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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 113Up 3
#11 in Anime Films
of 14 ranked entries
Millennium Actress
Satoshi Kon · Madhouse · 2001
Kon built a documentary-crew framing device that lets an interviewer physically walk into the memories, and often the actual films, of an aging actress, collapsing seventy years of Japanese cinema history into one seamless, moving chase. Recorded specifics: released 2001, director Satoshi Kon, studio Madhouse. Panel highlighted a structural conceit — walking directly into memory and film history — rarely attempted since, a tribute to Japanese cinema history woven directly into the plot itself and emotionally rich without leaning on melodrama to earn it. The reservation on record is familiarity with classic Japanese film tropes deepens the experience but is not required.
Psychological
Score breakdown
How Millennium Actress earned 77.2
Each criterion is scored independently, then combined using the weights published on Anime Films.
- Direction & animation craftweight 30%
- 77.9
- Emotional & narrative impactweight 30%
- 79.3
- Cultural influenceweight 20%
- 74.4
- Visual innovationweight 20%
- 75.8
On the record
Recorded detail
| Released | 2001 |
|---|---|
| Director | Satoshi Kon |
| Studio | Madhouse |
| Runtime | 1h 27m |
| Rating | 8.7 |
Panel verdict
Strengths and reservations
What it gets right
- A structural conceit — walking directly into memory and film history — rarely attempted since
- A tribute to Japanese cinema history woven directly into the plot itself
- Emotionally rich without leaning on melodrama to earn it
Where it gives ground
- Familiarity with classic Japanese film tropes deepens the experience but is not required
1 appearance
Where this entry ranks
From the same list
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Hayao Miyazaki · Studio Ghibli · 2001
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90.6/100 Top 49 score—No change
Rank 05Princess Mononoke
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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.
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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.