Many years before he wowed the anime world with the mega-hit Your Name in 2016, Makoto Shinkai explored the same themes of teenage love, longing, and separation across different realms in The Place Promised in Our Early Days (2004). Set in an alternative world where post-war Japan is divided up between the US and Russia, the story centers on three teenagers: two boys, Hiroki and Takuya, and a girl, Sayuri, living in the northern part of Japan (Honshu).

Japanese culture’s rich tapestry of mythological creatures and demons provides the background for the 2024 film Ghost Cat Anzu, directed by Yoko Kuno and Nobuhiro Yamashita. Fifth-grader Karin has lost her mother and her ne’er-do-well, debt-ridden father has left her in the care of her grandfather, a priest at a Shinto shrine. Of course, the shrine has a live-in walking, talking, scooter-riding cat named Anzu.

As one of the few female anime directors, Naoko Yamada has made a big name for herself, directing high-profile anime series such as K-ON!, Sound! Euphonium, The Heike Story, and the 2016 feature film A Silent Voice. In her most recent film, The Colors Within (2024), she continues to explore teenagers’ experiences and the important role of music in their lives. Totsuko is high school student at a Catholic boarding school for girls who has synesthesia. She sees people as colors, but is still searching for what her own color might be.

Directed by Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar, and Benjamin Renner, 2012
PG; English dubbed; 80 minutes

Deep below snowy cobblestone streets, tucked away in networks of winding subterranean tunnels, lives a civilization of hardworking mice who are terrified of the bears who live above ground. Unlike her fellow mice, Celestine is an artist and a dreamer—and when she nearly ends up as breakfast for ursine troubadour Ernest, the two form an unlikely bond. But it isn’t long before their friendship is put on trial by their respective bear-fearing and mice-eating communities.

Directed by Isao Takahata, 1999
PG; English dubbed version; 104 minutes

Takashi Yamada and his wacky wife Matsuko, who has no talent for housework, navigate their way through the ups and downs of work, marriage, and family life. Their household includes a sharp-tongued grandmother, a teenage son who wishes he had cooler parents, and a pesky daughter whose loud voice is unusual for someone so small. Even the family dog has issues!

Directed by Sandi Simcha Dubowski, 2024
Documentary; 105 minutes

“Sabbath Queen examines what’s more righteous: loyalty to what you’ve always known or loyalty to your core values?” — Robyn Bahr, The Hollywood Reporter

Bullying is a worldwide phenomenon. In Japan, it is a significant problem in schools and has been the subject of hundreds of films and television shows. Made in 2016, A Silent Voice is one of the most powerful anime films to deal with this topic. The film follows Shoya Ishida, a teenage boy who is haunted by his guilt for bullying and tormenting a deaf girl, Shoko Nishimiya, in elementary school. Now in high school, the two cross paths again and Shoya has a chance to make up for his misbehavior.

Director Satoshi Kon was a titan of the anime world who sadly passed away in 2010 at the age of 46. Although he left behind only four films of his own, each one is a classic. Released in 2001, Millennium Actress is Kon’s love letter to Japanese cinema, told through an interview with Chiyoko Fujiwara, an aging icon of Japanese films. As the interview progresses, the actress’s memories and movies flow together into a seamless story that takes her interviewer and his cameraman through a thousand years of Japanese history, as seen through popular films and Chiyoko’s roles.