The 10 Best Anime Movies of the 2010s from Every Year, Ranked

The 2010s were packed with some insanely well-made anime movies, ultimately enabling us to formulate this list, compiling the best of them.

When ranking these movies, we are looking at the plot, character development, and technical execution. Movies placed lower on this ranking are flawed in certain ways only when compared to the other movies higher in the ranking – otherwise, every entry here is worthy of being your next binge.

RANK	MOVIE TITLE	RELEASE DATE	MAL RATING (as of April 28, 2026)
10	Naruto Shippuden the Movie 7: The Last	Dec 6, 2014	7.80 / 10
9	The Anthem of the Heart	Sep 19, 2015	7.79 / 10
8	Weathering with You	Jul 19, 2019	8.27 / 10
7	The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya	Feb 6, 2010	8.59 / 10
6	The Garden of Words	May 31, 2013	7.85 / 10
5	Wolf Children	Jul 21, 2012	8.56 / 10
4	Into the Forest of Fireflies’ Light	Sep 17, 2011	8.26 / 10
3	No Game No Life: Zero	Jul 15, 2017	8.16 / 10
2	A Silent Voice	Sep 17, 2016	8.93 / 10
1	Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms	Feb 24, 2018	8.40 / 10

10 The Last: Naruto the Movie – 2014

The movie centers on Naruto Uzumaki and Hinata Hyuga, two years after the conclusion of the Fourth Ninja World War, when the moon begins getting closer to Earth. Around that time, Toneri Otsutsuki kidnaps Hanabi Hyuga to get her Byakugan and mind-controls Hinata as well, to make her his wife. Kakashi sends a team, of which Naruto is an integral part, to save Hanabi, while also having his own internal battle of love.

This film ranks in the tenth position because the structure of this movie is a standard rescue mission that relies heavily on the fans’ prior investment in the anime. Furthermore, the romantic development between Naruto and Hinata felt rushed in the format of a movie, which was already focusing on a different plot.

9 The Anthem of the Heart – 2015

Jun Naruse is a high school student who cannot talk well, and that is because of the trauma she experienced as a kid. Once, she found her dad cheating on her mother, and without realizing what was happening, she revealed that information to her mother, which led to the divorce.

Her father and mother both ended up blaming her for running her mouth, and soon, a fairy seals her voice. The movie focuses on her, along with her friends, making a musical while dealing with their own interpersonal relationships.

8 Weathering with You – 2019

Hodaka Morishima is a high school freshman who runs away from his home to live in Tokyo. He struggles to find work and housing as Tokyo is experiencing an abnormal amount of rain. He eventually meets Hina Amano, an orphaned girl who happens to have the ability to clear the sky. Together, they start a business using her ability for various clients.

While visually, this movie is one of the best of all time, the story of this movie recycles the formula of the director’s previous work. However, while the plot relies on the same framework of a boy meeting a girl with supernatural abilities linked to environmental anomalies, this movie had one of the best Makoto Shinkai endings.

7 The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya – 2010

This movie is a direct sequel to the anime The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. In mid-December, Kyon arrives at school to discover that his reality has been completely altered as Haruhi is missing.

Furthermore, the supernatural elements that were the result of her imagination are no longer there either. His club members either do not recognize him or have disappeared. The movie focuses on Kyon trying to make everything normal.

However, you need to watch the entire anime first in order to even understand what is going on in the movie, so keep that in mind before you go in blind.

6 The Garden of Words – 2013

Takao Akizuki is a high school student who skips school on rainy mornings to sketch shoe designs in a garden. During these peaceful mornings, he frequently encounters Yukari Yukino, a twenty-seven-year-old woman who skips work to drink beer and eat chocolate in the same place.

They do not formally introduce themselves but continue to meet exclusively on rainy days, eventually falling in love with each other. However, it turns out that Yukari is a teacher at the very high school Takao studies in.

This movie is notable for its exceptional background art and environmental animation, specifically how it shows rain. However, the film is severely constrained by its 46-minute runtime. Because of this limitation, the conclusion of the movie felt abrupt. Yet, it managed to show an amazing story in that timeframe nonetheless.

5 Wolf Children – 2012

The story begins with Hana, a college student who falls in love with a man who turns out to be a werewolf. Soon they have two children, Yuki and Ame, but the father dies suddenly in an accident. Hana is left to raise the children alone.

Because the children alternate unpredictably between human and wolf forms, Hana cannot take them to standard doctors or schools without risking exposure. This movie does a great job of exploring a single mother’s struggles while also having a satisfying end. This movie is one of the underrated hidden gems that is not hyped enough.

The pace of the story is handled efficiently as the children slowly grow up. The movie’s only weakness lies in the underdeveloped supporting cast; the rural neighbors serve merely as plot devices to aid Hana’s integration rather than acting as fully realized characters.

4 Into the Forest of Fireflies’ Light – 2011

Hotaru is a six-year-old girl who gets lost in a mountain forest full of spirits. She is helped by Gin, a human-looking spirit wearing a mask. Gin explains that if he is ever touched by a human, his body will disappear permanently. Hotaru returns to the forest every summer to visit Gin, and the movie tracks their relationship over several years as Hotaru grows older while Gin ages at a much slower rate.

It establishes a singular rule – do not touch each other – and it builds its entire progression around it. There are no subplots, no extra characters, and no filler sequences. Every scene advances the story and reinforces the central conflict. Unlike the sixth entry on this ranking, this movie uses its short runtime of 44 minutes perfectly.

3 No Game No Life: Zero – 2017

This movie is a prequel to the anime No Game No Life, set 6,000 years before the anime events. The war is in the world, with all races fighting each other for control. In this world, Riku is a survivor who is traumatized by the number of people who’ve died under his command.

However, one day he finds Schwi Dola, who is an Ex-Machina. He sneaks her into his village, and they both start developing feelings for each other as they try to put an end to the war.

Ranked third, this movie perfectly shifts the tone of its original anime from comedic fantasy to romance and dark fantasy. Despite releasing after the anime, this movie requires zero knowledge prior to watching. Furthermore, the tone shift is done so perfectly that you’d think that it’s a standalone movie.

2 A Silent Voice – 2016

The movie centers around two characters – Shoya Ishida and Shoko Nishimiya. Back in elementary school, Shoya used to bully Shoko, a deaf student, eventually causing her to transfer schools. Following that, even his own friends who bullied her along with him turned on him.

Years later, as a high school student dealing with severe depression and suicidal thoughts, Shoya decides to find Shoko to make amends before ending his life. The story follows his attempts to reconnect with her, learn sign language, and figure out his relationships with others.

This movie earns the second position in this ranking due to its objective and unvarnished portrayal of bullying, depression, and isolation. However, it is not ranked one as many fans think that it being an anime instead of a movie would’ve been better.

The movie refuses to sugarcoat the actions of its characters. The protagonist’s path to redemption is depicted as a difficult process, as he struggles to give himself a break.

1 Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms – 2018

Maquia belongs to the Iorph, a race of beings who live for hundreds of years and stop aging in their mid-teens. Their peaceful existence is destroyed when a kingdom invades to steal their longevity. Maquia escapes the destruction but is left stranded in the mortal world. Wandering alone, she discovers an infant human boy in the ruins of a raided village and decides to raise him, naming him Ariel.

The timeline of this movie spans several decades, tracking Ariel’s growth from an infant to an adult man, while Maquia remains physically a teenager. The movie even explores the political changes of the surrounding nations, warfare, and the toll of outliving those one loves, as in Maquia’s village, the worst thing an Iorph can do is love a human.

This movie is placed in the first position because it represents the most complete and ambitious narrative achievement of the decade. It successfully executes a multi-decade timeline without losing track of its core characters. The world-building, involving political marriages, dragons, and industrial revolutions, is seamlessly integrated into the background of the character progression.

The movie examines the concept of mortality and the consequences of eternal youth. The pacing is amazing as well, ensuring that each phase of Ariel’s life and his changing relationship with his mother is fully explored.

In the end, several amazing movies were excluded from this ranking, as some of the years were full of banger movies. In 2016, Your Name lost its place to A Silent Voice. For the 2019 selection, Violet Evergarden: Eternity and the Auto Memory Doll and Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl had to be left out.

As mentioned earlier, the 2010s were brimming with awesome anime movies, and choosing just ten of them, that too with the limitation of one from each year is quite an ordeal. That said, do you agree with our picks? What would you change in this list? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!