We take a closer look at a selection of animated features distinguished by visuals so meticulous, one can’t help but wonder how many hands were involved in bringing them to life. As the animation industry continues to evolve, concerns over intensifying production demands have become more visible. Even so, filmmakers are still turning out works of such astonishing precision that it’s hard to believe they were crafted by human artists at all.
From frame-by-frame articulation and finely tuned color and texture to camera movements that rival live-action filmmaking, these films routinely prompt the same question from audiences: “How is animation like this even possible?”
In the lineup below, Movie Day spotlights the titles that best embody this extreme level of artistic and technical refinement. These aren’t simply beautiful films—they are showcases of concentrated craftsmanship and creative ambition, reaffirming the vast potential and ever-expanding reach of the animated medium.
Explore Movie Day’s curated selections in the list below.
Director: Joaquim Dos Santos and 2 others
Production: Sony Pictures Animation
As ‘Miles Morales’ continues to come into his own as Spider-Man, the reappearance of ‘Gwen’ from another dimension pulls him into a widening rupture across the multiverse. Entangled in a sweeping scheme involving countless Spider-Men from divergent realities, ‘Miles’ is forced to make a choice that pits him directly against the established order of the multiverse in order to protect the people he loves.
Director: Tatsuya Yoshihara
Production: MAPPA
As ‘Denji’, a young boy working as a devil hunter, is driven to the brink of death, a desperate pact with the chainsaw demon dog ‘Pochita’ fuses the two into an unstoppable being known as ‘Chainsaw Man’. Caught in a brutal war involving devils, hunters and shadowy forces with unknown motives, a mysterious girl named ‘Reze’ suddenly steps into ‘Denji’s’ life…
Director: Ayumu Watanabe
Production: STUDIO4°C
On the first day of a long-awaited vacation, ‘Luka’ gets into a fight with a friend and is kicked off the handball team. Seeking comfort, ‘Luka’ heads to the aquarium filled with childhood memories, where he encounters two mysterious sea boys, ‘Umi’ and ‘Sora’.
Director: Michael Arias
Production: STUDIO4°C
‘Kuro’ and ‘Shiro’, a pair of black-and-white feline brothers, prowl the streets of Takara-cho as delinquent guardians who call themselves ‘Tekkon Kinkreet’, enforcing their own brand of order across the city. When a yakuza figure named ‘Kim’ pushes a ruthless redevelopment plan and a mysterious alien known as ‘Ape’ launches an incursion, ‘Shiro’s’ innocence begins to fracture and ‘Kuro’s’ darkness rises to the surface, putting their brotherhood to the ultimate test.
Director: Han Ji-won
Production: Climax Studio, Red Dog Culture House
An animated feature set in a future Korea, the film charts a long-distance romance spanning the farthest reaches of space between astronaut ‘Nanyoung’ and musician ‘Jay’.
Director: Makoto Shinkai
Production: CoMix Wave Films
The fourth original animated work from director Makoto Shinkai, it is a ‘continuous short-form anthology’ composed of three segments.
Director: Makoto Shinkai
Production: CoMix Wave Films
The story follows ‘Takao Akizuki’, a high school student who dreams of becoming a shoemaker, as he encounters a 27-year-old woman named ‘Yukino’ in Shinjuku Gyoen on a series of rainy mornings. What unfolds is an intimate, atmospheric romance that traces the quiet exchange of loneliness, longing and unspoken dreams between the two.
Director: Katsuhiro Otomo and 2 others
Production: STUDIO4°C
An omnibus animated feature comprising three SF shorts — spanning outer space, biohazard catastrophe and futuristic urban landscapes — created with the involvement of ‘Katsuhiro Otomo’.
Director: Katsuhiro Otomo
Production: TMS Entertainment
Set in Neo-Tokyo after the reconstruction that followed the Third World War, this SF action feature tracks ‘Kaneda’, the leader of a biker gang, and his friend ‘Tetsuo’ as they become entangled in a clandestine government experiment on psychic powers — a collision that ultimately awakens the overwhelming force known as ‘Akira’, threatening the fate of the entire city.
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