Top 100 Anime Movies, Best Anime Movies Must Watch

The 100 Best Anime Movies of All Time. These anime movies are an absolute must watch, all anime movies on this list have high IMDB ratings and fresh ratings on rotten tomatoes. Some of the movies are even critically acclaimed.

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100. Mobile Suit Gundam F-91 (1991)

Director: Yoshiyuki Tomino

Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack and 27 years after the events " The setting places the movie 30 years after the events ofand 27 years after the events " Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn ", and none of the characters that had previously appeared in the series were present in the film.

Renewed conflict breaks out after a generation of peace in this continuation of the "Mobile Suit Gundam" anime saga. To accommodate the growing population, the Earth Federation has built new space colonies. But the Crossbone Vanguard decides to seize these cities to help establish its extraterrestrial empire. Now, reluctant hero Seabook Arno and his Gundam F91 must lead a fierce struggle for survival.

99. The Secret World of Arrietty (2010)

Director: Hiromasa Yonebayashi

A boy named Shō tells the audience he still remembers the week in summer he spent at his mother's childhood home with his maternal great aunt, Sadako, and the house maid, Haru. When Shō arrives at the house on the first day, he sees a cat, Niya, trying to attack something in the bushes but it gives up after it is attacked by a crow. Shō gets a glimpse of Arrietty, a young Borrower girl, returning to her home through an underground air vent.

At night, Arrietty's father, Pod, takes her on her first "borrowing" mission, to get sugar and tissue paper. After obtaining a sugar cube from the kitchen, they travel inside a hollow wall to a bedroom which they enter through an intriguing dollhouse with working electric lights and kitchen utensils. However, it is Shō's bedroom; he lies awake and sees Arrietty when she tries to take a tissue from his night table. Startled, she drops the sugar cube. Shō tries to comfort her, but Pod and Arrietty quietly leave and go home.

The next day, Shō puts the sugar cube and a little note beside the air vent where he first saw Arrietty. Pod warns Arrietty not to take it because their existence must be kept secret from humans. Nevertheless, she sneaks out to visit Shō in his bedroom. She drops the sugar cube on the floor, letting him know that she is there. Without showing herself, she tells Shō to leave her family alone and that they do not need his help. On her return, Arrietty is intercepted by her father. Realizing they have been detected, Pod and his wife Homily decide that they must move out. Shō learns from Sadako that some of his ancestors had noticed the presence of Borrowers in the house and had the dollhouse custom-built for them. The Borrowers had not been seen since, however.

Pod returns injured from a borrowing mission and is helped home by Spiller, a Borrower boy he met on the way. He informs them that there are other places the Borrowers could move to. While Pod is recovering, Shō removes the floorboard concealing the Borrower household and replaces their kitchen with the kitchen from the dollhouse, to show he hopes them to stay. However, the Borrowers are frightened by this and instead speed up their moving process.

After Pod recovers, he goes to explore possible new living quarters. Arrietty goes to bid farewell to Shō, but in the course of the conversation he suggests to her that the Borrowers are becoming extinct. Arrietty tells him fiercely that they will not give up so easily. Shō apologises that he has forced them to move out and reveals he has had a heart condition since birth and will have an operation in a few days. The operation does not have a good chance of success. He believes that there is nothing he can do about it, saying that eventually every living thing dies.

While Sadako is out, Haru notices the floorboards have been disturbed. She unearths the Borrowers' house and captures Homily. Alerted by her mother's screams, Arrietty leaves Shō in the garden and goes to investigate. Saddened by her departure, Shō returns to his room. Haru locks him in and calls a pest removal company to capture the other Borrowers alive. Arrietty comes to Shō for help; they rescue Homily and he destroys all traces of the Borrowers’ presence.

On their way out during the night, the Borrowers are spotted by the cat Niya. Sleepless, Shō goes into the garden for a stroll and the cat leads him to the "river", where the Borrowers are waiting for Spiller to take them further. Shō gives Arrietty a sugar cube and tells her that her courage and the Borrowers' fight for survival have made him want to live through the operation. Arrietty gives him her hair clip as a token of remembrance. The Borrowers leave in a floating teapot with Spiller.

The Disney international dubbed version contains a final monologue, where Shō states that he never saw Arrietty again and returned to the home a year later, indicating that the operation had been successful. He is happy to hear rumors of objects disappearing in his neighbors' homes.

98.The Boy and the Beast (2015)

Director: Mamoru Hosoda

Nine-year-old Ren has recently lost his divorced mother. With no news of his father and refusing to live with his legal guardians, Ren flees into the streets of Shibuya. Ren steals some food and sleeps in an alley, reminiscing the aftermath of his mother's funeral.

In the Beast Kingdom, the lord has decided he will retire in order to reincarnate as a deity and names two potential successors: the popular Iōzen, who is also the father of two children, and the powerful Kumatetsu, who is lonely and lazy. The Grandmaster suggests that Kumatetsu find a disciple in hopes of inspiring him to succeed him.

While wandering the streets of Tokyo with his makeshift companion, Tatara, Kumatetsu meets Ren and suggests that the boy becomes his disciple. Though Ren is fiercely opposed, he follows Kumatetsu back to the Beast Kingdom out of curiosity but is unable to go back to the human world. As he watches a battle between Iōzen and Kumatetsu, Ren is impressed with Kumatetsu's persistence despite the lack of support from onlookers. When Ren cheers for him, Kumatetsu is easily defeated. However, the Grandmaster declares the actual duel of succession has not come yet.

Taking Ren as a disciple, Kumatetsu gives him a new name, Kyūta in relation to his age. Their initial training sessions go poorly, but Kyūta realizes that he can learn from Kumatetsu by imitating him by performing household tasks. The boy gradually finds that he can predict his master's movements to improve his fighting skills and they soon begin in training together for eight years.

Now as a teen, Kyūta has become a distinguished kendo practitioner. Through his relationship with Kyūta, Kumatetsu gained his own following of supporters, including the younger son of Iōzen, Jirōmaru, who wishes to be trained by Kumatetsu. Kyūta finds a way back to the human world, and befriends Kaede, a young student. In the process, Kyūta finds his father, who had been searching for Ren since he disappeared and wants to catch up. Torn by his double life, he is unable to reconcile the resentment he had as Ren and the lack of connections he has as Kyūta. When he rejects both his father and Kumatetsu, he discovers a powerful void within himself that nearly overwhelms him until Kaede calms him down and gives him a bracelet that has helped her when she becomes anxious.

On the day of the succession duel, Kumatetsu loses confidence without Kyūta's encouragement and is nearly subdued by Iōzen. However, Kyūta has been secretly watching and reveals himself, helping Kumatetsu defeat Iōzen. When Kumatetsu is declared the winner and the new lord, Iōzen's elder son Ichirōhiko is revealed to be a human who had been found on the streets of Tokyo as an infant and adopted by Iōzen. Having developed a vacuum in his heart like Kyūta, unwilling to believe that he is a human and not a beast, Ichirōhiko manifests telekinetic powers and seriously injures Kumatetsu with Iōzen's sword. Kyūta is nearly overtaken by his own emptiness and tries to kill Ichirōhiko, but regains his senses with Kaede's bracelet as Ichirōhiko is consumed by darkness and disappears.

Kyūta decides to leave for the human world to fight Ichirōhiko. When Kaede refuses to leave him, they are attacked by Ichirōhiko, who takes the form of a destructive whale. Unable to hold his own against Ichirōhiko, the young man decides to use the vacuum within himself to absorb his opponent's negative energy and then kill himself, saving everyone else. However, Kumatetsu uses his new privilege as the lord and reincarnates as a deity, taking the form of a sword "to be handled with the heart" in reference to their first training session together. He merges with his pupil's form, filling his empty void within him, and defeats his enemy without killing him. Ichirōhiko wakes up surrounded by his adoptive family.

In the aftermath, Ren celebrates his victory with Kaede in the Beast Kingdom and returns to the human world. After reconciling with his father and himself, he attends the local university and keeps Kumatetsu within his heart.

97. Ah! My Goddess: The Movie (2000)

Director: Hiroaki Goda

Three years prior to the events depicted in the film, Belldandy, a goddess from heaven, comes to live with Keiichi, an engineering student attending the Nekomi Institute of Technology.

Celestine, a high-ranking god who served as Belldandy's mentor for most of her training, returns from imprisonment with a plan to infect the Goddess System with a virus. Celestine needs Belldandy to effect his plan, but must first destroy the bond between Belldandy and Keiichi.

96. A Dog of Flanders (1997)

Director: Yoshio Kuroda

is a 1997 Japanese anime film. It was based on the Japanese television series aired on Nippon Television from 10 October 1992 to 27 March 1993. Both the television series and this film are inspired by the book A Dog of Flanders by Ouida.

95. Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: The Conqueror of Shamballa (2005)

Director: Seiji Mizushima

After Edward Elric recovers his arm and his brother Alphonse's body, Edward is dragged from his homeworld through the Gate of Alchemy—the source of alchemical energy—to a parallel world of Earth in 1923. The world is fundamentally governed by the laws of modern science instead of alchemy. When Edward arrives there, he discovers that he has been stripped of his alchemical powers and his newly restored arm and leg.

Two years later, in Munich, Germany, Edward researches rocketry with his friend Alfons Heiderich, a young man who resembles Alphonse, in the hopes of returning to his world. Edward rescues a persecuted Romani woman named Noah from being sold. Noah is taken in by Edward to live with him and Alfons, and begins having visions concerning Edward's life in his world. The next day, Edward meets Fritz Lang, a Jewish film director resembling King Bradley, who persuades Edward into helping him hunt down a dragon he has been seeking for inspiration for his next film. The dragon, which turns out to be homunculus Envy, attacks Edward, but is then weakened and captured by members of the Thule Society.

The Thule Society, led by Karl Haushofer and Dietlinde Eckhart, use Envy and Edward's kidnapped father Hohenheim as catalysts to open a portal to Edward's world, believing it to be the utopia Shamballa after learning about it from Hohenheim. A number of armored soldiers are sent through the portal, only to emerge on the other side in the city of Liore as mutated zombie-like creatures. Alphonse, who is visiting Liore, fights off the armored soldiers and merges parts of his soul to three of their suits to aid him in combat. Meanwhile, Edward breaks into the Thule Society headquarters and accidentally reopens the portal, returning the dead armored soldiers to Earth and allowing Alphonse's armored form to briefly reunite with his brother before his soul returns to his body, increasing Edward's determination to return to his world.

Alphonse is guided by the homunculus Wrath to the underground city beneath Amestris' Central City to reopen the Gate of Alchemy. There, they are attacked by the homunculus Gluttony, who fights and mortally wounds Wrath. At Wrath's insistence, Alphonse transmutes and sacrifices the two homunculi to use as material to open the Gate. Meanwhile, in Munich, the Thule Society persuades Noah into guiding them on how to correctly open the Gate based on what she had learned from reading Edward's mind. Edward learns from Lang that the Thule Society plans to use the weapons from his world to help Adolf Hitler in his attempt to start a revolution, and heads to stop them. Hohenheim and Envy are both transmuted at the same time that Alphonse transmutes Gluttony and Wrath. With the Gate opened, Eckhart leads a fleet into the other world, where she gains the ability to use alchemy. However, she begins to go mad with power and fear of her new surroundings and launches an attack on Central City. Alfons launches Edward in a rocket-powered plane to return him to his world before being gunned down.

Edward appears in his world, reunited with Alphonse and their friend Winry Rockbell, who fits Edward with new automail limbs. The Amestris military manages to stop most of Eckhart's soldiers with the help of Roy Mustang. Edward battles Eckhart before Alphonse transmutes parts of his soul to a group of armors, which attack her and force her to retreat. Upon reappearing in her own world, Eckhart is covered with shadow creatures from the Gate and killed by an officer out of alarm of her new, monstrous appearance. Understanding the danger posed by the connection between the two worlds, Edward returns to Earth to seal the Gate on the other side, knowing he will be trapped there forever. Instead of sealing the Gate on the other world's side as per Edward's request, however, Alphonse has Mustang seal the Gate and follows Edward to remain with his brother. Following Alfons' funeral, the Elric brothers leave Munich with Noah, intending to close the gate and destroy the weapons meant to be used in Hitler's attack.

94. Golgo 13 The Professional (1983)

Director: Osamu Dezaki

Professional contract killer Duke Togo—codenamed "Golgo 13"—is hired to assassinate Robert Dawson, the son of oil baron Leonard Dawson and the heir of Dawson Enterprises, and succeeds. Later, after accomplishing a hit on a powerful crime boss in Sicily, Golgo is suddenly attacked by the U.S. military and discovers that his informant, the clockmaker, has been killed by Snake, a genetically altered assassin. Aided by The Pentagon, the FBI, and the CIA, Dawson has become determined to kill Golgo and avenge his son's death.

A military force, led by Lieutenant Bob Bragan, attempts to ambush Golgo while he is in the middle of an assignment in San Francisco, California to assassinate an ex-Nazi official. The plan fails, and Bragan's entire force is wiped out. However, a dying Bragan manages to wound Golgo. Meanwhile, Rita, the mechanic that supplied Golgo with his getaway car, is murdered by Snake.

Having been consumed by revenge, Dawson begins to allow the rest of his family to be harmed. For Snake's cooperation, he allows him to rape Laura, Robert's widow, and sends his granddaughter, Emily, and butler, Albert, to an airport to murder Golgo with a firearm concealed in a doll. The shot misses, and Albert reaches for his handgun. Golgo shoots Albert in the chest, a crowd gathers, and Golgo walks away nonchalantly.

Dawson, in a meeting with the FBI, the CIA and The Pentagon, demands the release of Gold and Silver, two notorious murderers who were part of a covert government operation to test the survival rate of mercenaries in the jungles of South America. When the group refuses his request because Gold and Silver are on death row, Dawson threatens to halt all operations that his company controls, which include oil refineries and banks. The group agrees to his demands in fear that the economy of the country will collapse. When Laura demands to know why Dawson has refused to seek vengeance on whoever ordered the hit on Robert, he refuses to answer.

Pablo, an informant for Golgo, informs him that Dawson ordered the hit on him and that he's currently in Dawson's tower awaiting his advance. Pablo goes on to inform Golgo that his wife and children are being kept at ransom in the tower. Pablo attempts to shoot Golgo, but is killed by Golgo first.

Golgo arrives at Dawson Tower in New York City, and begins his ascent to the top floor on foot. He first plays a game of cat and mouse with a fleet of helicopter gunships sent to kill him. While on the move, Golgo is attacked by Snake, and a brutal fight occurs between the two in an elevator. An attack helicopter shoots the elevator, killing Snake while Golgo hides by the edge unseen by the helicopter. Gold and Silver are then sent to ambush Golgo. During the attack, Golgo counters both of them; bludgeoning Gold on the head repeatedly with the butt of his revolver and shooting him. Silver, blinded by rage at his partner's death, runs towards Golgo, who quickly stuffs a grenade in Silver's mouth, killing him. Golgo then proceeds towards Dawson.

Admitting failure, Dawson orders all action against Golgo to end. Golgo finally encounters Dawson at the top of his building. Following a brief monologue, Dawson attempts suicide by leaping out of the window. As he falls, Dawson remembers Robert's suicide note, which reveals that, despite receiving much care from his father throughout his lifetime, Robert was overcome with grief over the possibility that he would never fulfil his father's ambitions; unable to commit suicide, he requested Golgo to kill him. Before Dawson hits the ground, Golgo shoots him in the head. Dawson falls headfirst, crushing his skull and any evidence that he was shot. His death is ruled as accidental by the authorities.

Afterwards, Golgo encounters Laura, who has since become a prostitute. Upon recognizing him, she attempts to shoot him, but her shot misses. In the pre-credits scene, Golgo casually walks away.

93. Dallos (1983)

Director: Mamoru Oshii

In the near future, humanity has drained the earth of its resources. To sustain Earth's populace, mining colonies are created on the moon to provide vital natural resources.

After generations of mistreatment from the Earth Federal Government, the colonists retaliate by performing acts of terrorism leading directly to a conflict with their overseers. A mysterious structure on the moon called Dallos, is worshipped by the colonists and gives them hope. A young colonist by the name of Shun Nomonura is caught into the fray as he joins the rebels, dramatically affecting the lives of those close to him with his actions. A generational divide between the younger natural born colonists and their older compatriots arises as the allegiance to earth as humanity's motherland is questioned.

92. The Restaurant of Many Orders (1991)

Director: Tadanari Okamoto

A short film based on a story by Japanese writer Kenji Miyazawa in which two young British hunters get lost in the woods and discover a strange restaurant. Are the hunters about to discover how it feels to be hunted?

91. Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (2000)

Director: Yoshiaki Kawajiri

Charlotte, a young woman, is abducted by Baron Meier Link, a vampirenobleman who is known not to harm humans needlessly. Charlotte's father, Elbourne, hires D, a dhampir, to find her and rescue her, and alternatively, kill her humanely if she's been turned into a vampire. He offers D $500,000 as a down payment, and offers him $10,000,000 if he carries out the job. D has Elbourne double the payment, and agrees to search for Charlotte.

At the same time, Charlotte's older brother hires another group of vampire hunters, the notorious Marcus brothers, composed of the leader Borgoff, a hulking man named Nolt, a blade master named Kyle, a physically disabled psychic named Grove and a woman named Leila who hunts vampires because of a personal grudge rather than for monetary gain. The two parties (D and the Marcus brothers) race inexorably after Meier Link. However, Meier Link hires the mutant Barbarois; a group of lethal mercenary body guards. They consist of Caroline, a shape shifter; Benge, a shadow manipulator; and Machira, a werewolf.

Throughout the course of the film, two of the Marcus brothers, Nolt and Kyle, end up being killed by the mutant Barbarois, while Leila and Borgoff continue their search for Charlotte.

As the story progresses, Meier Link's abduction of Charlotte turns out to not be as it seemed, as it's revealed that Charlotte willingly ran away with Meier Link as his lover. Charlotte rightfully feared that no one would understand their relationship, with her a human and Link a vampire.

Throughout their search, and after both characters save each other from seeming death at separate points, D has a conversation with Leila, where she reveals that she hunts vampires because a vampire killed her mother. D tells her that he hunts vampires as he has no other choice as a dhampir, and she can have a life that someone like him could never have; the life of a normal human. Leila, having not exactly taken the life of a normal human, instead being a monster hunter, fears that no one will mourn her death when that time comes. She make a pact with D, that if either one of them survives, the survivor will bring flowers to the other's grave. D admits that he does not expect himself to survive the bounty hunt, after coming so close to death.

In the final act of the film, Meier Link transports Charlotte in his carriage to the Castle of Chaythe, where Countess Carmilla, Meier Link's matron, waits for them. Carmilla, a ghost of a vampire who died long ago, reigned supreme within the Castle of Chaythe when vampires were all-powerful and unchallenged. However, her bloodlust was so strong that D's father, an ancient, noble vampire king, killed her in disgust. Carmilla promises Meier Link and Charlotte travel to a far away city known as the City of The Night, where they can be free to love each other, which they will travel to in a large and ancient spaceship-like structure hidden beneath the Castle of Chaythe. Carmilla explains that most ancient castles had similar ships hidden within them, and that back when vampires reigned supreme, these ships weren't an uncommon means for vampires to travel to far regions. Carmilla notes that the ship is old and hasn't flown in a long time, and that she doesn't know if the ship will fly safely, but that Meier Link and Charlotte are allowed to take that risk, if they so wish.

D and the remaining Marcus brothers separately trail Meier Link to the Castle of Chaythe, and as they enter the castle in their search for Charlotte, Carmilla plays psychological tricks on them. Borgoff, for example, is shown Nolt and Kyle, the dead members of the Marcus brothers, returning to life. Borgoff is seemingly killed in his surprised and ecstatic state by Carmilla's ghost, and it turns out Nolt and Kyle never returned to life at all. Later, however, Borgoff appears, having been turned into a vampire. Grove appears in his psychic form, killing Borgoff, but this exerts Grove's physical body to the point that he dies as well. This leaves Leila as the only surviving member of the Marcus brothers as she continues her search for Charlotte inside the castle.

Carmilla manipulates D's mind, and shows him a vision of his mother, in which she apologizes to D for birthing him as a dhampir, and states that she couldn't help it as she was a human in love with D's vampire father, and attempts to explain that humans are capable of loving vampires. D strikes this vision of his mother down with his sword and returns to a normal state.

In a plot twist, Carmilla turns on Meier Link and Charlotte, as Carmilla had actually plotted to kill Charlotte all along, with the reasoning being that Carmilla needed the blood of a virgin to leave her ghostly, ethereal form and return to life. D destroys Carmilla's ghost just as Carmilla is performing the ritual and draining Charlotte of her blood. D, still with a job to do in bringing Charlotte safely back home, engages Meier Link in battle, as Meier Link doesn't want D to take his lover away from him. D stabs Meier Link through the chest with his sword, but not through his heart, injuring Meier Link but allowing him to live. During their encounter, Charlotte has died due to the ritual that Carmilla had been performing previously, and D takes the ring off of her finger as proof of her death to bring back to Elbourne, as he ceases battle with Meier Link.

D, along with Leila, make their leave of the Castle of Chaythe, and allow Meier Link to leave for the City of the Night in the Castle of Chaythe's ship with Charlotte's corpse on board. D and Leila agree to ride back into town together on D's horse, as Leila jokingly tells D that the reward is rightfully hers, but this time, she'll allow him to have it. Before riding off, they watch in the distance as the ship hidden underneath the castle takes off to the skies with Charlotte's corpse and Meier Link inside.

In the final scene of the movie, D arrives at Leila's funeral, watching her loved ones mourn from a distance. Many decades have passed since all of the previous events, as a little girl revealed to be Leila's granddaughter approaches and greets D, and invites him to stay with her family for a while. D politely declines, saying that he simply came to "repay a favor to an old friend, who feared no one would mourn her death." D admits that he was glad she was wrong. The girl thanks him, and D replies by smiling gently at her, and leaves.

90) Short Peace (2013)

Director: Various

Short Peace (ショート・ピース Shōto Pīsu) is a multimedia project composed of four short anime films produced by Sunrise and Shochiku, and a video game developed by Crispy's Inc. and Grasshopper Manufacture.The four films were released in Japanese theaters on July 20, 2013 and were screened in North America during April 2014. Sentai Filmworks have licensed the films for North America. The video game was released in January 2014 in Japan, April 2014 in Europe, and September 2014 in North America.

The opening sequence depicts a young girl following a white rabbit through different magical worlds. It was created by Koji Morimoto.[6] It is then followed by 4 short films:

Possessions

九十九 ( Tsukumo ) A lone traveler is caught in a storm, and finds an abandoned shrine when his hat is blown away. He takes refuge inside, where he discovers a small altar and some old offerings. Falling asleep, he wakes to find himself in a small room, surrounded by painted sliding screens. Unusual spirits begin to come through the walls. The traveler opens the portable cabinet he was carrying, revealing an assortment of tailoring tools. He proceeds to repair items for the spirits, who appear satisfied. At the end, he forces open a final screen door, causing a mountain of old items to fall on him. The items assemble themselves into the shape of a monster, emitting a foul odor. The monster charges at the traveler, who shuts his eyes and presses his hands together, causing the old items to fly past him. Upon opening his eyes, he discovers that he has returned to the abandoned shrine, and that the sun has risen. Standing up, the traveler notices old talismans plastered on the walls of the shrine. As he steps outside, he notices that his hat, along with several items he repaired for the spirits, have been left outside for his taking.

Directed by Shuhei Morita.

Combustible

火要鎮 ( Hi no Yōjin )

Set in the Edo period, Owaka, a young aristocratic woman, is set to be engaged to a wealthy suitor. However, her true love lay with her childhood friend Matsukichi, a handsome and rebellious young man from next door. Three days before her wedding, Owaka is in her room, looking over wedding gifts, as well as a splendid kimono, hanging on a rack. In her despair, she throws a folded fan across the room, where it lands inside a standing lamp. The fan catches fire, and the flames begin spreading across the doors. Owaka cries for help, but decides to shut herself in her room after taking a long look at the splendid kimono. The fire spreads through the building, and quickly engulfs the entire neighborhood. Firefighters, among them Matsukichi, rush to the scene, and begin demolishing surrounding buildings in an attempt to confine the conflagration. Matsukichi sees Owaka standing on top of a roof, covering herself with the splendid kimono. He calls out to her, warning her not to climb a nearby tower. But, surrounded by fire, Owaka had no choice, and climbs it anyway. The fire reaches her, and the tower goes up in a burst of flame. The splendid kimono is sent flying into the sky, still burning.

This story was likely inspired by the Great fire of Meireki, which was said to have been caused by a cursed kimono. Directed by Katsuhiro Otomo.

Gambo

An injured Christian samurai looks up at Gambo, a mysterious white bear, who walks away without killing him. Soon after, Gambo sees a streak of fire descend from the sky. In a nearby village, several people are praying and caring for a giant, red humanoid that resembles an oni, a Japanese ogre. It is unconscious on the floor, wearing a loincloth and broken restraints on its wrists and neck. The village chief says that a young girl is offered to the ogre every night, so it will not attack the village, since the villagers' guns are ineffective against it. The ogre awakens, and kills the villagers tending over him. Distraught, the village chief begs the Christian samurai to hunt down and kill the ogre, before it returns to claim the emperor's daughter, the last girl in the village.

The emperor's daughter runs off into the forest, where she encounters Gambo, who seems to understand the young girl's thoughts. Sensing her desperation, Gambo sets off to confront the red ogre. He arrives at the site of a strange ruin, where a large half organic, half metallic craft lies smoldering amidst animal carcasses and yellow slime. Gambo enters the craft, and finds a human woman bound to a cybernetic alcove, unnaturally pregnant with several ogre-like fetuses. In a rage, Gambo rips apart the inside of the structure, causing explosions that destroy the entire craft. The ogre returns, and upon seeing his wrecked vessel, attacks Gambo in a fit of fury. The two fight, but the ogre is much stronger. Having followed the bear, the Christian samurai intervenes in their fight. Believing the ogre to be a demon, he drives a spear into its back, and slashes at it with his sword, but does little damage against its massive body. The emperor's daughter leaps out from her hiding spot, catching the ogre's attention, who runs towards her. Before he can get to her, Gambo attacks the ogre from behind, and the two wrestle on the ground. Shogunate soldiers show up, attacking the ogre with rifles and arrows, to no avail. With his remaining strength, Gambo lifts the ogre up into the air, gripping its middle in a tight hold as his claws sank into the ogre's abdomen, eviscerating and killing it. Gambo falls to the ground, and dies from his injuries. The camera pans out, showing a path of destroyed trees where the ogre's spacecraft had crashed into the mountain.

Directed by Hiroaki Ando.

A Farewell to Weapons

武器よさらば ( Buki yo Saraba ) A tour-de-force saga of men battling robotic tanks in apocalyptic Tokyo, directed by Hajime Katoki and based on Katsuhiro Otomo's manga of the same name.

89. Momotaro: Umi No Shinpei (1945)

Director: Mitsuyo Seo

After completing naval training, a bear cub, a monkey, a pheasant, and a puppy say goodbye to their families.[5]While they are preoccupied, the monkey's younger brother falls into a river while chasing the monkey's cap and is carried towards a waterfall. The dog and the monkey work together to save the child just before he is swept downstream. A time skip occurs and Japanese forces are seen clearing a forest and constructing an air base in a Pacific island with the help of the jungle animals. A plane lands in the airstrip and from inside emerges Momotaro, depicted as a General, together with the bear, monkey, dog and pheasant, who by this point have become high-ranking officials. The subsequent scenes show the jungle animals being taught the alphabet via singing, washing clothes, given military training, and loading weapons in warplanes. The animal residents of the island are shown as simple primitives who are star struck by the glamorous and advanced Japanese animals.

A narration of the story of how the island of Celebes was acquired by the Dutch East India Company follows and it is revealed that the Japanese are attempting to invade it. The monkey, dog and bear cub become parachute jumpers while the pheasant becomes a pilot.[6] The paratroopers ambush a halftrack and hastily invade a British fort, causing the unprepared British soldiers to panic and flee. Momotaro, the monkey and the puppy are then shown negotiating with three clearly terrified, stammering British officials and after a brief argument, the British agree to surrender Celebes and the surrounding islands to Japanese rule. A brief epilogue shows children playing at parachuting onto continental America outlined on the ground. Plainly the United States is to be the target of their generation.

88.Venus Wars (1989)

Director: Yoshikazu Yasuhiko

In the year 2003, a comet designated Apollon collides with the planet Venus and disperses much of the planet's atmosphere, adds enough moisture to form acidic seas, and speeds up its rotation to give it a day that matches its year. This unlikely yet scientifically sound accident enables humanity to partially terraform Venus, sending the first manned ships in 2007 and begin colonizing it in 2012. By the year 2089, Venus has a population in the millions and is divided into two separate nation states, the northern continent of Ishtarand the southern continent of Aphrodia.

Susan Sommers, a bubbly reporter from Earth, travels to Venus hoping to get a scoop on the military tensions that have arisen between the two nations. She arrives in the Aphrodian capital of Io shortly before the city is invaded by the forces of Ishtar, led by General Donner.

Meanwhile, a brutal, Rollerball-esque racing game is being held in a local stadium. One team, the Killer Commandos, is led by hotshot Hiro Seno. The game is disrupted by the invasion and the team quickly evacuates. Hiro's teammate Will picks up Sue on the way and takes her to the garage where the rest of the team is lying low. The invasion of Io is completed in one day, and the politicians, police, and press submit to Ishtar's authority. The city is put under martial law and a curfew imposed. Many of Io's citizens, including Hiro's girlfriend Maggy, try to pretend that nothing has changed since the invasion, but Donner's iron grip on the city is too tight to ignore.

Hiro visits his teammate Jack, who's staying in his uncle's high rise apartment. However, the police see them as trespassers and lead an unprovoked assault against Hiro, who makes a daring escape from their custody. However, his leg is pierced by a bullet and he barely makes it to Maggy's home before he collapses. Hiro reveals many of the terraforming farms funded by the Aphrodian government were frauds simply meant to secure land away from Ishtar and that their crops continually kept failing since the plants couldn't endure the constantly changing weather conditions of the planet, despite the planet's politicians saying otherwise. This upsets Maggy so much that she breaks down in tears prompting a concerned Hiro to comfort her. Hiro and Maggy share a passionate kiss before Maggy's father returns from work, forcing Hiro to hide in a back room. Maggy's father, a bureaucrat, reveals his plan to have himself and Maggy evacuated out of Io as he did with her brother and mother. Maggy defiantly stands up to her father and defends her friends, before he furiously shouts her into silence as Hiro secretly storms out.

Meanwhile, Miranda of the Killer Commandos discovers that their manager, Gary, has been secretly smuggling arms into the city. Raiding his cache, she reveals her plan to demolish the Ishtar tanks that are parked in the old stadium. Gary says that the Commandos would be fools to try such a suicidal mission, but Hiro likes the idea and inspires his teammates. The Killer Commandos lead an assault against the tanks, but underestimate the strength of Ishtar's military. Jack and Gary are killed in the melee, and Hiro nearly shares their fate. At the last minute, however, the team is saved by the Aphrodian Freedom Force, which had also been planning to attack the stadium that night.

Sue and the Killer Commandos are forcibly recruited by Lt. Kurtz, who thinks that their skills as monobikers would be useful in his Bloodhound Squadron. Tensions run high among the Killer Commandos and the team is divided; Will and Sue think that it's important to fight for Aphrodia's freedom, but Hiro and Miranda want nothing to do with war. Will is called out on a mission and Sue begs him to take her along. He instead convinces her to wire her camera to his monobike so he can film their attack. But to Sue's horror, Will disappears in battle. Sue steals a buggy to search for him on the battlefield, only to stumble upon the terrible truth of his death.

Upset over Will's fate, Hiro and the Commandos demand to be freed from the Freedom Force's custody. Lt. Kurtz and Hiro quickly strike up an animosity, and Kurtz challenges Hiro to a race across a ravine in their monobikes. Despite having a ten-second head start, Hiro is taken out by Kurtz. Nevertheless, Kurtz is impressed by Hiro's raw talent, and makes him a deal: he will release the Killer Commandos on the condition that Hiro joins the Bloodhound Squadron. Hiro grudgingly accepts his offer, and says goodbye to Miranda and his friends.

Back in Io, General Donner is visited by Sue, who requests an interview with him for the Independent Press on Earth. Once alone with him, Sue pulls a gun and threatens to kill him in order to avenge Will and all the other innocent people who have died in the war. She fails to release the safety however, and is quickly disarmed and arrested. Displaying his sadism Gerhard accosts Sue, snatches away her firearm, then discharges her pistol inches from the side of her head, before putting it to her skull and pulling the trigger, cruelly revealing he's used up all the bullets.

Kurtz leads the Bloodhound Squadron in a surprise and intense strike on Io. Kurtz is disabled, but Hiro manages, through sheer luck and skill, to corner Donner's tank and destroy it by getting Gerhard to fire on him (raging that he shall not be beaten by children), with his shots missing Hiro and striking a runway that collapses on top of (screeching with frustration) Gerhard in his tank. With their leader dead, the Ishtar forces are quickly disbanded and Aphrodia is freed from their control. Kurtz and Hiro end their animosity and Kurtz gives Hiro his monobike as a sign of goodwill. While driving through the streets, Hiro encounters the recently released Sue, who's being evacuated to Earth. She thanks him for all of his help, and he tells her to come back and visit Venus again.

Following Sue's tip, Hiro makes the long trek to a refugee camp; there, he and Maggy are happily reunited (thanks to her siamese cat Andrew). Back on Earth, Sue has given a world exclusive on the Venus Wars. She plans to spend her vacation on Venus so she can rejoin her friends.

87. Origins: Spirit of the Past (2006)

Director: Keiichi Sugiyama

Genetic engineering on trees was conducted at a research facility on the Moon to produce trees capable of growing in harsh, arid conditions. The trees gain consciousness, obliterating Earth's civilizations and destroying the Moon. Three hundred years later, Japan is a dystopia covered by the Forest, a huge expanse of sapient trees, and ruled by the tree-like Druids, which inhabit the planet and control the water supply of both trees and humans. Agito, a young boy, and his father Agashi, as well as his friends Cain and Minka, live in Neutral City, a city carved out of the ruined skyscrapers which acts as both a buffer and a bridge between the Forest and the militaristic nation of Ragna. While the people of Neutral City co-exist peacefully with the trees of the forest, the nation of Ragna aims to destroy the Forest to restore the Earth.

One day, Agito and Cain race each other to see who can get to the water hole at the bottom of the city first. By disturbing the sanctity of the water hole and angering the Druids, the two boys are separated. After stumbling upon a large machine with cryogenic pods, Agito accidentally revives Toola, a young girl who has been asleep for the past 300 years, and brings her to Neutral City. The Forest is angered by Toola's awakening, since she carries a Raban—a portable personal electronic device, worn as a necklace, that can be used for communication and a variety of other tasks. The Forest fears that she will fall into the hands of Shunack, a soldier of Ragna and also a person from the past who was awakened from sleep, and that he will use her Raban to locate E.S.T.O.C., an "environmental defragmentation system" with the ability to wipe out the Forest and restore human control over the world.

Shunack finds out about Toola and arrives into Neutral City with his army to persuade her to join him. The Forest sends a giant creature to stop the meeting, but Shunack destroys it and reveals that he has been "enhanced"—he allowed himself to be genetically altered by the Forest to become stronger by using the power of the trees. Convinced that finding E.S.T.O.C. is the only way to restore the Earth back to the world which she once knew, Toola joins Shunack in his quest despite Agito's plea not to go. Agito consults his father Agashi, the founder of Neutral City who, as a result of being enhanced and having overused his powers, has turned almost completely into a tree. With few days left before becoming a tree completely, Agashi encourages his son to save the Forest from Shunack's plan, since destroying the trees would mean the destruction of mankind. Agito journeys to the Forest and allows himself to be enhanced, his hair turning silver as a result.

Agito follows Shunack and Toola to E.S.T.O.C., a giant volcano converted into a mechanized weapon. E.S.T.O.C. was created by Toola's father Dr. Sakul, the doctor who had begun the genetic research on the trees, as a safeguard against the new species. Betraying the Ragna army and focusing his attention on E.S.T.O.C., Shunack reveals that he worked on the original genetic alteration experiments on the trees. However, his impatience to speed up the alteration process resulted in the catastrophic invasion of the mutant trees. Shunack intends to activate E.S.T.O.C. to return the world to the way it used to be and so right the damage he had caused and the guilt that has plagued him ever since. However this will destroy the world that has formed in the old one's place. Shunack plans on activating E.S.T.O.C. near Neutral City, thus obliterating it. When Toola realises this, she fights Shunack to prevent him from activating E.S.T.O.C. As the Ragna army commences their assault on E.S.T.O.C., Agito faces Shunack. Agito transforms into a tree in a desperate attempt to save Toola, trapping Shunack within it. Toola shuts down E.S.T.O.C. and the weapon's self-destruct sequence is initiated. Having developed strong feelings for Agito, Toola is unable to leave without him.

Meanwhile, Agito's consciousness remains intact on another plane, and there the Forest reveals to him the truth about the relationship between itself and the humans. Agito learns that the genetic admixture that gives humans extraordinary strength and eventually turns them into trees is really a two-way exchange; it also changes the Forest, causing trees to give birth to new humans in giant fruits. Having become one with the Forest, Shunack is now at peace and no longer intends to fight Agito. Realizing that Agito can teach humanity that there is no need for either hostility or separation between themselves and the trees, the Forest returns Agito to his true form, allowing him and Toola to flee before E.S.T.O.C. is destroyed. With the humans and the Forest saved, Agito brings peace between humans and the trees. Toola finally lets go of her past by throwing her Raban off a ledge down into the depths of the Forest, learning to live in harmony with the trees at last.

86) The Cat Returns (2002)

Director: Hiroyuki Morita

The story is of a girl named Haru Yoshioka, a quiet and shy high school student who has a suppressed ability to talk with cats. One day, she saves a dark blue cat from being hit by a truck on a busy road. The cat is Lune, Prince of the Cat Kingdom. As thanks, the cats give Haru gifts of catnip and mice, and she is offered the Prince's hand in marriage. Her mixed reply is taken as a yes.

Wanting none of this, Haru hears a kind, female voice, which tells her to seek the Cat Business Office. Haru meets Muta, a large white cat the voice told her to seek for directions, who leads her there to meet the Baron (the same Baron from Whisper of the Heart), who is a cat figurine given life by the work of his artist, and Toto, a stone raven who comes to life much like the Baron. Soon after meeting them, Haru and Muta are forcefully taken to the Cat Kingdom, leaving Toto and the Baron in the human world to follow the group from the air. The Baron and his crow friend find the entrance to the Cat Kingdom on Earth: Five lakes forming a cat's paw.

Haru is treated to a feast at the castle of the Cat Kingdom and she begins to slowly turn into a cat with tan paws, ears and whiskers, though still mainly human, so that she will make a suitable bride for the Prince. At the feast, the Baron (in disguise) dances with Haru as part of the entertainment, and reveals to her that the more she loses herself in the kingdom, the more cat-like she will become, and that she has to discover her true self. When the Baron is discovered and is forced to fight the guards, he and Haru are helped by Yuki, a white female cat who works as a servant in the palace and who had tried to warn Haru to leave the Cat Kingdom before she was taken to the castle. After Yuki shows them an escape tunnel, Haru, the Baron, and Muta move through a maze to a tower, which contains a portal to Haru's world. The King goes through a series of efforts to keep them in the Cat Kingdom long enough for Haru to remain trapped in the form of a cat and have her as his daughter-in-law.

Lune and his guards return to the Cat Kingdom to reveal the King was not acting on his behalf and that he has no desire to marry Haru; he has instead planned on proposing to Yuki. Muta is revealed to be a notorious criminal in the Kingdom (having devoured a whole lake of fish in one session), and Yuki as being the strange voice who had advised Haru to go to the Cat Bureau. In her childhood, Haru had saved Yuki from starvation by giving her the fish crackers she was eating, and Yuki has now repaid her kindness. Muta, or as he is known as the infamous criminal Renaldo Moon, tells Haru "I respect a woman who stands up for herself" after she rejects the King's marriage proposal outrightly and proceeds to help her escape from the King's soldiers.

Eventually, the Baron, Haru and Muta escape the Cat Realm, with the aid of Prince Lune and Toto, and Haru discovers her true self and tells the Baron how she has come to like him. He tells her, "Just for the record, I admire a young woman who speaks from the heart," and that when she needs them, the doors of the Cat Bureau will be open for her again. Haru returns to the human world with more confidence in herself; after learning that her former crush has broken up with his girlfriend, she simply replies "it doesn't matter anymore."

85) Giovanni’s Island (2014)

Director: Mizuho Nishikubo

The story follows two brothers, Junpei and Kanta, who live on the island of Shikotan, shortly after World War II. On August 15, 1945, Soviet soldiers land on Shikotan and occupy the island. Junpei and Kanta, who live with their grandfather, a fisherman, and their father, the head of the firefighting force of the village, are forced to move to the stables while the Russian commander's family, among them the commander's daughter Tanya, move into the main house. At school, Russian children occupy half the building, and Tanya and the other Russian kids begin to mingle with the Japanese children at recess. After a playground jostle makes Junpei bump into Tanya, they become friends and the two brothers are subsequently invited to Tanya's house for dinner. The brothers' uncle, Hideo, asks Junpei to light signal fires at night so that he can make trips to the main island for rations as they are running low on rice. Meanwhile, their father, Tatsuo, with the help of their school teacher, Sawako, secretly supplies the rest of the village with foodstuff from the Dawn Corps' emergency stores. When Hideo finds out about this, he tries to smuggle the food to sell outside the island, but gets caught instead. Tatsuo rushes to the cave where the Dawn Corps' supplies are kept and gets arrested.

On September 25, 1947, the Japanese on the island are made to assemble at the harbour sent back to the mainland. Junpei and Kanta set out with Sawako, while their grandfather chooses to stay behind, determined to spend his last moments on the sea. The three are reunited with Hideo while boarding the ship, and arrive at an internment camp at Maoka, in western Karafuto, a few days later, where they wait for the ship that will take them back to Japan. Hideo finds out that Tatsuo is alive and at another internment camp on the other side of the mountains "just a stone's throw away". Kanta, taking his words literally, sets out to meet his father, aided by Junpei. Sawako and Hideo track the two down the next day, and to Hideo's surprise, Sawako decides to visit Tatsuo's camp as well. The four of them drive to a pillbox where they spend the night, but in the morning they spot Soviet soldiers who've managed to track them down, and Hideo runs ahead as a decoy while Sawako and the children make their escape.

56 years later, Sawako and Junpei return to Shikotan and pay their respects at Tatsuo and Kanta's graves. Junpei's school holds a graduation ceremony for those who never managed to have it, and a blonde girl, Tanya's granddaughter, approaches Junpei at dinner. She hands him a notebook, containing one of Junpei's sketches of Tanya, and Junpei gives her his old copy of "Night on the Galactic Railroad" in return.

84) Sweat Punch (2007)

Director: Mizuho Nishikubo

Professor Dan Petory's Blues

A 10-minute short directed by Hidekazu Ohara, "Professor Dan Petory's Blues" (「タンペトリー教授の憂鬱」 "Tanpetori Kyouju no Yuuutsu") is a musical number starring a hand puppet named Junior. The puppet is controlled by the drunken Professor Dan Petory who explains in puppetry the answers to such questions as why the Earth is blue and why UFOs fly in a zig-zag pattern.

End of the World

A 10-minute short directed by Osamu Kobayashi, "End of the World" is a science fiction story about a young alien girl named Yuko as she escapes from the world of humans. After returning to her own world with Kazumi, a human girl she met at a rock concert on Earth, Yuko wages a retaliatory campaign against hordes of S&M monsters, and the evil queen of Yuko's world. The music featured is by the all-girl punk rock group, Lolita No.18. The short features the voice-talent of Hikaru Midorikawa.

83) Cowboy Bebop: Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door (2001)

Director: Shinichiro Watanabe

Cowboy Bebop: The Movie is set on Mars in 2071, 49 years after Earth was mostly abandoned after a catastrophe. Humanity has settled on other planets and moons in the solar system. The film's protagonists are legalized bounty hunters who travel together on the spaceship Bebop. They are Spike Spiegel, a former associate of the Red Dragon crime syndicate; Jet Black, a former police officer and owner of the Bebop; Faye Valentine, a woman who was once a fugitive from bounty hunters; Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV (Ed for short), a girl with genius computer skills; and Ein, an artificially enhanced "data dog" with human-level intelligence.

Days before Halloween, a man explodes a truck in Mars' capital city, spreading what is assumed to be a new pathogen that kills or sickens over three hundred people. In response, the Mars government issues a record bounty of 300 million woolong for the culprit's capture. Faye, who was pursuing Lee Sampson, a hacker that was apparently driving the truck, sees the terrorist and the Bebop crew decide to take on the bounty. Each follows different lines of inquiry. Ed, using a tattoo on the attacker's wrist, manages to identify him as Vincent Volaju, a former member of a military squad apparently killed in the Titan War. In reality, Vincent was the only survivor of a test involving the pathogen, having been immunized with a test vaccine: made an amnesiac, he suffers from hallucinations, and his inability to tell dreams from reality eventually drove him insane.

Jet learns that the truck was the property of Cherious Medical Pharmaceutical Company, who illegally manufactured the pathogen as a biological weapon. Looking for information on the pathogen, Spike is given a sample by a man named Rashid, who was the former lead on its development. Spike also encounters Elektra Ovilo, an agent of Cherious Medical. Upon examination, the "pathogen" proves to be a type of protein-based nanomachine that mimics human lymphocytes then breaks down into protein after death, making it undetectable. Attempting to infiltrate Cherious Medical, Spike fights with Elektra, planting a listening device on her. Elektra, who is sent by Cherious Medical to kill Vincent, is tailed by Spike, who attempts to take down Vincent on a train. Vincent easily defeats Spike, severely wounding him and throwing him from the train before releasing another cloud of the nanomachines: everyone in the train dies except Elektra, who was unknowingly immunized when she had been in a relationship with Vincent prior to the test on Titan. She secretly gives a friend in the company a sample of her blood to prepare a stock of vaccine.

During this time, Faye relocates Sampson, who has been working with Vincent, but fails to catch him. Ein and Ed manage to find him again, but the two run off before Faye can get there. She arrives just as Vincent breaks one of the nanomachine containers with him, killing Sampson. Although Faye is also infected, Vincent gives her some of his blood through a kiss, immunizing her.

After Spike recovers and has a final talk with Rashid, he and Elektra are captured by Cherious Medical, who want to suppress all knowledge of the nanomachines' existence. The two escape from Cherious Medical, grabbing the newly produced vaccine on the way. In turn, Faye escapes after Vincent goes to trigger an attack on the city that will eventually kill everyone on Mars. After the group reunites, it is determined that Vincent will spread the nanomachines by exploding the giant jack-o'-lantern balloons used in the Halloween parade: Jet has a troop of old aircraft spread the antibodies over the city while Faye heads for the weather control center and causes it to rain on the city, aiding the spread of the vaccine. Spike and Elektra separately head to confront Vincent. Spike arrives first and the two battle to a standstill, then the nanomachines are released and Spike is temporarily weakened by them. As Vincent prepares to kill him, Elektra arrives and shoots Vincent. Having wanted to die since Titan, Vincent does not defend himself and thanks Elektra for their time together before dying.

82) Genius Party (2007)

Director: Various

A collection of seven individual and unique shorts which range from touching to downright bizarre. With each story different from the last, we encounter monsters going to school, a man who has a hard time dealing with himself, and a child who learns the hard way about the circle of life, as well as many other unique characters and experiences.



81) HAL (2013)

Director: Ryôtarô Makihara

The story takes place in a technologically advanced society in which robots can be programmed to behave like a complete human. After a tragic plane accident, a robot, also known as Q01, is sent to a small Japanese town to help a person who just lost a loved one. While trying to heal the melancholic heart, the past of the couple is unearthed.

80. Summer Wars (2009)

Director: Mamoru Hosoda

Kenji Koiso (Ryunosuke Kamiki) is a young student at Kuonji High School with a gift for mathematics and a part-time moderator in the massive computer-simulated virtual reality world OZ along with his friend Takashi Sakuma (Takahiro Yokokawa).

One day, Kenji is invited by fellow Kuonji student Natsuki Shinohara (Nanami Sakuraba) to participate in the 90th birthday of her great-grandmother Sakae Jinnouchi (Sumiko Fuji). After traveling to Sakae's estate in Ueda, Natsuki introduces Kenji as her fiancé to Sakae, surprising them both. Kenji meets several of Natsuki's relatives and discovers that the Jinnouchis are descendants of a samurai (vassal of the Takeda clan) who challenged the Tokugawa clan in 1615. He also meets Wabisuke Jinnouchi (Ayumu Saitō), Natsuki's half-great-uncle and a computer expert who has been living in the United States since stealing the family fortune 10 years ago.

Kenji receives an e-mail with a mathematical code and cracks it. Love Machine, an artificial intelligence written by Wabisuke, uses Kenji's account and avatar to hack the infrastructure, causing widespread damage. Kenji, Sakuma, and Natsuki's cousin Kazuma Ikezawa (Mitsuki Tanimura) confront Love Machine. Love Machine defeats Kazuma's avatar King Kazma and continues to consume accounts in the OZ mainframe, creating catastrophic traffic congestion and disabling electrical devices. Two of Sakae's relatives, Rika (Sakiko Tamagawa) and Shota Jinnouchi (Yutaka Shimizu), discover Kenji's involvement. Shota arrests Kenji, but the congestion causes Natsuki to return them to the estate.

Sakae calls associates in important positions in Japanese society and relatives who work in emergency services, encouraging them to work their hardest to reduce chaos and damage, comparing the situation to war. Kenji is able to return control of the mainframe to the moderators and engineers. Wabisuke explains that he sold the program to the United States Armed Forces for a test run. After an argument with Sakae, Wabisuke leaves the estate. Sakae later encourages Kenji to take care of Natsuki during a Koi-Koi match.

The next morning, Sakae is discovered dead by Kenji and the Jinnouchis. Her youngest son Mansaku (Tadashi Nakamura) explains that she had angina, and that Love Machine had deactivated her heart monitor. Kenji, Sakuma, and most of the Jinnouchis initiate a plan to defeat Love Machine with a supercomputer using ice blocks as a coolant, while Natsuki and the others prepare a funeral for Sakae.

Kenji, along with Sakuma and the others, capture Love Machine, but Shota carries the ice blocks to Sakae's body, causing the supercomputer to overheat. Love Machine consumes King Kazma and redirects the Arawashi Asteroid Probe onto a collision course with a nuclear power plant. Meanwhile, Natsuki discovers a will left by Sakae and reunites with Kenji and the rest of the group. Natsuki has Wabisuke return home before the family reads Sakae's will, asking them to bring Wabisuke back to their lives. Realizing that Love Machine sees everything as a game, Kenji has the Jinnouchis confront Love Machine to play Koi-Koi in OZ's casino world, wagering their accounts in a desperate attempt to stop Love Machine. Natsuki wins several rounds, but gets distracted and nearly loses her "winnings".

However, OZ users worldwide enter their own accounts into the wager on Natsuki's side, which also prompts the guardian programs of OZ—the blue and red whales known as John and Yoko—to upgrade Natsuki's account. Natsuki wagers the 150 million avatars given to her in a single hand and critically damages Love Machine, prompting the artificial intelligence to redirect the Arawashi towards Sakae's estate. Kenji attempts to break into the probe's GPS, while Wabisuke disables Love Machine's defenses. After being revived and assisted by several of the Jinnouchi family's avatars, King Kazma destroys Love Machine. Kenji activates the GPS code to redirect the Arawashi away from the estate, destroying the estate's entrance and causing a geyser to erupt. In the aftermath, the Jinnouchi family, celebrating their victory as well as Sakae's birthday, has Natsuki kiss Kenji after they confess their love to each other.

79. A Wind Named Amnesia (1990)

Director: Kazuo Yamazaki

In the year 1999, the world has been reduced to an apocalyptic wasteland due to an inexplicable gust of wind that wiped even the most basic memories, such as speech and civility, from the minds of the world's populace. Wataru befriends a young man named Johnny who, prior to the incident, was part of a government experiment designed to expand the memory capacity of the human mind and, therefore, was able to retain his memories. Johnny helps Wataru regain his speech and teaches him other basic functions. However, as a result of the physical toll his body endured due to the government experiments, Johnny dies after encouraging Wataru to travel the world.

Wataru encounters a strange woman named Sophia after she helps him escape from an encounter with an unmanned Police Mech Unit and agrees to take Sophia to New York City. Together the two travel to Los Angeles where they help save Sue and her father, Little John, from a mob. Sue was to be offered as a bride to appease a "god", which in reality is a Construction Mech controlled by a man, but fled to escape her fate. However, upon realizing that if she were not sacrificed another woman would be in her stead, she flees from the group to rejoin her tribe. Wataru destroys the Construction Mech but Sue is killed in the conflict. Little John remains in Los Angeles to keep order of the tribe and rebuild society.

Wataru and Sophia resume their travels only to be attacked once more by the Police Mech. Sophia rescues Wataru and brings him to an advanced city called Eternal Town for medical attention. When Wataru regains consciousness, he discovers that the city is run by a super computer that has brainwashed two of its original citizens into running the day-to-day operations of the city. The super computer attempts to persuade Sophia and Wataru into becoming citizens as well but the two escape with one of the original citizens, Lisa. As they depart from the city, Lisa begins to recall memories from her past including the fact that the other citizen who was brainwashed into running the city was her father. As a result, Lisa decides to remain in Eternal Town. Sophia then explains that she is a member of an alien race that is responsible for the wind that erased Earth's citizens' memories. Sophia makes a wager with Wataru that if he is able to convince another person to join him in his travels, she will return humanity's memory.

Wataru and Sophia are chased across the country by the unrelenting Police Mech until they reach New York City. Upon arriving, Wataru drops Sophia off in order to defeat the Police Mech by himself. After destroying the Police Mech, Sophia saves Wataru as he falls from a building. Sophia leaves in order to rejoin her race and convince them that humanity deserves to have their memories.

77. Ponyo (2008)

Director: Hayao Miyazaki

Fujimoto, a once-human wizard/scientist, lives underwater along with his daughter, Brunhilde, and her numerous smaller sisters. While she and her siblings are on an outing with their father in his four-flippered submarine, Brunhilde sneaks off and floats away on the back of a jellyfish. After an encounter with a fishing trawler, she drifts to the shore of a small fishing town in a glass jar where she is rescued by a five-year-old boy named Sōsuke. Shattering the jar open with a rock, Sōsuke cuts his finger in the process. Brunhilde licks his wound causing it to heal almost instantly. Sōsuke names her Ponyo and promises to protect her. Meanwhile, a distraught Fujimoto searches frantically for his lost daughter whom he believes to have been kidnapped. He calls his wave spirits to recover her, leaving Sōsuke heartbroken.

Ponyo and Fujimoto have an argument, during which Ponyo refuses to let her father call her by her birth name. She declares her desire to be known as 'Ponyo' and to become human. Using her magic, she forces herself to grow leg- and arm-like appendages and start changing into a human, a power granted to her by the human blood she ingested when she licked Sōsuke's finger. Her alarmed father forces her to change back into her true form and leaves to summon Ponyo's mother, Granmamare. Meanwhile, Ponyo, with the help of her sisters, breaks away from her father and inadvertently uses his magic to make herself fully human. The huge amount of magic that she releases into the ocean causes an imbalance in the world, resulting in a tsunami, leaving ships stranded at sea. Ponyo goes back to Sōsuke, who is amazed and overjoyed to see her. He tells his mother that Ponyo has returned as a little girl. Sōsuke's mother allows Ponyo to stay at their house for the time being. Lisa (Sōsuke's mother), Sōsuke, and Ponyo wait out the storm at Sōsuke's house. Worried about the residents of the nursing home where she works, Lisa leaves to check up on them and promising Sōsuke that she will return home as soon as possible.

Granmamare arrives at Fujimoto's submarine. Sōsuke's father, Kōichi, sees her traveling and recognizes her as the Goddess of Mercy. Fujimoto notices the moon appears to be falling out of its orbit and satellites are falling like shooting stars, symptoms of the dangerous imbalance of nature that now exists. Granmamare declares that if Sōsuke can pass a test, Ponyo can live as a human and that the order of the world will be restored. A still-worried Fujimoto reminds her that if Sōsuke fails the test, Ponyo will turn into sea foam.

Sōsuke and Ponyo wake up to find that most of the land around the house has been covered by the ocean. Since it is impossible for Lisa to come home, the two children decide to find her. With the help of Ponyo's magic, they make Sōsuke's toy pop pop boat life-size and set out across the swollen ocean.

When Ponyo and Sōsuke make it to the forest, however, Ponyo tires and falls asleep only to be woken by Sōsuke, who implores her to ignite a second candle as the one powering their boat is about to go out. Ponyo then dozes off multiple times before concentrating enough to make the candle, which then goes out. She then passes out, and Sōsuke has to push the boat to shore, only to find that the boat, deprived of Ponyo's magic, is reverting to its toy size. Sōsuke drags Ponyo to the shore, where he finds Lisa's abandoned car. Ponyo then wakes up, and the two decide to continue looking for her.

Ponyo and Sōsuke head into a tunnel. Inside Ponyo reverts to being a fish due to overuse of her magical powers. Meanwhile, Lisa and the residents of the nursing home, who are temporarily able to breath water because of Granmamare, are waiting excitedly below the surface for Ponyo and Sōsuke to arrive. Sōsuke and Ponyo encounter Fujimoto, who warns the boy that the balance of nature is in danger and begs Sosuke to return Ponyo to him. Sōsuke doubts Fujimoto and attempts to flee, but the two children are quickly captured and Fujimoto takes them down to the protected nursing home.

Sōsuke is reunited with Lisa and meets Granmamare, with whom Lisa has just had a long private conversation. Granmamare asks Sōsuke if he can love Ponyo whether she is a fish or human. Sōsuke replies that he "loves all the Ponyos." Granmamare then tells her daughter that if she chooses to become human once and for all, she will have to give up her magical powers. Ponyo agrees to this, so Granmamare encases her in a bubble and gives her to Sōsuke. She tells him that kissing the bubble will complete Ponyo's transformation. The balance of nature is thus restored and the previously stranded ships head back to port. Fujimoto respects his daughter's choice to become a human, having decided he can trust Sōsuke with Ponyo's welfare. Ponyo then joyfully jumps high in the air and kisses Sōsuke, completing her transformation as a human.

76. The Garden of Words (2013)

Director: Makoto Shinkai

The Garden of Words is considered a romance and drama film. It opens at the start of the rainy season in Tokyo with Takao Akizuki (秋月 孝雄Akizuki Takao), a 15-year-old student and aspiring shoemaker, opting to skip his first class and sketch shoe designs in the garden at Shinjuku Gyoen. There he encounters Yukari Yukino (雪野 百香里 Yukino Yukari), a 27-year-old woman who is skipping work and enjoying beer and chocolate. When she notices the school crest on his uniform, Yukari bids him farewell with a tanka (a form of Japanese poetry), leaving Takao puzzled as to its origin and meaning. The two continue to encounter each other and socialize in the park on rainy mornings, but never formally introduce themselves. After Yukari expresses an interest in Takao's shoemaking, he decides to make a pair of shoes in her size. With the end of the rainy season, Takao stops visiting the park and focuses on his work.

75. Giovanni's Island (2014)

Director: Mizuho Nishikubo

The story follows two brothers, Junpei and Kanta, who live on the island of Shikotan, shortly after World War II. On August 15, 1945, Soviet soldiers land on Shikotan and occupy the island. Junpei and Kanta, who live with their grandfather, a fisherman, and their father, the head of the firefighting force of the village, are forced to move to the stables while the Russian commander's family, among them the commander's daughter Tanya, move into the main house. At school, Russian children occupy half the building, and Tanya and the other Russian kids begin to mingle with the Japanese children at recess. After a playground jostle makes Junpei bump into Tanya, they become friends and the two brothers are subsequently invited to Tanya's house for dinner. The brothers' uncle, Hideo, asks Junpei to light signal fires at night so that he can make trips to the main island for rations as they are running low on rice. Meanwhile, their father, Tatsuo, with the help of their school teacher, Sawako, secretly supplies the rest of the village with foodstuff from the Dawn Corps' emergency stores. When Hideo finds out about this, he tries to smuggle the food to sell outside the island, but gets caught instead. Tatsuo rushes to the cave where the Dawn Corps' supplies are kept and gets arrested.

On September 25, 1947, the Japanese on the island are made to assemble at the harbour sent back to the mainland. Junpei and Kanta set out with Sawako, while their grandfather chooses to stay behind, determined to spend his last moments on the sea. The three are reunited with Hideo while boarding the ship, and arrive at an internment camp at Maoka, in western Karafuto, a few days later, where they wait for the ship that will take them back to Japan. Hideo finds out that Tatsuo is alive and at another internment camp on the other side of the mountains "just a stone's throw away". Kanta, taking his words literally, sets out to meet his father, aided by Junpei. Sawako and Hideo track the two down the next day, and to Hideo's surprise, Sawako decides to visit Tatsuo's camp as well. The four of them drive to a pillbox where they spend the night, but in the morning they spot Soviet soldiers who've managed to track them down, and Hideo runs ahead as a decoy while Sawako and the children make their escape.

56 years later, Sawako and Junpei return to Shikotan and pay their respects at Tatsuo and Kanta's graves. Junpei's school holds a graduation ceremony for those who never managed to have it, and a blonde girl, Tanya's granddaughter, approaches Junpei at dinner. She hands him a notebook, containing one of Junpei's sketches of Tanya, and Junpei gives her his old copy of "Night on the Galactic Railroad" in return.

74. Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone (2007)

Director: Hideaki Anno, Kazuya Tsurumaki, Masayuki

In 2015, fifteen years after a global cataclysm known as the Second Impact, the child Shinji Ikari is summoned to Tokyo-3 by his estranged father Gendo, the commander of the paramilitary organization NERV. Shinji is caught in the crossfire between UN forces and an angel, an alien lifeform; Captain Misato Katsuragi rescues him and brings him to NERV headquarters. Gendo demands Shinji pilot Evangelion Unit 01, a giant bio-machine, against the angel. Shinji concedes when Gendo threatens to send Rei Ayanami, a wounded Evangelion pilot, into battle instead. Shinji wins the fight after Unit 01 goes berserk and destroys the Angel.

Misato becomes Shinji's guardian and he is enrolled in the local middle school. When another angel arrives, Shinji's classmates Toji Suzuhara and Kensuke Aida sneak out of the emergency shelters to watch the battle. The angel slams Unit 01 into a mountainside, nearly crushing Toji and Kensuke. Misato has the two take cover in Unit 01's cockpit and orders Shinji to retreat, but he ignores it and destroys the angel with Unit 01's knife.

The Sixth Angel appears and begins drilling into Tokyo-3 to reach NERV headquarters. When Shinji attacks it in Unit 01, the Angel fires a powerful laser, critically injuring him. He wakes from a coma some time later and Rei tells him she will take his place and leaves for the mission alone.

To motivate the despondent Shinji, Misato takes him to the deepest level of NERV headquarters and shows him a giant white being crucified to a cross-like restraint: the Second Angel, Lilith. Misato explains that the angels are attempting to initiate contact with Lilith and bring about Third Impact and the end of all life on Earth.

Shinji agrees to pilot Unit 01 against the angel alongside Rei in Unit 00. He destroys it with an experimental positron rifle, which requires the entire electrical power output of Japan to power. Rei is nearly killed defending Shinji from the Angel's return fire, but he saves her by cooling Unit 00 in water and prying open its cockpit using Unit-01's knife. Rei, normally cold and emotionless, shares a smile with him.

On the surface of the Moon, Kaworu Nagisa awakens from one of nine coffin-like containers arranged on the surface. In a pit in front of him, surrounded by construction equipment and scaffolds, is an unidentified giant, wearing a purple seven-eyed mask and wrapped in white bandages. A black monolith appears, through which he and SEELE 01 engage in a cryptic conversation. Looking towards Earth, Kaworu says that "the third one" has not changed at all and that he looks forward to meeting Shinji.

73) Into the Forest of Fireflies’ Light (2011)

Director: Takahiro Omori

The original Hotarubi no Mori e shōjo manga and subsequent film tell the story of a six-year-old girl named Hotaru Takegawa, who gets lost in a forest inhabited by a yamagami, or mountain spirit, as well as yōkai (strange apparitions from Japanese folklore). She is found by a mask-wearing, human-like entity named Gin, who informs Hotaru that he will disappear forever if he is touched by a human. Gin then leads Hotaru out of the forest. Hotaru returns to visit Gin in the forest over the next few days and they become friends despite the limitations on their interactions. Although at summer's end she must leave Gin to return to the city and her studies, Hotaru promises to return to visit him every summer holiday.

As the years go by, Gin hardly ages while Hotaru physically matures and grows closer to his apparent age. Upon reaching adolescence, Hotaru begins to struggle with their budding romance and their uncertain future together, while Gin wishes he could touch and hold the young woman that Hotaru has become. When Hotaru reaches high school, Gin takes her on a date to a festival in the forest hosted by the spirits. The night ends in tragedy when Gin mistakenly touches a young boy who snuck into the spirit festival, though before he disappears, he and Hotaru embrace and confess their love for one another. The story ends with Hotaru accepting her pain and moving on with her life.The 2011 anime film adaptation of the story follows all of the events from the manga, adding only a few additional scenes.

Hotarubi no Mori e Tokubetsu-hen (蛍火の杜へ 特別編 Hotarubi no Mori e special edition), published in 2011, expands on the original story with a short episode told from Gin's perspective. When Hotaru is a teenager, she shares some pudding with Gin before she leaves at the end of the summer. After Hotaru leaves, the yōkai attempt to cheer Gin up by bringing him a couple of persimmons, one of the most prized treats on the mountain. Impressed with the taste, Gin thinks of sharing one of these persimmons with Hotaru next year. After discussing ways to preserve the persimmon with the yōkai and a spirit named Matsumino, Gin sets off to find ice on the highest mountain peak, but is disappointed to find none during the summer. When Gin returns scratched up from his fruitless search for ice, Matsumino feels sorry for him and offers to deliver the persimmon to Hotaru for him. However, not knowing where she lives, Matsumino gets lost and grows hungry. After he returns from his unsuccessful attempt to find Hotaru, Matsumino apologizes to Gin for eating the persimmon and Gin forgives him. The story concludes with Gin seeing Hotaru the following summer and wondering if he will be able to tell her about his feelings for her.

72) Sword of the Stranger (2007)

Director: Masahiro Ando

During the Sengoku period in Mount Corel, a young boy named Kotaro escapes from mysterious pursuers with his dog, Tobimaru. The monk guarding Kotaro, Shouan, asks him to seek help from Master Zekkai at Mangaku Temple, Akaike Corel Province. Meanwhile, a group of Ming dynasty warriors under the command of the elderly Lord Bai-Luan is escorted by Akaike by local soldiers. They are ambushed by bandits, but the attackers are slaughtered by the Ming's expert swordsman, Luo-Lang.

Kotaro and Tobimaru cross the earth, hiding briefly in a decaying temple, where they find Nanashi, a wandering swordsman. While Kotaro cooks a meal, the smoke of his fire alerts his pursuers, who are the foreign Ming, accompanied by Akaike's soldiers. Nanashi involuntarily gets involved in the fight and is able to kill the men, but Tobimaru is struck by a poisonous dagger. Before Nanashi decides to leave, Kotaro offers to hire him as bodyguard in order to save the life of Tobimaru and take them to their destination safely.

The trio is able to find a pharmacist who is able to help Tobimaru recover in a few days. While shopping in the city, Nanashi meets the other Ming warriors and Luo-Lang begins to quarrel with him for fun, but is interrupted by news of the deaths of his companions. Following the investigation, the Mings begin to suspect that Akaike's soldiers are responsible because one of the corpses was staged to appear as Tu-Si, one of the Ming warriors who had previously disappeared.

Lord Akaike, who hosts the Ming, is helping them build a large altar in exchange for large quantities of gold. It is revealed that he kidnapped the lost Ming to discover his true purpose of being in nibelheim. Under torture, Tu-Si reveals that they are on a mission to the Emperor of Mount Corel to find a prophesied child, Kotaro, whose blood can be drained at a certain time once a year, in order to create an elixir of immortality known as to Xian Remedy. Lord Akaike changes his plans to capture the child first and hold him for a high ransom. Meanwhile, Nanashi explains a few details about his past: he has western heritage, as evidenced by his red hair, but was trained as a Samurai before deserting his former masters.

Nanashi arrives successfully at the temple with Kotaro and leaves him in the care of the monks of Mount Corel. However, it is revealed that they have already betrayed Kotaro to the Ming in order to save their own lives. A fight happens when the Akaike also arrives to take the boy. With Lord Akaike's betrayal discovered, the Ming arrest him and fortify himself on the altar to await the prophesied time. Realizing that something went wrong, Nanashi comes back and releases Tobimaru, and they track down Kotaro and his captors. The sole remaining commander of the Akaike, Itadori, is given the command of his forces by the princess and charged with rescuing the captured Lord. However, when he and his men arrive at the fortress, Itadori, seeing Lord Akaike in a compromising position, kills him and seizes the opportunity to realize his own ambitions. The troops, now under his command, begin a siege and attack the fortress.

During the ensuing battle, many of the Ming and Akaike soldiers were killed, including Itadori. Nanashi finally arrives to save Kotaro and successfully interrupts the ritual before it can be completed. Lord Bai-Luan orders the remaining Ming to capture the boy so they can experience the ritual again the following year. Nanashi kills two of the Ming fighters without his sword and gains the admiration of Luo-Lang, who has been searching for a worthy opponent. Luo-Lang knocks down his own commander, Bai-Luan, in order to save Nanashi from being shot. With the other Ming and Akaike forces totally destroyed, Luo-Lang and Nanashi have a final duel. After suffering many injuries, Nanashi wins and Luo-Lang dies, shocked but at peace.

Nanashi, Kotaro and Tobimaru set out on horseback to a town to treat Nanashi's wounds. They talk about putting together enough money to go abroad and start a new life back in the city where he was born nibelheim. When the movie ends, the camera slides over the tracks that leave in the snow, showing drops of fresh blood

71) Fist of the North Star (1986)

Director: Toyoo Ashida

After a global-scale nuclear war has turned most of the world into a contaminated wasteland, with Earth's survivors now fighting over the few uncontaminated food and water supplies still remaining. Kenshiro, a master of the deadly martial art Hokuto Shinken, is traveling with his fiancee Yuria when they are confronted by a gang led by Ken's former friend Shin, a master of the rival Nanto Seiken style. Shin proclaims that he has been in love with Yuria for a long time and with no law to intervene now, challenges Ken over her. After defeating Ken in combat, Shin engraves seven wounds on Ken's chest and leaves him for dead, taking Yuria with him. Ken's eldest brother-in-training Raoh, having witnessed the fight without intervening, returns to his dojo, where he finds his sensei Ryuken meditating. Raoh challenges Ryuken's decision to choose Ken as the Hokuto Shinken successor over him and kills him, proclaiming he will become the ruler of the new world.

A year passes and Ken now wanders the wasteland as a hero who protects the weak and innocent from those who prey on them. He rescues a couple of young children named Bat and Lin from bandits and allies himself with another Nanto Seiken master named Rei, who is searching for his kidnapped sister Airi. Ken learns that Airi's kidnapper is none other than Jagi, another former brother-in-training who has been impersonating Ken in an attempt to tarnish his reputation and draw him out. Ken heads to Jagi's hideout and defeats him, rescuing Airi in the process. Before dying, Jagi reveals that he was one who convinced Shin to betray Ken and that he is now living with Yuria in his stronghold, the city of Southern Cross.

Elsewhere, Raoh has amassed a huge army, expanding his domain by defeating rival warlords and begins heading to Southern Cross. There Yuria is treated with a life of luxury, living under the rule of King Shin, who now leads his own army as well. However, Yuria refuses Shin's gifts of affection, longing to be reunited with Ken. When she overhears that Ken is still alive, she attempts to sneak out of the city, only to be taken captive by Raoh, who challenges Shin to combat. A while later, Kenshiro arrives at Southern Cross, only to find the city in flames and Shin's soldiers dead. Shin is still alive and fights Ken, but the battle does not last long, as Shin has already suffered a mortal wound from his encounter with Raoh. Before dying, Shin tells Ken that Raoh has taken Yuria captive and has headed to Cassandra, the City of Wailing Demons.

Lin arrives at Cassandra along with Bat and Rei, where they witness Raoh's army marching through the streets. Lin sees Yuria being held by Raoh's men during the parade and decides to break into Raoh's dungeon later that night with Bat. The two meet Yuria in her cell and leave her with a plant grown from a seed Yuria gave to Ken before leaving. The plant catches Raoh's attention and Yuria is immediately sentenced to a public execution the following morning. Rei challenges Raoh, but he is no match against him. Ken rushes to Cassandra, but arrives too late to save Rei. After Rei dies, Kenshiro and Raoh unleash their full fighting aura to battle each other, destroying most of the town in the process. Both exhausted of all their power and strength, Raoh manages to knock Ken unconscious. But before Raoh can deliver the finishing blow, Lin interrupts the fight and implores him to spare Ken's life. Raoh agrees to Lin's request and walks away, swearing to postpone the battle for another day. Ken leaves Lin and Bat, and continues his search for Yuria, who mysteriously vanished during the final battle.

70) Wicked City (1987)

Director: Yoshiaki Kawajiri

The existence of the "Black World" - an alternate dimension populated by supernatural demons - is known to very few humans. For centuries, a peace treaty between the Black World and the world of humans has been maintained to ensure relative harmony. Both sides of the continuum are protected by an organization of secret agents called the Black Guard, specifically from a group of radicalized members of the Black World.

Renzaburō Taki, a salaryman electrical goods salesman by day, and a Black Guard agent when needed, has casual sex with Kanako, a young woman who he has been meeting at a local bar for three months. Kanako reveals herself to be a doppelgänger from the Black World Radicals, and escapes with a sample of Taki's semen. The next day, Taki is assigned to protect Giuseppi Mayart, a two-hundred-year-old Italian mystic who is a signatory for a ratified treaty between the Human World and the Black World in Tokyo, and a major target for the Radicals. Taki is also informed that he will be working with a partner, a Black Guard from the Black World.

While awaiting Mayart's arrival at Narita, Taki is attacked by two Radicals, but is saved by his partner: a beautiful fashion model named Makie. Taki and Makie eventually meet Mayart, who quickly reveals his perverse behaviour to them. The trio take shelter in a Hibiya hotel with spiritual barriers to protect it from Radicals. While playing chess to pass time, the hotelier explains to Taki, who is unsure of his responsibilities within the Black Guard, that he will only value his position once he knows what he is protecting. During an assault on the hotel by a Radical, Mayart sneaks out.

Makie and Taki find him in a soapland in the grip of a Radical who has sapped his health, prompting a frantic trip to a spiritual hospital under Black Guard protection. Halfway there, Makie is taken prisoner by a tentacle demon, and Taki is forced to leave her behind. Upon their arrival at the clinic, Mayart begins his recovery, while Mr. Shadow - the leader of the Radicals - uses a psychic projection to taunt Taki into rescuing Makie. Ignoring Mayart’s threats that he will be fired from the Black Guard, he pursues Shadow to a dilapidated building far from the hospital, where he finds Makie being gang raped by Radicals. A female Radical attempts to seduce Taki, asking him if he ever copulated with Makie, but he kills her and the Radicals violating Makie, and wounds Shadow.

While tending to each other, Makie reveals to Taki that she was once romantically involved with a member of the Radicals, and that she joined the Black Guard because of her belief in the need for peace between the two worlds. Upon returning to the clinic, the pair are fired by Taki's superior, who deems Taki's romantic desires to be a liability to his Black Guard duties. While driving through a tunnel with a stowaway Mayart, they are ensnared by Kanako, who - having determined that Taki and Makie were partnered due to having "compatible" genes - attempts to kill them again. Bolts of supernatural lightning appear and kill Kanako, while Taki and Makie are wounded. They awaken inside a church, and engage in passionate lovemaking.

A final attack by Shadow comes against Taki and Makie, which is deflected by more lighting generated by a surprisingly healthy Mayart, who reveals that he was actually hired to protect his "bodyguards". Mayart and Taki almost succeed in defeating Shadow, but the final blow comes from Makie, whose powers have increased due to her being impregnated by Taki. Mayart explains that the two are essential to forming a new peace treaty; Taki and Makie were selected to be the first couple from both worlds that can produce half-human, half-demon children, and their bond will be instrumental in ensuring everlasting peace between the two worlds. Although angry with Mayart because they were not informed of the Black Guard’s plans, Taki implicitly admits that he has fallen for Makie and, as per the hotelier’s advice, wants to protect her and their child. The trio leave to attend the peace ceremony. Taki remains in the Black Guard to ensure the protection of both worlds and his loved ones.

70. Colorful (2010)

Director: Keiichi Hara

Upon reaching the train station to death, a dejected soul is informed that he is "lucky" and will have another chance at life though he does not want it. He is placed in the body of a 14-year-old boy named Makoto Kobayashi, who has just committed suicide by an overdose of pills. Watched over by a neutral spirit named Purapura in the form of a little boy, the soul must figure out what his greatest sin and mistake in his former life was before his six-month time limit in Makoto's body runs out. He also has a number of other lesser duties he must complete, such as understanding what led Makoto to commit suicide in the first place and learning how to enjoy his second chance at life.

He finds Makoto did not like his family and he greatly dislikes them for the same reasons. He is contemptuous of his father who is an underdog at work, forced to work lots of unpaid overtime. Despite her efforts, he hates his mother who had an affair with a dance instructor, something his father seems to be oblivious of. His older brother Mitsuru has given up on him because he is too moody and has no friends at school or anywhere else. He discovers that a girl (Hiroka) he fancies sells sex to older men so she can have the clothes and things she wants. Shoko is a weird girl from Makoto's class who becomes suspicious of his unusual behavior so he tries to stay away from her. After he gets mugged and beaten up by some delinquents, Shoko comes to visit Makoto at his house, but he scares her off. In one of their subsequent encounters Purapura explains that Makoto will really die this time after his six months expire. However, when he befriends Saotome, a boy in his class who accepts outcasts such as him and treats them as equals, Makoto sees the joy in life for the first time. They spend some time together and they even begin studying for their high school entrance exam, something for which neither of them had any ambition before.

Knowing that his brother will never get accepted to a public high school due to his failing grades and lack of interest, Mitsuru announces that he will postpone his college entrance exams in order to allow his parents to save some money so they can send Makoto to a private school. Makoto refuses and tells his parents and brother that he has already chosen Tamegawa High (a public school he and Saotome agreed on earlier). An aggravated Mitsuru is unable to comprehend his unwillingness to accept his family's help and asks him if he enjoys tormenting his own family. Makoto breaks in tears and says that he just wanted to go to the same school his only friend is going to apply which leads to his parents accepting his wish. With his deadline reaching its end, Makoto meets with Purapura for one last time. He announces that he has found out what his former life's mistake was. He reveals that the soul was Makoto to begin with and that the mistake was his suicide. Purapura tells him that he will keep on living, but that he will also erase his memories of Purapura and the spirit world in order to make Makoto not think that he has any more chances. Before wiping his memories, Purapura advises him to live a colorful life.

69. Angel’s Egg (1985)

Director: Mamoru Oshii

Angel's Egg follows the life of an unnamed young girl living alone in an undefined building near an abandoned city. She cares for a large egg which she hides under her dress, protecting it while scavenging the decrepit Neo-Gothic/Art Nouveau cityscape for food, water and bottles. In the prologue, an unnamed boy in militant garb watches an orb-shaped vessel covered with thousands of goddess-like sculptures descend from the sky. Awakened by the orb's whistles, the girl begins her day of scavenging, but soon crosses paths with the boy on a wide street traveled only by biomechanical roving tanks. Frightened by the boy, who carries a cross-shaped device over his shoulder, the girl runs off down an alley. When she returns to investigate, the boy has left. She resumes searching for food and glass bottles, avoiding the statuesque figures of men clutching harpoons.

Later, the girl spots the boy again and approaches him. He turns and surprisingly produces her egg from underneath his cape; she had abandoned it on the plaza where she was eating. He instructs the girl to "Keep precious things inside you or you will lose them," and returns the egg. When asked what she believes is inside the egg, the girl asserts that she can't tell him. The boy then suggests breaking the egg to find out, which incenses the girl and drives her away, only to be pursued by the boy.

Eventually the chase gives way to the pair bonding, as the stoic fishermen figures spring to life and frighten the girl. The fishermen race after enormous shadows of coelacanth-like fish that swim across the surfaces of streets and buildings. The animated men ineffectually lob their harpoons at the shadows, hitting only brick and stone. As the shadows swim away, the girl explains that while the fish are gone, the men persist in hunting. The pair wait out the commotion within a vast cathedral decorated with stained windows of fish.

Leaving the city and heading towards the girl's settlement, the pair stop within a massive structure which appears to be the carcass of a beached leviathan. Noticing an engraving of a tree on a pillar, the boy describes his memory of a similar tree which grew to hold a giant egg containing a sleeping bird. When the girl inquires as to what the bird dreams of, the boy flatly asks if the girl still won't tell him what's inside her egg. The pair ascend a staircase arrayed with bottles of water, like those the girl collects, on each step. Adding her newest tribute to the line of bottles, the girl and boy reflect on their amnesia, wondering about their identity and purpose. The boy begins to recount the biblical tale of Noah's Ark. The tale deviates when the boy claims that the dove never returned to the ark, and thus its passengers forgot why they were sailing, forgot about the civilization drowned below, forgot about the animals who, as a result, turned to stone.

The boy asks the girl if they themselves or if the strange world they live in really exists, or if it is merely a memory like his image of the sleeping bird. The girl suddenly insists that the bird does exist, and leads the boy down corridors of ancient fossils to arrive at an aerie. There they find the skeleton of a giant, angelic bird. The girl explains her intent to hatch the egg.

Later, the pair warm themselves within the girl's settlement. As the girl drifts off to sleep, she speaks to the creature inside her egg of their future together. Outside, the heavy rain consumes the city and floods the streets. While the girl is turned away from the egg in her sleep, the boy takes it and smashes it, leaving afterwards. The next day, the girl discovers the broken shell of her egg and shrieks out, utterly heartbroken. She starts to run away from her settlement into the woods, past a giant tree holding a huge egg, in pursuit of the boy. In her haste, she falls into a ravine. Beneath the chasm's water, the girl transforms into an adult woman before releasing a final breath, which rises to the surface as a multitude of bobbing eggs.

As the rain suddenly abates, trees holding eggs like those described by the boy are shown to be scattered throughout the landscape. The boy stands on a vast shore littered with white feathers as the orb-like vessel rises from underneath the ocean. Among the thousands of statues adorning the orb is a new feature: a figure of the girl, sitting serenely on a throne and caressing the egg in her lap. The screen slowly zooms out to reveal that the land of the beach, the forest, and the city is part of a small and lonely island within a vast sea, appearing not unlike the hull of an overturned ship.

68. A Letter to Momo (2011)

Director: Hiroyuki Okiura

Following the death of her father Kazuo, Momo Miyaura and her mother Ikuko travel from Tokyo to the Seto Inland Sea. Momo carries Kazuo's unfinished letter, which contains only the words "Dear Momo". At her mother's estate in Shio Island (汐島 Shiojima), they meet their relatives Sachio and Sae Sadahama, and Koichi, a postman and an old friend of Ikuko, who has always had a crush on her. Momo is devastated and misses Tokyo. In the attic, she opens a present containing a rare picture book about goblins and Yōkai, collected by Sachio's father. Three droplets from the sky enter Ikuko's estate and transform into yokai consisting of Kawa, Mame, and Iwa, the group's leader.

When Ikuko begins to take nursing classes, Momo reads the book and begins to hear some strange sounds from the house. She is chased out of the estate by the yokai, only to encounter a young boy named Yota. Oblivious to the house's strange noises, Ikuko and Yota assume that it is safe. The next morning, she meets Yota and his sister Umi. The three meet up with his friends and swim under the bridge, but Momo decides not to and runs to a shelter during a thunderstorm. Iwa, Mame and Kawa reveal themselves, having stolen some fruit from around the island. Frightened, Momo runs back to Ikuko's estate and discovers that Sachio's orchard was ransacked. Sachio then