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Notes -
Rather than recommend anime, I'll recommend anime movies instead.
Madoka Rebellion is one of the singular achievements in anime movie making and a must-watch sequel for fans of the series. There's no way the much-delayed followup that finally comes out in 2026 is going to live up to this.
Summer Wars is perfect. Hosoda has made many movies, but this is his ur-movie, the flick he tried to make his entire career before it and the flick he can't get over after making it. I consider it the ultimate family movie.
Umamusume: Beginning of a New Era is a standalone sports movie that could be taught in film schools if you want to understand composition, mise-en-scene, sound direction, visual directing, editing. It's an assault on the senses in the best way and probably the most gorgeous animated movie I've seen that year.
Similarly, Pompo the Cinephile is worth seeing for editing. Storywise it's a fun nothing but the control of space and time through editing is masterful and on a level not seen since Satoshi Kon died. To see Satoshi Kon's skill on full display, Millennium Actress, a movie following the life and career of a Japanese actress through a turbulent time in Japanese history, is arguably his most beginner friendly work.
The normie pick: Kimetsu no Yaiba: Mugen Train made all the money it made for a reason. Credited with saving the Japanese box office and ushering in a new golden age of high-budget anime movies, the movie's more impressive feat is taking a small segment of a serialized weekly battle manga and expanding it into something that functions as a movie, with an arc, a centralized theme, and a thesis on death and those who fear it versus those who face it.
The patrician pick: Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms. Fantasy movie about one of the last survivors of a long lived race raising a human child. Not perfect, but probably the most interesting Mari Okada-written work. Worth a watch every Mother's day. Has more ideas that it can comfortably pay off, but succeeds in strongly depicting the complicated feelings of someone watching a child grow up too fast.
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