Anime works have evolved significantly and gained broad global fame, attracting a large audience that cannot be underestimated. Especially since they no longer target a small segment of children, but have become targeted towards all age groups, characterized by depth and addressing important issues taken from our real life. Most of the issues we see in our society, and the purpose of some anime is to send important messages to viewers about what can be imagined and learn lessons from what they see. Some viewers become attached to certain anime characters and act like them, while others become attached to a certain anime feeling like they are part of that anime story or perhaps their story resembles that of the viewer. There are anime that have realistic stories, and anime are categorized just like movies in which real people act. There are fictional, fantasy, horror, historical, action, sports, and more films.
However, comedic anime films have a special and exciting character that plants smiles, relaxes nerves, and gives a sense of satisfaction. In this article within the Top 10 series of articles, we will shed light on 10 anime comedy films that will bring joy to your heart. Japan is considered the best in presenting Japanese comedy anime in the world. The first comedy anime film was released in 1917 for two minutes, telling the story of a samurai warrior trying a new sword that ends in a great and hilarious failure.
Ponyo Anime Film
Ponyo is a Japanese comedy anime film released in 2008, written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Produced by Studio Ghibli for Nippon Television, the film was originally released in Japan on July 19, 2008, distributed by Toho. It achieved great commercial success, grossing over $204 million worldwide and becoming the eighth highest-grossing anime film of all time. The film received critical acclaim for its wonderful themes, visual design, and captivating appeal. An English-language version of the film was released in 2009 and shown throughout the United States, marking the largest opening for a Ghibli studio film in the US. It was produced by Kennedy/Marshall and distributed by Walt Disney Studios.
Fujimoto, a former human sorcerer, lives underwater with his daughter Brunhilde and her younger siblings, who are golden fish-like creatures with human faces. While she and her siblings were on an outing with their father in his four-finned submarine, Brunhilde sneaks off and floats away on the back of a jellyfish. After an encounter with a fishing boat, she becomes trapped in a glass jar and drifts to a small fishing town beach where she is rescued by a five-year-old boy named Sosuke. As the jar breaks with a rock, Sosuke injures his finger. Brunhilde licks his blood, almost instantly healing the wound. Sosuke names her Ponyo and promises to protect her. Ponyo wishes to become a human girl, facing the destructive consequences of gaining and using magic. Meanwhile, the astonished Fujimoto searches for his missing daughter, believing she has been kidnapped. Summoning his wave spirits to retrieve her, exciting events unfold.
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time Anime Film
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is a Japanese science fiction anime film from 2006 produced by Madhouse, directed by Mamoru Hosoda, and written by Satoko Okudera. The film is based on a 1967 novel of the same name by Yasutaka Tsutsui. The English version was licensed and produced by Kadokawa Pictures USA, dubbed by Ocean Productions, and released by Bandai Entertainment in 2008 and re-released by Funimation in 2016.
At Kuranose High School in Tokyo, Japan, a teenage girl student named Makoto Konno discovers a message written on the blackboard that leads her to accidentally fall onto a walnut-shaped object. Everything seems natural as Makoto Konno leaves school and goes to the Tokyo National Museum to meet her aunt Kazuko Yoshiyama, but on the way, her brakes fail and she collides with an oncoming train. However, she finds herself back in time when she was riding the bike just before the accident happened. She rushes to the National Museum where her aunt is waiting for her and tells her everything that happened. Makoto Konno realizes she now has the ability to “leap through time,” to travel through time. She initially uses her powers to avoid being late, achieve perfect grades, avoid unfortunate incidents, and relive some events for enjoyment. But she soon discovers that her actions can negatively impact others.
Summer Wars Anime Film
Summer Wars is a Japanese science fiction animated film from 2009 directed by Mamoru Hosoda, produced by Madhouse, and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. The film follows high school math prodigy Kenji Koiso in his eleventh grade at Kuonji High School, and a part-time moderator in the massive virtual reality computer world known as OZ, along with his friend Takashi Sakuma. One day, twelfth-grade student Natsuki Shinohara takes Kenji Koiso, who has a crush on her, to the city of Ueda to celebrate her grandmother Sakae Jinnouchi’s 90th birthday. Natsuki Shinohara introduces her friend Kenji Koiso to the family as her fiancé, and he is given a simple problem to solve, which turns out to involve Kenji, who inadvertently hacks into an artificial intelligence program called Love Machine. A virtual intelligence tasked with hacking infrastructure causing significant damage that Kenji Koiso must repair and find a way to prevent the rogue computer program from causing more chaos.
Summer Wars was first released in Japan in 2009, grossing over a million dollars in the opening weekend in 127 theaters, ranking seventh at the box office. The film received critical and public acclaim and achieved great financial success, grossing $18 million worldwide. It won several awards, such as the Japanese Academy Award for Animation in 2010, the Grand Prize for Animation at the Japan Media Arts Festival in 2010, the Audience Award at the Anaheim International Film Festival for Best Animated Film, and was nominated for the 2009 Golden Leopard Award at the Locarno International Film Festival.
Project A-Ko Anime Film
Project A-Ko is a Japanese science fiction action comedy anime film released in 1986. The film revolves around a strange spaceship crash in the city of Graviton, which wiped out all the inhabitants and left a huge crater where the city was rebuilt after 16 years. The film focuses on a cheerful 16-year-old Japanese schoolgirl named A-ko Magami with red hair, possessing superhuman speed and strength. She is mostly concerned about arriving at school on time, due to her chronic habit of oversleeping after turning off the alarm each morning. She defends her favorite friend C-ko Kotobuki, facing their fellow and rival B-ko while the Earth faces the threat of an alien invasion, the three girls fighting these creatures.
Project A-Ko was directed by Katsuhiko Nishijima and Yuji Moriyama directed the animation and character design. The film initially started as part of the original Cream Lemon video animation series but later became its own film, including a variety of references and satirical imitation of several other anime works from the seventies and eighties. The film was well received by critics, who praised its humor and action to a great extent.
Porco Rosso Anime Film
Porco Rosso is a Japanese animated fantasy adventure film released in 1992, written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, based on the 1989 manga Hikotei Jidai. The film was produced by Studio Ghibli for Tokuma Shoten, Japan Airlines, and Nippon Television. It was produced by Toshio Suzuki and distributed by Toho, with music by the Japanese composer Joe Hisaishi. A complementary manga was released in 2011, telling the story of the pig pilot after aging.
The film is set in 1929 and follows former Italian fighter during World War I Porco Rosso, now living as an independent bounty hunter chasing an ocean-going ship called the “Air Pirates” in the Adriatic Sea. He has been cursed in a strange way and his head has turned into a pig’s head, once called Marco Pagot, which means the “Red Pig” in Italian. The film contains a comedic narrative about the conflicts he faces between his confidence and strength as a skilled and creative pilot, and his hatred of war and killing.
In Conclusion… In this article, we discussed the top 5 comedy anime films, where we experienced enjoyable and hilarious moments. There are still more comedy anime films that we will talk about in the upcoming article soon. Until then, I leave you with reading our previous article titled “The 10 Best Comedy Anime of All Time”.
Share your opinions and comments. What are your favorite comedy anime films within the article or outside of it, and what distinguishes them in your opinion?
