Anime shows and movies that selves into spirituality

[Thestarguitarist14]

It is interesting how much anime seem to touch upon spirituality.  But some actually will dive into it.

 

The most spiritual Anime series dives into spirituality is Mushishi.  The star Ginko is pretty much a shaman/healer in ancient Japan.  This feels less like an anime and more like Japanese folklore.  Episodes go from dealing with dreams, to spirits and etc.  Great show.  Slow paced and very spiritual.  Worth a watch.

 

Wolf’s Rain premise is very much in line with Buddhism dealing with past lives and reincarnation.  In this series, worlds are extinct, except for four who transform into humans and are searching for paradise.  I watched this anime when I first got seriously into anime and it was the first anime show that I had to do some serious analysis on.  When I think about it, this show introduced me to enlightenment as their search for “paradise” turned about to be their search for enlightenment.  The score/soundtrack is also amazing, very spiritual, high vibrational music by one of my heroes, Yoko Kanno.

 

The Monogatri series is interesting.  Even though it is obviously in Japan, it is immersed into the occult.  The lead character is half vampire, the lead female is taken by him to an occultist who aided him to exorcise a demon from her.  
 

Full Metal Alchemist is very much intertwined with obviously alchemy (the creator said that she studied alchemy before creating the manga) hermeticism and the occult.  

Mob Psycho 100 is all about psychic abilities as its lead is a kid with extreme telekinesis abilities.

Norgami has all kinds of Eastern spirituality in it.  
 

The Melancholy of Haurhi Suzumiya was actually the first time I ever thought of the idea of me being God.  I was really getting into law of attraction when I watched that show and it really actually help me a little bit looking back.

Ghost Hound (created by the same creator of ghost in the Shell) goes into astral projection.

As far as movies, Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away are obvious.  But Makoto Shinkai’s work really dives into eastern spirituality in a modern way.  His backgrounds alone give you this spiritual vibe.  He is more about love.  Movies like Five Centimeters per second and the Garden of words show this.  But his most famous one, Your name (highest grossing anime film ever) is perhaps his most spiritual in a lot ways as it is really about twin flames.

And obviously, Ghost in the Shell delves into a great deal of different philosophies and spiritual concepts.

Edited October 2, 2020 by Thestarguitarist14

[tsuki]

Even though it's not Japanese, Avatar: the last airbender conveys a lot of wisdom.

[nistake]

Death Note has some great depth to it. Not really spiritual, more like philosophical.

[Verg0]

Great recommendations, thank you! I really love Mushishi 

Here are some great philosophical / spiritual anime:

Barakamon (Peaceful living, life purpose) 

NHK ni Youkoso! (Social anxiety and life as a nerd) 

Casshern Sins (dystopia, what does it mean to be human, what is death) 

Ergo Proxy (what does it mean to be me?)

Monster (Morality, Life and Death, psychology) 

Serial Experiments Lain (ideas about the internet in 1998) 

Texhnolyze (Nihilism) 

Shinsekai yori (Growing up, culture) 

Haibane Renmei (what is heaven, life and death, culture, angels) [more spiritual] 

Kaiba (what is memory, who am I) [more spiritual] 

Ping Pong the Animation (Mastery, life purpose) 

The Tatami Galaxy (is there a perfect life) [very spiritual, just a masterpiece] 

Kino no Tabi (travel, freedom, belief systems) [similar to Mushishi] 

Great movies:

All Satoshi Kon Movies 

Saint☆Oniisan (Movie) 

Tekkon Kinkreet

Tenshi no Tamago

Night is short, walk on girl 

[Max_V]

@Thestarguitarist14 Mushishi is my all time favourite. An absolute piece of art. 

[Thestarguitarist14]

@tsuki I never saw the show, but the style is definitely anime.  Got dragged to the shitty M Night Shalyman move though.

@nistake Death Note is amazing.  The first anime series that I finished as an adult.  The manga is a great read too.  One of the deepest shows out there.

@Verg0 Great list, though a lot of those shows aren’t really spiritual haha.  I forgot to add Ergo Proxy, that is one hell of a series.  

 

Welcome to the NHK was great.  Serial Experiments Lain was wonderfully weird and rather deep.  It predicted social media too.  Monster was one of the first anime shows that I watched as an adult and was amazed by its realism and great storytelling.  I love Shinsekai Yori and that show is criminally underrated.  I have not finished Haibane Renmei, but I dig it.  Kino’s journey is great.  Both versions are top notch.

 

Satoshi Kon’s films were all great.  My favorite of his was Millennium actress.  Paprika, Perfect Blue and Tokyo Godfathers were great too.

I’d recommend if you haven’t seen these shows

Elfen Lied 

Darker Than Black

Your Lie In April

Noir

Gunslinger Girl

Kokoro Connect 

Parastye 

@Max_V It really is a masterpiece.  Such a contemplative show.

 

[EternalForest]

Neon Genesis Evangelion. The final episode was probably one of the most profound spiritual experiences I've ever had. I think about it almost every day.

[RedLine]

On 4/11/2020 at 5:22 PM, EternalForest said:

Neon Genesis Evangelion. The final episode was probably one of the most profound spiritual experiences I've ever had. I think about it almost every day.

It is, by far, the best anime I have ever seen.

 I saw the anime  on tv when I was a kid back in 2003 and it blew my mind, it put me in an existential crisis. I have seen it again a couple of years ago and blow my mind again.

 

Last episode is masterpiece.

 

[Mafortu]

On 11/4/2020 at 8:22 AM, EternalForest said:

Neon Genesis Evangelion. The final episode was probably one of the most profound spiritual experiences I've ever had. I think about it almost every day.

By final episode you mean the The End of Evangelion movie right? If so, yes I would agree, it gets all sorts of weird and powerful.

[Consilience]

Samurai Champloo 

wont seem spiritual at first but if you really contemplate the characters I find it to be quite spiritual. The ending is especially spiritual... although again not in an obvious way.

I also feel that Cowboy Beebop is spiritual as well... it shows the consequences of samsara imo. I doubt the creator had this in mind, but when you make it to the ending and piece together what the show’s been building towards, I find it to be incredibly spiritual. 

[EternalForest]

@Mafortu I used to love the movie ending the most (and don't get me wrong, the movie is great too), but as I've gotten older I've come to see that there's more beauty and meaning for me in the original ending. It just resonates more for me now.

[Shin]

Anime are not (only) for children.

In Japan, Anime are as important as series and movies in the western world.

In the western world we have/had a lot of Shonen (Anime targeted for male teens), so it is very easy to make that conflation, since in the western world, most of cartoons are for children and most series are for adults.

Seinen (anime targeted for male adult) are amazing, and are more consistent than most series, because most of them comes from an author.

So the anime has already an end and a plan to get there from the very beginning, in most cases.

Some series are like that in the west, but most of the time, series are a concept more than a story, and it isn't as satisfying to watch a concept repeating itself rather than a story unfolding towards a climax prepared years before.

Imagine having only Dark, Westworld or The Watchmen as series, that's pretty much how it is, except you have way more room for imagination since it's a "cartoon", it doesn't cost as much money to put robots/dragons or create an entire new fantasy/sci-fi world with crazy art style.

Also anime movies are very very good, everyone knows the Ghibli ones, but movies like Your name or Wolf Children are also quite amazing, 10/10 would cry again

My rant is over, have a good day  

 

 

Edited November 11, 2020 by Shin