Anime movies for beginners: Welcome to anime world

Hello there, if you are new to anime and not interested in starting with a series, this post is for you. I have spent almost an entire week watching anime movies that range from 1 to 2 hours long. My goal was to recommend some lesser-known anime movies with amazing stories to people new to the Otaku world. Of course, you can always start with popular anime movies.

Welcome to the anime world! We’re excited to have you with us. Check out the list below and pick an anime movie that catches your eye.

1. Wolf children

Hana is a hard-working college student who falls in love with a man who attends one of her classes. After a few years of dating, the man reveals himself to Hana on a full moon night, telling her that he is a wolf. Despite this, Hana’s love for him does not fade, and they decide to start a family. The wolfman gets a job, Hana becomes pregnant and has a daughter in their apartment. A year later, she gives birth to a son on a rainy day, alone. Wondering where her beloved is, she goes out to look for him and finds him dead in his wolf form. Hana struggles to raise her half-human, half-wolf children alone, with regret for not asking her partner about his upbringing.

Anyone can watch this movie, I think it focuses on the difficulties mothers face, especially single mothers. It’s definitely worth watching.

Duration: 1hr 57mins
Genre: Romance, fantasy
Aired: 2012

2. The summer

You know BL is boys’ love and GL is girls’ love. The Summer is a GL Korean animation movie.

An 18-year-old student named Yi-gyeong meets an athletic girl named Suyi who makes her heart race and helps her discover her true identity. Suyi is very dedicated to football and keeps her identity hidden to avoid people talking about her, which Yi-gyeong finds hard to understand at first. The two girls have been in a relationship for two years now, but Suyi’s mood swings and work shifts often make it difficult for them to spend time together. However, Yi-gyeong is starting to realize that her feelings for Suyi may not last forever.

Duration: 1hr 11mins
Genre: Drama, romance
Aired: June 2023

3. Grave of the fireflies

This one is a sad movie, I’ll say it is about survival. A young boy and his little sister get separated from their mother in Japan during World War II. He’d told his mother to head to the shelter and that he’d bring his sister along with him. Unfortunately, they didn’t make it to the shelter due to the firebombs the US used against them. After the firebombing he finds out his mother got burnt and is fighting for her life, a few days later she passes away. He and his sister go to live with a family member while waiting for their father, who is fighting in the navy to come and get them once the war is over.

Initially, everything went smoothly until his aunt started mistreating him and his sister. One day, they stumble upon a cave and move into the cave, where they suffer from starvation and diseases.

Duration: 1hr 21mins
Genre: War, drama, historical
Aired: 1988

4. Maquia: When the promised flower blooms

This is another animation about being a mother. The animation portrays the unbreakable bond between a mother and her child.

Maquia is a member of the Iorph race, a mystical group of beings who can live for hundreds of years without ever growing old. They choose to separate themselves from violence and the troubles of mankind. One day, the kingdom of Mezarte invades the Iorph homeland. The king of Mezarte seeks to control their immortality and add it to his bloodline. During the conflict, Maquia manages to escape on the back of a Renato Dragon that dies shortly after.

Lonely and lost, Maquia hears the cry of a baby in the arms of a dead woman. She decides to take the baby and raise him, ignoring the advice of a half-human, half-Iorph who tells her to abandon the child because he will eventually die. Maquia finds help from a kind woman and does everything in her power to raise the baby and move from city to city to avoid people noticing that she is not aging.

Duration: 1hr 55mins
Genre: Drama, fantasy
Aired: 2018

5. Perfect blue

Sigh.

This movie is SERIOUSLY psychological and definitely not for kids. Some scenes are violent, some scene contains nudity and it’s difficult to understand. If you plan to watch Perfect Blue, make sure to pay attention to the movie so that you can understand it better.

Mima Kirigoe, a pop singer, decides to leave her singing career and pursue acting instead, hoping that her fans will support her new career path. However, she soon realizes that she is being stalked by an obsessed fan who gave her a letter directing her to check out the website he created for her. As time passes, Mima’s mental state begins to deteriorate, causing her to lose touch with reality.

Desperate to improve her acting career, Mima accepts a rape scene that turns her career around and worsens her mental state, she begins to see illusions of herself as a pop singer calling her “Filthy.” Until one day this illusion tries to kill her.

I highly recommend Perfect Blue movie to adults only. It’s a masterpiece created by MADHOUSE studio.