As the first Studio Ghibli film to win an Academy Award, Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away is considered a cinematic masterpiece by all ramifications. Even now, the movie continues to receive widespread praise and acclaim for its sheer quality. Acting as Japan’s gateway film for Western audiences, Miyazaki’s film effectively defined the artistic potential of the medium for an entire generation.
However, anime has become so much more since the film’s 2001 debut, and the unwavering reverence it garners has become a stifling constraint when examining the technical and narrative evolution of similar works in the medium in that time. Compared to Spirited Away, these films are just as impressive.
8 Millennium Actress (2001)
Millennium Actress, directed by Satoshi Kon, is a retrospective film that invites viewers to question identity, memory, and the fusion of life and art. Loosely based on the lives of real-life actresses, Setsuko Hara, the story kicks off with documentary filmmakers interviewing Chiyoko Fujiwara, a beloved and popular actress, as she closes the curtains on her acting career.
The interview, however, swiftly takes an eerie turn. Rather than simply asking questions, the interviewers end up plunging into her memories, almost living them alongside her. Through the story, Kon turns memory into a living, evolving experience, moving across different decades and genres without missing a beat. Notably, the animation accurately serves the story’s emotional core.
Each transition between time periods flows easily, taking viewers through Japanese cinema history while exploring themes of love and loss. Where Spirited Away offers escapist wonder, Millennium Actress delivers something more introspective and melancholic. The film’s meditation on how we shape stories proves more sophisticated than any straightforward fantasy adventure.
7 Ghost in the Shell (1995)
Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell changed people’s perception of the cyberpunk genre as a work of animation, inspiring a whole wave of filmmakers influenced by the epic movie. Set in the fictional New Port City, the central story revolves around Major Motoko Kusanagi, a cyborg agent pursuing the mysterious hacker known as the Puppet Master.
As she investigates the case, she begins to question what makes one truly human. In a world where technology can swap out memories, bodies, and even emotions, where then is the line between human and machine? Visually, the film looks and feels as serious as any classic sci-fi, with a moody atmosphere and pace that lets the big ideas really land.
Where Spirited Away is about growing up and finding yourself through magic, Ghost in the Shell throws tough questions to the audience, about technology and what’s next for humanity. Hence, it is precisely the toughness of its intent that sealed its revolutionary legacy.
6 Princess Mononoke (1997)
Princess Mononoke, Miyazaki’s arguably most mature epic film, was released before Spirited Away. Set in Japan’s Muromachi period, the story follows the Emishi prince, Ashitaka, who finds himself at the centre of the growing struggle between the forest gods and the humans of Iron Town.
Rather than detailing the typical ‘good vs bad’, the story depicts all sides with equal nuance and moral depth. Lady Eboshi, portrayed as the enemy, turns out to be a loving leader who only wants to protect her marginalised people. The woodland spirits, while gorgeous, turn out to be harsh and unforgiving. Compared to Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke feels deeper.
Its highlighted issues of industrialisation, nature, and coexistence are relevant and modern, and the conflicts have emotional importance. Most importantly, the film declines to provide simple remedies. It is among the best pieces in Miyazaki’s entire body of work because of its readiness to accept moral ambiguity and honestly portray the environmental struggle the world currently faces.
5 The End of Evangelion (1997)
One of the most audacious and eerie animated films ever made is The End of Evangelion. The movie, which functions as a different ending for the Neon Genesis Evangelion series, uses Shinji Ikari, the main character, to show how the world and the human mind are collapsing.
The story strikes a balance between unsettling psychological scenes that explore trauma, loneliness, and the fear of emotional closeness and nerve-wracking mecha action. Few works seek to push animation into strange and metaphorical terrain as the movie does. Rather than offering viewers comfort, it presents them with open-ended challenges.
Spirited Away uses empathy and self-improvement to resolve its conflicts. Still, The End of Evangelion presents the effects of hopelessness and evasion to viewers in a way that forces reflection. Ultimately, the film’s impact extends beyond the mecha genre into broader cinematic conversations, leaving a lasting legacy.
4 Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
Directed by Isao Takahata, Grave of the Fireflies remains Studio Ghibli’s most horrific and acclaimed body of work. Set during the Pacific War, the story records the heartbreaking lives of two siblings, Seita and Setsuko, as they strive to survive in the final months of World War II.
What unfolds is a solid, straightforward, and brutally honest story that captures the grim reality of warfare and its aftermath. There’s no fantasy, mystical escape, or otherworldly characters; just a film depicting the human cost of war with a horrifying precision that only a few live-action movies can match.
From the music to the characterisation and most importantly, the visuals, Takahata’s masterpiece offers a harrowing exploration of grief and a sobering reminder of how brittle innocence can be. While Spirited Away offers enchantment and emotional healing, the power of Grave of the Fireflies stems from its reality, compassion, and refusal to sugarcoat the truths it exposes.
3 Perfect Blue (1997)
Perfect Blue marked Satoshi Kon’s directorial debut and arrived with a force that expanded the perception of animation’s capacity. The story revolves around the central character, Mima Kirigoe, a former pop idol who decides to transition into acting. As her public image shifts, she becomes entangled in a psychological collapse that blurs the line between social media and reality.
Haunted by the spectral doppelgänger of her idol persona, what follows for Mima is a disorienting spiral into madness that forces you to reflect on identity alongside her. Unlike Spirited Away, Perfect Blue delivers a tense psychological masterclass that offers a first peek into Satoshi Kon’s film legacy.
Utilising editing as a weapon, the film tells a jarring tale that also serves as a prophetic critique of the internet age and the toxic parasocial relationships it encourages, which is now much prevalent in modern times. Rather than coddle its viewers with magical and whimsical elements, it demands active engagement from start to finish.
2 A Silent Voice (2016)
A Silent Voice offers a profoundly grounded human approach to its storytelling. Directed by Naoko Yamada, the film tells a coming-of-age story centred on the pair of Shoya Ishida and Shoko Nishimiya. Their relationship is born out of a merciless bullying cycle in middle school led by Shoya on the deaf Shoko, ultimately driving her away from the school.
Years later, now a social pariah battling the consequences of his ugly reputation and crushed with the guilt of his past, Shoya tries to make amends by seeking out his victim. It is their awkwardly beautiful journey to reconciliation that the movie records in detail, presenting a deeply empathetic study of guilt, anxiety, and the lasting damage of childhood cruelty.
Unlike Spirited Away, which uses a magical environment to bring its protagonist towards maturity, A Silent Voice is grounded in real-life experiences that delve deep into the internal complexity of human flaws. In all, the film’s emotional authenticity and thematic maturity present as more profoundly resonant than Chihiro’s spiritual adventure.
1 Akira (1988)
From a legacy standpoint, Akira is arguably the most impactful anime film ever made. Director Katsuhiro Otomo adapted his own manga into a cyberpunk epic that not only reshaped global perceptions of anime but also broke down the barrier separating Japanese animation media from the West.
Recorded in Neo Tokyo, a dystopian metropolis, the narrative follows biker gang leader Shotaro Kaneda, whose delinquent life comes apart when his best friend, Tetsuo Shima, crashes into a secret government experiment. The aftermath is the awakening of the latter’s devastating psychic abilities that threatens to reduce the city to a pile of rubble once more.