Top 10 Best Fantasy Anime

Top 10 Best Fantasy Anime

 Top 10 Best Fantasy Anime

1.Spirited Away 

 

Chihiro Ogino, a 10-year-old girl, moves with her parents to a new town when they become lost and find what appears to be an abandoned amusement park. Chihiro's father insists on exploring it, and she and her mother reluctantly accompany him. Chihiro's parents sample the food at an unattended stall. After Chihiro wanders off and finds a grand bathhouse, a boy approaches and warns her to leave before nightfall. When Chihiro runs back to her parents, she finds they have been transformed into pigs and the park starts to swarm with monsters.

She eventually learns from Haku, the boy she had met earlier, that her family has become trapped in the spirit world. He also reveals that he had known her since she was a child. Haku brings Chihiro to the bathhouse where he tells her to see Kamaji, a six-armed man who works the boiler room, to ask for a job. Rejecting Chihiro's request, Kamaji entrusts her to Lin, a bathhouse worker. Lin takes her to see Yubaba, the witch who runs the bathhouse. Denying Chihiro's request to work, Yubaba eventually allows her to work on the condition that her name is changed to Sen , the first character of Chihiro's name. Having been told from Haku that Yubaba controls her servants by taking their names, Chihiro is warned that if she forgets her real name, she will be trapped in the world forever.

While working as Lin's assistant, Sen allows a mysterious masked spirit to enter. Later, a "stink spirit" enters the bathhouse. Sen eventually cleans the stink spirit, revealing himself to be a spirit of a polluted river. In return for restoring his health, the river spirit bestows upon Sen an emetic dumpling.

Sen eventually realizes Haku is actually a dragon. Having been seriously injured his dragon form by a shikigami, Yubaba orders her servants to kill Haku, but is eventually rescued by Sen. The shikigami reveals herself to be Zeniba, Yubaba's twin sister. Zeniba informs Sen that Haku stole her gold seal on Yubaba's orders and transforms Boh, Yubaba's large baby son, into a mouse and her bird into a smaller bird, demanding the gold seal to be given back. Haku and Sen flee and fall into the boiler room again, where she feeds him part of the dumpling. Haku coughs up the gold seal and a black slug, which Sen crushes with her foot. Kamaji gives Sen train tickets to visit Zeniba and to beg her to lift the curse on the seal. Boh, in his mouse form, and the bird accompany her.

Meanwhile, the masked spirit Sen allowed into the bathhouse reveals himself as a monster called "No Face." No Face, who swallows one of the servants, a frog, in order to speak, offers gold to the staff in exchange for large quantities of food. No Face continues to eat, causing it to grow to immense size, eventually swallowing several other employees. Later, Sen feeds No Face the remainder of the dumpling, causing him to regurgitate everything and everyone out. Restored to his prior inoffensive form, No Face also accompanies Sen to Zeniba's house.

Haku regains consciousness and learns that Sen has gone to see Zeniba. Yubaba, enraged by both the damage caused by No Face and Sen's departure, orders Sen's parents to be killed. Haku appears and warns Yubaba that something precious to her has been replaced, and she realizes that Boh has disappeared. Telling her that Boh is with Zeniba, Haku proposes should he return Boh, Yubaba will allow Sen and her parents to return the human world. However, Yubaba also insists that Sen has to take one final test.

Sen, Boh, and No Face arrive at Zeniba's house and find Zeniba to be friendly. Zeniba says Sen's love broke the seal's spell, and the slug Sen killed was the curse Yubaba had used to enslave Haku. Haku appears in his dragon form to pick up Sen and Boh, while No Face remains with Zeniba. Realizing that Sen once fell into the Kohaku River as a child, she guesses Haku is the spirit of the river who saved her, freeing Haku from Yubaba's spell.

Haku returns Boh to Yubaba, and Sen, now called Chihiro, is offered a final test to guess her parents from a group of pigs. She correctly answers that none of them are her parents. Haku leads her towards the entrance of the park and promises they will see each other again. Chihiro reunites with her parents, who do not recall their experiences, and the family depart from the park.

2.Princess Mononoke

A giant boar-demon attacks an Emishi village and the protagonist, Ashitaka (Yōji Matsuda), is forced to fight and kill him. In the struggle, Ashitaka receives a curse which grants him superhuman strength but will eventually kill him. Under the advice of the village wisewoman (Mitsuko Mori), he leaves to travel to the west in search of a cure. After some traveling, he meets Jigo (Kaoru Kobayashi), a wandering monk who tells Ashitaka that he might find help from the forest spirit of a mountain range populated by giant animal-gods. Iron Town, located in that range, continually clears the nearby forests to make charcoal to smelt ironsand and produces advanced firearms, leading to battles with the giant forest beasts. Among these animals are giant wolves, who are accompanied by San (Yuriko Ishida), a human girl adopted by the wolves, whom the villagers of Iron Town call "Princess Mononoke." Ashitaka finds two villagers injured by the wolves near a river, whom he returns to Iron Town, passing through the forest, where he catches a glimpse of the forest spirit, a kirin-like creature by day and a towering "night-walker" by night.

In Iron Town, Ashitaka learns from Lady Eboshi (Yūko Tanaka), the manager of the settlement, that she created the boar-demon by shooting it. Though upset, Ashitaka also finds out that Iron Town is also a refuge for ancient Japan's social outcasts, including prostitutes and lepers, and thus finds himself unable to condemn Eboshi. That night, San infiltrates Iron Town to kill Eboshi. Ashitaka intervenes, using his curse's power to stop the fighting between Eboshi and San. While leaving the town with San, he is shot through the chest and later dies of his injuries. San takes Ashitaka to the Forest Spirit, who revives him, but does not remove the curse. San starts to develop feelings for Ashitaka. Boars, led by the boar god Okkoto (Hisaya Morishige), arrive to attack Iron Town, and San joins them. Eboshi prepares for the assault and sets out to destroy the Forest Spirit. Jigo, now revealed to be a mercenary-hunter, intends to give the head to the emperor, who in turn promises to give Iron Town legal protection from local daimyos.

The Imperial hunters devastate the boars, and Okkoto is corrupted by a gunshot wound. The Forest Spirit comes and kills Okkoto, but Eboshi appears and shoots off the Forest Spirit's head. Jigo collects the head as the Forest Spirit's body transforms into a "mindless god of death" that begins destroying everything in its vicinity in search of its head. Ashitaka and San chase down and take back the head from Jigo, returning it to the Forest Spirit. It collapses into the lake, turning the land green and healing all the lepers and accursed, including Ashitaka and San. Ashitaka and San part to resume the lives they are used to, but promise to meet again; Ashitaka decides to stay and help rebuild Iron Town, which a reformed Eboshi vows to remake as "a better" village. The film ends with a Kodama appearing in the rejuvenated forest.

3.Howl's Moving Castle

Sophie, a hatter, is a responsible though plain 18-year-old girl who runs her late father's hat shop. When on her way to the bakery to visit her sister, Lettie, she encounters by chance the mysterious wizard Howl, who takes a liking to her. This arouses the ire of the Witch of the Waste, who has been seeking Howl's heart for herself. Later that night, she comes to the hat shop and curses Sophie, transforming her into an old woman. As the curse prevents her from telling anyone of her condition, Sophie decides to run away. Along the way, she befriends a sentient scarecrow that she names Turnip Head, who eventually leads her to Howl's castle.

4.Castle in the sky 

Is a 1986 film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. It is the first film created and released by Studio Ghibli. Laputa: Castle in the Sky won the Animage Anime Grand Prix in 1986.

5. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

Is a 1984 Japanese animated post-apocalyptic fantasy adventure film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, based on his manga of the same name. The film stars the voices of Sumi Shimamoto, Goro Naya, Yoji Matsuda, Yoshiko Sakakibara and Iemasa Kayumi. The film tells the story of Nausicaä, a young princess of the Valley of the Wind who gets involved into a struggle with Tolmekia, a kingdom who tries to use an ancient weapon to fend off the Ohms. Nausicaä must stop the Tolmekians from killing these insects. The film was released in Japan on March 4, 1984 and was presented by the World Wide Fund for Nature. While created before Studio Ghibli was founded, the film is considered to be the beginning of the studio, and is often included as part of the Studio's works, including the Studio Ghibli Collection DVDs. Among its numerous awards, it won the Animage Anime Grand Prix prize in 1984.

6.Whisper of the Heart

  

 Is a 1995 Japanese animated drama film based on the manga of the same name by Aoi Hiiragi. It was directed by Yoshifumi Kondō and written by Hayao Miyazaki. It was the first theatrical Studio Ghibli feature to be directed by someone other than Miyazaki or Takahata, and the only film to be directed by Yoshifumi Kondō, who died in 1998 of a ruptured aneurysm at the age of 47. Studio Ghibli had hoped that Kondō would become the successor to Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata. 

7. Kiki's Delivery Service

  

Is a 1989 Japanese animated fantasy film produced, written, and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. It was the fourth theatrically released Studio Ghibli film.

The film won the Animage Anime Grand Prix prize in 1989. Kiki's Delivery Service is loosely based on Eiko Kadono's novel of the same name, which is the first in a series published by Fukuinkan Shoten in 1985.

According to Miyazaki the movie touches on the gulf that exists between independence and reliance in Japanese teenage girls. Going far beyond coming of age themes, the work deals with the nature of creativity and talent, and the central difficulty every person faces in becoming themselves, whether through luck, hard work or confidence: the inner film explores the same questions as the later Whisper of the Heart.

It was the first Studio Ghibli movie released under the Disney/Studio Ghibli partnership; Disney recorded an English dub in 1997, which premiered theatrically in the United States at the Seattle International Film Festival May 23, 1998. It was released on home video in the U.S. on September 1, 1998.

8.The Cat Returns 

  

The Cat Returns began as the "Cat Project" in 1999. Studio Ghibli received a request from a Japanese theme park to create a 20-minute short starring cats. Hayao Miyazaki wanted three key elements to feature in the short — these were the Baron, Muta (Moon) and a mysterious antique shop. Hiiragi was commissioned to create the manga equivalent of the short, which is called Baron: The Cat Returns lit The Cat Baron and is published in English by Viz Media. The theme park later canceled the project.

Miyazaki then took the existing work done by the "Cat Project" and used it as testing for future Ghibli directors — the short was now to be 45 minutes long. Responsibility was given to Hiroyuki Morita, who had started as an animator in 1999 for the film My Neighbors the Yamadas. Over a nine-month period he translated Hiiragi's Baron story into 525 pages of storyboards for what was to be The Cat Returns. Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki decided to produce a feature-length film based entirely on Morita's storyboard; this was partly because Haru, the main character, had a "believable feel to her". It became the second theatrical (third overall) Studio Ghibli feature to be directed by someone other than Miyazaki or Takahata.

9. The Secret World of Arriety

  

The film was directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, written by Hayao Miyazaki and Keiko Niwa, and stars the voices of Mirai Shida as the titular character, Ryunosuke Kamiki as Sho, and Tatsuya Fujiwara as Spiller. The film tells the story of Arrietty, a young Borrower who lives under the floorboards of a typical household. She eventually befriends Sho, a human boy with a heart condition since birth who is living with his great aunt Sadako. When Sadako's maid Haru becomes suspicious of the floorboard's disturbance, Arrietty and her family must escape detection, even if it means leaving their beloved home.

10. Pom Poko

  An interesting departure for Ghibli, whose films are normally broad enough to appeal to all countries, Pom Poko contains numerous Japanese cultural and religious references that could baffle unsuspecting foreign audiences.
Again directed by Isao Takahata, Pom Poko is an ecological fable about a society of shape-shifting, mischievous raccoons and their efforts to protect their forest from the urbanisation project of 60s Japan.
Notable for its surprisingly common display of testicles (it's not uncommon for raccoons to be depicted with prominent genitalia in Japanese tradition), Pom Poko is easily Studio Ghibli's most anarchic feature to date.
The spectacular animation reaches its zenith in an enchanting ghost parade sequence, and the film's often laugh-out-loud humour is undercut by a particularly stinging, unsentimental conclusion.