A new trailer for Witch on the Holy Night, based on the visual novel of the same name has arrived... and it's delightfully dark.

In the brief clip, which can be viewed below, Aoko (voiced by Haruka Tomatsu) uses her powers to cast an explosive beam of light that takes me all the way back to the starry magic of Sailor Moon. The movie is set to premiere in Japan on November 20, but is rumored to make its streaming debut on Crunchyroll at a later date.

Per Crunchyroll, the official synopsis is as follows: "In the mansion on the hill, there lived two witches... It is the late 1980... the twilight of an era of beauty and vigor. A boy moves to the city, barely missing two witches living in modern times. The boy leads a completely ordinary life. She carries herself with gallant pride. The girl lives a sleepy, hidden life. Each walks a starlit path. One would never expect their paths to cross. The story of how these three disparate people came together is soon to be told."

The visual novel was first released for Windows back in 2012, and follows the story of three people: a young sorceress, a natural-born witch, and a regular man who all come to live at the same mansion. An anime film based on the game was announced back in 2021, with the original voice cast set to return.

For more, check out our list of all the new anime you should have on your radar for 2026 and beyond.

The newly-announced Solo Leveling: Beyond the System movie will be a "continuation" of Jinwoo's story, not a standalone, non-canon adventure.

As confirmed at Anime Expo 2026, we're not getting Solo Leveling season 3. Not yet, anyway.

Instead, Beyond the System is going to be a fully-fledged feature that acts as a follow-up to the second season of the hit anime.

A concept video has been released, showcasing real-world locations and Jinwoo aura farming as he gets ready for his next battle. You can watch that for yourself above.

As for what Beyond the System might cover, we anticipate it's going all-in on the Double Dungeon arc from the manhwa. While we won't get into spoiler territory here, it revolves around Jinwoo's return to his System-breaking origins, where he learns hidden truths about the secrets that lie within.

Solo Leveling: Beyond the System marks the latest foray into cinema for some of anime's most prominent names. Chainsaw Man and Demon Slayer have already broken box office records and expectations with its big-screen outings, while we wouldn't be surprised if more follow suit in the coming months and years.

While Beyond the System remains undated, Aniplex producer Sota Furuhashi previously said at a FYC Emmys Q&A that he would wait until the 2028 Olympics for the next instalment of Solo Leveling to be released.

We can wait a few years. Besides, if the stream of Crunchyroll records it's broken already is any indication, there will be plenty of anticipation for Solo Leveling: Beyond the System. In that case, we might have another major anime cinema hit on our hands.

For more, check out our picks for the best anime movies to watch right now.

The first trailer for the Apothecary Diaries movie has arrived, and it's a whimsical tease of a journey Mao Mao must take – as well as a mysterious hidden secret.

In the trailer, which you can watch above, Mao Mao learns she must travel with the remains of a consort who died five years ago, taking the coffin back to the consort's home.

But, Jinshi then asks Mao Mao to investigate something involving hidden treasure, and that's where the young boy Mu Qing comes into things. It all seems very mysterious, and the trailer has those trademark beautiful visuals.

The movie is an original story from Hyūganatsu, and it has a Japanese release date of December 11. So far, no US or UK release date has been revealed.

The Apothecary Diaries season 3 airs its first cour in October 2026, however, so there's not long to wait for more. The second cour will arrive in April 2027. It's expected to adapt the fifth and sixth light novels in the series, though how – or if – it connects to the movie remains to be seen.

Both Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle and Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Rez Arc debuted to huge success in theaters, so here's hoping the Apothecary Diaries movie can pull off the same result. Infinity Castle even grossed more than Superman, in a sure fire sign that anime is becoming increasingly more mainstream.

While you wait for the Apothecary Diaries movie, check out our guide to the best anime to watch right now, or all the new anime worth keeping an eye on.

After breaking records in movie theaters, Demon Slayer Infinity Castle will soon be heading to streaming. The movie's release date was seemingly leaked by Amazon in Canada and it's arriving next month.

According to Canadian publication MobileSyrup, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Infinity Castle was listed as arriving on July 29, 2026 in Crunchyroll's streaming library. The news was confirmed in an Amazon Prime Video press release, which announced that it will be available for subscribers to the additional platform.

Interestingly, this date also links up the home entertainment release of the movie in Japan. There has been no confirmation yet whether this Crunchyroll release date will also be the same internationally as it seems Canada might have jumped the gun on the announcement as it hasn't been announced elsewhere. However, we'd bet that it will be arriving at a similar time on the anime platform for most subscribers.

All in all this means the streaming release is arriving about a year after its theatrical release date. The film was first released in Japan last July before heading to the US in September 2025. It was so popular that it even returned for more screenings in March 2026 as well.

The movie acts as the first part of a three-part film trilogy designed to conclude the Demon Saga anime show. This part covers the beginning of Tanjiro's, the Hashira's, and the Demon Slayer Corps' final battle against Muzan Kibutsuji.

For more on the franchise, read our complete guide to Demon Slayer Infinity Castle 2. We've also got a bumper list of all the new anime on the way this year and next for you to enjoy.

Norman Reedus has revealed how one anime recommendation from Death Stranding collaborator Hideo Kojima gave him "street cred" – and may prove the catalyst for a live-action adaptation.

When asked by GQ Hong Kong whether he was into anime, Reedus offered, "There's Chainsaw Man, which Hideo Kojima told me about. He said it was his favorite."

From there, Reedus revealed he "went around Tokyo looking for the [manga], 'cause I have a production company and I was looking for cool things to make. I got a lot of street cred for knowing Chainsaw Man."

The Walking Dead actor later watched Chainsaw Man: The Movie – Reze Arc, but it's Reedus' admission about actively looking for the source material with an eye to adapting it for his bigbaldhead company that might raise a few eyebrows.

After all, Chainsaw Man – one of this fresh anime generation's leading lights – feels ripe for a live-action adaptation. Its anarchic, gory sense of style and blockbuster action scenes are tailor-made for the Hollywood treatment and would join the likes of One Piece in finding favor out west.

Even if that doesn't come to pass, Reedus can rest assured that more Chainsaw Man is on the way. The second season, an adaptation of the manga's International Assassins arc, has been announced, though no release date is forthcoming.

Reedus, meanwhile, is seemingly saying goodbye to his longstanding The Walking Dead character after Daryl Dixon season 4, which is releasing later this year.

For more, check out our complete guide to 2026's new anime, plus all the latest on Chainsaw Man season 2.

Makoto Shinkai, the director of beloved anime movie Your Name, has shared an exciting update on his next film. The director replied to a fan on Twitter asking about how he is when he shared the news.

"The entire staff is working hard every day on my new film," he replied. "I'm confident it's going to be a great film, so please hang in there just a little longer until the announcement!”

His mystery next film was first teased way back at the end of 2024, when he announced on Twitter that he was working on a new project. At the time Shinkai teased: "2024 was, for me, a year spent on a new film. Building a brand-new world from scratch with my colleagues—one that no one has seen yet—brings such strong joy."

Updates since then have been pretty few and far between but if we know anything about the worlds that Shinkai creates, it's likely that this will be well worth the wait.

Your Name is still up there as one of the best anime movies ever made. Sitting at 98% on Rotten Tomatoes, the movie tells the story of a teenage boy and girl who attempt to find each other after switching bodies.

Shinkai followed up the success of that movie with 2022's Suzume, which equally won over viewers. Following a 17 year old girl as she attempts to prevent a series of disasters occurring around Japan, the adventure film also sits at an incredibly high 96% on Rotten Tomatoes.

It's an exciting time for anime too with Crunchyroll just hosting the annual anime awards. You can read all about the winners here as well as what Crunchyroll President Rahul Purini had to say about the growth of AI in anime, and why they're not using it.

Anime's biggest night of the year has come to a close. Crunchyroll's 2026 Anime Awards were filled with shocks, surprises, and the ultimate announcement for who took home Anime of the Year in a crowded lineup that featured the likes of Dan Da Dan, The Apothecary Diaries, and The Summer Hikaru Died.

Below, we will guide you through the winners of all major categories from Tokyo as Chainsaw Man, Demon Slayer and 100 Meters also duked it out for the fiercely competitive Film of the Year award. Plus, whether you like your isekai or are more in love with romance, we have all genre awards and English/Japanese voice performance awards waiting for you. It's all just a scroll away.

For more, check out the new anime launching in the upcoming summer season and our guide to the best anime on Crunchyroll.

Anime Awards 2026 winners: the main list

Ahead, you'll find all of the 2026 10th Anime Awards winners from the major categories.

Anime of the Year

• Dan Da Dan season 2
• Gachiakuta
• My Hero Academia Final Season - WINNER
• Takopi's Original Sin
• The Apothecary Diaries season 2
• The Summer Hikaru Died

Best Continuing Series

• Dan Da Dan season 2
• Kaiju No. 8
• My Hero Academia Final Season
• One Piece - WINNER
• Solo Leveling season 2
• Spy x Family season 3

Best New Series

• Clevatess
• Gachiakuta - WINNER
• Sakamoto Days
• Takopi's Original Sin
• The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity
• The Summer Hikaru Died

Film of the Year

• 100 Meters
• Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc
• Demon Slayer Infinity Castle - WINNER
• Mononoke the Movie: Chapter 2 — The Ashes of Rage
• Scarlet
• The Rose of Versailles

Best Original Anime

• Apocalypse Hotel
• Digimon Beatbreak
• Lazarus - WINNER
• Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX
• Moonrise
• Zenshu

Best Animation

• Dan Da Dan season 2
• Gachiakuta
• My Hero Academia Final Season
• One Piece
• Solo Leveling season 2 - WINNER
• Takopi's Original Sin

Best Action

• Dan Da Dan season 2
• Gachiakuta
• Kaiju No. 8
• My Hero Academia Final Season
• One Piece
• Solo Leveling Season 2 - WINNER

Best Comedy

• City: The Animation
• Dan Da Dan season 2 - WINNER
• My Dress-Up Darling season 2
• Ranma 1/2 season 2
• Spy x Family season 3
• Witch Watch

Best Drama

• Anne Shirley
• Blue Box
• Orb: On the Movements of the Earth
• Takopi's Original Sin
• The Apothecary Diaries season 2 - WINNER
• The Summer Hikaru Died

Best Isekai

• Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill season 2
• Disney Twisted-Wonderland: The Animation — Season 1 "Episode of Heartslabyul"
• From Bureaucrat to Villainess: Dad's Been Reincarnated!
• Konosuba-God's Blessing on This Wonderful World!
• ReZero: Starting Life in Another World season 3 - WINNER
• Zenshu

Best Romance

• Blue Box
• Dan Da Dan season 2
• Honey Lemon Soda
• My Dress-Up Darling season 2
• Ranma 1/2 season 2
• The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity - WINNER

Best Slice of Life

• Anne Shirley
• Blue Box
• City: The Animation
• My Dress-Up Darling season 2
• Spy x Family season 3 - WINNER
• The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity

Best VA Performance (Japanese)

• Aoi Yuki (The Apothecary Diaries) - WINNER
• Chiaki Kobayashi (The Summer Hikaru Died)
• Daiki Yamashita (My Hero Academia)
• Kikunosuke Toya (Chainsaw Man)
• Mayumi Tanaka (One Piece)
• Reina Ueda (Chainsaw Man)

Best VA Performance (English)

• Alexis Tipton (Chainsaw Man)
• Emi Lo (The Apothecary Diaries)
• Justin Briner (My Hero Academia)
• Lucien Dodge (Demon Slayer) - WINNER
• Morgan Barry (Sanda)
• Paul Castro Jr. (The Summer Hikaru Died)

Itching to see what else is out there? We have a curated collection of the best anime movies and best anime on Crunchyroll waiting for you.

Akira creator Katsuhiro Otomo is working on a new project from a brand-new anime studio.

According to a press release, the studio, named OVAL GEAR, "was established with the aim of passing on the visual expression and artistic style that Katsuhiro Otomo has cultivated over many years to the next generation, and to disseminate new animation works to the world. Production of a new title is already underway at the studio. Further details about the project will be announced as soon as they are ready."

Otomo hasn't helmed a movie since 2004's Steamboy. Back in 2019, he announced that he was adapting his manga Orbital Era into a film, but updates have been few and far between in the seven years since. Still, this new announcement has given fans some much-needed hope.

"I had given up all hope on ever getting that Orbital Era anime, but now you're saying there's still hope?" said one fan on Twitter.

"The amount of hopium i'm inhaling right now is off the charts- Orbital Era might still be on the table…" said someone else.

Published in 2001, Orbital Era follows a group of boys in an under-construction space colony, "surviving in this peculiar environment and society who keep living their lives while they’re being tossed about by fate."

Otomo's most iconic work is Akira, the anime movie was a trailblazer for the sci-fi genre and its influence has been seen in Hollywood and live-action films, too. It follows the leader of a biker gang in a dystopian version of Tokyo in the year 2019, whose childhood friend gains telekinetic powers after a motorcycle accident involving a secret government project.

While we wait for more updates on Otomo's next project, Akira is currently back on the big screen in UK cinemas. For more on what to watch, check out our guide to the best new anime still to come in 2026.

Crunchyroll is kicking off its Ani-May celebrations early by announcing a whole stack of new content making its way to the streamer, including Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc.

That's right, over seven months after it premiered in theaters, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc has finally set a streaming date, and will hit Crunchyroll on April 30, as announced by the streamer in a press release.

Crunchyroll announced in February that the movie would soon be making its way to the site this Spring. However, this is sooner than we expected. When Reze Arc hits the site, it will be available in both subtitled and dubbed formats.

Serving as a direct sequel to the first season of the Chainsaw Man anime series, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc sees Denji, aka Chainsaw Man, face his deadliest battle yet in a brutal war between devils, hunters, and secret enemies. The franchise is based on the hit manga of the same name by Tatsuki Fujimoto, and the movie adapts chapters 39 to 52, known as the Bomb Girl Arc. The story will continue with Chainsaw Man season 2, which is set to adapt the manga's International Assassins arc.

The film premiered in Japan on September 19, 2025, and later hit US theaters just over one month later. The feature proved to be a big hit with fans, grossing over $174 million worldwide and earning an impressive 96% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Crunchyroll has a few more tricks up its sleeve during Ani-May. As well as bringing celebrity ambassadors on board to celebrate the genre, the site will host weekly global YouTube watch parties and its first-ever 7-day anime marathon on Twitch. Then, at the end of the month, Crunchyroll will host the 10th annual Crunchyroll Anime Awards live from Tokyo on May 23, which will be available to watch on TikTok.

The schedule can be found on Crunchyroll's dedicated Ani-May site. For more, check out the best anime on Crunchyroll right now, and our guides to the Reze Arc post-credits scene and what to read in the manga after Reze Arc.

Studio Ghibli is releasing a new short film in July, but it'll only be available at Ghibli Park in Japan.

Per the official Studio Ghibli website, Night in the Valley of Witches (Majyo no Tani no Yoru) will start screening on July 8 exclusively at the Orion Theater in the Ghibli Park's Grand Warehouse. The film is set in the Valley of Witches area at the theme park and is the first Studio Ghibli animated film created specifically for Ghibli Park.

Directed by Goro Miyazaki (Tales from Earthsea, From Up on Poppy Hill) and Akihiko Yamashita (who was the animation director for Howl's Moving Castle). Miyazaki (who is indeed the son of Hayao Miyazaki), and Yamashita will host the July 8 screening and introduce the film to 150 lucky attendees. We don't have any details about the film's plot just yet, but we do have a poster, which you can check out below.

The new short is the studio's first overall release since 2023's Oscar-winning feature The Boy and the Heron, and is the first short film since 2022's Zen: Grogu and Dust Bunnies collaboration with Lucasfilm and Disney Plus.

Ghibli Park, located in Nagakute, Aichi, Japan, opened in 2022 and is more of an immersive museum than a theme park. It has several locations based on various Ghibli films, including The Cat Returns, Princess Mononoke, and Howl's Moving Castle. The Valley of Witches area is inspired by Kiki's Delivery Service and contains two small children's rides (the only two in the entire park).

The Studio Ghibli catalog is streaming now on HBO Max. For more, check out the new anime coming this year.

There was a time before, and a time after Akira. Katsuhiro Ôtomo's wildly influential adaptation of his own epic manga forever changed the perception of Japanese animation in the West – the first domino to fall in widespread cultural adoption of anime outside of Japan. Without Akira, it's possible we might never have seen Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle outgross Superman at the box office in 2025. Arguably even more impressive than this legacy: Akira has barely aged a day in almost 40 years.

Timeless is a word that gets thrown around a lot, but if Akira were released for the first time today, audiences would undoubtedly be blown away anew. In the grand tradition of 80s sci-fi (see also: Blade Runner), Akira did wildly overestimate the march of progress; it's set in 2019, and its vision of Neo-Tokyo doesn't exactly resemble the world we live in. But Akira's major thematic interests – disaffected youth, cyclical fears of destructive acts, unchecked military power – are just as relevant today as they were almost four decades ago.

Now back on the big screen in remastered 4K, Akira's re-release is also a reminder that few animated films before or since have looked quite so ravishing. However many times you might think you've seen Akira, if you haven't seen it in a theater, you haven't really seen Akira at all.

Ride or die

Set 21 years after the destruction of Tokyo, Akira's Neo-Tokyo is a lawless, crepuscular mega-city rebuilt from the ashes. Hotheaded Kaneda is the leader of the Capsules, a biker gang, whose life of high-speed crime is upended when his best friend Tetsuo is captured by the militaristic Japan Self-Defense Forces.

Probed at a secret lab, the scientists discover that Tetsuo is an extraordinarily powerful esper, with psychic capabilities equal to Akira, the young boy secretly responsible for Tokyo's destruction two decades prior. Everyone quickly realises that Tetsuo is far too dangerous to keep alive, and as his dormant powers emerge, Kaneda may be the only one who can stop Tetsuo from leveling Neo-Tokyo all over again.

That two-paragraph precis, of course, doesn't come close to doing justice to Akira's intricate grand tragedy – an elegant, multi-strand narrative that squeezes novelistic scope into a two-hour runtime. As each of Akira's layers is peeled back, the full extent of its strangeness is gradually revealed, climaxing in a mind-bending, metaphysical moment of psychedelia that makes 2001's stargate sequence look like a plug-in lava lamp.

Akira's iconography is undeniable: the legendary bike slide has been referenced in everything from Batman: The Animated Series to Jordan Peele's Nope. Its astonishingly detailed cityscapes and fluid character animation still dazzle almost four decades on.

But Akira's influence extends beyond the visual. Along with Blade Runner and Neuromancer, it established the parameters for cyberpunk worlds that are still adhered to to this day.

Welcome to Kaneda

What's always struck me watching Akira, and something that remained unchanged on this latest rewatch, is how much Kaneda and Tetsuo's friendship anchors a story with unfathomably huge scope. It's a film which opens with the annihilation of an entire city and ends with its tragic monster transcending our plain of reality and essentially becoming a deity. But it's Kaneda's half-despairing, half-furious cries of 'Tetsuo!' that ring around my head at the mere thought of Akira. Kaneda will save Tetsuo, by any means necessary.

It's redundant at this stage to point out how acclaimed Akira is. Read practically any list of the greatest animated films ever, and there's a pretty good chance you'll see Akira hovering somewhere near the top spot. Otomo would go on to direct Memories, early episodes of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, and 2004's Steamboy, but Akira is the kind of film that stands above all. Arguably, only Ghost in the Shell could be considered a true peer.

Hollywood has tried to crack a live-action adaptation of Akira for decades at this stage. Blade's Steven Norrington, Black Adam's Jaume Collet-Serra, and Taika Waititi, of all people, have been attached at various stages across the years. In June 2025, Warner Bros. declined to renew the rights to Akira, but with the option back up for grabs, it's only a matter of time before it's snapped up again.

But Akira doesn't need an inevitably compromised Western adaptation for its legacy to be assured; it's a rare film that lives up to every bit of lofty hyperbole commentators (like me) care to throw at it. How lucky we are to live in a time after Akira.

Akira is back in UK cinemas now. For more on what to watch, check out the rest of our Big Screen Spotlight series.

For me, there's life before Your Name and life after Your Name. Back in 2016, I was still dipping my toes into anime's deep waters – Death Note, Fullmetal Alchemist, and a host of other 'beginner' must-see series – before being emotionally sideswiped by Makoto Shinkai's masterpiece.

In one fell swoop, it became the first anime to legitimately trouble my movie Mount Rushmore (or, if you're that way inclined, your Letterboxd four favorites), proving that Japanese animation was something altogether more profound than I had ever anticipated. It was the start of a long and beautiful journey with Shinkai's movies and the medium at large. But, a decade on, his best-known work remains his peak.

For the unfamiliar, Your Name takes in the unlikely story of star-crossed lovers Taki, a city boy with his head in the clouds, and Mitsuha, who has grown tired of growing up alongside the slower, traditional values of older generations.

Shinkai wisely chooses to flick back and forth between the pair. The hustle and bustle of Tokyo quickly meshes with the quieter, quainter surroundings of rural Japan.

Not since 1980s classic Akira has a sprawling city been so well realized in all its angular, mechanical beauty. And not since My Neighbor Totoro has a pastoral setting tempted me to up sticks and leave it all behind.

If that was the only story the acclaimed director chose to tell here – one of long-distance yearning and of a country desperately trying to hold onto its past – it would work. Your Name becomes so much more than that, however.

Immediately, twists fold in on themselves and constantly surprise. One I feel comfortable mentioning, introduced early, sees a Freaky Friday situation unfold as Taki and Mitsuha swap bodies. Hilarious results ensue but, as the pair grow closer, something more intangible – and magical – begins to course through the movie's veins.

Stars in their eyes

It's here where I should mention Radwimps, the Japanese rock band who provide the soundtrack for Your Name.

Music and movies have long been intertwined, but few collaborations elevate what's on the screen more than the musicians' dreamy, ethereal sound here.

As news of an impending celestial event sparks trouble – with Shinkai executing an all-timer of a rug pull that deserves to be spoken about in the same breath as The Sixth Sense – the score resonates even more strongly. So much so, in fact, there are certain songs that I have to skip on Spotify, such is the strength of feeling it still causes a decade on.

Your Name then turns from a simple love story into one of ethereal connection. In a world so ready to spread division, Your Name fights against the current of hate to stand as a monolith to opening your heart so fully and truly to those around you.

More than anything, Shinkai gets love. It's not necessarily being in the same space, as Taki and Mitsuha prove that heartfelt feelings can transcend time, space, and the stars in the sky. It's one of the truest depictions of that sort of intimate, spiritual bond that has ever been put on screen.

It's heartening to see, then, that 10 years on, Frieren: Beyond Journey's End has picked up the baton with its cozy themes of connection and the legacy of leaving your mark on someone else's life being more powerful than anything else.

Shinkai went on to create Weathering With You and Suzume, but never quite hit those heights again in my eyes. The former feels like a diluted Your Name – complete with cameos from some familiar faces – while Suzume is a deeply affecting work, but its dissection of the trauma and widespread devastation of the 2011 tsunami understandably doesn't quite register as universally with its audience, despite its tragic nature.

Your Name continues to stand alone. It is a singular, generation-defining work that I can heartily recommend to everyone. A powerful love story, a surprising fantasy classic, and a pitch-perfect ode to waning Japanese culture wrapped into one, Your Name ties its red ribbon around its audience, ensuring they will always remember the first time they watched it – and how it will remain with them forever.

We rank Your Name and 29 other classics in our ranking of best anime movies.

Well, it's official: Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle is no longer in cinemas – and what a theatrical run it has been.

Since its original Japanese release date on July 18, 2025 and its US rollout from September 12, the movie has proven to be a big hit with cinemagoers over the last nine months. Due to initial success, which earned around $555 million worldwide, it was reshown in North American and UK territories from March 2026, accumulating a total of $738.5 million.

The whopping sum smashed box-office records and confirmed it as the highest-grossing anime film of all time, beating out the likes of Demon Slayer: Mugen Train and Pokémon: The First Movie.

Based on the franchise's long-running TV series and, more specifically, Koyoharu Gotouge's manga arc of the same name, Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle centers on Tanjiro, as he continues to seek vengeance against Muzan, the demon that killed his parents, and restore his sister Nezuko to her human form.

While its success is great news for fans and big screen venues, those who've been waiting patiently for the fantasy flick to drop on streaming are still none the wiser as to when it'll appear on Crunchyroll. As it stands, the platform has yet to announce when the movie will be added to its roster, but we'll be sure to keep you posted on that front.

While we wait for more news on when Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle is going to drop on Crunchyroll, check out our guide to all the new anime heading our way.

The nominees for Crunchyroll's 10th Anime Awards are in, and the spotlight is on some of the biggest names from the industry, including Demon Slayer and Chainsaw Man, as fan voting begins.

Ahead, we run through some of the biggest shocks, surprises, and talking points ahead of one of anime's biggest nights of the year, including Solo Leveling's many nominations, Dan Da Dan making waves, and The Summer Hikaru Died emerging as a leading contender.

The event, which takes place on May 23 in Tokyo, will also feature guest presenters and famous faces, including Winston Duke, RZA, and Flying Colors actor Kasumi Arimura.

For more, check out the new anime launching this spring season and the One Piece Elbaph Arc release schedule.

Anime Awards 2026 nominees

Below, you'll find all of the Anime Awards nominees from the major categories.

Crunchyroll has the full list of the dozens of categories and the 100-plus nominated names on its official website, while fans can now also vote on My Anime List.

Anime of the Year

• Dan Da Dan season 2
• Gachiakuta
• My Hero Academia Final Season
• Takopi's Original Sin
• The Apothecary Diaries season 2
• The Summer Hikaru Died

Best Continuing Series

• Dan Da Dan season 2
• Kaiju No. 8
• My Hero Academia Final Season
• One Piece
• Solo Leveling season 2
• Spy x Family season 3

Best New Series

• Clevatess
• Gachiakuta
• Sakamoto Days
• Takopi's Original Sin
• The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity
• The Summer Hikaru Died

Film of the Year

• 100 Meters
• Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc
• Demon Slayer Infinity Castle
• Mononoke the Movie: Chapter 2 — The Ashes of Rage
• Scarlet
• The Rose of Versailles

Best Original Anime

• Apocalypse Hotel
• Digimon Beatbreak
• Lazarus
• Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX
• Moonrise
• Zenshu

Best Animation

• Dan Da Dan season 2
• Gachiakuta
• My Hero Academia Final Season
• One Piece
• Solo Leveling season 2
• Takopi's Original Sin

Best Action

• Dan Da Dan season 2
• Gachiakuta
• Kaiju No. 8
• My Hero Academia Final Season
• One Piece
• Solo Leveling Season 2

Best Comedy

• City: The Animation
• Dan Da Dan season 2
• My Dress-Up Darling season 2
• Ranma 1/2 season 2
• Spy x Family season 3
• Witch Watch

Best Drama

• Anne Shirley
• Blue Box
• Orb: On the Movements of the Earth
• Takopi's Original Sin
• The Apothecary Diaries season 2
• The Summer Hikaru Died

Best Isekai

• Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill season 2
• Disney Twisted-Wonderland: The Animation — Season 1 "Episode of Heartslabyul"
• From Bureaucrat to Villainess: Dad's Been Reincarnated!
• Konosuba-God's Blessing on This Wonderful World!
• ReZero: Starting Life in Another World season 3
• Zenshu

Best Romance

• Blue Box
• Dan Da Dan season 2
• Honey Lemon Soda
• My Dress-Up Darling season 2
• Ranma 1/2 season 2
• The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity

Best Slice of Life

• Anne Shirley
• Blue Box
• City: The Animation
• My Dress-Up Darling season 2
• Spy x Family season 3
• The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity

Best VA Performance (Japanese)

• Aoi Yuki (The Apothecary Diaries)
• Chiaki Kobayashi (The Summer Hikaru Died)
• Daiki Yamashita (My Hero Academia)
• Kikunosuke Toya (Chainsaw Man)
• Mayumi Tanaka (One Piece)
• Reina Ueda (Chainsaw Man)

Best VA Performance (English)

• Alexis Tipton (Chainsaw Man)
• Emi Lo (The Apothecary Diaries)
• Justin Briner (My Hero Academia)
• Lucien Dodge (Demon Slayer)
• Morgan Barry (Sanda)
• Paul Castro Jr. (The Summer Hikaru Died)

Itching to see what else is out there? We have a curated collection of the best anime movies and best anime on Crunchyroll waiting for you.

Studio Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki and Hayao Miyazaki's son, director Goro Miyazaki, both say that the beloved director has no plans for another retirement.

"Hayao Miyazaki turned 85 in January of this year, and I thought he might be getting old soon, but that's not the case at all; he's incredibly energetic," Goro said during a press conference (via ManTan Web). "Why is he so energetic? His blood test results are better than mine."

Miyazaki's last feature film, The Boy and the Heron, hit theaters in 2023 and took home Best Animated Feature film at the Academy Awards, Golden Globes, and BAFTAs. It marked his first feature in 10 years, having publicly announced his permanent retirement after 2013's The Wind Rises.

It'd be sad if he stopped making films... but we'd understand. Sure, there's no other filmmaker quite like him: with a distinct style that combines soft and painterly yet extremely vibrant backgrounds with more simplified but expressive characters that you can't help but fall in love with (and the English dubs end up being really, really good, too... though we'd recommend skipping the one for Princess Mononoke)... but he's been doing this for quite some time – since 1979 to be exact. If The Boy and the Heron, which beautifully explored themes of grief and gave us some pretty impressive voiceover work from Robert Pattinson, ends up being his last film... it wouldn't be a bad way to go out.

"He has a very strong sense that he's still active and working hard. Even though he's 85, he still wants to make movies," Suzuki said during the same conference. "But that varies from day to day. On days when he's not feeling well, he clearly loses his motivation and might say things like, 'I don't feel like making movies anymore.' It's a cycle."

The Studio Ghibli catalog is streaming now on HBO Max. For more, check out the new anime coming this year.

Known anime nerd and newly minted Oscar winner Michael B. Jordan says his favorite movie of all time is Princess Mononoke.

In a post-ceremony street interview, Jordan told popular TikToker Maurice aka The People Gallery that his favorite movie was the 1997 Studio Ghibli classic... point blank period. The period fantasy-drama, directed by Hayao Miyazaki, follows a young prince named Ashitaka who travels west in search of a cure after fighting a demon and incurring a nasty curse on his arm as a result. He finds himself in the middle of a conflict between Lady Eboshi, the town's dictator of sorts, and San, a young girl who was raised by wolves.

Jordan's love for anime is pretty well-known, to the point where anime fans around the world have been publicly celebrating his Oscar win. During the press cycle for Creed 2, Jordan told GQ that his favorite anime show is Naruto Shippuden, which made it all the less surprising when he later said that the fight choreography in Creed 3 was anime-inspired.

Jordan won Best Actor at the 2026, the first of his career and one of four wins for Ryan Coogler's Sinners, for playing the dual roles of twin brothers Smoke and Stack in the vampire horror movie. He beat out fellow nominees Timothée Chalamet for Marty Supreme, Leonardo DiCaprio for One Battle After Another, Ethan Hawke for Blue Moon, and Wagner Moura for The Secret Agent.

Sinners is streaming now on HBO Max. Princess Mononoke is also streaming now on HBO Max (though I do not recommend the English dub). For more on this year's Academy Awards, check out our Oscars 2026 winners round-up.

The new trailer for Sekiro: No Defeat is here, and the anime adaptation looks to be a picture-perfect recreation of FromSoftware's Sengoku-era classic.

The Sekiro: No Defeat trailer, which you can see above, closely follows the plot of 2019's Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, as a one-armed shinobi fights against forces warped by ambition and power.

Of course, it wouldn't be Sekiro without dazzling combat and brutal set-pieces.

Already, we can spy protagonist Wolf taking on Genichiro Ashina at the top of Ashina Castle (infamously, a tough-as-nails roadblock boss fight for gamers who likely gave up on Sekiro at the halfway point), and a handful of other epic encounters from the game.

To maintain the authenticity, Sekiro: No Defeat is bringing back the vast majority of its voice cast from Shadows Die Twice.

The latter half of the trailer only speaks to that quality, too, as it appears to be fleshing out the lore that many will have missed out on thanks to the various parry-induced headaches on their journey. Or, in my case, dying countless times at the giant hands of the Guardian Ape.

All told, it appears to be exactly what I want from a Sekiro anime: faithful, but taking some creative liberties with FromSoftware's lore, especially as they all-too-often get obscured by the in-game action. The fluidity and movement, too, neatly capture the fearsome kinetic energy that made Sekiro such a hit upon release – and, for my money, one of the greatest games of the past decade.

In a statement, director Kenichi Kutsuna only upped my excitement for the project. He said, "In adapting the overwhelmingly beautiful Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice into an anime, I have poured every ounce of my 'beauty' into creating this work. Whether you’re a longtime fan of the game or experiencing the world of 'Sekiro' for the first time through this anime, we’re confident this work will leave you with something to take home. Please look forward to it."

Sekiro: No Defeat is currently slated for a theatrical release in Japan, though it will be streaming on Crunchyroll in other territories.

For more, check out the other new anime coming in 2026, plus our picks for the best anime movies you should be watching right now.

Earlier this week, the director of Pixar's Hoppers, Daniel Chong, posted an animation test from the film to social media. Hoppers, by most metrics, is a big hit and has ended something of a cold streak for Pixar's original offerings. But the response to the test, which is notably in 2D, and very reminiscent of Studio Ghibli's distinctive style, was unanimous: instead of Pixar's 3D house style, which has been industry standard for over three decades, why couldn't Hoppers look like that?

It's a thought that I couldn't get out of my head while re-watching Studio Ghibli's 1989 classic Kiki's Delivery Service, which is back on the big screen this week in glorious IMAX. It should be news to no one that Ghibli makes beautiful movies. Their nostalgic, painterly, soulful art style and whimsical worlds have enchanted generations. But in the cold light of 2026, where the animated landscape is almost completely dominated by hyperactive, saucer-eyed characters in vibrant, but vaguely rubber-looking worlds, watching Kiki's Delivery Service is like sailing on a sea of tranquility.

Kiki's re-release is also an urgent reminder that we're losing something vital – artists with the skills to create hand-drawn feature films, particularly in the West. While Ghibli still operates, its output has slowed to a crawl, and seems primarily driven by Hayao Miyazaki's continued refusal to retire. There are many filmmakers who could be considered successors to Miyazaki – Makoto Shinkai, Mamoru Hosoda and Tomm Moore, amongst them – but whether for practical, financial or creative reasons, purely hand-drawn animated movies are an endangered species. Kiki's Delivery Service, as a result, is a movie to be savoured.

Flying high

Written and directed by Ghibli's enigmatic co-founder Miyazaki – only his third official film for the studio, following 1986's Castle in the Sky and 1988's My Neighbor Totoro (The Castle of Cagliostro and Nausicaä were both released before Ghibli's inception) – Kiki's Delivery Service might be the studio's defining coming-of-age story. Shorn of the horrors of its immediate predecessor, Grave of the Fireflies, Kiki's Delivery Service is a tonic that finds meaning and warmth in everyday relationships, despite its eponymous character being a witch.

As the movie begins, 13-year-old Kiki (Kirsten Dunst, in Disney's English-language dub) sets out on her traditional (for witches) year away from home, alongside her sardonic feline familiar Jiji (Phil Hartman). Still in the process of finding herself and not even sure what her "skill" as a witch will be, Kiki settles in the coastal town of Koriko. After a young boy called Tombo (Matthew Lawrence) helps her escape the clutches of the law, Kiki finds a home away from home in a family-run bakery. There, she sets up a delivery service, the logic being that a broomstick beats any mail van.

By modern standards, Kiki's Delivery Service could be considered uneventful. Kiki may be a witch, but other than flying her broom from place to place and the ability to talk to her cat, magic hardly figures into the story. After setting up her business, Kiki makes a couple of inefficient deliveries, and there's a smidge of action in the final act, but really the film is about her connections in the community – to Tombo and the figures who pop by the shop for freshly baked goods. Uneventful does not equal boring in this case, then, as the film's gentle rhythms and its deceptively deep depiction of a 13-year-old girl's struggle with self-doubt on the way to discovering herself captivates in a way that no spell-casting battle ever could.

Picture purr-fect

And it bears repeating that Kiki's Delivery Service is gorgeous. Of course, it wasn't made for IMAX, but it's a fine way to see it, even if it's readily accessible on streaming nowadays; rarely, even in Ghibli's work, has a world felt quite so detailed and alive as Koriko. Kiki is one of Ghibli's great protagonists – it's easy to see her influence on the likes of Princess Mononoke's San, or Spirited Away's Chihiro, while the idea of a character on an adventure with a cat would live on through Whisper of the Heart and The Cat Returns.

With Disney having moved away from hand-drawn animation completely (though the success of the Spider-Verse movies has at least led to a realization from Hollywood at large that audiences crave variation from the norm), and Miyazaki not getting any younger, there's a very real chance we might never see a movie as visually splendid as Kiki's Delivery Service on the big screen again, and almost certainly not one that is as intentionally understated. Is that an overly dramatic statement? Perhaps. But for all their continued successes, modern animated movies feel worlds apart.

The good news is, the Ghibli IMAX re-releases aren't stopping here: over the next couple of months, both Whisper of the Heart and The Secret World of Arrietty are heading back to the big screen – the perfect opportunity to see two lesser-celebrated Ghibli works in a format that does them justice. And let's hope that when Hoppers 2 rolls around, that gorgeous 2D animation is more than a test.

Kiki's Delivery Service is playing now on IMAX screens in the US. For more on what to watch, check out the rest of our Big Screen Spotlight series, or for more Ghibli, check out our list of the best Studio Ghibli movies, ranked from worst to best.

The kings of anime, Studio Ghibli's Hayao Miyazaki and Evangelion's Hideaki Anno, have reunited, and the pictures are most definitely the sweetest thing you'll see today.

Anno's animation studio Khara shared the images on Twitter of Anno and Miyazaki. The post includes a comment from Anno, which explains that a few days ago he visited Miyazaki for the first time in over a year, adding, "Hayao Miyazaki was still energetically drawing his beloved 'pictures' freely as he pleased. What an amazing person." Check out the post below.

Anno says the pictures were taken by a "veteran staff member from the Nausicaä days," referring to the 1984 anime movie Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, in which both of the artists worked on together. Anno adds that in the last image, it was Miyazaki's idea for the pair to take a picture whilst shaking hands just before Anno left. The artist adds, "He's become so serene."

Fans seem to be loving the interaction, with one commenting, "'Let's shake hands' from someone who's turned 85 at the moment of parting carries so many layers of meaning, it just fills my heart to the brim." Another added, "For the history of Japanese animation, there is no meeting room more important than this."

However, we don't think the reunion means that the two will be working on a project together anytime soon. Anno's studio Khara has multiple projects in the pipeline, such as a new Neon Genesis Evangelion series and an untitled Space Battleship Yamato movie. The studio put out a short film in celebration of Evangelion's 30th anniversary.

As for Miyazaki, the 85-year-old has retired multiple times, but seems to be back developing new project ideas at Studio Ghibli. However, from the recent post, it looks as though the artist is enjoying the craft and "drawing his beloved pictures" rather than throwing himself into another movie just yet.

For more, check out the new anime coming this year, as well as the best way to watch Neon Genesis Evangelion in order.

Following its hugely successful theatrical run in late 2025, Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle is back in US theaters – though you'd better book tickets quick if you want to catch the hit anime movie on the big screen.

While it's unclear as to exactly how long it'll stick around, distributors have described its return as "limited", meaning that it'll likely be showing for no longer than a couple of weeks. Screenings in North America and Canada have already kicked off, while those across the pond in the UK will start on March 7 – and this time, it'll be available in ScreenX, the multi-projection 270-degree experience. Though it's not clear if the "expanded" scenes that were added to a recent IMAX re-release in Japan will be included.

Based on the franchise's long-running TV series and, more specifically, Koyoharu Gotouge's manga arc of the same name, Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle centers on Tanjiro, as he continues to seek vengeance against Muzan, the demon that killed his parents, and restore his sister Nezuko to her human form.

Wounded from their earlier bouts, Muzan retreats to his Infinity Castle, forcing Tanjiro and his allies to navigate deadly booby traps, underworld-dwelling creatures, and stripe-skinned yokai Akaza to stop Muzan once and for all. Haruo Sotozaki directs.

Grossing $778.9 million worldwide, it became the highest grossing international movie in the US, surpassing Oscar-nominated actioner Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. A sequel, Demon Slayer Infinity Castle 2, is in the works, but is currently undated.

While its cinematic comeback is good news for those who missed it the first time round, or those who are keen to see it again, it's not so great for Crunchyroll subscribers, who've been waiting patiently for the fantasy flick to drop on streaming. As it stands, the platform has yet to announce when the movie will be added to its roster, but we'll be sure to keep you posted on that front.

In the meantime, check out our guide to all the new anime heading our way.

The best Pokemon movies encapsulate everything that makes this monumental franchise great. Fans of Pokemon are drawn to the games' focus on friendship and companionship, as your trainer treks through the world alone with only your little monsters for company. Additionally, every Pokemon region from Kanto to Paldea is packed with deep lore, which makes the game world feel as real as our own.

As Pokemon celebrates its 30th anniversary, it's a great time to spotlight one of the many ways in which Pokemon innovated in the realm of entertainment – its movie adaptations. Though other franchises had been adapted to the screen before Pokemon: The First Movie in 1998, the franchise's consistent cinematic presence over the last few decades cemented the viability of video games as adaptable IP and has given us some of the best anime movies of all time in the process as well.

So, join us in celebrating Pokemon's milestone anniversary and its place in pop culture with our ranking of the top 10 Pokemon films of all time. We also have a guide on how to watch all of Pokemon in order if you want a complete picture with the anime series as well, but for now, throw on your red and white cap and read on to find out which movie is the very best, like no one ever was.

The 10 best Pokemon movies, starting with...

10. Pokemon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew

Year: 2005
Director: Kunihiko Yuyama
Where to watch: Prime Video (Rent)

Despite having one of the best premises out of any film on this list, Lucario and the Mystery of Mew is also one of the most ponderous. It flies out of the gate with an incredible piece of worldbuilding, giving us insight into a Medieval Pokemon society where two kingdoms are at war. In the midst of the battle, Lucario is trapped in a gem by his master, in what he assumes is a betrayal of his kingdom, and pops out hundreds of years later when Ash receives possession of it.

Lucario is smoldering and reserved, just as cool as he needs to be to add that sense of mystery to the story, but he's as interesting as the rest of the film is flat as a Stunfisk. Mew's side quest of kidnapping Pikachu and Meowth feels like a waste of one of the best Pokemon, and Ash and the gang don't have a ton of interesting things to do. Still, Lucario and the Mystery of Mew has a lovely representation of Ash and Pikachu's relationship, which is impossible to resist.

9. Pokemon the Movie: The Power of Us

Year: 2018
Director: Tetsuo Yajima
Where to watch: Prime Video (Rent)

The Power of Us has excellent visuals and some scorching action, but its narrative is as confused as a Pokemon locked into battle with a Golbat. The film introduces so many new characters when Ash arrives in Fula City, all of whom have something completely different going on. On one hand, you have Callahan, a phony veteran trainer who lies to impress his niece. On the other hand, you have Risa, a track runner who is discovering her passion for Pokemon for the first time.

Risa's journey is much more compelling and endearing than Callahan's, whose full motivations never feel clear and warranted. These are just two of the many threads this film tries to carry, in addition to building lore about beloved Pokemon like Zeraora and Lugia. There's some really fun and interesting stuff here, it's just muddled in with a lot of Wooloo fluff.

8. Pokemon: Detective Pikachu

Year: 2019
Director: Rob Letterman
Where to watch: Prime Video (Rent)

Pokemon's first and only live-action Hollywood outing is a solid time at the movies. Whenever Hollywood gets hold of a beloved property from the '90s, a certain level of nostalgia-bait is necessary, meaning so much of Detective Pikachu's story is taken heavily from Mewtwo Strikes Back. However, there's plenty here that feels fresh, mainly due to the noir story structure, the celebration and inclusion of all generations of Pokemon, and really charismatic lead performances.

It's an odd decision for the first live-action Pokemon movie to be an adaptation of a 3DS game nobody really talks about, but it actually turns out to be a stroke of genius. That mystery framework is inherently cinematic; the movies have been doing this for decades, and they know how to make these things entertaining. It all becomes a bit of a messy, gloopy CG-fest at the end, but it's really difficult not to be charmed by Detective Pikachu.

7. Pokemon: The First Movie – Mewtwo Strikes Back

Year: 1998
Director: Kunihiko Yuyama
Where to watch: Prime Video (Rent)

For those of us who immersed ourselves in the Kanto region both through our Red and Blue cartridges and the weekly doses of Pokemon adventure through the anime, Mewtwo Strikes Back will always carry an aura of heavy nostalgia. Revisiting it all these years later does reveal some flimsiness in the storytelling and some complete nonsense in the dialogue, but The First Movie is not without its merit.

Its biggest boon is its visual style. The anime of this era was just so beautifully tangible and textured. You just can't beat those hand-painted backgrounds. This means that The First Movie is never not entertaining to watch, even when the story isn't delivering the most complex and cohesive ideas, you're still having fun. And whether it's due to nostalgia or not, that big emotional climax at the end still tugs on the heartstrings.

6. Pokemon: The Rise of Darkrai

Year: 2007
Director: Kunihiko Yuyama
Where to watch: Hulu, Prime Video (Rent)

The reliance that the early Pokemon movies develop on CGI is a bad thing, with The Rise of Darkrai being the only exception. Don't get it twisted, there are still some shots here that look as out of place as an Abomasnow in Sootopolis City, especially when we get a look at the Space and Time Towers that play a key role in taming a great battle between Palkia and Dialga. However, the visuals of this city disappearing into another dimension and the manifestation of Darkrai's powers that conjure trippy nightmares are depicted beautifully and make up for the shoddy CG used elsewhere.

Outside of that bit of visual flair, The Rise of Darkrai doesn't fall too far from what you'd expect from a Pokemon movie, lacking a sparky new character or insight into the lore makes it stand out from the rest. The goal here was to mount a stunning spectacle, which it achieves while still falling short of the heights that other films on this list were able to accomplish.

5. Pokemon 3: The Movie

Year: 2000
Director: Kunihiko Yuyama
Where to watch: Apple TV (Rent)

What allows Pokemon 3 to stand out amongst so many of the other films on this list is its immediate emotional pull. The movie's cold open is a direct play for the heartstrings as we see five-year-old Molly torn away from her only parent by the legendary Unknown. Her search for a father in Entei and a mother in Ash's mum is just as sad as it is ridiculous. Those two tones fight each other throughout the film, with Pokemon 3 taking some wild swings.

Molly's grief after her father is banished to a pocket dimension by the Unknown manifests a palace of ice that consumes the Johto region and a version of legendary mon Entei that believes himself to be her father. It's ludicrousbut adds so much to the film, as anything feels like it could happen at any moment. Pokemon 3 largely delivers on that promise, with some unfortunate lulls in the story but also some really astute battle animations along the way.

4. Pokemon: The Movie 2000

Year: 1999
Director: Kunihiko Yuyama
Where to watch: Prime Video (Rent)

By the time the second Pokemon feature film came to be, the franchise had already surpassed the word 'phenomenon' and had become something else entirely, which reflects in the noticeably increased budget of this film. The first big indicator of that budget is the score, a grand walloping symphony that drives the action from the film's opening moments, as we're introduced to the villain of the piece, Lawrence III.

Despite not packing the emotional punch of the first film, Movie 2000 makes up for it in both expanding the lore of the Pokemon universe and giving us a dastardly villain to hate. The way the story links the legendary birds, Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres, from Gen 1 to Lugia from Gen 2, is the kind of wonderful worldbuilding that Pokemon fans are always on the lookout for. You can't help but get riled up when you see Lawrence III torture these mythical beings, making his ultimate demise all the more satisfying.

3. Pokemon 4ever

Year: 2001
Director: Kunihiko Yuyama
Where to watch: Apple TV (Rent)

It's cool that they made a Pokémon version of Princess Mononoke. The influence of the Studio Ghibli classic is unavoidable, from the forest setting to the lake of life that heals all wounds, and the protector of the forest becoming a hulking destroyer once corrupted by mankind. In the process, 4ever makes some really cool lore additions about Celebi's role in the cycle of the forest and the connection between different species of Pokemon.

The movie also takes on a different structure to many other films on this list, opting for more of a chill vibe in the second act despite its time-bending story. The second act doesn't progress the plot much, but is really pleasant to sit with. So many of these Pokemon movies feel like they're rushing towards the ending, so it's refreshing to have something that immerses the audience in this creature-filled forest. It's very beautiful-looking too, except for the horrific CG-laden final battle that is.

2. Pokemon the Movie: I Choose You

Year: 2017
Director: Kunihiko Yuyama
Where to watch: Prime Video (Rent)

This alternate timeline version of the first season of the Pokemon TV series (aka one of the best anime of all time) is much more than your average remaster. While the animation quality evolves significantly, the deviations in the story serve the characters and the world of Pokemon extremely well. In this version, Ash and new sidekicks Verity and Sorrel look to track down the legendary Ho-Oh, who has christened Ash as a chosen one. While many stories struggle with the well-trodden nature of messiah narratives, that kind of mythbuilding is central to what gives Pokemon its identity, and it plays brilliantly into lore from Gold and Silver.

In the midst of the truncated narrative, we still get time to sit down and get familiar with our new Brock and Misty replacements, including a harrowing backstory for Sorrel, which depicts an actual Pokemon death on screen. Other standout moments include a bold dream sequence where Ash finds himself in our Pokemon-less world, reflecting how deeply his purpose is linked to his friendship with Pikachu. The film can feel like it rushes through some character arcs, but is still one of the most complete-feeling Pokemon movies on this list.

1. Pokemon: Destiny Deoxys

Year: 2004
Director: Kunihiko Yuyama
Where to watch: Apple TV (Rent)

Destiny Deoxys is a perfect balance of everything that makes Pokemon great. In the film's prologue, you get an Earth-shattering battle between Rayquaza and Deoxys, two of the best-designed legendaries with some insane lore attached to them, going blow for blow with intensely beautiful animation to match. As the film progresses, we get the softer side of what people love about Pokemon, the cute, minute interactions with these fuzzy creatures that immerse us in a universe we are desperate to live in. These two tones could clash, but Destiny Deoxys does an excellent job of tying them together thematically.

Deoxys and this film's new human character, Tory, go on very similar arcs. Deoxys is on a mission to rescue another of its kind, while Tory looks to overcome a fear of Pokemon. Both are on a journey to cure their loneliness, reflecting the core of the best Pokemon games where these six creatures in your team are your only company for most of the adventure. Destiny Deoxys is a sci-fi epic about the value of connection, and what's more Pokemon than that?

If you are an anime fan head over to our guide on all the new anime heading our way next.

Bad news, Demon Slayer fans: it appears the Infinity Castle sequel won't be out this year.

A recent Ufotable announcement video unveiled the animation studio's forthcoming projects.

Under the 2026 banner, Witch on the Holy Night, and a 30th Anniversary work for the Tales of series.

Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle 2 landed under the 'future projects' umbrella alongside the upcoming Genshin Impact anime, lining up with previous rumors that the anime sequel would be targeting a 2027 release.

To compound the frustrating feeling for Demon Slayer fans, Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle is returning to cinemas for a limited run in March.

On paper, that's good news for those who want to see Tanjiro's sprawling fight through the titular Infinity Castle on the big screen, but also suggests that a streaming debut on Crunchyroll is even further off than many anticipated.

"We've announced that it will be a trilogy of movies, but our partners at Aniplex and Ufotable haven't decided on dates yet," Crunchyroll CEO Rahul Parini told The Hollywood Reporter last year, adding that there is "definitely urgency" to bring the saga-ending sequel to cinema screens sooner than later.

Even if there's a Hashira-shaped hole in the calendar, 2026 is still packed with new anime. One Piece returns in April, while a new Dragon Ball series is premiering in the fall. That's without mentioning the first part of The Apothecary Diaries season 3 dropping this October alongside an original movie in December.

For more, check out the best anime you should be watching right now.

I have a confession to make: my favorite Studio Ghibli movie is almost certainly not your favorite Studio Ghibli movie.

The house that Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata helped build may have launched itself into anime superstardom with sprawling fantasy epics Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke but, after rewatching the entirety of Studio Ghibli's oeuvre not long after turning 30, it's the restrained slice of life dramas that resonate me with most today.

As much as I adore the pitch-perfect whimsy of My Neighbor Totoro or the overflowing imagination found in Howl's Moving Castle, From Up on Poppy Hill – 15 years after release – is one that is almost certainly going to stick with me for far longer.

A Hill to die on

Set in the quaint surroundings of 1960s Japan, a country just starting to learn how to feel and love again after years of war-torn turmoil and American occupation, From Up on Poppy Hill revolves around Umi, a headstrong girl who falls into league with fellow student Shun as they fight to save their school's Latin Quarter.

Far from simply housing its many eclectic clubs and societies, the Latin Quarter is Ghibli through and through, a hustling, bustling character in its own right: a backdrop for its many colorful characters to congregate as the anti-authority fight rages on, flanked by Satoshi Takebe's bouncy, always-hummable soundtrack.

From there, From Up on Poppy Hill coalesces into what I feel is a Ghibli gold standard: a rebellious, funny, and frequently poignant exploration of what it means to be a child – and how that experience shapes who you can become as an adult.

It's deeply affecting, too, with its key iconography – the signal flags with ties to her father – providing fertile narrative soil that sideswipes the viewer when they least expect it. Crying at a Ghibli movie is commonplace; bursting into tears out of nowhere feels like a magic trick orchestrated by the less-heralded Miyazaki director, Hayao's son, Goro.

Yet, it's the romance between Umi and Shun that gets the blood pumping in ways that Howl's Moving Casting and Nausicaa simply don't as much for me anymore (although, admittedly, the played-for-laughs 'incest' angle reaches dicey territory until a merciful third-act reveal). As they grow closer through a last-minute trip to Tokyo to stop the Latin Quarter from being demolished, it's a potent reminder of where the studio's quality always lies: it's the heart, not the hearty helpings of creativity, that combine best with Ghibli's inimitable sense of style and animation.

My Ghibli hot take

It's something present in other Ghibli works, too, if you know where to look. Whether it's the snatches of hazy, half-forgotten memories from the older protagonist in Only Yesterday, the magical realism and heart-wrenching loss in When Marnie Was There, or the wistful sense of trying to capture what almost was and never can be again in the criminally underseen Ocean Waves, Ghibli's catalog is filled with gems just waiting to be mined. That counts doubly so for those who are lapsed Ghibli fans or – like me – resisted the curiosity to go digging for deep cuts in past decades.

Like many, I came to From Up on Poppy Hill late. In many ways, I wish I hadn't waited for so long; in other ways, it arrived at just the right time. It's a truly underappreciated classic that requires the audience to come to it with both a little more emotional growth, plus the knowledge and experience of Ghibli's more treasured works under their belt. It's a film that has the capacity to entertain, sure, but its sharpest tool is its capacity to surprise and elicit a more intimate sense of wonder than impish cat buses and talking, flickering embers.

Coming back to Ghibli in my 30s is an exercise in admitting I have grown. From Up on Poppy Hill standing above bonafide classics isn't a contrarian opinion, it's simply an admission of a secret I hadn't dared say until now: I want my Ghibli to be less Totoro and more Grave of the Fireflies. As Miyazaki likely approaches his final work, I would be more than happy to return to a more reserved register for the legendary Japanese animation studio's next masterpiece.

Need more bold opinions? We have a ranking of best anime movies and best anime to dive into.

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc is officially coming to Crunchyroll for its streaming debut.

As confirmed by the anime streamer on its official website, the Chainsaw Man movie's streaming release is slated for a Spring 2026 window. In anime terms, Spring typically refers to the months of April, May, and June.

While Chainsaw Man coming to Crunchyroll isn't surprising in itself, Reze Arc received a late October release in most territories – ensuring a possible six-month turnaround for one of the biggest names in anime. It also appears to be leapfrogging Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle, which doesn't have a streaming release date set as of writing.

Reze Arc follows a tumultuous period in protagonist Denji's devil-slaying life. Fresh off a series of cold dates with Makima, he suddenly encounters Reze, a dream girl hiding an explosive secret.

Upon its release, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc became one of the highest-grossing anime movies of all time, garnering almost $185 million at the box office. The feature also saw wider acclaim elsewhere, becoming the highest-rated movie of 2025 on Letterboxd. It missed out on Best Animated Feature at the 2026 Oscars nominations, however.

Chainsaw Man season 2 is next up for the series, with the TV follow-up set to be an adaptation of the manga's International Assassins arc. In it, Denji is confronted by a motley crew of colorful killers.

For more, check out the best anime on Crunchyroll right now. Then keep up with Denji's current adventures with our Chainsaw Man manga release schedule.

Despite directing an incredibly influential cyberpunk story, Ghost in the Shell helmer Mamoru Oshii doesn't actually like cyberpunk that much.

"That's a misunderstanding. I'm not that interested in cyberpunk, and I haven't actually read many cyberpunk works, to be honest. I don’t care about it," Oshii told the official Ghost in the Shell YouTube channel (via Automaton Media).

He added: "It may seem like cyborgs mesh well with cyberpunk, but I don't think that’s actually the case. In that sense, I didn't direct Ghost in the Shell thinking it was cyberpunk. It was just that others, on the contrary, said it was."

He explained that he's a fan of the hard-boiled genre, but "cyberpunk doesn't really excite my imagination… I don't have the desire to live in a world that looks like a landfill."

While Oshii doesn't consider himself to be a cyberpunk fan, Ghost in the Shell is considered a classic of the genre. The film focuses on Major Motoko Kusanagi, a cyborg hunting a hacker. The film had a live-action remake in 2017, starring Scarlett Johansson as Major Motoko Kusanagi, a casting move which drew criticism and allegations of whitewashing.

In the same interview, Oishii also revealed he has played over 10,000 hours of Fallout 4, which leaves us wondering how he has the time to make his legendary movies.

A new adaptation of Ghost in the Shell is on the way, based on Masamune Shirow's manga. The first trailer has arrived, but time will tell how it holds up against one of the best anime movies ever made.

You can fill out your watchlist with our guide to the most exciting new anime that's on the way.

The first trailer for the latest adaptation of Ghost in the Shell is here, and it captures the unique brand of sci-fi style and political drama that has made the series such a success for almost four decades.

Science Saru's 2026 take on Ghost in the Shell is expected to resemble Masamune Shirow's legendary manga a little more closely than its predecessors. While we have to wait to see how its story – which follows the Major in near-future 2029 on the hunt for a 'ghost hacker' – takes shape, there's already plenty to champion about the upcoming series, which is set to premiere in July.

The Ghost in the Shell trailer, which you can see above, seems to effortlessly blend the '80s aesthetic with the pulse-pounding paranoia that serves as the backdrop for an explosive conspiracy. In just 30 seconds, it's already shot up to the top of the list of my most-anticipated anime of the year. It's that mesmerizing.

The music, too, deserves a mention. The thumping soundtrack is brought to life by Taisei Iwasaki, Ryo Konishi, and Yuki Kanesaka, with the trio absolutely understanding the assignment.

In a press release, Konishi said, "I could hardly believe I would be responsible for the music of such a project... but I approached it with my whole soul, determined to handle this precious world with care. I followed the whispers of my Ghost!"

Ghost in the Shell has a storied history on our screens. Most famously, 1995's Ghost in the Shell is held aloft, rightfully so, as one of the best anime movies ever made. Other attempts, including the Stand Alone Complex and Arise series set in the universe, have also proved fruitful.

Ghost in the Shell's Hollywood adaptation was less well-received, however. The Scarlett Johansson-starring thriller failed to ignite with audiences, while there was also a backlash to Johansson's casting amid accusations of whitewashing.

For more, check out the new anime coming your way in 2026, plus all the latest on Cyberpunk: Edgerunners season 2.

The long-delayed Gundam movie may see the light of day after all, with Netflix reportedly nabbing the distribution rights to the first-ever live-action feature.

According to Deadline, the streamer is on board to develop the film further – and has even tapped Sweet Tooth showrunner Jim Mickle to write and direct. The Housemaid's Sydney Sweeney and Noah Centineo, who'll soon be seen in video game adaptation Street Fighter, are set to star, too.

Mickle is geared up to produce alongside his Nightshade partner Linda Moran, while Centineo will produce with Enzo Marc under his Arkhum banner. In short, the new take is finally shaping up quite nicely...

Created by Yoshiyuki Tomino, the decade-spanning Gundam franchise is regarded as one of the best anime of all time, having kicked off with Japanese TV show Mobile Suit Gundam in 1979. Since then, it has spawned more than 18 small-screen spin-offs, 7 standalone movies, and countless mangas and graphic novels.

Having pioneered anime's mecha trend, by depicting robots within a military setting, the series is set in the futuristic Universal Century and centers on a young, inexperienced crew who team up with a gifted, 15-year-old pilot and his giant droid to fight the colony-controlling Principality of Zeon.

Legendary's Gundam was first announced way back in 2021, with Jordan Vogt-Roberts attached to helm the flick following his collaboration with the studio on Kong: Skull Island. As Deadline confirms, the production company and Vogt-Roberts are no longer involved.

While we wait for more news on Gundam, check out our picks of the best anime movies for some watchlist inspiration.

Thanks to an upcoming rerelease, Attack on Titan fans will finally know what happened to Mikasa Ackerman five whole years after Hajime Isayama's hit manga came to an end.

This January, the 145-minute-long theatrical compilation film, Attack on Titan: The Final Chapter – The Last Attack, will land in theatres once more, bringing together the final two episodes of Attack on Titan. However, the film also answers one burning question fans have had since the two-part finale hit screens in 2023, and one that even the original manga never addressed. What happened to Mikasa Ackerman?

The Attack on Titan finale left a few storylines open-ended, such as who Mikasa marries. Many fans speculated that she had wed Jean after the Rumbling, but this was never confirmed. That is, until now. After one screening, a fan took to Twitter to share a look at the compilation film's new post-credits scene, which shows Mikasa and Jean visiting a grave with a child, then years later they visit again with their children and grandchildren, confirming they had a long marriage.

We can assume that Mikasa and Jean are visiting Eren’s grave. This makes the post-credits scene even more touching when you think back to Mikasa and Eren's story. Mikasa had had feelings for Eren since childhood, but Eren grew into a Titan and was responsible for wiping out a huge chunk of the world’s population. In the end, Mikasa had no choice but to kill Eren by cutting off his head in order to stop the Rumbling. She then brought his head back to their hometown and buried it under a tree.

The reason why the original manga may have never confirmed Mikasa and Jean's marriage may have been to respect the love lost between Mikasa and Eren. We knew that Jean had always had feelings for Mikasa, but that was never explored due to Mikasa's love for Eren. Even after she killed the Titan, the manga showed her looking back at keepsakes from their time together. However, in the background, we always saw hints towards her marriage to Jean. But both the manga and anime only showed the back of Jean, so we could never really know for sure it was him.

For more, check out our guide on how to watch Attack on Titan in order, and keep up with new anime heading your way.

Hideo Kojima is never one to shy away from shouting about his favorite media – be that films, TV shows or, in this case, anime.

Mars Express may have passed many by upon its release in its native France back in 2023 but, out of seemingly nowhere, it's set for a Japanese release and is gaining plenty of plaudits.

Centred on space P.I. Aline and her android partner as a job goes awry amid conspiracies, crime, and missing children, the cinematic release only grossed $1.5 million at the box office and is scarcely found among conversations surrounding the best anime movies of the decade. Maybe that should change.

Kojima, fresh off a mind-bending release of his own with last year's Death Stranding 2, is only too happy to fight its corner, however.

The look, design, world-building, story, theme, authorial voice. It evokes the hard Sci-Fi anime that I love – the ones released in the ‘80s and ‘90s during the OVA boom from the likes of Mamoru Oshii, Yoshiaki Kawajiri, and Satoshi Kon," Kojima wrote on Twitter.

He continued, "It is a rare anime that could never emerge from streaming services or even from modern Japan. This French anime is something we ought to support and protect at all costs." You can read Kojima's full comments below.

The Japan Times was also effusive in its response, with its reviewer saying Mars Express is "the best anime film of recent years" (while also mentioning, yes, it's not strictly an anime if it was made outside of Japan. But if they consider it one, so do we). It's also currently sitting on a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

In the U.S., Mars Express is currently available to rent and buy on Prime Video and Apple TV. Sadly, it's not being streamed anywhere in the UK as of writing.

For more, check out the new anime coming your way in the winter 2026 window and beyond, plus all the latest on Chainsaw Man season 2 and Demon Slayer Infinity Castle 2.

Madoka Magica 4, aka Walpurgisnacht: Rising, has been delayed once again – and some fans are convinced that it might just never come out.

"We had planned to release the film starting from February 2026, but due to production circumstances, we will be changing the release date," the official Madoka Magica Twitter account wrote. "We will provide further details regarding the new release date within February 2026."

The first two Madoka Magica films, Beginnings and Eternal, were released in 2012. A third film, Rebellion, was released in 2013. A fourth installment was announced back in 2021, with a planned 2024 release date. It was delayed until 2025, then delayed again to 2026. Tickets for the planned February 2026 release date have already been sold, but a follow-up tweet explained that those tickets can be used for the new release date.

"This really is the GTA VI of anime movies," one fan wrote, referencing the long-awaited sixth installment to the popular video game series. Some fans are more than happy to wait, with one person saying they'll even "wait until 2027." Other fans speculated whether or not the film was even finished, regarding the vague "production circumstances" part of the statement.

The film series is based on the anime TV series of the same name, which follows a girl named Madoka who wants nothing more than to become what is known as a "magical girl." When Madoka gets her wish, she finds that it's not all that it's cracked up to be... and embarks on a strange, fantastical journey.

For more, check out our guide to the best anime on Netflix, or keep an eye on all the most exciting upcoming anime with our guide.

Start firing up those mechs because cult sci-fi anime hit Patlabor is returning for a surprise new project from J.C. Staff, the studio behind One-Punch Man.

Patlabor EZY will return to the goings-on of Tokyo's Special Vehicle Section for eight episodes which will be released in Japan as a movie trilogy across 2026 and 2027 (H/T Crunchyroll).

Batched together as three 'Files', File 1 consists of three anthology episodes and launches in cinemas on May 15, 2026. File 2, again an anthology, follows soon after on August 14, 2026

Those eager for more serialized fare will be looking towards File 3's release in March 2027, which bundles together two episodes that tell a continuous story. No word yet on a western streaming release, though.

Long considered an overlooked anime classic, Patlabor crashed onto the scene in 1989 and followed a conspiracy that centred around malfunctioning Patlabors ('Patrol Labor' mech units designed for work).

A 1993 sequel upped the ante further, with a politically-charged thriller that quickly became one of the most influential and best anime movies of the decade.

A sticking point for some, however, will be the presence of J.C. Staff, who worked on both One-Punch Man season 2 and One-Punch Man season 3, which was the subject of fan outcry online due to what was perceived as low-quality, rushed animation.

But the trailer, which you can see above, should quieten any doubt. The teaser first showcases the original two Patlabor movies before providing a glimpse into the mecha madness that punctuates the latest entry in the franchise.

For more, check out the new anime coming your way in 2026, plus all the latest on Demon Slayer Infinity Castle 2.

Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle is getting an IMAX re-release that promises a "new experience" and "expanded" scenes but, unfortunately, it's currently limited to Japan.

As revealed on the shonen series' official website, Infinity Castle is coming back to cinemas on February 6 and is making history in the process as the first anime movie to be released exclusively in 1:43:1 ratio.

The announcement even makes note of a genuinely fresh experience for moviegoers, all thanks to the screen ratio expanding the screen both horizontally and vertically, allowing for new details to emerge.

Even if you're lucky enough to find yourself in Japan for the Infinity Castle re-release, Crunchyroll states it's being limited to only two screens in the entirety of the country: Tokyo's Grand Cinema Sunshine and Osaka Expo City in, you guessed it, Osaka.

All told, the special event could go some way to helping Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle topple its predecessor, Mugen Train, as the highest-grossing Japanese film domestically (with it currently only being a billion yen behind).

A Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle sequel is on the way, but is currently undated.

"Well, we've announced that it will be a trilogy of movies, but our partners at Aniplex and Ufotable haven't decided on dates yet," Crunchyroll CEO Rahul Parini told The Hollywood Reporter last year of Demon Slayer Infinity Castle 2 and 3. "But look, there's definitely urgency for all of us to bring more Demon Slayer to fans as soon as we can – because we know the urgency is there among the fanbase."

Need more big-screen anime thrills? Here are our picks for the best anime movies around. Then dive into a comprehensive overview of all the new anime releasing in 2026 and beyond.

Letterboxd has belatedly released its own Spotify Wrapped-style Year in Review for 2025 – and there's an anime surprise sitting at the top of one of its most prestigious lists.

The Highest Rated movie of last year according to 700 million votes from Letterboxd users is Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc.

Landing on a 4.4 average, the anime feature adaptation of the manga's Bomb Girl arc saw protagonist Denji come into close contact with a new girl in his life. Unfortunately for the devil hunter, his new love interest – Reze – is harboring an explosive secret…

The Chainsaw Man movie beat the likes of Oscar frontrunners One Battle After Another, Hamnet, Marty Supreme, and Sinners to the top spot. You can see the full top 10 for yourself below.

The English and Japanese voices of Denji, as well as much of the main English dub cast, also delivered a thank you message for voters, with Reze actor Alexis Tipton describing it as a "dream come true."

Following on from Reze Arc's success, it's been confirmed that Chainsaw Man season 2 is in the works and is all set to adapt the International Assassins arc, which sees Denji hunted down by a who's who of global hitmen.

While that may be some way off, the list of new anime this winter season should tide you over. Jujutsu Kaisen season 3 is now airing new episodes weekly. Meanwhile, Frieren: Beyond Journey's End season 2 and Oshi no Ko season 3 are set to premiere this week.

For more, check out our guides to the Chainsaw Man movie ending and where to continue in the manga after watching Reze Arc.

From day one, Demon Slayer has never really had to prove its fight scene credentials. The first season saw protagonist Tanjiro butt heads with a whole host of fearsome demons in unique and inventive set-pieces on his revenge quest. Further along in the shonen's journey, Mugen Train's Rengoku and Akaza showdown cemented animation studio Ufotable's eye for spectacle as one that rivals anything out there, from Japan to Hollywood.

Yet, Infinity Castle goes one better. The last of its trio of Hashira and Upper Rank fights sees Tanjiro team with long-time ally Giyu to avenge Fire Hashira Rengoku's murder at the hands of Akaza.

From the get-go, there's something so captivating about how Ufotable handles this fight, especially arriving at a time in the bumper-length movie where audience attention could be flagging or, worse, fatigued by the steady onslaught of battles.

Backed by years of narrative weight and fan expectation, it begins with Akaza getting the upper hand, with each combatant contorting and twisting his way through a cacophony of color and chaos on the big screen.

The sheer power behind every blow and thrust, too, is something that is greatly underappreciated. Animation can often seem floaty and inconsequential; here, it is imbued with the sort of strength and purpose that feels like every attack could kill. It's the sort of peril that could pierce even the most jaded audience member's expectation of plot armor and heroes living to fight another day.

But there's an appeal beyond even clashing swords and hot-headed philosophies. This is Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle's greatest trick: near the breathless fight's end, the action slows down and we are treated to – in effect – a mini-episode showcasing Akaza's tragic backstory and childhood.

A hell of a battle

Far from being a moustache-twirling villain or one-dimensional force of nature, Akaza is painted as someone in the wrong place at the wrong time, lashing out at a cruel world that killed the love of his life, his father, and his mentor. It helps, too, that this sequence also features the A-list talents of Channing Tatum.

Instead of merely picking up a paycheck, Tatum delivers a performance that really hammers home Akaza's predicament and achieves the impossible: making you feel sorry for someone who has murdered a fan favorite in cold blood.

Zach Aguilar, who voices Tanjiro in the English dub of Demon Slayer, believes the appeal of Akaza's final stand lies in the surprise about-turn of the Upper Rank demon from snarling enemy to sympathetic figure.

"It's really interesting going into the movie and going into that fight, everybody has this animosity for Akaza," Aguilar tells GamesRadar+. "I feel like that shifts after you watch the film in its entirety, and you get to see it all from a different perspective… I really love that about the way Demon Slayer frames things and how they show different perspectives from both sides."

Whether you're watching dub or sub (as ever, the eternal debate rages on), the performances from the English and Japanese cast really sell the tough balancing act of story and emotion that's being communicated, often mid-battle and mid-flow. That's no mean feat. The secret, though, is – as Aguilar explains – not getting too far ahead of yourself as a performer.

"Emotion-wise, I just try to live in the moment, really feel the full weight of what's going on and how Tanjiro would feel after seeing a demon that killed a good friend of his," Aguilar reveals.

Teasing what's to come down the line, Aguilar said (at least if following the manga), Infinity Castle's sequels are "gonna blow some minds" with their fights, but it's hard to see how they'll top Tanjiro and Giyu going toe-to-toe with Akaza. The action and intensity can be ramped up, sure, but the heart-pounding moments will do well to match the heartstrings that are being tugged at here.

Other fights on cinema and television this year may have proved more inventive or hard-hitting, but there's something to be said about wringing the emotion – and the reasons for duking it out – as much as Ufotable do here.

On that basis, nobody got close to Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle and the expertly-woven narrative sleight of hand that turned one of 2025's best villains into someone you can't help but empathize with.

Honorable Mentions

Grenade fight, Ballerina: Ana de Armas' assassin proves a more than capable stand-in for John Wick in this explosive set-piece.

Biplane fight, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning: Tom Cruise goes full Looney Tunes in a death-defying finale that shows Ethan Hunt has more miles left in the tank – if he ever makes a comeback.

Bathhouse, KPop Demon Hunters: The perfect fusion of Asian action cinema and a pop music video's killer choreography hits all the right notes in this Netflix sensation.

Invincible vs. Conquest, Invincible season 3: Invincible takes on this Viltrumite villain in a city-razing clash that makes the MCU look like child's play.

For more, check out our picks for best anime shows and best anime movies.

You'll soon be able to catch the most underappreciated anime movie of 2025 on streaming – 100 Meters is landing on Netflix at the end of this month.

The film, adapted from the manga of the same name, is hitting the streamer on December 31 after releasing in North American theaters on October 10 (and Japanese theaters on September 19).

100 Meters follows runner Togashi and new student Komiya, who, after first meeting at school, face each other on the racetrack as adults. Check out a trailer below.

The film currently has a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score of 100%, with an impressive audience score of 92%. If you didn't catch this one in the theater, it's well worth checking out on Netflix, then.

2025 has been a huge year for anime movies, with Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle breaking box office records left and right, and Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc hitting the top spot at the US box office.

There's plenty more where that came from, too, with Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle 2 on the way, though without a release date just yet. "Without spoiling anything, I will say there are some really exciting things coming up," Demon Slayer's Tanjiro English dub actor Zach Aguilar recently told GamesRadar+ about whether future sequels could equal the intensity of Tanjiro and Giyu's showdown. It's gonna blow some minds, for sure. You gotta go watch every movie, because, trust me, they're all gonna have moments like that."

100 Meters is available on Netflix from December 31. You can fill out your watchlist with our guide to the best anime on Netflix, or keep an eye on all the most exciting upcoming anime with our guide.

Demon Slayer's Tanjiro English dub actor Zach Aguilar has teased the "awesome fights" coming down the line in the remaining instalments of the Infinity Castle trilogy.

Spoilers for the Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle ending follow.

When asked by GamesRadar+ if future Infinity Castle sequels could match the intensity of Tanjiro and Giyu's showdown, Aguilar, a self-confessed manga reader, said, "I think there's a lot of awesome fights to come."

"Without spoiling anything, I will say there are some really exciting things coming up. It's gonna blow some minds, for sure. You gotta go watch every movie, because, trust me, they're all gonna have moments like that."

Of course, we aren't going to ruin anything here. But even a cursory glance ahead at the source material (or even just recounting which Upper Rank demons and Hashira are still standing) suggests that there are several big-name fights still to come inside the titular, ever-shifting structure of the Infinity Castle.

The first Infinity Castle saw Akaza fall at Tanjiro's hand, while Zenitsu came of age – and captured lightning in a bottle in his duel with Kaigaku. Unfortunately, the Insect Hashira Shinobu fared less well against the Upper Rank Two, Doma.

Despite Infinity Castle's record-breaking performance at the box office (becoming the highest-grossing anime of all time), we're still none the wiser as to when Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle 2 will land in theaters.

"We've announced that it will be a trilogy of movies, but our partners at Aniplex and Ufotable haven't decided on dates yet," Crunchyroll CEO Rahul Parini previously told The Hollywood Reporter of the franchise's upcoming plans. "But look, there's definitely urgency for all of us to bring more Demon Slayer to fans as soon as we can – because we know the urgency is there among the fanbase."

Head back to the start of Tanjiro's journey with our guide on how to watch Demon Slayer in order. Then discover our picks for the best anime and best anime movies you should be watching right now.

AJ Lee could be swapping sharpshooters for shonen – as the WWE superstar confirms she's currently writing a new anime movie.

"I love anime so much," AJ Lee said on What's Your Story? With Steph McMahon. "One of my favorite companies growing up was Toei. They did Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z, these things that raised me. [Writing partner Aimee Garcia and I] are writing a movie for Toei Animation. That's all I can say."

Of her time at Toei HQ, AJ Lee – real name AJ Mendez – the wrestler and author embraced their inner child, declaring it a "dream come true to be in their offices and see all Dragon Ball Z figures everywhere."

AJ Lee initially found fame in the squared circle of the WWE, including becoming a three-time Divas Champion.

In the past decade, she has branched out into writing – including penning a New York Times bestseller, Crazy Is My Superpower, in 2017. Other projects include a GLOW graphic novel based on the Netflix wrestling series, plus a Dungeons and Dragons comic for IDW Publishing, both co-written with Aimee Garcia.

While details are scarce on the AJ Lee feature, it's clear anime is having A Moment right now. Both Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle and Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc topped the US box office, while 2026 is off to an exciting start with Jujutsu Kaisen season 3 and Frieren: Beyond Journey's End season 2 set to hit our screens, with the latter recently receiving a magical first trailer.

For more, check out our picks for the best anime you should watch right now, from Cowboy Bebop to Steins;Gate.

It's time to talk about anime's dreaded c-word: compilation. In recent years, studio decisions to package recaps of prior seasons alongside a taste of upcoming episodes has quickly become anime's hottest – and lamest – trend.

Far from feeling like an iron-clad reason to be seated in cinemas, compilation movies often feel like a straightforward way to bring in quick money or, worse, capitalizing on eager fan interest – a middle finger to those who will seemingly watch anything if their favorite anime is involved. Demon Slayer, Solo Leveling, and Jujutsu Kaisen have all been recent beneficiaries to this approach, and it's setting an unwelcome precedent.

Which brings us to Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution. The latest compilation offering gives fans a chance to relive key moments from the second season's Shibuya Incident arc while also providing the first two episodes of January's Jujutsu Kaisen season 3 – a continuation of the cliffhanger that saw series protagonist Yuji Itadori marked for death.

I went into Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution having my doubts. After all, what else could this give me except watching the next season slightly ahead of time?

Movie magic

Yet, it works. It's still a baffling experience for newcomers hoping to find a perfect jumping-on point in favor of binging nearly 50 episodes of Jujutsu Kaisen, yet there's something intangibly brilliant about how it's presented this time around.

Instead of a bland, YouTube-style recap of the previous season's Shibuya Incident (a near-cataclysmic event housed almost entirely in Tokyo's bustling entertainment district), Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution kicks off with a fizzing sensory overload as plot beats are recounted, major deaths are relived, and Yuji's trauma is only intensified by its truncated nature.

It takes something I felt was inessential and has flipped it on its head in my eyes: a perfect teaser for those getting into anime after curious glances at Demon Slayer or Chainsaw Man after their box office successes, or a high-octane teaser for those who have yet to get around to Jujutsu Kaisen.

Better yet, it leaves just enough narrative gaps to intrigue, all without short-changing audiences. Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution may still leave a sour taste in the mouths of those who want full-fat cinematic adventures in the shape of Jujutsu Kaisen 0 or Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle (and I've spoken about that welcome emerging trend before), but this proves compilations are no longer automatically the toxic bundle that felt like an awkward halfway house between something old and something new. Instead, other anime series would do well to borrow Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution's space for curiosity; a surefire way to get lapsed and newfound viewers engaged in the months leading up to a new season.

Let the Culling Game begin

The season 3 footage is the real reason audiences will be there for this limited release, though. While we won't go into plot details here, long-term fans will be pleased to discover the beginning of the Culling Game arc continues to showcase Jujutsu Kaisen's canny knack for twist-laden drama amid visceral fight scenes.

The Culling Game itself may be Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution's real misstep, however. The battle royale-style setup is only briefly addressed (a matter for another day, clearly), and the rules of the Culling Game are rushed through in laughable fashion, with only those fluent in reading kanji able to parse the full context of a war that is about to envelop all of Japan.

If the sugar-rush speed of Shibuya Incident's recap worked in its favor, recapping something that will operate as the narrative crux of most of the third season is a head-scratching choice.

Still, Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution – despite my doubts – is a net win, whether you've not stepped into the halls of Jujutsu High yet or are well-versed in the anime. Better yet, it could act as a blueprint to entice newcomers to step into the weird, wonderful worlds of anime – without needing them to invest dozens of hours first.

For more, check out our complete guide to the new anime coming your way very soon. Then discover what's awaiting you in Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle 2.

New anime movie Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution is facing trouble with Japanese fans recording the film in theaters before its overseas release, to the point that the studio has threatened legal action against anyone caught pirating the movie.

"Filming a movie inside a theater is a crime under the Law for Prevention of Unauthorized Recording of Films," said the Jujutsu Kaisen team via Twitter. "If copyright infringement occurs in violation of the Film Piracy Prevention Law or the Copyright Act, penalties may include up to 10 years imprisonment, or a fine of up to 10 million yen, or both."

Threatening prison time seems quite extreme, but the movie has yet to be released overseas, meaning that viewers who are posting clips are completely ruining the experience for fans who haven't yet seen the movie. Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution hit theaters in Japan on November 7, but won't hit the UK until November 14. Worse yet, fans in the US have to wait until December 5 to see the film.

Some fans have claimed they can't really see what they are doing wrong, though, as Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution is not really a movie at all – it's a compilation of Jujutsu Kaisen season 1 and 2, covering the Shibuya Incident. This is to get viewers prepared for season 3, which will hit Crunchyroll in January 2026. "It's not a 'movie', it can't be a crime, remarked one fan," and another replied, "Release it worldwide simultaneously then."

But, it is important to note that although the majority of Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution is made up of clips we have seen before, the compilation film also includes the first two episodes of season 3, meaning there is plenty to be spoiled there. Based on the Culling Game arc from the hit manga, Jujutsu Kaisen season 3 will catch up with Goju and see a battle royale (Culling Game) break out across Japan between sorcerers.

Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution arrives in UK cinemas on 15 November, and US theatres on December 5. For more, check out our guide on how to watch Jujutsu Kaisen in order, and keep up with new anime heading your way.

Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle may have already wowed at the box office, but we could be heading for some seriously impressive numbers thanks to its just-announced China release.

Previously, there had been murmurings that the Demon Slayer movie would get a theatrical release in China – a country where so many franchises, from Marvel to Avatar, received a huge boost in box office takings up until very recently.

The creation of a Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle account on Chinese social media site Weibo only stoked those flames further and, now, that profile has announced a November 14 release date in China (H/T Screen Rant).

While it still remains a tough ask for Demon Slayer to reach $1 billion worldwide, its current total of $670 million marks it out as the highest-grossing anime movie of all time. Couple that with confirmation that the movie will be a theatrical exclusive up until the end of 2025, and there's still plenty of time to nudge its way towards other landmarks.

That includes the lofty mark of becoming the highest-grossing 2D animated movie ever, if it bests The Lion King's $979 million. Infinity Castle could also dethrone the likes of A Minecraft Movie ($957 million) and Jurassic World: Rebirth ($868 million) in the 2025 box office charts if it performs admirably in China.

For more on Infinity Castle, check out our spoiler-filled guide on the Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle ending. If you're interested in reading ahead, here's where to continue in the manga after watching Infinity Castle.

Anime fans are sharing the titles they think everyone should watch, whether they're into anime or not – and Studio Ghibli is proving a popular choice.

"Spirited Away, it's one of the best gateway anime movies," said one user on Reddit. "I'd then recommend them Princess Mononoke and Nauscaä of the Valley of the Wind as good movies before moving on to seasonal anime."

First released in 2001, Spirited Away was a huge commercial and critical success both in Japan and worldwide and was the first hand-drawn, non-English-language film to win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. It follows Sen, a girl who accidentally enters the spirit world and must find a way to free herself – and her parents, who have been turned into pigs by a witch. We think Princess Mononoke is one of the best anime movies of all time, too.

"Mob psycho 100 is one of the greatest stories of accepting yourself of all time," replied someone else, referring to the manga adaptation about a boy, nicknamed Mob, with psychic abilities that aired for three seasons between 2016 and 2022.

"Grave of the fireflies, but instead of 'at least once' it's 'only once'," wrote someone else, with another vote for Studio Ghibli. "That movie is powerful and haunting, but it's slow and painful, and I can only put myself and others through that very impactful pain once."

As for other TV shows, Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo were also popular suggestions. Cowboy Bebop only aired for 26 episodes during its run in the late '90s, but it had a massive impact and helped introduce Western audiences to anime in the early '00s. Samurai Champloo was helmed by the same director, Shinichirō Watanabe, six years later.

For more on what to watch, check out our guide to the best new anime to add to your watchlist.

The anime boom is well and truly underway and, according to one Sony boss, plans are afoot to bring live-action adaptations of some of Japan's finest exports into theaters.

Speaking at the Tokyo International Film Festival (H/T Variety), head of Sony Pictures International Production Shebnem Askin opened up on plans to adapt more anime and manga properties.

"Since I came here, I’m taking so many great meetings with a lot of companies that are producing incredible stories with anime. We are starting to look at different anime movies where we can hopefully adapt as live-action movies around the world," Askin said. "This is one of our missions by attending [Tokyo International Film Festival]."

So far, Sony Pictures International Production has produced one live-action adaptation, Kingdom in 2019, but clearly has plans for far more.

Other live-action adaptations in the works across the industry include the Destin Daniel Cretton-directed Naruto and a Netflix adaptation of superhero series My Hero Academia. Additional projects, including Your Name and One-Punch Man, have been in development limbo/hell (depending on your perspective) for several years.

The long-gestating Akira appears to be dead, though, after Warner Bros. gave up the rights to the iconic anime and manga – some two decades after originally trying to get the movie made.

Whatever comes next, anime has inarguably never been more popular. Amid the live-action gold rush, Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle has broken all kinds of records on the way to becoming the highest-grossing anime movie of all time. Not to be overshadowed, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc also hit the #1 spot at the US box office upon its release.

For more, check out our picks for the best anime you should be watching right now, as well as all the new anime coming your way in 2026.

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc is the gift that keeps on giving, as after smashing box office records, fans have spotted a small tribute to one of the best anime series ever made, Attack on Titan.

"Maybe you didn't notice, but there was a small reference to Attack on Titan in the Chainsaw Man movie," said one fan on Twitter. "When Denji and Makima are at the theater, you can see a man wearing a t-shirt with a small Survey Corps logo."

Another fan replied with a screenshot from the scene, which you can see below, showing a character wearing a navy shirt with a silver badge on the front. Although it's not super detailed, it is clear that the patch features navy and white wings, just like the "Wings of Freedom" stitched onto the Survey Corps logo worn by members of the military branch.

This doesn't come as a huge shock, as Chainsaw Man's animation studio MAPPA made the last season of Attack on Titan, so they probably wanted to pay tribute to their past work in some way. The Attack on Titan series ran for almost a decade, with the last season releasing in four parts and coming to a close in November 2023.

However, many fans are wondering how the two franchises are connected since Chainsaw Man is set in the '90s and Attack on Titan is set long before that in a world that vaguely mirrors our own. There haven't been any links between the two shows so far, so we think that this tribute is just that, a tribute.

The new anime movie, which is the first of an upcoming trilogy, continues part-man-part-chainsaw Denji's story from Chainsaw Man season 1. Based on the Bomb Girl Arc from the manga, the movie sees Denji encounter a curious girl named Reze soon after meeting the woman of his dreams, Makima, forming a dangerous love triangle.

After debuting to a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc has broken many records on the big screen and reached the number 1 spot at the US box office after its opening weekend.

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc is out in cinemas now. For more, check out our guides on what to watch before Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, and Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc ending explained.

Spoiler Warning: This feature will discuss scenes and plot points from Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc in spoilerific detail.

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc left me heartbroken, which, for the average Chainsaw Man fan like myself, is about par for the course. At its core, the film is a tragic love story between two people who are absolutely perfect for each other but cannot be together because of the terrible circumstances and violent environments that affect their lives.

But what makes Denji and Reze’s romance so compelling that it drove me to see the movie in theaters twice? Ultimately, what separates their love story from other typical shonen action titles is the level of complexity that Chainsaw Man author Tatsuki Fujimoto put into this relationship.

The connection Denji and Reze have is more than just a typical high school crush. They complete each other, filling the missing pieces of their hearts. Denji and Reze inspire each other to give up everything for love, but unfortunately, they never get to act on that opportunity.

Cut from the same cloth

One of the most haunting lines in Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc is Reze’s final one, in which she ponders, “I wonder why I didn’t kill you the first time we met? Denji, to be honest… I’ve never been to school either.” This one line encapsulates everything about her and Denji’s relationship and why she fell in love with him: they’re essentially mirror images of each other.

In the school scene, Denji confesses to Reze that he has never attended school in his life and that he chooses to put his life on the line to kill Devils for the Public Safety Division in exchange for three meals a day and a place to sleep. This makes sense considering that, up until recently, he’s lived in poverty, where he had to kill Devils to pay off his father’s debt. Something as simple as food and shelter feels like a luxury to a struggling teenager like Denji.

Denji’s lack of any semblance of a normal life deeply connects with Reze, which is especially obvious in a rewatch, because it is during this moment that she truly sees herself in him. Via exposition from Kishibe, we discover that Reze was a guinea pig experimented on by the Soviet Union and would later go on to become an assassin for the Russian government.

Both Denji and Reze have lived most of their lives without any real love or warmth, at best being treated as human weapons that can be used at any point for the government bodies they work for, and only receiving the bare minimum in exchange. They don’t really have much else going for them because they’ve never been given the chance to do anything else. Therefore, when Reze realizes how similar she is to Denji, she connects with him in a way she seemingly has never had with anyone else.

This context is what especially makes the scene where Reze pleads to Denji to run away with her so devastating, because she envisions a brighter and happier future with Denji by her side. That’s why when Denji hesitates and hints that he likes another woman, she feels not only betrayed but also angry that Denji’s not as committed to this relationship as she is.

Love over duty

Throughout their climactic showdown, Reze comments repeatedly about how she wishes for Denji to die already, even going so far as to say that she never loved him and that her affections were just an act. However, it’s clear that these statements are false and that she’s simply venting after her “break-up” with Denji.

Even Denji sees through these lies, commenting about how if that’s the case, then she should have killed him the moment they met, and that she shouldn’t have taught him how to swim. Reze deflects these statements because, in her heart, she knows that he’s right. She even admits this when she remarks to Denji during their fight that she truly liked him. No matter what she tells him or herself, Reze’s love for Denji was real.

The moment Reze arguably first fell in love with Denji was when he performed the flower “magic trick” in the phone booth and gave it to her. Later in the film, we see that she keeps that same flower in a glass of water. What sort of tactical advantage does that serve in her mission to kill Denji? Similarly, how does going on a date to the festival with Denji aid her assassination task?

The most notable example of love getting in the way of duty is when Reze and Denji go skinny dipping in the school pool. This is Reze’s most intimate romantic gesture because we learn later on that her main weakness is water. The fact that she’s putting herself in as vulnerable a position as being naked in a pool of water goes to show just how much she’s fallen for Denji. When she tells Denji that she’ll teach him everything, she is ready to give everything up for him.

It’s not just Reze who’s willing to betray her mission and government for a chance at love and a normal life, as Denji makes a similar proposal to Reze near the end of the film. Even after their intense fight and all the death and destruction they caused during it, Denji never stopped loving Reze. He forgives what she’s done and still wants to be with her because, like Reze, Denji also wants a chance at a better tomorrow with Reze by his side.

Love is a dangerous game

If the pool scene is Reze’s most intimate proclamation of love, then Denji’s most vulnerable romantic gesture is the moment where he tells Reze that he’ll quit the Public Safety Division and run away with her. Even after she rejects him by snapping his neck, Denji doesn’t give up, screaming that he’ll wait for her at the cafe to have lunch again.

This is a particularly profound moment because, up until his encounter with Reze, Denji’s affection solely belonged to Makima. He even states that his heart belongs to her and that his wish is to be in a relationship with her if he gets all the pieces of the Gun Devil’s flesh. Makima is Denji’s whole world, and the fact that he can disregard all of that for a potential life with Reze goes to show just how much she means to him.

This is what makes the ending of the movie especially tragic because not only does Reze’s demise squash out any happily ever after, but it also means that Denji will inevitably go back to being in love with Makima, a woman who clearly doesn’t care about him. At best, Makima views Denji as a pet that she can command to “do tricks” in exchange for a “treat,” but there’s no real love there.

To Makima, Denji is only valuable because he has the Chainsaw Devil, and so she uses her sexuality as a means of controlling him. Denji himself even somewhat realizes this when he screams in the second half, “Everyone always wants Chainsaw’s heart! Doesn’t anyone want Denji’s heart?” Makima only presents the possibility of romance as something to dangle in front of Denji, such as going on a movie date with him at the beginning of the film.

They are not on any equal footing, which is the exact opposite when it comes to Reze, who loves Denji for who he is, not what Devil he’s bound to. Denji has with Reze what he lacks with Makima, and that’s natural chemistry. In almost every scene in the first half, Denji and Reze always make each other smile, blush, and laugh. They are probably the first and only people they’ve met who they’ve loved and been loved back unconditionally with no strings attached.

In another life, they could have ended up together and lived a happy, normal life. Unfortunately, they do not live in a normal world with normal circumstances; they live in the violent, absurd, and nihilistic world of Chainsaw Man. Naturally, everything always ends with some level of tragedy, and unfortunately, that also applies to the love story between Denji and Reze.

For more, here's everything you need to know about a potential Chainsaw Man season 2, or check out our Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc review.

Alexis Tipton and Ryan Colt Levy, two of the voice actors in Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, say it's "a dream come true" seeing the film "get so much love across the board".

After the anime flick bagged the #1 spot at the US box office, following its release on October 24, the pair – who play Reze and Denji, respectively, – took to social media to thank audiences for their "incredible support". Having made $18.2 million domestically over the weekend, the film pulled in a whopping global total of $108 million, beating out the likes of The Black Phone 2 and Bruce Springsteen biopic Deliver Me From Nowhere.

"Thank you everyone for all the amazingly positive comments on the Chainsaw Man movie!!! I am SO HAPPY it’s being enjoyed by so many people," tweeted Tipton. "We all poured out hearts and souls into this project so THANK YOU SO MUCH for your incredible support!"

"Extraordinarily grateful for one of the greatest weekends of my life," added Levy, from his own account. "Seeing this film get so much love across the board has been a dream come true for all of us & I couldn't be more honored to have such an incredible fan base with us on this adventure. We love you!!" See the rest of his post below...

Directed by Tatsuya Yoshihara, working from a script by Hiroshi Seko (Jujutsu Kaisen 0), Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc adapts the fifth and sixth volumes of Tatsuki Fujimoto's original manga. With that, it sees Denji (voiced by Kikunosuke Toya in Japan) thrust into his most dangerous, emotional battle yet after he meets Reze, a charming barista with a deadly secret.

GamesRadar+ gave it four out of five stars in our review, describing it as a "surprisingly effective romance" and "impressive blood-and-guts spectacle". At the time of writing, it holds a 100% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc is out now in US and UK theaters. For more, check out our picks of the best anime movies you need to be watching.

Understandably, Chainsaw Man fans are desperate for more crumbs surrounding Reze and Denji's doomed relationship in Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc.

So, when a tweet from Japanese outlet Live Door received a machine translation that mentioned an "ultra-intimate" cut scene from the feature, audiences revved themselves up into a frenzy.

Unfortunately for those getting ready to book tickets to see what was left on the cutting room floor, the whole situation appears to be a translation error, with the 'scene' later being revealed as a series of images from Denji and Reze's most intimate moments posted on Twitter by entertainment company Toho.

Not all is lost, however. Live Door revealed that those going to watch the Chainsaw Man movie from November 1 will be treated to a 'bonus': a print of Reze lying on the beach.

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc hit top spot at the US box office this weekend, joining Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle as one of two anime movies to become #1 domestically in 2025 – though we don't expect it to come close to Demon Slayer's Fantastic Four and Superman-slaying numbers.

Reze Arc has also become the second highest-rated anime of all time on MyAnimeList, anime's answer to IMDb.

For more on Chainsaw Man, check out our spoiler-filled guides to the Chainsaw Man movie ending and Chainsaw Man movie post-credits scene. Then, we take a speculative look ahead at what's to come with a rundown of everything we know so far about Chainsaw Man season 2.

New anime movie Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc topped the US box office this weekend with $17.2 million.

Per Deadline, the film beat Black Phone 2, which made $13 million in its second week. As for other new releases, it bested biopic Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, which brought in $9.1 million and new horror movie Shelby Oaks, which made $2.35 million.

Chainsaw Man's success is the latest evidence that anime is a big hit with US theatrical audiences in 2025. Earlier this year, Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle became the highest-grossing international movie in the US ever, making over $128 million at the domestic box office so far and beating Ang Lee's Oscar-winning Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon to the top spot.

Picking up after the first season of the anime series, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc sees Denji face his most dangerous battle yet, with a love interest named Reze thrown into the mix too.

The movie has been a hit with fans and critics alike and currently has a near-perfect score of 96% on Rotten Tomatoes. Our own four-star Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc review praises the film's "surprisingly effective romance" and "dynamic ensemble of characters," adding that it "offers more than just visually impressive blood-and-guts spectacle, even if it isn’t able to land every beat of its self-contained story."

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc is out now in theaters. For more, check out our guide to the best new anime to add to your watchlist.

It's safe to say Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc was extremely well received across its opening weekend, with 200,000 voters propelling the feature to second place on anime's answer to IMDb.

As of writing, the Chainsaw Man movie is sitting pretty at second place in My Anime List's Top 100. Its 9.18 average user score is only just behind Frieren: Beyond Journey's End and its 9.29 score, though it has already jumped up from 9.10 in just over 24 hours – indicating that Denji could climb the mountain and topple Frieren, Fern, and Stark.

Even if Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc's score settles from the surge of initial excitement, it's still in all-time great company alongside Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Steins;Gate, and the third season of Attack on Titan in the top five.

The Chainsaw Man movie, an adaptation of the Bomb Girl arc from Tatsuki Fujimoto's manga, also debuted to a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score on release day. However, one less-than-positive review has since dropped it down to 96%. Still, at least it's getting its flowers. Denji would approve (and probably eat the flowers).

Reze Arc, which follows Denji following head over heels for mysterious newcomer Reze as the search for the Gun Devil persists, will likely be succeeded by Chainsaw Man season 2. No announcement on the anime's future is forthcoming just yet, however.

In the meantime, we can look ahead to the roster of new anime coming our way in 2026. Frieren: Beyond Journey's End season 2 will surely aim to protect its crown, though Jujutsu Kaisen season 3 could very well rise up the ranks too.

For more on Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, we have spoiled-filled guides on the Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc ending and Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc post-credits scene.

The twin successes of Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle and Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc can't simply be measured in box office dollars.

While their record-breaking runs are certainly eye-catching, both the Demon Slayer and Chainsaw Man movies laser in on something that has long frustrated me with anime – the scourge of non-canon movies based on popular shows.

But it wasn't always like this. In fact, 1997's End of Evangelion – the final act of the mind-melting Neon Genesis Evangelion series until the 21st Century's Rebuild movies retold and reshaped the story in increasingly meta fashion – saw Japanese audiences flood to cinemas in their droves.

Far from repeating the trick, the anime boom of the late '90s instead opted for adventures that operated around the fringes of their main series. 1999's Pokemon: The First Movie may have been the most successful anime movie of all time on US shores until it was dethroned in 2025 by Infinity Castle, but it proved a precursor to cinematic anime adventures being a side dish to the main TV course. Worse still, those events may as well have not happened at all, with how rarely – if ever – they get brought up in the mainline series.

The likes of One Piece and the majority of Dragon Ball and Bleach movies each tiptoed down the non-canon route, with only a few real attempts at weaving films into the narrative that preceded them. Even one of my favorite anime movies, Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door, feels like something awkwardly shoehorned in towards the end of the series for the sake of bringing Spike and the Bebop crew back for one last jazz-infused rodeo.

The two decades that followed almost exclusively involved anime's focus being on TV and not film. But 2020's Demon Slayer: Mugen Train and 2021's Jujutsu Kaisen 0 offered a continuation and canon prequel, respectively, giving a chance to fill out character backstories and enrich the anime, rather than merely being a lavish advert for it. Each also offered ample proof that if animation studios delivered the next step for these sagas on the big screen, there would be a serious appetite for them.

So, that thinking – only aided by other canon efforts such as the wonderful final bow of Violet Evergarden: The Movie – bore fruit in 2025 with Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle and Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, an industry-shifting one-two punch if I've ever seen one.

Movie magic

Of course, their achievements aren't down to story continuation alone. Each involves richly drawn characters and even richer animation, yet I really think their secret weapon ties back to their status as movies that are unashamedly canon.

You wouldn't expect an anime called Chainsaw Man to tug at the heartstrings, let alone slice through them. Reze Arc achieves that handily, bolstered by the knowledge of seeing where Denji has been and being assured by the fact that we'll witness those ripple effects play out for years to come.

Demon Slayer, too, feels tailor-made for the big screen in a different way. While the emotion is writ large in the same way as Chainsaw Man, here it is of the guttural, exhaustive variety. It may be apples and anime oranges compared to Chainsaw Man's intimate portrait of a lovesick teenager's burgeoning crush, but each has snugly found its home on cinema screens, particularly on IMAX.

It hasn't hurt their box office, either, that these movies are no longer ancillary materials, but essential.

Another positive knock-on effect for the industry won't reveal itself for some time: fans will be trained to become more patient.

Waiting two years for a movie is fine and can build hype, and that lack of urgency can extend to all sorts of anime production. In an industry, unfortunately, buried in crunch, a more relaxed schedule with a bigger project to focus on can only improve the health of those bringing us the goods. That's a win-win, no matter how you look at it.

It remains to be seen if Demon Slayer and Chainsaw Man have crystallized anime movies as the new normal in theaters, but it's a welcome change and finally a step in the right direction for a major anime bugbear of mine – making its movies matter.

Drill deeper into Reze Arc's finale with our guide to the Chainsaw Man movie ending and Chainsaw Man movie post-credits scene. Not sure where to go next? Here's what you need to read in the manga after watching the Chainsaw Man movie.

The English dub actor for Denji has revealed the tongue-in-cheek warning he was given about performing a surprisingly low-key scene from the Chainsaw Man movie.

Minor spoilers for Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc follow.

Ryan Colt Levy took to Twitter to reply to a fan's curiosity over Denji's infamous coffee tasting scene with Reze in the Crossroads cafe. He wrote, "One day [Aki voice actor] Reagan Murdock came up to me & said 'this will be the hardest performance of your life.'"

The moment in question sees every teenage boy's reaction to tasting coffee for the first time come to life on the big screen: Denji convulsing and spluttering after he's egged on to try a cup of coffee. For someone who was desperate for just jam and bread last season, we're not surprised his palate hasn't been refined just yet, to be honest.

But it's less the vocal range and talent required that was the source of difficulty for Levy and, rather, that the Denji voice actor is a coffee fiend in real life. As a coffee hater myself, I can't relate.

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, a canon continuation of the anime, follows Denji off the back of the continued search for the nefarious Gun Devil. He is suddenly torn between his work life and personal life, however, when a new love interest – the titular Reze – enters the scene, complete with an explosive secret.

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc is now in cinemas, and we're here to help you every step of the way. Whether you don't know what to watch before the Chainsaw Man movie or are curious to see what to read after the Chainsaw Man movie, we've got you covered. There are also spoiler-filled breakdowns of the Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc ending and Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc post-credits to dive into.