Japanese short films

5 min · Japanese · Animation · Fantasy

A 2025 Japanese graduation animation: an angel with no memory lands on an island where only one boy can see her, and he starts to cry. Five bittersweet minutes.

9 min · Japanese · Animation

A Kyoto Seika University graduation anime by Shuzuku: in a ruined world, a lonely girl writes down the poems a radio reads each day, and goes looking for the voice.

7 min · Japanese · Animation · Drama · Comedy

A family trade is not the same as a shared identity. Try Go Fishboy for an unusual Japanese-language animation about a father learning how to understand his son.

13 min · Japanese · Animation · Fantasy

Nina Aiiro's first original anime short, with music by Ayase: a girl named Luca asks Nene one unsettling question, what do you want? Twelve dreamlike minutes in Japanese.

4 min · Japanese · Animation · Science fiction · Comedy

Buckle up for a fast trip beyond Earth, as Makina and Chiharu turn a weekend drive into animated interplanetary chaos.

9 min · Japanese · Animation · Drama

Visit a food-filled island with Mogu and Perol. A short stop-motion pick about two friends sharing an appetite for life.

11 min · Japanese · Animation · Comedy · Fantasy

Koji Yamamura's Oscar-nominated animation retells the rakugo tale of a miser who grows a cherry tree on his head. Its makers note it ranked in Annecy's list of 100 films for a century of animation.

5 min · Japanese · Animation · Drama

Makoto Shinkai's self-made 1999 debut, years before Your Name: a cat watches over the young woman he lives with. Five black-and-white minutes about loneliness and small warmth.

9 min · Japanese · Animation · Romance

A student animation from Kyoto Seika University: two high-schoolers decide to be late together and spend a spring morning under the cherry blossoms. Nine dreamy minutes, set to an original song.

28 min · Japanese · Animation

Step into the mysterious world of Alba for an animated adventure following two young people whose paths cross beneath an immense, unsettling structure.

12 min · Japanese · Animation · Fantasy · Drama

Toko Yatabe's Musashino Art University graduation animation: a boy who broke his father's leaf fossil meets a strange boy by the river. A small summer fantasy, with English subtitles.

15 min · Japanese · Drama · Comedy

How much can charm hide? Try this Japanese short for a widow's personal account of a relationship that unsettles her expectations.

17 min · Malayalam · Japanese · Action · Thriller

An assassin's failed job draws his past into the streets of Kochi. Try Whispers of the Lost for an Indo-Japanese action-thriller premise built around a dangerous pursuit.