Anime has finally found a massive audience in the U.S., and acquiring the latest and greatest anime movies and series is an essential part of the heated streaming wars, splintering the best of anime across services. Unfortunately, that battle means that it can be hard for fans to figure out what’s truly worth watching and what’s just been acquired by streamers to deepen their catalog for anime fans. That’s why we’ve sifted through Netflix to find some of the best anime movies you can stream now.
Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop
This movie is the perfect introduction to anime for the curmudgeon in your life that seems to think it’s all about harems and demons doing karate. Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop is sweet, short, and simple. It’s a very straightforward love story between a boy and girl, and the story continually uses music in an affectionate and enrapturing way. What stands out most about this film is its use of colors – it pops out of the screen with a beautiful array of bright colors and comfortingly cute scenery that makes this film an absolute joy to view.
Violet Evergarden: The Movie
In case you didn’t know, it’s a pretty common theme in anime to either end a series with a movie or re-edit the episodes of a series into a movie. Violet Evergarden: The Movie follows this tradition to a T. This film is a sequel to the Violet Evergarden TV series, which we highly recommend watching first.
If you don’t want to take the time, there’s a convenient recap movie on Netflix called Violet Evergarden: Recollections that you can start with. Regardless of how you decide to tackle it, Violet Evergarden is a stunning story about the atrocities of war, grief, longing, forgiveness, and numerous other complex themes. Don’t miss it.
Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion
Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion is, you guessed it, a movie that caps off an anime series called Neon Genesis Evangelion, which is so beloved around the world that at this point, you should probably just give in and watch it. Conveniently, both the series and the movie are currently on Netflix.
This film has been a frequent placeholder on the IMDb Top 250 Movies list and is a clear favorite with Letterboxd users, just in case you need any film enthusiast encouragement to finally take the dive. Without getting too deep into spoiler territory, let’s put it this way: on the surface, Evangelion is a show about monsters and the people who fight them to defend Earth. In reality, this isn’t a series that should be taken at surface value, because it explores much deeper themes and questions about life and spirituality.
The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf
Yep, The Witcher series on Netflix has received a lot of much-deserved flack, with its wild ups and downs and its most consistent bright spot being the cast (especially Henry Cavill). However, we can confidently say that The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf is a solid entry into the franchise that doesn’t take too many unnecessary left turns, unlike the live-action series which sometimes seems designed only to anger fans of The Witcher books and video games. It’s very refreshing to see the story of one of Geralt’s mentors, Vesemir, and the film has fantastic animation.
Each of these anime movies is streaming now on Netflix.
