The anime industry has only become more ambitious and creative over the past decade and each year brings with it a bunch of challenging new anime content. There’s a lot of focus on the ongoing anime series that turn into hits over multiple seasons, but there’s often even more reverence that’s held for anime feature films.

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Anime movies can connect in a whole other way and they often attempt to tell a very different type of story than what’s explored in a long-running anime series. However, many anime movies have deep premises with even more material to explore and it’s interesting to think how they’d function as television series that expand upon the story.

10 Promare Creates A Rich World Of Fire Powers That Deserves Deeper Exploration

Galo Thymos freaks out in Promare

Everything that Studio TRIGGER produces is an utter masterpiece in terms of animation and their latest feature film, Promare, showcases some of their very best work. Promare focuses on the threat of the Burnish, a growing race of pyrokinetic mutants, as well as those that fight to extinguish their flames.

Promare’s fire-based conflict is already remarkably similar to Fire Force, which shows that this idea works in a longer format. There’s such interesting characters and tools that come to life in the movie that would benefit from a larger canvas to explore.

9 A Full Series Set In Spirited Away’s World Would Be An Instant Triumph

Anime Soot grabbing candy

Every single one of Hayao Miyazaki’s films has enough detail and passion that it’d be able to function as a competent anime series, but Spirited Away is likely the best candidate.

All of Miyazaki’s films mix a sense of wonder with melancholy, but Spirited Away reaches a sublime balance that benefits from the endlessly creative creatures on display once Chihiro crosses over to the spirit realm. The series could focus on Chihiro’s efforts to rescue her parents or just different misadventures in this new world and it’d still work.

Anime Paprika Konakawa Dream

Satoshi Kon was a truly anime visionary and all of his works are foundational pieces of anime cinema. Kon dabbled in television with Paranoia Agent, which shows that he can nail the structure of the medium.

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Paprika follows a "dream detective" who desperately tries to retrieve dangerous technology before it's used by the wrong people. Paprika is essentially an anime version of Inception and it's full of unbelievable set pieces that meld fantasy and reality. It'd absolutely thrive in an episodic format that could allow even more depth to the film's brilliant concepts.

7 Lu Over The Wall’s Adorable Protagonist Deserves A Full Series To Thrive

An umbrella symphony occurs in Lu Over the Wall anime

Lu Over the Wall pairs a disillusioned teenager together with a mermaid vampire that loves to sing and they find an unusual kinship in each other. Many anime stories look at someone who learns how to come out of their shell, but Kai's evolution with the help of Lu is just so sweet and inspiring.

Lu is such a sweet character and she's fantastic in Masaaki Yuasa’s movie, but it'd be even more satisfying to get a full series of her musical misadventures as she tries to better acclimate to life outside of the water.

6 Redline’s Kinetic Racing Could Become Even More Intense In An Episodic Format

Sweet JP gets caught up in the throttle in Redline

Redline features an incredibly simple plot, but it’s a movie that’s proudly most concerned about its unbelievable visuals and extreme tone. Some may argue that Redline is a case of style over substance, but it’s far from an empty experience.

The movie is centered around one epic intergalactic race where a wide cast of exaggerated personalities compete against each other. There are plenty of anime that are based around racing or even one big race as the major narrative force and Redline could definitely make the most of this structure.

5 A Full Series Can Better Explore Your Name’s Gripping Story & Mysterious Premise

your name Taki Mitsuha sunset

Makoto Shinaki has become one of the leading voices in anime when it comes to tender and honest relationships that play out in movies. Your Name might be Shinkai's most powerful and polished work and it takes a body swapping story to truly astounding places.

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The mystery behind why these teens switch bodies is compelling in itself, but the unlikely romance that forms from it is just so beautiful. Your Name is close to a perfect movie, but there's no reason why an anime series that can flesh out some of its stranger concepts wouldn't also be a huge success.

4 Ride Your Wave’s Unconventional Love Story Feels Perfect For A Series

Anime Ride Your Wave

Ride Your Wave touches on many of the director Masaaki Yuasa’s trademarks, but it's a more mature story that's couched in the concept of grief and loss. A sweet relationship is cut short when Hinako's new boyfriend, Minato, passes away. Hinako is shocked to find a liquid version of her lover come to her aid and the complicated dynamics that follow force Hinako to truly look inward.

An anime series could devote more time to Hinako and Minato's bond before things turn sour and create an even more emotional story.

3 A Silent Voice’s Tender Relationship Can Blossom Even More In A Series

Anime a silent voice 2

There’s a subset of anime movies that are the very worst kind of tearjerkers that tell crushing stories that will reduce any audience to tears. A Silent Voice is such a brutal and effective example of this that stems from the honest place of bullying and misplaced aggression.

Shoya mercilessly picked on Shoko, a deaf girl, back in elementary school and years later he finds himself consumed with guilt and determined to right his past wrongs. A Silent Voice would benefit from more time to tell Shoya and Shoko's story, which would make its highs and lows hit even harder.

2 Earwig And The Witch Has A Structure That’s Perfect For Long-Form Storytelling

Anime Earwig

Earwig and the Witch is directed by Goro Miyazaki, Hayao's son, marking Studio Ghibli's first fully CG effort— and it’s an absolute triumph. The confident animation style reflects the story of a young orphan, Earwig, who's poorly looked after by a bitter witch.

Earwig’s world opens up once she starts to embrace music and magic, all of which helps her mentally escape from her harsh surroundings. Earwig's growth and her melancholy time before she finds herself could become even more compelling through multiple episodes of a series.

1 Demon Slayer’s Mugen Train Could Have Worked As Part Of The Series

demon-slayer-infinity-train-movie

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is one of the biggest anime phenomena in recent years. The anime’s first feature film, Mugen Train, has broken box office records and become Japan’s highest grossing anime film of all time. Mugen Train presents an original story that pits demon slayers against a deadly monster on a locomotive.

Mugen Train is a triumph and the fact that it has a movie budget allows the animation to look better than ever. However, there’s no reason why Mugen Train couldn’t have functioned as the beginning of Demon Slayer’s second season or been its own OVA series.

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