meta: Romance

The latest of Makoto Shinkai's gorgeous films that inevitably end up being about so much less than the sum of their parts

When they talk about "a film for all ages", this Studio Ghibli masterwork about life on the cusp of adolescence must be what they mean

This newly translated novel, the basis for Masaaki Yuasa's madcap movie, is just as wild as its successor, with the advantage of slightly more insight into its female protagonist

A sly treatise on gender roles and presentation, wrapped in a screwball romantic farce and delivered with great affection

Masaaki Yuasa's dizzying mini-epic begins as boy-seeks-girl and ends by circumnavigating entire universes of possibility

What starts as an unlikely (and potentially squicky) romance becomes a more ambitious story about kinship between those with buried dreams

Makoto Shinkai's blockbuster is an eyeful and a heartful, but look closely and you'll see the seams

Masaaki Yuasa's psychedelic masterwork is the 'Joe Vs. The Volcano' of animated films, about daring to snatch life from the jaws of the world

A trifle of a film, but it doesn't overstate its importance or overstay its welcome, and it shows how Studio Ghibli gave as much care to stories like this as they did for any of Miyazaki's fantasias

When the director of 'Mind Game' and the author of 'The Eccentric Family' got together, they created a comedic masterpiece that plays like 'Groundhog Day' fused with both of those visionary projects

Restored to its original psychedelic glory, this mad masterwork from Osamu Tezuka's studio goes from chic porn to feminist parable and everything in between

Lightweight and frivolous as 'Oh My Goddess!' may be, those qualities might well also be what guarantee it can be reissued across the years and find an audience

What could have been a dreary slog through a predictable plotline is instead made sweet, sincere, and unexpectedly thoughtful

With this pre-WWII adventure, Hayao Miyazaki gave audiences young and old both a rollicking romp and a thoughtful drama, both in complement and not conflict

Far more than just a 'romance' or a 'love story', this is a story about becoming worthy of being loved -- and a sprightly, funny story at that

Even while this love story between a human and a robot is sincere and affecting, it's up to the audience to tell if it has one too many twists for its own good

After a wave of successors and deconstructions, the sweetness and directness of one of anime's most-beloved magical-girl shows still holds up

Under the clichéd surface of this lively romantic farce run undercurrents of something smarter and deeper

A gorgeously-designed surface isn't all that's beautiful in this compelling reworking of elements from the classic tale of 'Hakkenden'