Are you a fan of anime like Your Name? The 2016 anime fantasy film by Makoto Shinkai tells the tale of two teenagers who mysteriously start switching bodies.
It is a masterpiece in animation, romance, and humor. It’s no surprise that it won numerous awards and received glowing reviews.
The unique blend of different musical styles adds to the film’s charm. But, once the credits roll, you might find yourself craving more anime like “Your Name.”
Look no further if you’re searching for anime that breaks the mold and offers something unique.
Here are 26 anime movies that every fan of anime like Your Name should watch next.
These anime shows will take you on an emotional roller coaster, defying genre rules and leaving you wanting more.
1. A Silent Voice (2016)
A Silent Voice” is an emotionally powerful anime that explores themes of love, loss, and self-discovery, making it a great anime like Your Name.
The story follows a young boy named Shoya Ishida, who his classmates bully for being deaf.
Years later, he meets Shoko Nishimiya, the girl he bullied, and is determined to make amends for his past actions.
The anime delves deep into the characters’ complex emotions. It also showcases the impact of bullying on both the bully and the victim.
The animation is striking, and the soundtrack is beautiful. “A Silent Voice” is a must-watch anime that will leave a lasting impression on viewers.
It’s an anime like “Your Name” that captures the complexity of human emotions and the impact of our actions on others.
2. The Garden of Words (2013)
Fans of anime like Your Name will love “The Garden of Words” for a straightforward reason: both movies were directed by Makoto Shinkai.
You can tell he worked on it because the colors are just as bright, and the animation is just as smooth.
Most importantly, “The Garden of Words” shows how much Taki and Mitsuha miss each other when time and distance separate them.
Every Shinkai movie has this one thing in common: the director is interested in the things that make people who are attracted to each other different.
Sometimes it’s a real thing standing in the way, and sometimes it’s just a way of thinking.
3. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006)
“The Girl Who Leapt Through Time,” like anime like Your Name, uses magical realism to look at teen love’s most awkward and heartbreaking parts. Makoto, 17 years old, discovers she can jump back in time.
Like any high school student, she uses this ability to eat the last pudding in her family’s fridge.
Soon, Makoto starts using time travel to do everyday things like finish her homework early or get more time at the karaoke machine.
She even uses it to get rid of Chiaki’s love confession to her, her best friend. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time” is one of the few movies that can simultaneously be cute and grown-up.
4. The Place Promised in Our Early Days (2004)
Makoto Shinkai’s first movie was “The Place Promised in Our Early Days.
Even though it’s not quite as good as “Your Name,” the director’s skills are still evident.
Many of Shinkai’s trademarks are there, like how he likes to use a bright light and dark shadows and how he likes to focus on small details in nature.
Like anime like Your Name, this movie is a big mix of sci-fi that makes you think and coming-of-age stories that make you feel.
In a different version of our world, where the Soviet Union controls most of Japan, three high school students named Hiroki, Takuya, and Sayuri are drawn to a mysterious tower.
Years later, strange things happen near the tower that doesn’t make sense. It might be the only way to find Sayuri, but it could also destroy the world.
“The Place Promised in Our Early Days,” like “Your Name,” is about people torn apart by massive forces.
5. Ride Your Wave (2019)
Ride Your Wave” is surprisingly happy for a movie mainly about a sad death.
Hinako is a cheerful surfer with low self-esteem who wants to spend every moment with her boyfriend, Minato. She is the main character of this colorful anime.
But after Minato dies in a terrible boating accident, she is on her own. Minato is dead, but Hinako can call up his spirit from any body of water.
Soon, she becomes so obsessed with being close to Minato that she keeps his heart in a giant inflatable porpoise.
Hinako can’t keep ignoring the truth, though. She needs to find the courage to move on with her life, even if that means leaving Minato behind.
“Ride Your Wave” and anime like Your Name has a lot in common, like a bothersome little sister who turns out to be an essential ally and a bad thing that the two main characters must work together to stop.
6. I Want to Eat Your Pancreas (2018)
Even though the title might make you think otherwise, “I Want to Eat Your Pancreas” is about death.
Haruki is an outcast in high school, but he becomes friends with Sakura, who has pancreatic cancer and is dying.
But if you looked at her, you wouldn’t know it. Sakura is determined to keep her positive attitude despite her illness, and she soon gets Haruki to help her cross things off her bucket list.
In a brilliant switch, the character who is dying is happy and upbeat, while the character who is still healthy is unfortunate.
Even though they know Sakura’s death is coming, they are still shocked when it does.
Also, like anime like Your Name, this movie makes you deeply think about death without making you feel too sad about it.
7. When Marnie Was There (2014)
“When Marnie Was There” doesn’t get as much attention as Studio Ghibli’s other films.
It makes sense because it’s not as exciting as “Spirited Away” or “Howl’s Moving Castle.”
But there’s no doubt that this movie stays true to the Ghibli style of beautiful animation, emotional music, and a story that will make your heart melt.
After Anna has an asthma attack, she is taken to a small town in Japan for the summer.
Soon, she becomes friends with a strange girl named Marnie. As Anna gets to know Marnie better, she starts to wonder if her new friend, who is also her only friend, is too good to be true.
“When Marnie Was There” is a lot like anime like Your Name in that it starts with a simple idea that turns out to be a complicated emotional mess.
8. Tokyo Godfathers (2003)
In anime like Your Name, it isn’t said why Taki and Mitsuha’s bodies start switching. It doesn’t have to.
This strange coincidence is much more enjoyable when it stays a secret. In “Tokyo Godfathers,” there are a lot of coincidences, but they are all very different.
This movie is about three homeless people in Tokyo: Hana, a transgender woman who has always wanted a child; Gin, a former pro cyclist who lost his job because of a gambling problem; and Miyuki, a teenager who ran away from home.
On Christmas Eve, they find a baby alone in a trash can. Hana, Gin, and Miyuki went out into the night to find Hana’s parents.
But each member of this strange family has to face their past before they can get the little girl back to her family.
Incredible and heartbreaking, “Tokyo Godfathers” is a work of magical realism (though the “magic” part might not be as overt as it is in “Your Name”).
9. Mirai (2018)
4-year-old who acts up, Kun is envious of Mirai, his little sister, until he meets Mirai from the future.
Soon, he gets caught up in a strange (and surprisingly moving) time-travel adventure that takes him far away from home and teaches him much about his family.
“Mirai” will be familiar to anyone with kids or a younger sibling. Kun forgets to pick up his toys, has temper tantrums, and hides in his closet, where he says he’s leaving his family for good.
It’s worth noting that the climax of “Mirai” is probably the only time in a movie where the hero has to decide what color pants to wear.
This might not have much in common with anime like Your Name. But like “Spirited Away,” “Mirai” is full of strange, dreamlike images, including a train that is just as scary as the one in “Spirited Away.”
10. 5 Centimeters per Second (2007)
In “5 Centimeters per Second,” childhood friends Takaki and Akari slowly drift apart even though they are in love.
Ultimately, they decide to see each other one last time, but a late train and a snowstorm make it hard for them to get together.
“5 Centimeters per Second” is a Makoto Shinkai movie, as you might have guessed.
Themes of longing and being apart? Check. Carefully planned shots lit with blinding light? Check again.
In anime like Your Name, the only way Mitsuha and Taki get to each other is by train. Their get-together starts when they see each other from two cars going by.
In “5 Centimeters per Second,” on the other hand, the train separates the two main characters. Can they go back over that distance?
11. Lu Over the Wall (2017)
Since “Lu Over the Wall” is about a boy who meets a mermaid, it’s easy to think of it as just another “Ponyo.”
But director Masaaki Yuasa gives the classic trope his fun, creative, and unique twist.
Kai grew up in a Japanese fishing town, and all he wants is to leave his dull life behind and become a musician.
Lu, a mermaid whose fins turn into feet when she hears music, likes to listen to him sing.
It’s impossible not to enjoy the fun spirit of this movie: The swivel-chair races, the mer-dogs, and the cutest animated dancing you’ve ever seen are some of the best parts. But it’s not all nonsense.
“Lu Over the Wall” is similar to anime like Your Name in that it shows what it’s like to want to leave your small, boring town, which turns out to be the place you’d do anything to protect.
12. Paprika (2006)
If you think the dreamlike images in anime like Your Name are powerful, you should see “Paprika,” which is a crazy, trippy mess.
In this beautiful movie, Paprika, Atsuko’s red-haired alter ego, works as a scientist making a device that will let her enter other people’s dreams.
When a dream terrorist steals this dangerous technology, Atsuko must work with a detective and the device’s creator to find the thief. But things get more complicated when their dreams start to come true.
“Paprika” is psychedelic, and happy about it. People’s faces melt, they turn into mermaids, Paprika jumps through their TV screens, and their legs turn into squid tentacles. But this thriller isn’t just about style; it also has a lot to say.
The way our main character switches between her real-world self and her dream-world self brings up interesting philosophical questions, just like when Taki and Mitsuha switch bodies.
13. The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013)
A simple person named Miyatsuko, who cuts bamboo, finds a baby inside a glowing bamboo shoot one day.
She becomes their daughter when he and his wife call her “princess.” Miyatsuko wants the best for his daughter, so when she grows up and becomes Princess Kaguya, he takes her to the city and gives her a lot of money.
But in reality, she was happy in the mountains and is now sad in her golden cage.
Do you remember the part in anime like Your Name where Taki goes back in time and sees Mitsuha as a child?
Imagine a movie with those moments’ strong emotions, beautiful sights, and ethereal music.
Then you can get a feel for “The Tale of the Princess Kaguya,” though seeing it yourself is highly recommended.
14. Wolf Children (2012)
After her werewolf partner dies, Hana, an average human, is left to care for their half-wolf children, Yuki and Ame, on her own.
It turns out that being a single mom with kids who have claws and fangs makes every day hard.
Hana is apprehensive about sending the kids to school for the first time, and when they get sick, she can’t decide whether to take them to the hospital or the vet. “Wolf Children” is a bright delight with a soft style and a focus on the everyday.
Similar to anime like Your Name, some of the most beautiful scenes combine hand-drawn characters with computer-generated backgrounds.
It also has a haunting score that will get under your skin and glimpses of the beautiful countryside of Japan that might be even more beautiful than the pretty town of Itomori.
15. A Silent Voice (2016)
“A Silent Voice” is the only anime movie that comes close to ending on the same kind of sad note that anime like Your Name does. “A Silent Voice” is also about a relationship, but like “Your Name,” it is much more than just a love story.
When Shoya was younger, he picked on Shoko, a deaf classmate. Now that she is a teenager, Shoya is an outcast who is tormented by guilt and picked on by others.
He decides it’s not too late to make up with Shoko, and to everyone’s surprise, including his own, he reaches out to be friends.
But he soon finds out that that won’t be enough to fix the damage he has caused. “A Silent Voice” creates a beautiful soundscape with swelling music and eerie silence at the correct times.
16. Only Yesterday (1991)
Polygon says it took until 2016 for this Studio Ghibli classic to get an English dub, but the wait was worth it. “Only Yesterday” is a sweet love story in a beautiful rural setting. Fans of “Your Name” will recognize this plot.
But our main character, Taeko, who is 27 years old, is a unique grown woman. She doesn’t go to a spa or stay home to relax on her vacation. Instead, she goes to a farm to harvest safflower.
Along the way, she meets the charming Toshio and thinks back to things from her childhood that she can’t seem to forget.
The movie “Only Yesterday” does not move quickly but is never dull. It ultimately holds my attention.
Similar to anime like Your Name, the tone goes from funny to sad, like when young Taeko practices for weeks so she can say just one line in a school play (like when she recalls a boy she teased once in school and never saw again).
17. A Whisker Away (2020)
Young Miyo’s classmates think she is loud and sure of herself, especially when she makes awkward moves on Hinode, the boy she likes. But she’s secretly not sure of herself.
So, when a mysterious merchant gives her a magical mask that can turn her into a cat, Miyo takes advantage of the chance. As a stray cat, she has a new way to get close to Hinode.
“A Whisker Away” is a teen romance similar to anime like Your Name,” but it has a magical twist that lets the main character see the private life of the person they like.
The tone of the movie is good. One of the things that makes “Your Name” so impressive is that it is one of the rare anime films that successfully balances epic scale with intimate storytelling.
18. The Disappearance Of Haruhi Suzumiya (2010)
Haruhi Suzumiya is one of the most influential anime characters ever made.
She is a teenage girl who can subconsciously change space and time. Her friends know she is almost like a god, but she doesn’t.
So, they work around the clock to stop her from destroying the world. Most of this is covered in the movie “The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya,” which, to be fair, is pretty important to see before “The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya.”
The mood of this movie is very different from the series. The second one has crazy, over-the-top plots, while the first one is more realistic and takes the time to make people care about the characters.
This makes it sadder than “The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.” It also means that fans of anime like Your Name will love it.
19. Patema Inverted (2013)
In anime like Your Name, Taki and Mitsuha live in two different worlds.” Taki likes how busy downtown Tokyo is, but Mitsuha lives in a quiet rural town and has never been to a café.
In “Patema Inverted,” the romantic leads come from very different backgrounds, but the differences are much more significant.
Patema and her clan have the wrong way around. Her family tells her she will die if she leaves their underground home.
On the surface, where Eiji lives, everyone warns him not to trust “inverts” like Patema. The two collaborate to help both sides overcome their prejudices.
Along the way, they learn a shocking truth about both worlds. Unlike many of the movies on this list, it has a lot of creative action scenes that will make you feel dizzy.
20. Weathering with You (2019)
In anime like Your Name, Taki and Mitsuha try to save everyone from a comet, even though they will likely forget each other forever.
They would choose the world if they had to choose between the world and their relationship.
On the other hand, “Weathering with You” goes in a different direction.
This movie looks at what it means to put others before yourself. Hodaka is a teenager who ran away from home and ended up in Tokyo.
He is having trouble making it on his own until he meets Hina, a girl who can make a rainy day bright and sunny. But there’s a catch: every time she does it, she loses a part of herself.
They decide to sell this power, but they get too busy and need help from social services.
The places they walk through are just as beautiful as the ones in “Your Name,” right down to the bright colors and shiny surfaces.
21. Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms (2018)
“Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms” and “Your Name” might not seem to have anything in common at first.
But similar to anime like Your Name, this one uses magic to talk about something everyone can relate to the pain of watching your kids grow up.
Iorphs are a type of race, and Maquia is one. Her life span is much longer than a human’s, so her Iorph friends tell her not to fall in love with a human.
But when something terrible happens, Maquia can’t help but take in an orphaned baby named Ariel.
Soon, she discovers how hard it can be to raise a child, significantly since she doesn’t age and Ariel grow up too fast.
22. Whisper of the Heart (1995)
What makes “Whisper of the Heart” so great is that the romance is at the heart of the story, but each of the main characters also has time to grow as a person.
When Seiji goes to Italy to learn how to make violins, Shizuku is determined to show him how good she is by finishing her novel before he returns.
Like anime like Your Name, this movie shows two teens in a long-distance relationship in a nuanced way.
When the lovers aren’t together, and each tries to figure out who they are without their other half, some of the best parts of both movies happen.
23. The Light of a Firefly Forest
Don’t let the short length of this movie fool you. It has a lot to offer in just 44 minutes. In “The Light of a Firefly Forest,” a girl named Hotaru falls in love with a spirit named Gin, who always wears a mask.
Gin stays the same as the years go by and Hotaru gets older. Soon, Hotaru finds out that if Gin ever touches a human, he will vanish forever.
“The Light of a Firefly Forest” is nostalgic and dreamlike. It makes people care deeply about its characters in less than an hour.
This movie’s short length makes the feelings stronger and almost makes you wish more films were shorter.
It’s also a good choice for people who like anime like Your Name because it’s a forbidden love story where magic brings the two main characters together but also keeps them apart.
24. Summer Wars (2009)
While Taki and Mitsuha have to deal with the awkwardness of switching bodies, the hero of “Summer Wars” deals with something just as awkward.
Natsuki, a high school student, pays math genius Kenji to act as her fiancé so that her great-grandmother will be happy.
Soon, his family takes him on a trip, where his nosy relatives bother him. Kenji feels worse about this because he likes Natsuki, but things worsen.
He doesn’t mean to, but he lets a sentient computer virus into Oz, a virtual reality network that society depends on.
Kenji and Natsuki must work together to figure out how to stop the virus and save the wonderful world of Oz before the damage done in the virtual world starts to hurt people in the real world.
“Summer Wars, similar to anime like Your Name, has a great mix of emotional stories and gorgeously animated action.
25. Children of the Sea (2019)
The fact that “Your Name” doesn’t make much sense is one of the things that makes it so unique.
There’s no logical reason why Taki from the present meets Mitsuha from the past on the crater’s edge, but you don’t need one.
The most important thing about this moment is how it makes you feel. The same thing happens in “Children of the Sea”:
When CBR asked CGI director Kenichiro Akimoto about the movie’s ending, he said, “It’s more about what you feel than what your brain can understand.”
The ending of “Children of the Sea” is so psychedelic that it’s hard to believe. This art show is not just pretty; it also has a strong message.
“Children of the Sea,” like anime like Your Name, has a lot to say about how everything on Earth is connected. It even has a comet that is important to the story.
26. Napping Princess (2017)
Taki and Mitsuha wake up from a dream they can’t remember, feeling only a little longing.
Of course, these aren’t dreams. These are the things they did when they switched bodies.
If the blurry line between dreams and reality in “Your Name” is interesting, you might want to watch “Napping Princess,” which is also a suspenseful anime where visions play a significant role.
Kokone, whose father works as an auto mechanic in Tokyo, doesn’t just dream.
She dreams of going to a world where pirates and talking stuffed animals live when she sleeps. In many surprising ways, this world is like her real life.
When Kokone’s father is arrested for stealing confidential technology information, she realizes that she may have to rely on her imagination if she ever wants to clear his name.
Similarly to anime like Your Name, “Napping Princess” mixes 2D and 3D animation.
Conclusion
In conclusion, “Your name” is a must-watch anime film that has captured the hearts of audiences worldwide.
Its unique storyline, stunning animation, and relatable characters make it stand out in anime.
If you’re a fan of anime like your name and are looking for similar anime to watch, you can check out “The Garden of Words,” “5 Centimeters Only yesterday,” and “Mirai.”
These anime films also explore love, loss, and self-discovery themes and are guaranteed to leave a lasting impression.
Overall, “Your Name” is a timeless classic that will continue to be enjoyed by anime fans for years.
