Anime Movies For Kids, Anime movies provide a great entertainment alternative for all ages, with animations that have gained international fame for their plots that cover deep topics such as pollution, discrimination, and human relationships.
But there are few films that we find directed partially or totally to a child audience compared to those that include family, youth, and mature audiences. For this reason, we decided to dedicate the following top to the little ones in the house, with films that although you can find references to a little deeper themes, the main axis is adventure and friendship.
Let’s get started!
10. Mononoke Hime
The unexpected attack on the Emishi people by a demonic boar forces the young prince Ashitaka to put his life on the line in order to defend his tribe. But when everything seemed to have ended, the beast with its last breath places a curse on his right arm, which grants him demonic powers in exchange for gradually losing his life.
Now under the advice of the elders of his people, the young prince sets out on a journey west in search of a cure, finding himself involved, to his bad luck, in the conflict between the Lady Eboshi of Tatara, the city of iron, and the princess. San together with the spirits of the forest are upset by the exploitation of nature that the city has.
Princess Mononoke is a very beautiful story where the forces of nature fight against humanity for their survival, giving a perfect representation of the connection between technology, each day more advanced, and nature, which is affected by this advance, while that shows a way to achieve harmony between the two.
9. Digimon Adventure
Digimon: The Movie is a short film that tells the facts of how Taichi and Hikari Yagami first come into contact with Digimon four years before what happened in the well-known television series, showing them a new reality, where the digital world and the real are connected even though we don’t know. The story tells how the brothers find a Digihuevo from which a Botamon comes out and how it evolves to face a Parrotmon.
After the battle ends, being still very young, Taichi and Hikari think that everything that happened was a simple dream or a fantasy, gradually forgetting what happened in the film, until later when the series begins they explain that Finding the Digihuevo is what made them “Chosen Children.” This film is ideal for a child audience, showing them the origin of the world of adventures that entertained several generations in the past, and that with each new season is getting closer, making its way among the new generations.
8. The Life of Budori Gusuko
Budori Gusuko lives with her parents and her younger sister in the Ihatobu forest. But when an avalanche of droughts and natural disasters breaks out, little by little he loses his relatives, being forced to leave his home to look for work and a place to live. Thus, after going through several events, he ends up working for scientists at a university in the city, who carry out studies on the positive effect of artificial volcanic eruptions in a laboratory.
Now when natural disasters happen again, in the form of an extreme cold wave in order not to go through the same experience that he lived with his parents, he decides to leave his job in the volcanic eruption department in order to look for a way to save others no matter what price you have to pay. This novel is based on the novel by Kenji Miyazawa, considered in Japan as the greatest children’s writer of the 20th century, The Life of Budori Gusuko hides, under a sweet and careful drawing, a training story embedded in environmentalism that reflects on the place that we occupy in the world.
7. My neighbor Totoro
This time we find another super production by Studio Ghibli and which was directed by Hayao Miyazaki. My neighbor Totoro takes us to a post-war Japan, to tell the story of university professor Tatsuo Kusakabe and his two daughters, Satsuki and Mei, who move to an old rural residence in order to be closer to the hospital where he is. The girls’ mother, Yasuko, was hospitalized for tuberculosis.
As the girls become familiar with rural life, Mei, the younger of the two sisters, chases through the house some little spirits into the forest, where she encounters a rabbit-like creature one day. This character turned out to be Totoro, a protective spirit of the forest with whom he will soon become friends, and not long after his older sister Satsuki, also meets Totoro, and thus this mysterious spirit will fill his life with magical adventures in nature.
A film aimed at children where it shows how children are affected by the difficulties that their parents may present, while seeking to relate to the beauty and mysticism of nature, in order to promote in the little ones love and desire to take care of her.
6. The Secret World of Arrietty
Another great film produced by Studio Ghibli and directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, Karigurashi no Arrietty, is based on a book first published in 1952, The Borrowers, by Mary Norton. Like any film produced by this studio, it has a chromatic beauty and a great soundtrack that accompany the narration of this story from beginning to end.
Karigurashi no Arrietty tells the story of a tiny family; beings with a stature no greater than ten centimeters, who live hidden under the boards of an old country mansion. The main law of these tiny beings is that they should never be seen by humans, but one day their quiet existence is threatened when Arrietty, a fearless teenager, is accidentally seen by Sho, a boy who had recently moved into the mansion. for health problems. A family story that shows the little ones and the general public the importance of friendship and courage.
5. Stand By Me Doraemon
Doraemon is a robotic cat from the 22nd century and is known as a caretaker, as the support of his futuristic gadgets takes care of helping people in need. One day Doraemon is sent to the past to help and make Nobi Nobita happy by his great-great-grandson Sewashi Nobi, in order to prevent the future of this lazy and unfortunate boy from having a disastrous and bleak future.
Although Doraemon is not enthusiastic about this idea, in addition to meeting Nobita the two have a bad start preventing them from getting along, with the passage of time they get to know each other better until they become great friends. Stand By Me Doraemon focuses on how after all his adventures in the series this cute cat fulfills his mission and must return to the future, having to separate from the boy who became his best friend. This film shows us the value of a sincere friendship, just as we must begin to grow on our own without using the help of others, taking a step from a tender and innocent childhood to a slightly more mature youth.
4. Pokemon: Kimi ni Kimeta!
There is a world inhabited by mysterious and powerful creatures called Pocket Monsters or Pokémon for short, who has long been interacting peacefully with humans, befriending or fighting together in tournaments. The dream of many children including Satoshi is to one day become a Pokémon trainer to travel the world and become a Pokémon Master in the future.
But when it comes time to receive his first Pokémon, the local teacher gives him a Pikachu, although this was not at first cooperative with Satoshi, despite the fact that he only wanted to be friends with Pikachu. Pokemon: Kimi ni Kimeta! tells the facts of how the two became best friends, starting the countless adventures they will live later, a very funny and tender movie for the little ones in the house to enjoy and get to know a little more about one of their favorite characters.
3. Ponyo
Sousuke is a small five-year-old boy who lives with his mother by the sea, one day walking along the shore of the beach he meets a small fish trapped in a glass jar, therefore the little one rescues him and takes him along home in a small bucket, what he did not know is that this little fish was a spirit born of a human with the goddess Granmamare. Now Ponyo must together with Sousuke overcome the difficulties to be together, striving for his parents to accept and approve his decision to be together.
The story of this animation tells us how the two characters embark on an adventure that leads them to establish a beautiful friendship that later turns into a beautiful and innocent love, allowing the story of their journey to entertain the public, in addition to showing the characteristic innocence of the smallest.
2. Howl’s Moving Castle
Howl’s Moving Castle is a story that follows the line of other Studio Ghibli productions, such as Spirited Away and Castle in the Sky, which are among the great works of this studio. The story revolves around the life of Sophie, an ordinary girl, who considers her life to be mediocre as she cannot do something she really likes, as she has to work in her family hat shop. But her life takes a sudden turn when the wizard Howl’s castle parks near the town, since by confusion the evil witch who is the enemy of the famous wizard, transforms Sophie into a 90-year-old woman, for which now she must undertake an adventure to get his life back.
This film is full of surprising settings and charming and sometimes a little eccentric characters that will make you amused from the beginning. In addition, the world around the magician Howl is full of surprising things such as a moving castle, a magical door that transports you to different places, and a little demon that takes the reins of the house and Howl’s magic. A family film that will allow the audience a very pleasant and fun moment.
1. Spirited Away
Chihiro is a ten-year-old girl who without waiting will enter a world where the magical and the extraordinary are part of reality. Their adventure begins when little Chihiro in the company of her parents is on her way to a new home for her father’s work reasons. Like any child who must face a great change, she is devastated at having to leave her friends behind and feels dissatisfied that her farewell could only have been through a small and dying bouquet of flowers. This film shows the great imagination of the director to capture all the details that appear in the animation, being a story that represents Chihiro’s greatest fears.
Spirited Away takes us on a journey full of imagination, where each of the characters will leave a special lesson for the young Chihiro, learning to value the love that her parents give her as well as the things she has. The film also has a great environmental connotation, where it shows in a funny way how pollution is destroying the world little by little. This story can be enjoyed at any age, with the eccentric characters that appear in it and that represent nature, such as the dragon Haku, who is the spirit of a river that has almost disappeared among urban constructions.
Although the films that we present in this top are mainly aimed at children, they can be enjoyed by the whole family, showing beautiful stories that almost always have a deeper meaning than what we can see with the naked eye.
Children’s animation films have a great variety but unfortunately, we cannot cover all of them, so we present these others that the smallest of the house can also enjoy: Summer Wars, Wolf Children, Toki Wo Kakeru Shoujo, and Hotarubi no Mori e. We hope you liked it, so let us know which one was your favorite or if you know another that should be included, and do not forget to visit us on social networks.
