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Preview data: all rankings, scores, votes, refresh labels, methodology, testing and editorial-process statements in Top 49 are illustrative demo content, not live measurements or documented reviews.
Rank 12—No change
#12 in Anime Films
of 14 ranked entries
A Silent Voice
Naoko Yamada · Kyoto Animation · 2016
Yamada adapted a manga about childhood bullying and its lasting cost without softening the protagonist’s own guilt into easy redemption, letting long silences and averted eye contact do work most anime hands to dialogue. Recorded specifics: released 2016, director Naoko Yamada, studio Kyoto Animation. Panel highlighted visual language — averted eyes, framing — used to convey guilt and isolation, handles bullying and disability with real specificity rather than as plot devices and a redemption arc that resists easy, unearned forgiveness. The reservation on record is the subject matter is heavy enough that it demands the right moment to watch.
Coming-of-ageSlice of life
Score breakdown
How A Silent Voice earned 75.8
Each criterion is scored independently, then combined using the weights published on Anime Films.
- Direction & animation craftweight 30%
- 73.2
- Emotional & narrative impactweight 30%
- 78.2
- Cultural influenceweight 20%
- 76.8
- Visual innovationweight 20%
- 75.3
On the record
Recorded detail
| Released | 2016 |
|---|---|
| Director | Naoko Yamada |
| Studio | Kyoto Animation |
| Runtime | 2h 10m |
| Rating | 8.6 |
Panel verdict
Strengths and reservations
What it gets right
- Visual language — averted eyes, framing — used to convey guilt and isolation
- Handles bullying and disability with real specificity rather than as plot devices
- A redemption arc that resists easy, unearned forgiveness
Where it gives ground
- The subject matter is heavy enough that it demands the right moment to watch
1 appearance
Where this entry ranks
From the same list
Ranked alongside it
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Hayao Miyazaki · Studio Ghibli · 2001
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Rank 02Editor’s pickGrave of the Fireflies
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Takahata opens by telling you both children die, then spends the rest of the film making that outcome unbearable anyway — a war film with almost no interest in battle scenes, only their aftermath on two siblings nobody is coming to save.
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Rank 03Editor’s pickAkira
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92.1/100 Top 49 score4Up 4
Rank 04Perfect Blue
Satoshi Kon · Madhouse · 1997
Kon built a psychological thriller about a pop idol losing her grip on reality that deliberately blurs film, fantasy and memory until the audience is as disoriented as its protagonist — Darren Aronofsky has openly credited it as an influence.
90.6/100 Top 49 score—No change
Rank 05Princess Mononoke
Hayao Miyazaki · Studio Ghibli · 1997
Miyazaki refused to write a clean villain into an environmental fable, instead giving the industrial antagonist real, sympathetic reasons for wanting the forest gone, which is exactly what keeps the film’s conflict honest.
88.6/100 Top 49 score1Down 1
Rank 06Your Name
Makoto Shinkai · CoMix Wave Films · 2016
Shinkai built a body-swap romance around painstakingly rendered real Japanese locations, and the film’s late structural swerve into disaster-prevention urgency turned a charming premise into a genuinely moving one.
87.0/100 Top 49 score1Up 1
Rank 07Ghost in the Shell
Mamoru Oshii · 1995
Asks what remains of a person once every part is replaceable, and refuses to land on a comfortable answer. The dialogue-free city sequence is the best four minutes in the genre.
84.5/100 Top 49 score3Up 3
Rank 08My Neighbor Totoro
Hayao Miyazaki · Studio Ghibli · 1988
Miyazaki built a film almost entirely without conflict — two sisters, a sick mother, and a forest spirit who mostly just naps — and the absence of stakes turns out to be exactly the point, and exactly why it has endured as comfort viewing for decades.
82.2/100 Top 49 score2Down 2
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Top 49 rankings are editorial. Scores are produced from the published criteria on each list and are refreshed on the cadence stated there. Figures shown across this section are curated demonstration data.