Top Anime of 1986

Castle in the Sky

天空の城ラピュタ

Sheeta, a girl carrying a mysterious crystal pendant, falls from an airship into the arms of Pazu, a young miner in a mountain town. The pendant holds the key to Laputa, a legendary floating castle built by an ancient civilization. Both the military, led by the calculating agent Muska, and a boisterous crew of sky pirates captained by Dola race to reach it first. Pazu and Sheeta set out to find Laputa before either faction can claim its power.

Great

Movie|1|Summer 1986

FINISHED

Dragon Ball

ドラゴンボール

Action

Shounen

Fantasy

Son Goku, a monkey-tailed boy living alone in the mountains, meets Bulma, a teenage inventor searching for the seven Dragon Balls, mystical orbs that summon a wish-granting dragon when gathered together. Goku owns one as a keepsake from his late grandfather Gohan and agrees to join Bulma's quest, encountering the shape-shifting bandit Yamcha, the lecherous martial-arts master Roshi, and the scheming Emperor Pilaf along the way. Under Roshi's training, Goku enters the World Martial Arts Tournament, where his extraordinary fighting talent begins to reveal a destiny far larger than collecting Dragon Balls.

FINISHED

Urusei Yatsura Movie 4: Lum the Forever

うる星やつら4 ラム・ザ・フォーエバー

Shounen

Fantasy

Supernatural

Mendou invites Ataru Moroboshi, Lum, and their friends to his family estate to watch the filming of an independent movie built around Tarozakura, an ancient cherry tree, with Lum cast in the lead role. When the script calls for the tree to be cut down, the felled trunk dissolves into foam, and Tomobiki starts unraveling around them: a mountain rises out of nowhere, winter descends mid-shoot, and Lum's powers begin slipping away one horn-spark at a time.

FINISHED

Saint Seiya

聖闘士星矢

Action

Shounen

Fantasy

Orphaned Seiya trains at Athena's Sanctuary in Greece and earns the Pegasus Bronze Cloth, returning to Japan as one of the Saints who channel their cosmo to fight in sacred armor. Saori Kido gathers him alongside fellow Bronze Saints Shun, Shiryu, Hyoga, and Ikki for the Galaxian Wars, a tournament staged for the Gold Cloth of Sagittarius. The theft of that Cloth turns the young Saints against a Sanctuary that has stopped serving the goddess they were sworn to protect.

FINISHED

Dragon Ball: Curse of the Blood Rubies

ドラゴンボール神龍の伝説

Action

Shounen

Fantasy

Goku, a monkey-tailed boy with uncommon strength, lives alone in the mountains until the treasure hunter Bulma arrives with her Dragon Radar in search of the seven Dragon Balls. Their paths cross King Gurumes, a ruler cursed into a ravenous monster who is tearing up his own kingdom hunting the same wish-granting orbs to lift his affliction. Joined by the girl Pansy and others, Goku and Bulma race the king's enforcers Pasta and Bongo to gather the balls. This film condenses and reworks the manga's opening Dragon Ball hunt.

FINISHED

Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ

機動戦士ガンダムΖΖ

Action

Sci-Fi

Drama

Junk dealer Judau Ashta lives among the colony scavengers of Shangri-La until he and his friends stumble onto an escape pod carrying a former Titans pilot, along with a mobile suit they plan to sell for quick cash. The find drags them into a Neo Zeon attack, and Judau ends up piloting the machine himself, pulled into the AEUG's fight in the war that follows Zeta Gundam. This direct sequel picks up the Universal Century conflict after the Gryps War, with newcomer Judau replacing Kamille Bidan in the cockpit.

FINISHED

High School! Kimengumi Gekijouban

ハイスクール!奇面組劇場版

Shounen

Comedy

Rei Ichidou and the rest of the Kimengumi, the Funny-face Club of Ichiou High School, return for three new stories on the big screen. First the five fail their exams right before summer vacation and get stuck in supplementary lessons. Next, a mandatory summer school trip takes them to the beach for a swimming competition. Once the new term begins, the school's karate club finds itself threatened by a new opponent. This 50-minute theatrical outing collects the three episodes during the run of the TV series.

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Movie|

FINISHED

Maison Ikkoku

めぞん一刻

Drama

Romance

Seinen

Yusaku Godai, a broke ronin studying for university entrance exams, is ready to flee the rowdy Maison Ikkoku boarding house and its meddling tenants when Kyoko Otonashi arrives as its new live-in manager. He falls for her on the spot and decides to stay, only to learn that the gentle Kyoko is a young widow still grieving her late husband. Around the two, residents like the voyeur Yotsuya, the brazen Akemi and the gossiping Mrs. Ichinose keep their slow-burn romance off balance.

FINISHED

Fist of the North Star: The Movie

北斗の拳

Action

Sci-Fi

Shounen

In the wasteland left by nuclear war, Kenshiro searches for Yuria, the woman he loved before she was taken by Shin, a former ally of the Hokuto Shinken school turned warlord. Marked by the seven scars across his chest, Kenshiro cuts through Shin's fighters and crosses paths with his own estranged brother Raoh along the way, each step bringing him closer to a reckoning with the man who took Yuria from him. This 1986 film condenses the manga's opening arc into a single feature: Shin's betrayal, Jagi's scheming, and Kenshiro's first clash with Raoh.

#10

FINISHED

Doraemon: Nobita and the Steel Troops

ドラえもんのび太と鉄人兵団

Kids & Family

Action

Sci-Fi

Sulking over a friend's fancier toy robot, Nobita Nobi ends up at the North Pole, where he digs a heavy mechanical orb out of the snow. He and Doraemon set it loose in a mirror world, and the robot parts it calls down from the sky are assembled into a giant machine Nobita names Zanda Cross. The android girl Riruru arrives to reclaim it, and Nobita, Doraemon, Shizuka Minamoto, Suneo Honekawa, and Takeshi Gouda learn that the machine is a weapon meant to spearhead a mechanical army's invasion of Earth.

#11

FINISHED

Violence Jack: Slumking

バイオレンスジャック〜ハーレム・ボンバー編〜

Action

Drama

Horror

After the Kanto Hell Earthquake levels the metropolis, the warlord called the Slum King runs what is left of it by seizing women and trading them. Mari is crossing the ruins looking for Ken, the man she loves, when the Slum King's people take her. Ken has already joined their ranks, and the price the King sets on her release is the killing of Violence Jack, the giant drifter who walks the wasteland with a knife. This OVA adapts a stretch of the Violence Jack manga.

#12

FINISHED

Phoenix: Karma Chapter

火の鳥鳳凰編

Fantasy

Drama

Akanemaru, a young carver chasing the Phoenix's image for his masterwork, is attacked in eighth-century Nara by the one-armed bandit Gao, who robs him and maims the arm he carves with. Their paths cross again years later as court favor and artistic rivalry pit the two men against each other, each shaped by what the other took from him. The film adapts the Karma chapter of the Phoenix manga as a standalone story about ambition, guilt and rebirth.

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Movie|

Top 250

Top 250

Castle in the Sky

Dragon Ball

Urusei Yatsura Movie 4: Lum the Forever

Saint Seiya

Dragon Ball: Curse of the Blood Rubies

Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ

High School! Kimengumi Gekijouban

Maison Ikkoku

Fist of the North Star: The Movie

Doraemon: Nobita and the Steel Troops

Violence Jack: Slumking

Phoenix: Karma Chapter