Anime has become synonymous with the television medium. After decades of practice, it has gotten pretty good at being watched weekly, seasonally, and as part of an unhealthy, college kid's late-night binge. However, as Studio Ghibli, Satoshi Kon, Makoto Shinkai and more have shown throughout the years, there is also plenty of space in the film industry for Japanese animation.
Mainstream franchises, like Dragon Ball, Naruto, and My Hero Academia, have taken advantage of the platform for years, whereas more niche series like Rascal Does Not Dream or the Saga of Tanya the Evil are doing well. With anime series becoming increasingly embraced on the big screen, here are a few standouts that deserved that spotlight but never got it.
10 March Comes in Like a Lion
Starting off this list is an anime with plenty of potential to become the next, big feel-good drama in the wake of The Fault in Our Stars or Love, Simon. However, whereas those movies got by with just writing and performance, March Comes in Like a Lion could outdo them in spades with Studio Shaft's out-of-this-world animation.
Carrying its emotional and thematic weight in great measure within animation, this series could have one of the most memorable and distinct movies out there. With the possibility of a Season 3 still up in the air, creating a film could be a great way to test if the water is still warm and if Shaft should expand its animation empire.
9 Durarara!!
The film industry is congested with movies romanticizing or criticizing life within New York. It has become a theme of its own within film. To shake things up a bit, why not introduce the Japanese equivalent of Gotham City to the world?
Durarara!! is a series to embrace the "thousands of people, thousands of stories" concept that New York films love but with the added benefit of including supernatural creatures and superhumans. As a series that likes to breathe with a variety of different characters, a film doesn't even need to continue the tale of Mikado and co. Ikebukuro itself is the defining character of this series, and anything it does to any one of its citizens is worth a feature-length film of its own.
8 Samurai Champloo
With a director as talented and idiosyncratic as Shinichiro Watanabe, it is surprising that there aren't a whole lot of films under his belt. While he certainly has plenty of variety between action, sci-fi, and drama series, he hasn't exactly made a name for himself on the silver screen. He made quite an impression with his Cowboy Bebop movie and was included in the directors' project that was Genius Party, but that's not a lot.
If there was ever a series of his that deserved to get the theatrical treatment, it would be his other seminal work, Samurai Champloo. Not only would he be bringing a fine entry to the expanding world of samurai film, but he'd also be given the space to tell a realized, engaging arc for a series that seemed all too short when it went by.
7 Kill la Kill
With Trigger finally entering the movie scene with its recent spectacle for the eyes that was Promare, it seems about time that they spread that love to some of its other franchises. And what better one to start with than their landmark series?
Kill la Kill not only helped launch Studio Trigger, its unique visual style and action made it an anime essential within the same mainstream as Dragon Ball or Fullmetal Alchemist. If there was anything that those series had that Kill la Kill didn't, it was feature-length, anime films of their own. To give the series the mainstream credit it deserves, why shouldn't Trigger try and make it a blockbuster success?
6 FLCL
After the wildly mixed receptions of the FLCL sequels, many have become wary of what any additional materials could do the series. However, if there was a medium to not only give the cult classic a great third chance but also even more creative freedom than it had before, it would be film. FLCL already feels out of place as a television series.
It has half the season orders of a regular anime series, and each of its episodes seems more like independent stories and ideas than connected elements to one another. A movie could not only give one of those ideas plenty of space to breathe, but it could also allow for some coherence as an experience held under a singular place.
5 The Devil is a Part-Timer
Some entries on this list are here because they seem like they could be a really good movie. Others are here because the anime adaptation needs a continuation. Then, there's The Devil is a Part-Timer, a more than six-year-old anime that needs a conclusion. Appropriate to its fast-food gimmick, this series left fans hungry for more yet left without so much as a receipt.
With film allowing for some compromise for anime studios, i.e. they don't need to animate a full season or ending if they could just do a 90-minute movie, The Devil is a Part-Timer could finally let anime fans know how Sadao got the demonic promotion he deserved.
4 High School of the Dead
Not only is High School of the Dead within the same hiatus vain as The Devil is a Part-Timer, its roots in B-Movie, zombie culture make it more adept for an indulgent film adaptation. When the anime last left its gun-toting, horny teenagers, they were being prepped for their infamous mall arc.
However, with Madhouse trailing off from doing a Season 2 and the unfortunate passing of its manga writer, Daisuke Sato, the continuation of the anime seemed far off. And while a film could never encapsulate whatever ending he had in mind, it would provide a more proper sendoff for the series, as well as full reigns to do even more sickening, graphic material that even the anime couldn't do.
3 Soul Eater
Long-running Shounens are series that are typically prepped for franchising success. However, as the medium implies, they are quite a commitment. As is evident with Soul Eater, certain compromises have to be made with anime to allow for better closing points when the manga itself is still ongoing.
This, unfortunately, meant an anime-only ending that voided fans of the actual, intended experience. However, as this list tries to make apparent, a film continuation could offer one of the biggest Shounen anime of the modern age a major opportunity to both better follow its story as well as provide its actual conclusion.
2 The Ancient Magus' Bride
The Ancient Magus' Bride, in so many words, is like an anime version of Harry Potter and quite possibly any other YA series within the world. It tells the tragic tale of a girl weathered by a variety of circumstances who is taken in by a mysterious master to be trained (and possibly married) into a beautiful, warm magical world.
It has the kind of stuff that Hollywood thinks teenagers would drool over, and its anime had performances and animation that otaku all around already drool over. If there's still somehow doubt within the studio for making a Season 2, then just know that fans definitely wouldn't mind this puppy hitting theaters, especially if it means not compromising any of its heartfelt material.
1 One-Punch Man
One-Punch Man, with one season alone, became a mainstream success to rival all other modern anime. That includes the resurgence of Dragon Ball and the rise of Attack on Titan and My Hero Academia. With unique, subversive humor and incredible animation and action, this series made a name for itself within the growing world of superhero media.
However, the series would sadly lose all that momentum (and even its high-tier animation) with the arrival of its disappointing Season 2. With studio changes and production restraints clearly showing complications for a variety of anime, then why not protect One-Punch Man's reputation by giving it one really good movie every few years instead of stressing to make just an okay series? Within an already congested industry, fans are showing more interest in quality over quantity.