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Anime films based on manga

  • Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (film)The English version of Nausicaä was cut by about 22 minutes and renamed her Princess Zandra.
  • Berserk: The Golden Age ArcBerserk: The Golden Age Arc recast almost every Japanese voice, but not the English ones.
  • The Cat ReturnsThe Cat Returns began as a 20-minute short for a theme park that canceled it. Ghibli made it a feature.
  • Only Yesterday (1991 film)Ghibli's color team spent roughly a year hunting one shade of red for Only Yesterday.
  • Whisper of the HeartWhisper of the Heart begins when a girl sees the same name on every library book she borrows.
  • Ranma ½Ranma ½ is a Japanese manga by Rumiko Takahashi about a teenage martial artist whose body changes with the temperature of the water that touches him. Ranma Saotome has trained in fighting since early childhood. He spends the series hunting…
  • Ghost in the Shell (1995 film)Ghost in the Shell flopped in theaters, then became a video hit. In August 1996 it topped Billboard's video sales chart.
  • The Wind RisesIn The Wind Rises, a boy with weak eyes builds planes instead of flying them. It follows engineer Jiro Horikoshi.
  • Akira (1988 film)Akira opened in Japan on the same date its story says Tokyo was destroyed. Otomo chose that symmetry on purpose.
  • Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen TrainDemon Slayer: Mugen Train topped the 2020 worldwide box office. It was the first non-American film to do so.
  • Porco RossoIn the film Porco Rosso, an Italian war hero has become a pig. Nobody in the story explains why.
  • My Neighbors the YamadasMy Neighbors the Yamadas is a Studio Ghibli film about a family fighting over the TV remote.
  • Jujutsu Kaisen 0 (film)Jujutsu Kaisen 0 is a 2021 Japanese animated dark fantasy film, and its first audience came at midnight. About 15,000 people watched it at the earliest public screenings on opening day, spread across 58 screens. Theaters had planned to…
  • Mind Game (film)In the film Mind Game, a 20-year-old dies in the first act, then comes back and ends up inside a whale.
  • Hunter × HunterHunter × Hunter, the Japanese manga series by Yoshihiro Togashi, is spoken aloud as "hunter hunter," because the multiplication sign in its title makes no sound. The doubled name came from a television variety show called Downtown, where…

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