Spirited Away (2001) is the kind of movie that ruins other movies for you. You watch it, you process it, you cry at “Always With Me” during the credits, and then nothing else looks quite the same for a while.
If you’re trying to chase that specific feeling — the magic, the coming-of-age weight, the sense of stepping into a world that operates by older rules — here are 17 anime that come closest. Some are Miyazaki. Some aren’t. All of them earned a spot on this list by being genuinely worth your time.
How this list is ordered: Roughly by how closely each one captures the Spirited Away feeling. Miyazaki films at the top because of course. Then Shinkai, Hosoda, and other directors working in adjacent emotional territory.
Howl’s Moving Castle
If Spirited Away is your favorite film, Howl’s Moving Castle is your next watch. Same director (Miyazaki). Similar themes (young woman trapped in a magical situation, slowly discovering her own strength). Same emotional weight. The walking castle alone is one of the most iconic locations in any anime film. Christian Bale and Emily Mortimer’s English dub performances are both genuinely lovely.
Sophie aging into an old woman as the curse strips her of her youth, then slowly regaining her young self as she finds her confidence, is one of the great visual metaphors in animation. It’s the kind of storytelling Miyazaki does effortlessly and that almost nobody else even attempts.
My Neighbor Totoro
I cannot believe the original article skipped Totoro. My Neighbor Totoro (1988) is essentially the gentler, smaller-scale version of Spirited Away — two young sisters move to the countryside and encounter the friendly forest spirits living there. The titular Totoro is one of the most iconic characters in all of animation. The Catbus is unforgettable. The film is short, sweet, and absolutely essential for anyone who loved Spirited Away.
Princess Mononoke
Miyazaki’s most ambitious, most violent, most environmentally serious film. Set in feudal Japan during the rise of industrial metalworking, Princess Mononoke is about the war between human progress and the ancient spirits of the forest. San (the wolf-raised “Princess”) and Ashitaka (the cursed prince) are two of his greatest characters.
It’s heavier than Spirited Away. The body count is real. But the worldbuilding, the spiritual underpinning, and the sheer ambition of the animation make it essential.
Kiki’s Delivery Service
The closest thematic cousin to Spirited Away in Miyazaki’s catalog. Kiki is a young witch who, by tradition, has to live independently for a year. She lands in a coastal town, starts a delivery service with her broom, and grows up. The journey is quiet, deliberate, and emotionally devastating in the gentlest possible way.
Kiki’s brief loss of her flying abilities (a slump anyone who has ever felt creatively blocked will recognize) is one of the truest depictions of artistic burnout in any film, animated or otherwise.
Castle in the Sky
The first official Studio Ghibli film (1986). Sheeta and Pazu’s adventure to find the floating castle of Laputa is the original Miyazaki adventure template — everything that came after (Howl’s, Spirited Away, the whole house style) traces back here.
The Joe Hisaishi score is one of his best. The flying sequences are iconic. If you’ve watched Spirited Away and want to go backward through Miyazaki’s catalog, this is where you end up.
Suzume
The 2022 must-watch: Makoto Shinkai’s Suzume is the closest spiritual successor to Spirited Away that’s been released in the last decade. A teenage girl crosses Japan closing magical doors that, when left open, unleash catastrophic earthquakes. The film explicitly engages with the 2011 Tōhoku disaster (in a way that’s beautiful, not exploitative) and treats coming-of-age as inseparable from confronting national trauma. It became Shinkai’s biggest hit and is now considered alongside Your Name and Weathering With You as his major works.
Your Name (Kimi no Na wa)
Makoto Shinkai’s 2016 mega-hit. Two teenagers from completely different parts of Japan inexplicably start swapping bodies. What starts as a body-swap comedy turns into one of the most devastating love stories in modern anime, with one of the best surprise emotional gut-punches you’ll ever encounter.
If Spirited Away taught you that anime can be art, Your Name reminded you that anime can break your heart. Both essential lessons.
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
Mamoru Hosoda’s breakout film (2006). Makoto, a normal high school girl, discovers she can leap backward through time. She does what any teenager would do: uses it to fix minor social problems and avoid awkward situations. Then she realizes the consequences.
The film is a perfect 90-minute character piece. It introduced Hosoda as a major director and remains one of his best works.
The Cat Returns
The original article literally mentioned this film in its intro and then didn’t include it in the list. Fixing that. The Cat Returns (2002) is the Ghibli film about a young girl who saves a cat prince’s life and gets dragged into the Cat Kingdom, where she’s expected to marry him. It’s lighter than Spirited Away, but the “girl pulled into a magical world she didn’t ask to enter” parallel is direct.
The Baron, who returns from Whisper of the Heart, is one of the great Ghibli supporting characters.
Violet Evergarden
Kyoto Animation’s most devastating series. Violet is a former child soldier, now working as a “Auto Memory Doll” — essentially a letter writer for hire — as she tries to understand what her late commanding officer meant when he said “I love you.” Each episode is a self-contained emotional disaster.
Why this fits: Violet Evergarden isn’t a magical fantasy like Spirited Away, but it shares the same focus on a young woman discovering her humanity through encountering other people’s stories. The 2020 film is genuinely one of the best animated films of the 2020s.
Mushishi
The most meditative anime ever made. Ginko, a “Mushi master,” travels feudal-era Japan documenting and assisting people affected by “Mushi” — ancient spirit-creatures that exist alongside humans but operate by older rules. Each episode is a self-contained folktale.
If you loved the spirit-world rules of Spirited Away and want to live in that aesthetic for 50+ episodes, Mushishi is your home. Slow, beautiful, philosophical, and one of the great underappreciated anime of all time.
Wolf Children
Another Mamoru Hosoda film I’m adding because it absolutely belongs on this list. Hana, a young woman, falls in love with a man who turns out to be the last wolf-man. They have two children — wolf-human hybrids — and then he dies. The rest of the film is Hana raising her wolf children alone in the countryside, watching them grow into different paths.
It’s the saddest film on this list. Bring tissues.
The Boy and the Beast
Hosoda again (he’s basically the only director who consistently lives in the same emotional neighborhood as Miyazaki). A lonely human boy crosses into a parallel world inhabited by beast-people and ends up apprenticed to a gruff bear-warrior named Kumatetsu. The mentor-student arc is one of the best in modern anime.
Mirai
The smallest-scale Hosoda film. Young Kun struggles with the arrival of his baby sister Mirai. A magical garden in his backyard lets him meet versions of his family across time, including an adult version of Mirai. The whole film is essentially a meditation on family bonds across generations.
It’s not Hosoda’s biggest hit, but it’s one of his most personal, and the gentleness of it earns its spot here.
A Whisker Away
Netflix’s 2020 film about Muge, a teenage girl who can transform into a cat to get closer to her crush. The film leans hard into the Ghibli aesthetic without being a Ghibli film. Charming, weird, and genuinely affecting in places.
Children Who Chase Lost Voices
Makoto Shinkai’s 2011 film, often called his “Ghibli homage.” A young girl descends into an underground world to find her lost loved ones. The film leans more openly into fantasy adventure than Shinkai’s later, more grounded works.
For Shinkai completists: This is the closest Shinkai has come to making an actual Miyazaki movie. Some critics felt it was too imitative of Ghibli; others loved it for exactly that reason. Worth watching either way.
Natsume’s Book of Friends
The longest-running anime on this list. Takashi Natsume can see yōkai (Japanese spirits) and has inherited a magical book from his grandmother containing the names of spirits she once bound. He spends the series returning those names to free the yōkai, episode by episode, while building a quiet life with his adoptive family.
If you want a long-form version of the Spirited Away vibe — gentle, episodic, deeply moving — Natsume’s Book of Friends has SEVEN seasons to give you.
Into the Forest of Fireflies’ Light (Hotarubi no Mori e)
A 45-minute film about a young girl who befriends a spirit boy in a magical forest. They can never touch. They meet once a year. The story spans a decade of their lives.
It’s short. It’s devastating. The ending will hit you. If you want a quick emotional gut-punch in the Spirited Away tradition, this is it.
The Ancient Magus’ Bride
Chise Hatori, a young woman with no hope and no family, is sold at a magical auction to Elias, an ancient mage with a goat-skull for a head. He buys her not as a slave but as his future apprentice and bride. The series goes deeper into Celtic and Western folklore than the typical anime, with beautiful Wit Studio animation.
Slow-paced, melancholic, gorgeous to look at. Closer to “weird folklore” than “Ghibli” but earns its spot on the list.
What Makes a Spirited Away-Like Anime?
The key ingredients: A young protagonist (usually female) entering or navigating a world that operates by older or magical rules. A focus on emotional growth over external conflict. A strong sense of place — somewhere specific, with its own history and atmosphere. A blend of folklore, spirituality, and modern life. And usually a Joe Hisaishi-style score that makes you cry without warning.
Almost every film on this list nails at least three of those elements. The best ones nail all of them.
The Miyazaki Files: His Full Catalog
If you’ve made it through this list and you’re hungry for more Miyazaki specifically, his full directed catalog is:
- Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
- Castle in the Sky (1986)
- My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
- Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)
- Porco Rosso (1992)
- Princess Mononoke (1997)
- Spirited Away (2001)
- Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)
- Ponyo (2008)
- The Wind Rises (2013)
- The Boy and the Heron (2023)
The Boy and the Heron (2023) was Miyazaki’s “final” film (he keeps coming out of retirement, so the quotes are doing work). It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2024. If you haven’t seen it yet, that should be your next watch.
Studio Ghibli Beyond Miyazaki
Don’t sleep on the non-Miyazaki Ghibli films. Some of the best:
- Grave of the Fireflies (1988, Isao Takahata) — see my natural disaster anime list
- Whisper of the Heart (1995, Yoshifumi Kondō)
- Pom Poko (1994, Isao Takahata)
- Only Yesterday (1991, Isao Takahata)
- The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013, Isao Takahata)
- When Marnie Was There (2014, Hiromasa Yonebayashi)
- The Secret World of Arrietty (2010, Yonebayashi)
Where to Watch These Anime
As of 2026:
- Max/HBO — the entire Studio Ghibli catalog (Howl’s, Totoro, Mononoke, Kiki’s, Castle in the Sky, The Cat Returns, Boy and the Heron, and more)
- Crunchyroll — most modern anime including Mushishi, Natsume’s Book of Friends, Ancient Magus’ Bride
- Netflix — A Whisker Away, Violet Evergarden, selected Hosoda films
- Theatrical/digital purchase — Suzume, recent Shinkai films
- Hidive — selected catalog including Hotarubi no Mori e
My top three from this list: Howl’s Moving Castle for the closest Miyazaki match, Suzume for the most thematically resonant modern film, and My Neighbor Totoro for when you just need a hug in animated form. All three will absolutely live up to your post-Spirited-Away expectations.
So, what’s the film on this list that you’ve actually been meaning to watch but haven’t yet? For me, it’s The Tale of the Princess Kaguya — I keep saying I’ll watch it and I still haven’t. Maybe this is the year. Tell me which one is on your “watch eventually” pile.
