The definition of ashort film is technically anything with a runtime of 40 minutes or less, but it’s generally thought that any feature too short to be a full-length movie is also a “short film.” Anime is often connected with experimental or unconventional types of movies and has plenty to offer in this genre.
There’s no shortage of anime that fit this category. Even the earliest days of anime included a selection of short films in an impressive variety, and it’s difficult to choose the best. Compilations of anime shorts under a single title or labeled as OVA are also a common way to find anime shorts, and there are plenty of hidden gems to enjoy.
Updated July 12, 2025, by Kristy Ambrose:Anime short films don’t always make it into the mainstream market, with the top-sellersoften serialized adaptations of popular mangaor video games, only viewed by select audiences in venues like film festivals or comic book conventions. Even though there’s a wide variety of short films, they aren’t easy to find and get more circulation when they’re part of anthologies or larger IPs like Bladerunner and The Matrix.
12Labyrinth Labyrinthos
The First Of The Neo Tokyo Anthology
The Japanese title, “Labyrinth Tales,” better describes the nature and design of this short film. The maze in this instance is the mind of a little girl who is playing hide and seek with her cat, who is aptly named Cicerone. Her visions include a deadly auto race and a nation too dependent on technology.
The film premiered to a favorable reception at the Tōkyō International Fantastic Film Festival the same year as its release. It’s stood the test of time, and was rated #10 in Paste magazine’s “100 best anime movies of all-time” list in 2021, and has since inspired a whole library of dystopian science fiction and experimental movies.
11The House Of Small Cubes
A Unique Animation Style
If it’s difficult to find information about this short movie under the English name, try the French one,La Maison en Petits Cubes. The film has won no less than seven awards, including the 2009 Oscar for Best Short Film at the Academy Awards, and it has a unique art style and prescient story.
The main character is an older gentleman, the last of his family it seems, and he lives in a house where the lower levels are filled with water. One day, he drops his favorite pipe into the lower floors, and his journey to find it takes him through the older parts of the house, even to the ground floor, which existed before the flooding began. The plot not only tells the story of his past but what happened to the world as water covered more and more of it.
10The Sensualist
A Different Kind Of Erotica
The Sensualistis essentially a sexual biography of the protagonist that starts in his childhood and follows him into maturity and his adult years. The film is often viewed as a piece of erotic art or experimental anime, as opposed to pornography or “hentai.” It has some introspective moments that overlapinto life, aging, and physical beauty.
The movie is based on a book by Kōshoku Ichidai Otoko called “The Life of an Amorous Man.” It was published in 1682, during the Edo Period, and the animation uses the historic setting to create a sensual and opulent environment. It’s more about watching the rich colorful layers of the kimonos move than the actual sex, which is always expressed to the viewer symbolically.
9Mon Mon The Water Spider
A Short Story With A Small Hero
Also known by its Japanese title, Mizugumo Monmon, this is a charming story about a water spider that falls in love with a beautiful but dangerous water strider. The object of Mon Mon’s affection lives in a whole different world above the surface of the water, which is partly why he’s so fascinated with her.
The short film is 50 minutes long and is based on a story idea from Hayao Miyazaki that was originally about a caterpillar. It’s one of theshort films that fans can see atthe Studio Ghibli theme park in Japan.
8Program
Episode 5 Of The Animatrix
Programis one of the short films that make upThe Animatrixanthology. It does stand alone, but makes more sense when viewed in the context ofThe Matrixuniverse. The animation is unique, modern, and designed to look like a heightened form of reality. It uses few colors and relies instead on its creative premise, as a program in the Matrix.
Unlike other stories in this franchise, the viewer is always aware that the action is taking place in a simulation, but the nature of that simulation is unclear until the very last moments. The plot is a callback to the original movie in which the traitor is among them and “the call is coming from inside the ship” so to speak.
7Cat Soup
Abstract Animated Comedy/Horror
This “experimental film” is iconic for its unsettling animation style and overall design. It starts witha young anthropomorphic catalmost drowning in a bathtub and gets even weirder and more terrifying from there.
The main character, Nyata, is the near-drowning victim who has to travel through a terrifying and surreal wonderland of sorts to retrieve the other half of his sister Nyaako’s soul. Their adventures aren’t exactly colorful and childlike fun, but they are interesting. For anime fans who like the more daring and creative,Cat Soupis a great anime short film.
6Inaka Isha (A Country Doctor)
A Different Kind Of Literary Adaptation
An artistic interpretation ofA Country Doctorby Franz Kafka, the film crams as much tragic surrealism as possible into 21 minutes. This is a dark and somber story about the daily and often unrealistic burdens placed on doctors.
The film uses a horror-fantasy aesthetic, but the message is one of realism, finally culminating in loss and disappointment. It won several awards, such as the 2007 Grand Prize at the Ottawa International Animation Festival. However, because of the subject matter and short run time, not many anime fans know about it.
5The Garden Of Words
Profound And Visually Stunning
Viewers can findThe Garden Of Wordsunder search terms like “piano music” “ambient rain sounds” and “shoe design” along with some of the top-rated anime of its time. The same year it was released, it was honored at the Stuttgart Animated Film Festival and the Fantasia International Film Festival and won the Kobe Theatrical Film Award.
The plot is a simple “slice of life” type of story. The main character is Takao Akizuki, who skips what seems like his pointless classes to sit in a garden pavilion and make shoes. A young woman with an equally ambivalent attitude about her job joins him, and together they overcome their fears about life, which is symbolized by “learning to walk again.”
4Blade Runner: Black Out 2022
A Prequel To Bladerunner 2049
Most people are under the impression that there are two moviesin theBlade Runnerfranchise, but there are five of them. Three are also short films that fill in the lore between the movies, and one of those is the animated featureBlack Out 2022.
This anime short film tells the story of the Blackout, an incident that is referenced in the full-length movie when the power was lost and everyone’s electronic records were wiped clean. The event is referenced several times inBladerunner 2049and takes place ten years before the full-length live-action movie. The director is Shinichiro Watanabe, whose other work includesCowboy BebopandMacross Plus.
3Someone’s Gaze
A Coming-Of-Age Story
It’s a simple plot about a common family dynamic told through the eyes of the old housecat Mii, who keeps Dad company while daughter Aya is working or living in her new apartment and Mom is working overseas. Flashbacks show how circumstances and time bring the family together, draw them apart, but then bring them together again.
The movie is also entitledDareka no Manazashiand has plenty of both happy and sad moments, as every family does. The two main ideas in the story are the bonds of family and the future, universal themes that virtually every human being experiences. The profound emotional moments makeSomeone’s Gazea real tearjerker, so watch it with a friend and have some tissues handy.
