50 Movies Like The Boy and the Heron (2023) You Need to Watch Next

2012 · Mamoru Hosoda

After her werewolf lover unexpectedly dies in an accident, a woman must find a way to raise the son and daughter that she had with him. However, their inheritance of their father's traits prove to be

In common: Animation · Drama

2013 · Isao Takahata

Found inside a shining stalk of bamboo by an old bamboo cutter and his wife, a tiny girl grows rapidly into an exquisite young lady. The mysterious young princess enthrals all who encounter her. But,

In common: Animation · Drama · Fantasy

2002 · Hiroyuki Morita

Young Haru rescues a cat from being run over, but soon learns it's no ordinary feline; it happens to be the Prince of the Cats.

In common: Animation · Drama

2022 · Makoto Shinkai

Suzume, 17, lost her mother as a little girl. On her way to school, she meets a mysterious young man. But her curiosity unleashes a calamity that endangers the entire population of Japan, and so Suzum

In common: Animation · Drama

2020 · Taichi Ishidate

As the world moves on from the war and technological advances bring changes to her life, Violet still hopes to see her lost commanding officer again.

In common: Animation · Drama · Fantasy

2019 · Makoto Shinkai

The summer of his high school freshman year, Hodaka runs away from his remote island home to Tokyo, and quickly finds himself pushed to his financial and personal limits. The weather is unusually gloo

In common: Animation · Drama · Fantasy

2019 · Soichi Masui

In Fujisawa, Sakuta Azusagawa is in his second year of high school. Blissful days with his girlfriend and upperclassman, Mai Sakurajima, are interrupted by the appearance of his first crush, Shoko Mak

In common: Animation · Drama · Fantasy

2020 · Tomotaka Shibayama

A peculiar girl transforms into a cat to catch her crush's attention. But before she realizes it, the line between human and animal starts to blur.

In common: Animation · Drama · Fantasy

1997 · Hideaki Anno

SEELE orders an all-out attack on NERV, aiming to destroy the Evas before Gendo can advance his own plans for the Human Instrumentality Project. Shinji is pushed to the limits of his sanity as he is f

In common: Animation · Drama · Fantasy

2010 · Hiromasa Yonebayashi

14-year-old Arrietty and the rest of the Clock family live in peaceful anonymity as they make their own home from items "borrowed" from the house's human inhabitants. However, life changes for the Clo

In common: Animation · Fantasy

2018 · Mari Okada

Fleeing the war, the immortal Machia, graced with eternal youth, finds a baby abandoned in the forest and decides to raise it as her own child, sparking a moving story between a mortal and a being who

In common: Animation · Drama · Fantasy

2001 · Hayao Miyazaki

A young girl, Chihiro, becomes trapped in a strange new world of spirits. When her parents undergo a mysterious transformation, she must call upon the courage she never knew she had to free her family

In common: Animation · Fantasy

1988 · Hayao Miyazaki

Two sisters move to the country with their father in order to be closer to their hospitalized mother, and discover the surrounding trees are inhabited by Totoros, magical spirits of the forest. When t

In common: Animation · Fantasy

1989 · Hayao Miyazaki

A young witch, on her mandatory year of independent life, finds fitting into a new community difficult while she supports herself by running an air courier service.

In common: Animation · Fantasy

2024 · Kiyotaka Oshiyama

Popular, outgoing Fujino is celebrated by her classmates for her funny comics in the class newspaper. One day, her teacher asks her to share the space with Kyomoto, a truant recluse whose beautiful ar

In common: Animation · Drama

1995 · Yoshifumi Kondo

Shizuku lives a simple life, dominated by her love for stories and writing. One day she notices that all the library books she has have been previously checked out by the same person: "Seiji Amasawa."

In common: Animation · Drama

2009 · Robert Zemeckis

Miser Ebenezer Scrooge is awakened on Christmas Eve by spirits who reveal to him his own miserable existence, what opportunities he wasted in his youth, his current cruelties, and the dire fate that a

In common: Animation · Drama

2015 · Mamoru Hosoda

Kyuta, a boy living in Shibuya, and Kumatetsu, a lonesome beast from Jutengai, an imaginary world. One day, Kyuta forays into the imaginary world and, as he's looking for his way back, meets Kumatetsu

In common: Animation

2006 · Mamoru Hosoda

When 17-year-old Makoto Konno gains the ability to 'leap' backwards through time, she immediately sets about improving her grades and preventing personal mishaps. However, she soon realises that chang

In common: Animation · Drama · Fantasy

1992 · Hayao Miyazaki

In Italy in the 1930s, sky pirates in biplanes terrorize wealthy cruise ships as they sail the Adriatic Sea. The only pilot brave enough to stop the scourge is the mysterious Porco Rosso, a former Wor

In common: Animation · Fantasy

1984 · Hayao Miyazaki

After a global war, the seaside kingdom known as the Valley of the Wind remains one of the last strongholds on Earth untouched by a poisonous jungle and the powerful insects that guard it. Led by the

In common: Animation · Fantasy

2017 · Kunihiko Yuyama

Ash Ketchum wakes up late one morning after having broken his alarm clock in his sleep. He eventually makes it to Professor Oak's lab, but is told that the three starter List of Pokémon (Bulbasaur, Sq

In common: Animation

1994 · Isao Takahata

The Raccoons of the Tama Hills are being forced from their homes by the rapid development of houses and shopping malls. As it becomes harder to find food and shelter, they decide to band together and

In common: Animation · Fantasy

2017 · Hiromasa Yonebayashi

Mary Smith, a young girl who lives with her great-aunt in the countryside, follows a mysterious cat into the nearby forest where she finds a strange flower and an old broom, none of which is as ordina

In common: Animation

1997 · Hayao Miyazaki

Ashitaka, a prince of the disappearing Emishi people, is cursed by a demonized boar god and must journey to the west to find a cure. Along the way, he encounters San, a young human woman fighting to p

In common: Animation · Fantasy

2008 · Hayao Miyazaki

When Sosuke, a young boy who lives on a clifftop overlooking the sea, rescues a stranded goldfish named Ponyo, he discovers more than he bargained for. Ponyo is a curious, energetic young creature who

In common: Animation · Fantasy

2007 · Hajime Kamegaki

Demons that once almost destroyed the world, are revived by someone. To prevent the world from being destroyed, the demon has to be sealed and the only one who can do it is the shrine maiden Shion fro

In common: Animation · Fantasy

2012 · Hayato Date

Sixteen years ago, a mysterious masked ninja unleashes a powerful creature known as the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox on the Hidden Leaf Village Konoha, killing many people. In response, the Fourth Hokage Min

In common: Animation · Fantasy

2019 · Takaomi Kanasaki

After receiving a warning that Yunyun's hometown is in danger, Kazuma's party is relieved to discover it's only a joke...until it isn't. The Demon King's general has just arrived to obtain The Mage Ki

In common: Animation · Fantasy

2014 · Hiromasa Yonebayashi

Upon being sent to live with relatives in the countryside due to an illness, an emotionally distant adolescent girl becomes obsessed with an abandoned mansion and infatuated with a girl who lives ther

In common: Animation · Drama

2008 · Hajime Kamegaki

A mysterious group of ninjas makes a surprise attack on the Konohagakure, which takes great damage. The nightmare of another Shinobi World War could become a reality. Sasuke, who was still a missing n

In common: Animation · Fantasy

2025 · Haruo Sotozaki

The Demon Slayer Corps are drawn into the Infinity Castle, where Tanjiro, Nezuko, and the Hashira face terrifying Upper Rank demons in a desperate fight as the final battle against Muzan Kibutsuji beg

In common: Animation · Fantasy

2004 · Hayao Miyazaki

Sophie, a young milliner, is turned into an elderly woman by a witch who enters her shop and curses her. She encounters a wizard named Howl and gets caught up in his resistance to fighting for the kin

In common: Animation · Fantasy

2021 · Sunghoo Park

Yuta Okkotsu is a nervous high school student who is suffering from a serious problem—his childhood friend Rika has turned into a curse and won't leave him alone. Since Rika is no ordinary curse, his

In common: Animation · Fantasy

2009 · Masahiko Murata

Ninjas with bloodline limits begin disappearing in all the countries and blame points toward the fire nation. By Tsunade's order, Kakashi is sacrificed to prevent an all out war. After inheriting char

In common: Animation

1985 · Toyoo Ashida

In a far-future time ruled by the supernatural, a young girl requests the help of a vampire hunter to kill the vampire who has bitten her and thus prevent her from becoming a vampire herself.

In common: Animation · Fantasy

2020 · Kotaro Tamura

With dreams of diving abroad, Tsuneo gets a job assisting Josee, an artist whose imagination takes her far beyond her wheelchair. But when the tide turns against them, they push each other to places t

In common: Animation · Drama

2018 · Shinichiro Ushijima

After his classmate and crush is diagnosed with a pancreatic disease, an average high schooler sets out to make the most of her final days.

In common: Animation · Drama

2007 · Makoto Shinkai

Three moments in Takaki's life: his relationship with Akari and their forced separation; his friendship with Kanae, who is secretly in love with him; the demands and disappointments of adulthood, an u

In common: Animation · Drama

2013 · Hayao Miyazaki

A lifelong love of flight inspires Japanese aviation engineer Jiro Horikoshi, whose storied career includes the creation of the A-6M World War II fighter plane.

In common: Animation · Drama

1990 · Mitsuo Hashimoto

Bardock, Son Goku's father, is a low-ranking Saiyan soldier who was given the power to see into the future by the last remaining alien on a planet he just destroyed. He witnesses the destruction of hi

In common: Animation · Drama

2013 · Makoto Shinkai

Takao, who is training to become a shoemaker, skipped school and is sketching shoes in a Japanese-style garden. He meets a mysterious woman, Yukino, who is older than him. Then, without arranging the

In common: Animation · Drama

2014 · Takashi Yamazaki

Sewashi and Doraemon find themselves way back in time and meet Nobita. It is up to Doraemon to take care of Nobita or else he will not return to the present.

In common: Animation · Drama

2011 · Goro Miyazaki

Yokohama, 1963. Japan is picking itself up from the devastation of World War II and preparing to host the 1964 Olympics—and the mood is one of both optimism and conflict as the young generation strugg

In common: Animation · Drama

2016 · Naoko Yamada

Shouya Ishida starts bullying the new girl in class, Shouko Nishimiya, because she is deaf. But as the teasing continues, the rest of the class starts to turn on Shouya for his lack of compassion. Whe

In common: Animation · Drama

1997 · Hideaki Anno

Originally a collection of clips from the Neon Genesis Evangelion TV series, Death was created as a precursor to the re-worked ending of the series. Rebirth was intended as that re-worked ending, but

In common: Animation · Drama

2020 · Pete Docter

Joe Gardner is a middle school teacher with a love for jazz music. After a successful audition at the Half Note Club, he suddenly gets into an accident that separates his soul from his body and is tra

In common: Animation · Drama

2012 · Toshiyuki Kubooka

Guts, an immensely strong sword-for-hire, has little direction in his life, simply fighting one battle after the next. However, this all changes suddenly when he meets and is bested by Griffith, a bea

In common: Animation

1993 · Yoshiaki Kawajiri

Jubei is a masterless ninja who travels the land alone, lending his services to those with gold—or a worthy cause. His fearsome abilities have served him well, but a plot to overthrow the government t

In common: Animation · Fantasy

1985 · Mamoru Oshii

In the ruins of a strange city, a young girl takes care of a large egg she holds carefully in her arms. She bonds with a boy who is searching for a bird he saw in a dream.

In common: Animation · Fantasy