Next weekend will see the discharge of Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, the primary movie within the long-running Dragon Ball franchise since 2018. Our evaluation of that movie is on the way in which, however with that and the not too long ago launched historic musical movie Inu-Oh, it’s nearly as good a time as any to speak about this specific model of animated film.

Anime movies have been round since we have been all born, and even in case you weren’t an anime fan, you presumably ended up seeing one as a toddler regardless. (As lengthy because it regarded like a cartoon and didn’t have blood within the trailer, it should’ve been good for teenagers, yeah?) If it wasn’t Pokémon: The First Movie in 1998, then it could have been one of many earlier Studio Ghibli movies like Kiki’s Delivery Service or My Neighbor Totoro. It might’ve been Akira or Ghost within the Shell, relying on one’s age. Or perhaps it was the primary Digimon film with that also incredibly strange prelude with Angela Anaconda.

There are a number of anime movies that get theatrical releases within the west annually, although that tempo appears to have slowed down considerably because the pandemic hit in 2020. (Across 2020, 2021, and 2022, there’ve been between 5 and 9 anime movies that launched in western theaters.) Not all of them are based mostly on already common shonen anime, however that’s sometimes those that draw essentially the most consideration, due to their already built-in fanbases. And those which have come out in recent times have been actually good, like Jujutsu Kaisen and the second My Hero Academia movie.

For this week’s Open Channel, inform us a number of the greatest anime movies you’ve seen.

Want extra io9 information? Check out when to count on the newest Marvel and Star Wars releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on movie and TV, and every thing you’ll want to learn about House of the Dragon and Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.