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Picture: Sailor Moon Cosmos (left), Bubble (center), and One Piece: Film Red
Over the past several years, the Netflix library has grown considerably to include not only great original licensed anime series but also movies. If you’re brand new to anime and would like help getting started on what to watch, here’s our guide to the best starter movie series on Netflix in 2024
Finding a new anime movie to watch is less daunting than finding a new series; thankfully, the Netflix anime library has a great variety of films. While it isn’t the most extensive library of anime, there are still plenty of exciting and bold new originals and licensed movies from beloved franchises such as One Piece, Haikyuu, and Naruto.
Not to mention, in select regions, there’s also the collection of incredible Studio Ghibli films.
Are you looking to watch an anime series instead? We also have an in-depth guide for the best beginner anime series.
Bigger Budget, Bigger Animation
Thanks to bigger budgets and a limited runtime comparable to four or five anime episodes, animation studios go bigger and bolder with the animation of their feature films, which often leads to some genuinely dazzling visuals.
Netflix has prided itself on some of its original anime movies over the past several years, and we think you should get started with the following titles:
- Drifting Home (2022) – On summer vacation, two childhood friends visit the housing complex where they grew up, which is due to be demolished. But while playing, they get caught up in a strange phenomenon, and upon waking, discover they and the housing complex are lost at sea.
- Bubble (2022) – Cut off from the outside world thanks to bubbles that defy the laws of gravity, Tokyo has become a playground for parkourists.
- Suzume (2022) – Calamities lay behind mysterious doors that have opened across Japan. To save their country from disaster, Suzume and the mysterious Souta must find a way to close all the doors.
- The Imaginary (2023) – Rudger, Amanda’s imaginary friend, suddenly finds himself alone when he arrives at The Town of Imaginaries, where imaginary creations come to live and find work after being forgotten.
The legacy of Studio Ghibli can be seen in The Imaginary, and no one will be surprised to learn that Studio Ponoc, the animation studio that produced The Imaginary, was founded by Yoshiaki Nishimura, the former lead film producer of Studio Ghibli.
Shōnen Films
To capitalize on the popularity of a Shōnen anime series, animation studios will work on making movies for the franchise, which can be released in theatres around the globe. Often, these movies are not tied to the main story of the anime series and are just big-budget, fun side adventures that put the story’s heroes in unique and sometimes bizarre adventures in scenarios against incredibly dangerous, powerful, and fun villains.
Some great Shōnen movies you should be checking out on Netflix are:
- One Piece: Film Red (2022) – Luffy and the Straw Hat crew set sail for the island of Elegia, where Uta, the most beloved singer in the world and the daughter of Shanks, is performing.
- Jujutsu Kaisen 0 (2021) – The story of Yuuta Okkotsu, a powerful but cursed sorcerer who must learn to control the fierce spirit within him when he is enrolled at Jujutsu High School.
- Road to Ninja: Naruto the Movie (2012) – Naruto and his friend Sakura find themselves in a parallel world by Madara, who wants to steal the power of the Nine-Tails away from Naruto.
Other Shōnen movie fans should check out My Hero Academia: Two Heroes and The Seven Deadly Sins: Prisoners of the Sky. Not to mention, there’s a whole collection of One Piece and Naruto movies that are ready to stream.
While the production of these movies used to be an annual event for franchises such as One Piece and Naruto, in recent years, studios have held back flooding their fan bases with films.
Concluding the story
Alternatively, some studios have taken to concluding the story from an anime series and making the final arc a big theatrical release. Examples of these anime movies can be found on Netflix:
- The Qunitessential Qunituplets Movie (2022)
- Sailor Moon Eternal & Sailor Moon Cosmos (2021-2023)
- Violet Evergarden: The Movie (2020)
Before watching the movies listed above, we recommend watching the anime series first.
Mecha Movies
Not only a toy-selling powerhouse but also incredibly entertaining, the world of Mecha anime is often centered on giant mechs piloted by brave heroes who take on the forces of evil, often against other mechs or giant monsters.
The best Mecha anime movies to watch on Netflix come from beloved franchises Gundam and Neon Genesis Evangelion.
There are currently six Mobile Suit Gundam anime movies you can stream on Netflix:
- Mobile Suit Gundam I (1981)
- Mobile Suit Gundam II: Soldiers of Sorrow (1981)
- Mobile Suit Gundam III: Encounters in Space (1982)
- Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counter Attack (1988)
- Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway (2021)
- Mobile Suit Gundam: SEED Freedom (2024)
There are also two movies from Neon Genesis Evangelion:
- Evangelion Death (True)² (1997)
- The End of Evangelion (1997)
We recommend watching the Evangelion movies after you’ve watched the Neon Genesis Evangelion series. The first movie, Evangelion Death (True)², recaps the 24 episodes of the series and previews the next film, The End of Evangelion.
Subscribers must also know that The End of Evangelion provides an alternate ending to the Neon Genesis Evangelion story.
What about Studio Ghibli?
Studio Ghibli is an Academy-award-winning animation studio from Japan responsible for beloved classics such as Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, and many more!
Sadly, you can’t watch Studio Ghibli movies on Netflix in the USA and will need a subscription to Max to do so. However, living outside the USA, you can access all twenty-one Studio Ghibli movies until the Summer of 2026.
Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and Howl’s Moving Castle are pictured left to right. – Studio Ghibli.
In other exciting news, two more Studio Ghibli movies, The Boy and the Heron and the heartbreaking war-drama The Grave of the Fireflies, are on the way to Netflix.
The Boy and the Heron (left) and Grave of the Fireflies (right) are pictured left to right. – Studio Ghibli.
For Netflix subscribers with access to the Studio Ghibli library, we would argue there isn’t a better collection of movies to start your anime viewing experience.
What anime movies have you watched on Netflix? Let us know in the comments below!
