Anime like Gon

Michi

Studio: Tomoyasu Murata Company
Status: Finished
Genres: Drama

The My Road series - Scarlet Road (2002), White Road (2003), Indigo Road (2006), and the most recent instalment Lemon Road (2008) - can be read as meditations on loss and mourning. These poetic films tell their story through motif, character expression, music and montage and require repeated viewing for one to absorb the subtly evoked layers of meaning.



Tags: Philosophy , Stop Motion , No Dialogue , Rehabilitation , Puppetry , Male Protagonist , Rural , Episodic

Matsugae wo Musubi

Studio: Tomoyasu Murata Company
Status: Finished
Genres: Drama

"The Pine's Branches" is the latest work in Murata Tomoyasu's series "Journey through memories of life and death,” which he began following the Tohoku earthquake in 2011.

Tags: Family Life , Stop Motion , Tragedy , Rural , Female Protagonist , Twins , Time Skip

Nemurenai Yoru no Tsuki

Studio: TECARAT
Status: Finished
Genres: Fantasy

A squirrel and a boy set out on a journey together to restore daylight. They must find and release the moon stuck high up on a tree somewhere far, far away.

Tags: Stop Motion

Totsukuni no Shoujo

Also known as The Girl From the Other Side: Siúil, a Rún.

Studio: Wit Studio , Production I.G
Status: Finished
Genres: Fantasy , Mystery

In a world split between the Inside and the Outside, those living in both realms are told never to cross over to the other side, lest they be cursed. A young girl named Shiva lives on the other side, in a vacant village with a demonic guardian known only as “Teacher.” Although the two are forbidden to touch, they seem to share a bond that transcends their disparate appearances. But when Shiva leaves Teacher’s care to seek out her grandmother, the secret behind her mysterious living arrangement comes to light.



Note: Bundled with the limited edition of the manga's 8th volume.

Tags: No Dialogue , Family Life , Demons , Fairy Tale , Rural , Orphan , Anthropomorphism , Female Protagonist

Okonjoururi

Studio: NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan
Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Fantasy

The 25 minute film tells the tale of an ailing elderly woman named Itako who encounters a fox named Okon.

The story opens with Itako lying bedridden, as she has for a long time. Okon enters her home and Itako tells the fox that he is welcome to take anything that he wants, for she has no use for anything anymore. Okon is delighted and in order to return the favour (the act of ongaeshi), Okon performs a magic jyōruri (a ballad with shamisen accompaniment) that heals Itako so that she is fit enough to walk again. Everyone is surprised by Itako's sudden recovery. She then hears of a hunter who has been badly injured and is near death. Itako hides Okon in the back of her shirt and has the fox sing the song while she plays shamisen in order to heal the man. This act of kindness is repeated for others until Itako's good fortune leads some to be suspicious of her.


Tags: Mythology , Animals , Stop Motion , Musical Theater , Rehabilitation , Shapeshifting , Witch , Anthropomorphism

Norman the Snowman: Kita no Kuni no Aurora

Studio: EXPLORERS JAPAN , Taiyo Kikaku Co.
Status: Finished
Genres: Fantasy

The boy has longed to visit the northern country and experience the beautiful mysteries of nature that his childhood friend Norman the Snowman has told him about. On the first day of snow in the northern country, the boy sneaks out of his house and boards a northbound train with Norman to see the mysteries of nature with his own eyes.

Tags: Stop Motion , Coming of Age , Family Life

Kujira no Chouyaku

Also known as Glassy Ocean.

Studio: Bandai Visual , Ai ga areba Daijobu , Tamura Shigeru Studio
Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Fantasy

Time has come to a standstill. A whale appears from a glassy ocean and spends half a day soaring gracefully across the skies. What makes this works extraordinary is the artist's decision to use the transparency and visual bulk of 3D computer graphics only for the un-moving ocean and glaciers. The people, whale, and ships are all hand-drawn, and with this contrast, he invites the viewer into a different world. This is a poem written in animation, the creation of a true fantasy. This project was a considerable under taking, and the results are marvelous.



Tags: Time Manipulation , Iyashikei , Elderly Protagonist , CGI , Achronological Order , Ships

Ginga no Uo: URSA minor BLUE

Studio: Ai ga areba Daijobu , Tamura Shigeru Studio
Status: Finished
Genres: Fantasy

Urey is a boy who lives in a laboratory in a lake with an old man. One day they find a strange star in the Little Dipper. The stars are disappearing and the Little Dipper changes into a fish shape. To save stars, they begin to sail across the Milky Way to the place where the strange fish lives.



Tags: Iyashikei , Fishing , Male Protagonist , Mythology , Astronomy , Magic , Ships , Robots , CGI , Elderly Protagonist

Chiisana Eiyuu: Kani to Tamago to Toumei Ningen

Also known as Modest Heroes: Ponoc Short Films Theatre, Volume 1.

Studio: Studio Ponoc
Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Adventure , Drama , Fantasy

Modest Heroes will consist of three shorts by three different directors: "Kanini & Kanino" ("Kani no Kanino") by Hiromasa Yonebayashi will be a 15-minute fantasy adventure story of two crab siblings, and will be long. "Life Ain't Gonna Lose" ("Samurai Egg") by Yoshiyuki Momose will be a 15-minute "human drama" showing the love between a mother and a boy. "Invisible" ("Toumei Ningen") by Akihiko Yamashita will be a 14-minute "action spectacle" that centers on the lonely struggle of one invisible man. Studio Ponoc describes the shorts as "tales of modest heroes of our times."



Tags: Primarily Child Cast , Anthology , Animals

Totsukuni no Shoujo (2022)

Also known as The Girl from the Other Side.

Studio: Wit Studio , Twin Engine
Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Fantasy , Mystery

The official Twitter account for Nagabe's The Girl from the Other Side: Siúil, a Rún manga revealed on Friday that the manga will get a "longform anime" project. The anime will ship as an original anime DVD (OAD) bundled with a bonus volume of the manga that will ship on March 10, 2022.



Note: Originally released as a movie-length OVA. As streaming on Crunchyroll, it is split into 3 'normal' length episodes.

Tags: Rural , Philosophy , Gods , Demons , Environmental , Magic , Shounen , Female Protagonist , Religion , Teacher , Outdoor , Anthropomorphism , Male Protagonist