5 perfect anime movies

WMD

WMD

Guild Member
I saw on twitter that "5 perfect movies" was trending and rather than join in with my opinions on that dumpster fire I figured I'd come here and see what people thoughts were as no one on Twitter was mentioning any anime.

I'm sure we will all have different opinions on this so let's play nice. Ask someone to justify their opinion sure but lets not get angry at each other!

Anyway 5 anime films I think are perfect:

A Silent Voice
Summer Wars
Night is Short, Walk on Girl
Time of Eve: The Movie
The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya

Im not trying to say these are more or less perfect than any other film. These are just films I love to watch and I wouldnt change anything about them. I'm pretty sure I havent repeated directors either. I debated including a Shinkai film but my fav of his is The Place Promised... and though I love it I wouldnt call it perfect.

(Incidentally where an English dub exists theres a very high chance I've only watched the dub of it)
 
A Silent Voice
Perfect Blue
Only Yesterday
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
Redline

Like you I'm not suggesting that any of these movies are perfect, they're just movies that no matter how many times I see them or how much time passes my love for them just doesn't diminish at all.
 
WMD said:
These are just films I love to watch and I wouldn't change anything about them.
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That's how I'd rate a 10/10, if I watch something and don’t have a single criticism or nitpick. I’ll resist the urge to fill the list entirely with Kon films, but he deserves two spots.

Ghost in the Shell (1995)
Perfect Blue (ha)
Whisper of the Heart
Only Yesterday
Millennium Actress

I think these films particularly deserve it as they’re self contained and don’t require any previous watching as part of a franchise. I almost put the Cowboy Bebop movie on there, but that works best when combined with the TV series.
 
The IDOLM@STER Movie
Liz and the Blue Bird
Gurren Lagann 2: The Lights in the Sky are Stars
Girls und Panzer der Film
Sword of the Stranger

Too many favourites too pick from so I went for a random five that haven't been mentioned yet
 
Buzzkillington said:
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
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If I'd done multiple films by the same director this wouldve also been on my list. But Summer Wars is my personal fav of his.

ayase said:
Ghost in the Shell (1995)
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Hunter_Killer said:
Ghost in the Shell (1995)
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Winkuru said:
Ghost in the Shell
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This film was my gateway into anime so I will always hold it dear and you're all right is is perfect but at the end of the day I personally prefer SAC.

thedoctor2016 said:
Liz and the blue bird
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I had a feeling you'd pick this. Yes it really is a perfect film.

Winkuru said:
Laputa
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Azar said:
Laputa: Castle in the Sky
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I kinda forgot about Ghibli stuff:eek: if I'd put one in my list I prob wouldve picked between Laputa, Mononoke and Totoro.

ActionFaust said:
Girls und Panzer der Film
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Interesting choice and within the context of that franchise it basically is perfect. Considering that franchise is about blasting each other with tanks it was all so gentle and easy to watch. Lol.

Theres also quite a few choices appearing of films I've not seen so will have to see if I can check them out (which is a nice accident of starting this thread)
 
I don't really watch a lot of anime movies, so I'll just list off the top of my head some anime movies I do enjoy.

Grave of the Fireflies
Memories
Ghost in the Shell
Legend of the Galactic Heroes: My Conquest is the Sea of Stars
Death Billiards

Like honestly, "perfection" is really vague as a description here and can mean either "favorite anime" or "anime you consider to be masterpieces." I don't consider half of the anime I listed here as masterpieces (except the first three; Satoshi Kon's "Magnetic Rose" in "Memories" was really good), but again, I don't really watch a lot of anime movies.

It's hard not to throw "Ghost in the Shell" into the lot, considering what it brought in terms of storytelling and its philosophy about one's identity, losing your sense of self when you replace your body with a robotic shell. But if I could be frank, I was never really a big fan of the GitS franchise because of its convoluted political jargon. It's not a jab against its quality, but rather, a matter of personal preference. I prefer more straightforward stories that don't confuse me like Grave of the Fireflies or even Memories.
 
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WMD said:
Interesting choice and within the context of that franchise it basically is perfect. Considering that franchise is about blasting each other with tanks it was all so gentle and easy to watch. Lol.
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Yeah it's an odd choice but the tank battles really made it one of my favourite film experiences. They are absolutely wild and physically impossible but that just makes it even better especially for the BT-42 scene.
 
SpideyWrex said:
I don't really watch a lot of anime movies, so I'll just list off the top of my head some anime movies I do enjoy.

Grave of the Fireflies
Memories
Ghost in the Shell
Legend of the Galactic Heroes: My Conquest is the Sea of Stars
Madoka Magica: Rebellion

Like honestly, "perfection" is really vague as a description here and can mean either "favorite anime" or "anime you consider to be masterpieces." I don't consider half of the anime I listed here as masterpieces (except the first three; Satoshi Kon's "Magnetic Rose" in "Memories" was really good), but again, I don't really watch a lot of anime movies.

It's hard not to throw "Ghost in the Shell" into the lot, considering what it brought in terms of storytelling and its philosophy about one's identity, losing your sense of self when you replace your body with a robotic shell. But if I could be frank, I was never really a big fan of the GitS franchise because of its convoluted political jargon. It's not a jab against its quality, but rather, a matter of personal preference. I prefer more straightforward stories that don't confuse me like Grave of the Fireflies or even Memories.

Threw in Madoka just because I ran out of movies. It's definitely one of my favorite anime movies though because of what it subverted for the Madoka franchise... but yeah, definitely no masterpiece either.
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For me perfect meant "I wouldnt change anything about it" whether it's a masterpiece or not I wasnt really bothered by personally. I think a movie can be a masterpiece but also something not perfect (for instance, I prefer and think, Batman Begins is a more perfect movie than Dark Knight. But Dark Knight is the masterpiece film of that trilogy)

I think perfect will ultimately be a personal and emotional response for most people so it's fun to see what people come up with.
 
WMD said:
For me perfect meant "I wouldnt change anything about it" whether it's a masterpiece or not I wasnt really bothered by personally. I think a movie can be a masterpiece but also something not perfect (for instance, I prefer and think, Batman Begins is a more perfect movie than Dark Knight. But Dark Knight is the masterpiece film of that trilogy)

I think perfect will ultimately be a personal and emotional response for most people so it's fun to see what people come up with.
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Well, in that case, I would replace Madoka with Death Billiards. It brought a really unique spin to the concept of death and how people deal with it. And of course, bringing us one of the best anime series of all time. I wouldn't change a thing about it.
 
From 256 anime movies down to a long list of 24. Cut out all those mentioned so far leaves me with twelve. Cutting that down to 5 turned out to be easier than I thought. Movies that I watch without hesitation and love each time unconditionally.


Wings of Honneamise, The
Kiki's Delivery Service
Cowboy Bebop: The Movie
Anthem of the Heart
K-On! The Movie

I almost put in Bleach The Movie: Memories of Nobody. I don't have a lot of time for Bleach, but I love that one film, and I couldn't tell you for why.
 
Evangelion 1.11
Interstella5555
Spirited Away or Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
The Wings of Honnemaise
Tokyo Godfathers

A very hard list to make considering my penchant for putting most great films at a 4/5 or 8/10 on MAL, I rarely put anything above that unless I really like it.
 
I think K-ON Has been upsurped by All of Yamada's subsequent films. Tamako Love Story, ASV and Liz I think are all better.
All of her work wise only Tamako Market is below K-ON for me atm, as ive never fancied rewatching it like I have all other KyoAni stuff.
 
I think, that selecting only a 5 movies is a little hard, to be honest. I created my list, but I want to add Ghibli movies or Haruhi/Galaxy Express 999/Macross: Do You Remember Love?/Angel's Egg (damn, I forgot about this).
 
All my top 5/6 have been mentioned I think:
Tokyo Godfathers
Only Yesterday
Ghost in the Shell/Akira (both my earliest anime films)
Wolf Children
Anthem of the Heart

So cheating as always 😁 here's some more:
Princess Mononoke
PROMARE
Okko's Inn
Lu Over the Wall
Your Name.

I believe that's 11 different directors!
 
Wow, this one's a toughie.

WMD said:
For me perfect meant "I wouldnt change anything about it"
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ayase said:
That's how I'd rate a 10/10, if I watch something and don’t have a single criticism or nitpick.
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Just Passing Through said:
Movies that I watch without hesitation and love each time unconditionally.
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These are my favourite definitions. The five I'll pick here are five that I find are either highly compelling to rewatch and are films that I think stand as shining examples of the medium of anime, or just really did something to shake me to my core and make me remember them for that. Or both. 🙂

In no particular order, then:
  • Redline
  • Gurren Lagann movie 2: The Lights in the Sky are Stars
  • The Wind Rises
  • Akira
  • Paprika

Shockingly, I didn't put an Evangelion Rebuild film into that list! 😱
Nor any of my personal favourites like Patema Inverted or either of my pick of Shinji Aramaki's CG efforts. That just shows how competitive this is.


The ones I went for were Redline, which is so addictive that I've seen it more times than I can remember... 😅

Gurren Lagann movie 2, I'm really impressed to get beaten to the punch to include. For me, it's just an absolutely amazing how it distills things down into an arguably even purer experience with a streamlining of the story so clever it's a marvel; richer, more detailed artwork; and dramatic new animation that turns the already exciting finale into something truly unforgettable. A work of actual genius, in my view.

The Wind Rises because it's my favourite Ghibli by a mile and I just find myself always, always wanting to come back to it, including the English dub that actually is the very definition of perfect.

Paprika because, to me, it was the late great Satoshi Kon only just getting started with what he was going to bring to animation as a whole. His passing leaves the medium poorer forevermore, in my opinion: that's how important I think Kon was as an animator.

And lastly Akira. Because of course Akira's in this list. Why wouldn't it be? 🤨

😛


Great topic. 👍
 
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