wizard King came out in 2023 and is, like Violet Evergarden: Eternity and the Auto Memory Doll, a standalone spin-off story. By all accounts, it’s a great point of entry for newcomers to the series, with gorgeous animation and stunning action sequences.
Blame!
As you might have noticed from this list, Netflix has a lot to offer in the way of “anime films which are both sweet and sad in their depictions of growing up.” Blame! is decisively not that. It’s a sci-fi story about a future in which hyper-automated cities are infected with a virus that turns them against their human creators. It doesn’t fully translate the brilliance of its source material, but it’s an interesting watch nonetheless.
(featured image: Toei Animation)
