The Best Anime to Stream on HBO Max

19 Sep at 11:00 Comment Views: 10

Anime offers something for virtually every mood. The latest slate includes Science Saru’s The Ghost in the Shell reboot, the promising adaptation Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia, and Netflix’s Fool Night. Crunchyroll remains the primary home for new and returning anime, while Netflix and Amazon expand their catalogs. HBO Max has a smaller selection, but it offers plenty worth watching.

HBO Max leans heavily toward movies. The service carries nearly every Studio Ghibli film, including Kiki’s Delivery Service, which is getting the live-action treatment, and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Several Makoto Shinkai movies are available, among them Your Name and 5 Centimeters Per Second. Here are nine of the best anime to stream on HBO Max.

9 Angel’s Egg

Still feom Angel's Egg featuring the soldier and the young girl resting by a wall.

Mamoru Oshii, best known for 1995’s Ghost in the Shell and Patlabor 2: The Movie, delivers a singular vision in Angel’s Egg. With sparse dialogue and a story told through lush imagery, Angel’s Egg follows a young girl scavenging for survival in a desolate land. She carries an enormous egg that she protects, believing it will hatch into an angel. The contrast between the hollowed-out city and the fragile hope embodied by the egg lies at the center of Oshii’s masterwork. Angel’s Egg might seem like a simple parable about faith and existence, but its thematic complexity emerges once viewers surrender to its dense symbolism.

8 Lazarus

Lazarus plays like a compilation of the greatest hits from Shinichirō Watanabe’s career, who directed Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo. Set in 2052, this MAPPA anime revolves around Hapna, a miracle drug that eliminates physical and emotional pain. After more than half the population becomes dependent on the drug, its creator Dr. Skinner announces that everyone who took Hapna will die. The Lazarus team forms in response, bringing together agents including Axel, an agile parkour expert. Axel shares the whatever-happens-happens philosophy of Spike Spiegel from Cowboy Bebop. The 13-episode series develops into a gripping mystery propelled by kinetic fight choreography.

7 Perfect Blue

perfect blue movie still: girl screams while underwater in her bathtub

Satoshi Kon fascinated audiences with Millennium Actress, Paranoia Agent, and Paprika. His acclaimed directorial debut, Perfect Blue, dissects celebrity voyeurism and toxic idol culture with searing intensity. When former pop idol Mima decides to pursue acting, the career change destabilizes her public image and her grip on objective reality. Kon manipulates the divide between dreams and reality to create a disorienting experience in which Mima suffers a loss of autonomy. The power of Perfect Blue comes from Kon’s command of animation, which delivers disturbing imagery within a psychological thriller.

6 Children Who Chase Lost Voices

Fans of the magical realism in Makoto Shinkai’s Suzume may enjoy his 2011 fantasy film Children Who Chase Lost Voices. The story follows a lonely young girl named Asuna, who spends her days listening to music through a radio her late father gave her. After a mythical creature attacks her, Asuna is rescued by a boy named Shun, who has traveled from another realm. Shinkai explores grief and the pain of moving forward, themes he tackled in 5 Centimeters Per Second and returned to in The Garden of Words and Weathering With You. Children Who Chase Lost Voices remains hopeful that people like Asuna can find the strength to heal.

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5 Ponyo

The full breadth of the Studio Ghibli experience extends beyond its most famous films like Princess Mononoke and Grave of the Fireflies. Overlooked releases like Pom Poko and The Secret World of Arrietty contain their own wonders. Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo occupies a middle ground. Despite box-office success, it lacks the cultural pull of Spirited Away or My Neighbor Totoro. Ponyo tells the story of an unlikely friendship between a 5-year-old boy named Sosuke and a goldfish named Ponyo, showcasing Miyazaki’s dreamlike imagination.

4 Wolf Children

Mamoru Hosoda’s Wolf Children explores family and self-discovery through Hana, a college student who falls in love with a wolf man. After giving birth to hybrid children named Ame and Yuki, Hana navigates overwhelming challenges when her lover dies. Hosoda’s sincere perspective on parenthood gives the film its distinctive power. The movie portrays human feeling without restraint, resulting in a crafted anime about the inevitability of change.

3 The Colors Within

Science Saru’s The Colors Within is a coming-of-age story, a celebration of adolescent creativity, and a musical. High school student Totsuko perceives people as vibrant colors, an unusual perspective that helps her approach others with emotional depth. She befriends her classmate Kimi and a boy named Rui, and the three form a band. The Colors Within revels in the everyday intimacy of formative friendships as the trio shares their dreams.

2 The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

Mamoru Hosoda’s The Girl Who Leapt Through Time takes an unconventional approach to time travel. Teenager Makoto uses her powers to solve frivolous problems, such as retaking a test or extending a karaoke session. A persistent unease lurks beneath these choices because Makoto cannot time-travel her way around growing up. This is a story about the fleeting nature of youth and the irreversibility of time. Accepting the consequences of her actions becomes an essential part of her growth.

1 The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

A scene from The Tale of The Princess Kaguya drops out the background

Isao Takahata’s The Tale of the Princess Kaguya is an artistic triumph. Takahata reinvents a 10th-century Japanese literary tale through a modern thematic lens. The film tells the story of a doll-like creature that transforms into a human baby after a bamboo cutter discovers her in the forest. The child, named Kaguya, grows with alarming speed, but the joy surrounding her transformation is overwhelmed by patriarchal expectations and the suffering they inflict. The Tale of the Princess Kaguya lays bare the dangers of well-intentioned ignorance and social conventions.

Source: Polygon

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9 Angel’s Egg

8 Lazarus

7 Perfect Blue

6 Children Who Chase Lost Voices

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