The best Sumi Shimamoto’s fantasy movies

Ashitaka, a prince of the disappearing Emishi people, is cursed by a demonized boar god and must journey to the west to find a cure. Along the way, he encounters San, a young human woman fighting to protect the forest, and Lady Eboshi, who is trying to destroy it. Ashitaka must find a way to bring balance to this conflict.

Two sisters move to the country with their father in order to be closer to their hospitalized mother, and discover the surrounding trees are inhabited by Totoros, magical spirits of the forest. When the youngest runs away from home, the older sister seeks help from the spirits to find her.

The summer of his high school freshman year, Hodaka runs away from his remote island home to Tokyo, and quickly finds himself pushed to his financial and personal limits. The weather is unusually gloomy and rainy every day, as if taking its cue from his life. After many days of solitude, he finally finds work as a freelance writer for a mysterious occult magazine. Then, one day, Hodaka meets Hina on a busy street corner. This bright and strong-willed girl possesses a strange and wonderful ability: the power to stop the rain and clear the sky.

After a global war, the seaside kingdom known as the Valley of the Wind remains one of the last strongholds on Earth untouched by a poisonous jungle and the powerful insects that guard it. Led by the courageous Princess Nausicaä, the people of the Valley engage in an epic struggle to restore the bond between humanity and Earth.

The film centers on Asuna, a young girl who spends her solitary days listening to the mysterious music emanating from the crystal radio she received from her late father as a memento. One day while walking home she is attacked by a fearsome monster and saved mysterious boy named Shun. However, Shun disappears and Asuna embarks on a journey of adventure to the land of Agartha with her teacher Mr. Morisaki to meet a Shun again. Through her journey she comes to know the cruelty and beauty of the world, as well as loss.

The third film finds Ataru transformed into a pink hippopotamus, which sends Lum chasing after the wicked magician responsible, with catastrophic results. With Lum gone, her friends decide that there is no reason to remain, and so Tomobiki slowly returns to normal. The highlight of the film is a high speed chase scene with an angry Lum flying after the mysterious Ruu through the city at night and into a hall of mirrors (and illusion ). Ataru's true feelings for Lum are probably more obvious in this film than any of the others.

The movie of Natsume's Book of Friends series. Natsume has been busy, navigating between humans and Yokai when he coincidentally reunites with an old classmate, Yuki. It brings back painful memories of a certain Yokai. Meanwhile, Natsume also became acquainted with Yorie Tsumura, a woman in the memories of a Yokai whose name he had returned. Yorie knew much about Reiko, but now lived a peaceful life with her only son, Mukuo. Being with this family was comforting for Natsume, but apparently a mysterious Yokai has been lurking in their town. On the way back from investigating, a "Yokai seed" that had latched itself to Nyanko Sensei drops into the Fujiwaras' garden and grows overnight into a fruit tree. When Nyanko Sensei eats a fruit that is somehow shaped like himself, he suddenly splits into three!

The basic plot is centered on the great cherry tree Tarōzakura and what happens after it is cut down during the making of a movie, Lum loses her horns-and her powers! Thus begins the strangest and most lyrical of the Urusei Yatsura movies. The fourth film is the subject of much debate, as it is probably the hardest of all the Urusei Yatsura films to fully understand. Many consider it to be a multi-layered masterpiece, while others feel it is little more than a confused and rambling mess.

A massive gas explosion in modern-day Tokyo throws 17-year-old Suzuko back in time — 500 years into the past and into a death-strewn battlefield. Rescued from lecherous bandits by the young warrior Shukumaru, Suzuko struggles to untangle the time lines. Slowly she begins to understand the strange force that has exiled her, and how it relates to her own mysterious past. Shukumaru and Suzuko tackle mystery, tragedy and disaster as time unravels amidst the roaring flames of past and present.

17 year-old Sayako Amanokawa aspires to become a journalist, just like Kanemoto, an elite newspaper writer she looks up to. But Kanemoto, shamed from an erroneous report about a corruption scandal, jumps in front of a train and commits suicide. Since that incident, Sayako suddenly becomes able to see spirits and almost loses her life. However, from that near-fatal incident she experiences something extraordinary. The journalist inside her stirred, she embarks to find out about the truth. But the forces that stand in her way turn out to be much formidable than she ever imagined. [from AnimeNewsNetwork]

Anpanman and the mermaid princess. Princess Sunny accidentally awakes the stone monster Gorongora. Can Anpanman save her underwater world?

Natsumi Rokudou, a spunky 10 year old girl from Japan receives a strange statue from her dad who's an archaeologist. Little does Natsumi know that the statue houses Ongo, a terrible monster bent on world conquest. In a dream, a strange old man named Ahem warns Natsumi of Ongo's return, and gives her a necklace and tells her to do a sexually suggestive dance that will protect her from peril. Once Natsumi awakens, she finds Ongo on her bed...who's not too threatening looking. But now whenever danger rears it's ugly head, Natsumi must swallow her modesty, and do the embarrassing dance to transform into Mii, the large breasted flower spirit of New Guinea's past.