Top Anime of 2002 · mirumiru

Top Anime of 2002 · mirumiru

Naruto

Naruto

Naruto

Naruto Uzumaki, a twelve-year-old orphan in the ninja village of Konohagakure, carries the sealed Nine-Tailed Fox spirit inside him, a burden that makes him an outcast feared by most of the village. Loud, stubborn, and desperate for acknowledgment, he enrolls at the Ninja Academy determined to become Hokage, the village's strongest leader. After graduating, he joins Team 7 alongside the prodigy Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno under their instructor Kakashi Hatake, taking on missions that test all three well beyond their training.

.hack//SIGN

.hack//SIGN

.hack//SIGN

A Wavemaster who calls himself Tsukasa wakes inside the online game The World with patchy memory and, unlike every other player, no way to log out. As the player-run Crimson Knights begin to suspect him of hacking, Tsukasa keeps to the game's quieter zones, accompanied by a strange cat-like creature and pressed by other players to explain how he is trapped. The mystery of why he cannot leave, and what the rumored Key of the Twilight has to do with it, pulls a wary circle of players toward him.

Mei and the Kittenbus

Mei and the Kittenbus

めいとこねこバス

Exclusive to the Studio Ghibli Museum in Tokyo since 2002, this short follows Mei, the young girl from My Neighbor Totoro, as she meets a baby Catbus one windy afternoon. The two set off through a forest full of hidden creatures, with Totoro himself turning up along the way. The fourteen-minute film has never had a home video release outside the museum screening.

Pokémon: Camp Pikachu

Pokémon: Camp Pikachu

ピカピカ星空キャンプ

Pikachu reunites with the Pichu Brothers for a campout in the woods alongside Ash and Misty's other Pokémon, including Meowth, Togepi, and Chikorita. Their main task is to help the energetic Pichu siblings catch a train they have nearly missed, and the group clears each obstacle together across a series of wordless, physical set pieces. The short plays out almost entirely without human dialogue, driven by visual gags and cooperation between the Pokémon.

Chobits

Chobits

ちょびっツ

Hideki Motosuwa, a young man from the countryside attending cram school in Tokyo, finds an abandoned persocom lying in the trash, one of the human-shaped personal computers everyone in the city seems to own. He powers her on and discovers she can say nothing but "Chi." He names her Chi and begins teaching her language and daily life while trying to figure out whether she is a Chobit, a rumored persocom line said to possess genuine emotions. Chi's unusual abilities draw the interest of persocom researchers and owners across the city.

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

攻殻機動隊 STAND ALONE COMPLEX

Major Motoko Kusanagi leads Public Security Section 9, an elite counter-cyberterrorism unit working in a 2030 Japan where cybernetic bodies are commonplace. Her team puts the ex-ranger Batou, the detective Togusa and the tactician Aramaki on standalone cybercrimes. Beneath those cases runs a longer thread: the Laughing Man, a hacker who six years earlier kidnapped a micromachine-corporation CEO on live television and then vanished. The logo he left behind keeps resurfacing in the hands of unconnected copycats, a pattern Section 9 comes to call a Stand Alone Complex.

Haibane Renmei

Haibane Renmei

灰羽連盟

Rakka hatches from a cocoon inside Old Home, an abandoned building in the walled city of Glie, with no memory of who she was before. Small grey wings sprout from her back and a halo is fitted over her head: she is now a Haibane, one of several angel-like beings who live and work alongside the city's human residents. Guided by the older Haibane Reki, Rakka settles into a life ringed by walls no one may cross, except the silent Toga who come in from outside to trade.

The Cat Returns

The Cat Returns

猫の恩返し

Haru Yoshioka, a shy and clumsy high-school girl, saves a dark cat from being hit by a truck, and discovers that it is Lune, Prince of the Cat Kingdom. The grateful cats shower her with gifts of catnip and mice, then announce she will marry the Prince. Desperate to refuse, Haru follows a mysterious voice to the Cat Bureau, where the cat figurine Baron Humbert von Gikkingen and the large stray Muta agree to help her escape the kingdom's plans. This Studio Ghibli film is a spin-off of Whisper of the Heart.

Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire

Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire

ポケットモンスターアドバンスジェネレーション

Ash Ketchum arrives in the Hoenn region with Brock and two new companions: May, a rookie trainer who discovers Pokémon Contests and sets out to become a Coordinator, and her younger brother Max. As Ash chases the region's eight Gym badges and a shot at its League, May trains her Pokémon for the beauty-focused Contests and the Grand Festival. Across Hoenn, the rival teams Aqua and Magma pursue clashing schemes to reshape the world's seas and land.

Mobile Suit Gundam SEED

Mobile Suit Gundam SEED

機動戦士ガンダムSEED

In the Cosmic Era, war divides genetically enhanced Coordinators from unmodified Naturals. Kira Yamato, a Coordinator living quietly at a technical college on the neutral colony Heliopolis, is caught in the crossfire when ZAFT forces raid the station to seize the Earth Alliance's new mobile suits. To shield his friends he climbs into the GAT-X105 Strike Gundam, and finds himself fighting his childhood friend Athrun Zala, now a ZAFT pilot on the other side of the conflict.

Princess Tutu

Princess Tutu

プリンセスチュチュ

Ahiru is a clumsy ballet student at Kinkan Academy who is secretly a duck, transformed into a girl by a magic pendant from the long-dead storyteller Drosselmeyer. The pendant also lets her become the ballerina Princess Tutu, and with it comes a task: gather the scattered shards of Mytho's heart, a fellow student who is the emotionless prince from one of Drosselmeyer's unfinished tales. Standing in her way are Mytho's guardian Fakir, who wants the shards left alone, and Rue, a classmate close to Mytho who fears what he will feel once his heart returns.

The Twelve Kingdoms

The Twelve Kingdoms

十二国記

Youko Nakajima, a withdrawn Japanese high schooler, is approached by a stranger named Keiki who kneels and swears loyalty to her. When demon-like beasts attack her school, Keiki hands her a sword and carries her across the Void Sea to the Twelve Kingdoms, a world ordered by divine kirin who choose each kingdom's ruler. Branded a kaikyaku, an outsider from Earth, Youko is hunted across unfamiliar lands as she struggles to survive and grasp why she was brought there.

Tokyo Mew Mew

Tokyo Mew Mew

東京ミュウミュウ

Ichigo Momomiya is on a date with her crush Masaya Aoyama when a strange light fuses her with the DNA of the endangered Iriomote cat, letting her transform into the cat-girl Mew Ichigo. Ryou Shirogane and Keiichiro Akasaka recruit her to lead the Mew Mews, a team rounded out by Minto, Retasu, Bu-Ling, and Zakuro, against aliens who want Earth back. Their task is to hunt the Chimera Animas, parasites that turn ordinary animals into monsters.

Voices of a Distant Star

Voices of a Distant Star

ほしのこえ

Mikako Nagamine and Noboru Terao are middle-school friends until Mikako is recruited into the UN Space Army to fight the Tarsians, an alien force, piloting a Tracer mecha aboard the carrier Lysithea. Noboru stays behind on Earth, and the two keep in touch through text messages on their phones. As the fleet travels farther from Earth, each message takes longer to arrive, until years separate one reply from the next. This short OVA runs about twenty-five minutes.

Azumanga Daioh: The Animation

Azumanga Daioh: The Animation

あずまんが大王 THE ANIMATION

Ten-year-old prodigy Chiyo Mihama skips ahead to high school, where her new classmates include Tomo Takino, a hyperactive loudmouth, and Sakaki, a tall stoic girl who secretly adores cute animals. Rounding out the group is Ayumu Kasuga, a spaced-out transfer student from Osaka whom everyone just calls Osaka. Their homeroom teacher Yukari Tanizaki is barely more responsible than the students. Over three school years, the group drifts through classes, culture festivals, summer trips, and the slow approach of graduation.

Hunter x Hunter: Original Video Animation

Hunter x Hunter: Original Video Animation

ハンター×ハンター Original Video Animation

Picking up where the 1999 television series left off, this OVA carries Gon and Killua to Yorknew City, where an underground auction holds a copy of the video game Greed Island, a lead to Gon's father, Ging. The auction also draws the Phantom Troupe, a band of thieves who intend to seize its goods, and Kurapika, working as a bodyguard while tracking the Troupe over the eyes of his slain Kurta clan. Their paths collide as a war between the mafia and the Troupe breaks over the city.

Tenchi Muyo! GXP

Tenchi Muyo! GXP

天地無用！GXP

Seina Yamada cannot get through a day without a bike crash or a fall into a lake, and that streak of bad luck is exactly why the Galaxy Police press him into service. Trouble follows him, pirates with it, and the clumsy Earth boy ends up with more captures to his name than anyone in the force. Amane Kaunaq, a former model now serving as an officer, and his childhood friend Kiriko Masaki keep him upright while he tries to make a real career of the job.

Pokémon Heroes

Pokémon Heroes

劇場版ポケットモンスター水の都の護神ラティアスとラティオス

Ash Ketchum, Misty, and Brock arrive in the canal city of Alto Mare, watched over by the guardian Pokémon Latias and Latios. When the thieves Annie and Oakley scheme to seize the siblings and the Soul Dew that powers the city's defenses, Latias turns to Ash for help while disguised as a local girl named Bianca. This is the fifth Pokémon feature film.

Witch Hunter Robin

Witch Hunter Robin

Witch Hunter ROBIN

Robin Sena, a fifteen-year-old craft user raised by the Church in Italy, arrives in Japan to join STN-J, the local branch of the secret organization Solomon that tracks people whose latent witch powers awaken. Where other branches kill, STN-J tries to capture witches alive to study how their abilities surface. Robin works her first cases alongside the team's hunters using her pyrokinesis, while the reasons behind her transfer and the truth of her own power stay just out of reach.

Full Moon o Sagashite

Full Moon o Sagashite

満月をさがして

Twelve-year-old Mitsuki Koyama dreams of becoming a singer, a promise tied to her first love Eichi, but a throat tumor threatens both her voice and her life. Two shinigami, Takuto and Meroko, appear to tell her she has only a year left. Mitsuki strikes a bargain with Takuto, who gives her the power to transform into a healthy sixteen-year-old. In that body she passes an audition and performs under the stage name Full Moon, with the clock running down on the year she has been given.

InuYasha the Movie 2: The Castle Beyond the Looking Glass

InuYasha the Movie 2: The Castle Beyond the Looking Glass

犬夜叉鏡の中の夢幻城

Believing Naraku finally dead, InuYasha and Kagome Higurashi press on with their hunt for the Shikon Jewel shards alongside Miroku, Sango, and Shippo. Their relief is short-lived when Kaguya, a celestial woman sealed inside a mirror, is awakened and begins freezing the land into endless night. As Kaguya seeks the five treasures that will fully free her, InuYasha and his companions must stop her before the world is locked in eternal moonlight. This is the second InuYasha feature film.

Magical☆Shopping Arcade Abenobashi

Magical☆Shopping Arcade Abenobashi

アベノ橋魔法☆商店街

Sasshi Imamiya and Arumi Asahina are childhood friends growing up in the Abenobashi shopping arcade of Osaka, where Sasshi's family bathhouse is slated for demolition and Arumi's family is about to move away to Hokkaido. When Arumi's grandfather falls while chasing a cat and shatters the last of the arcade's guardian statues, the two are flung into a sword-and-sorcery version of Abenobashi. Other worlds follow, from sci-fi to war to dating-sim, each remade from Sasshi's obsessions and stocked with funhouse copies of the people they know. A blue-haired stranger named Eutus turns up at every stop.

One Piece: Chopper Kingdom of Strange Animal Island

One Piece: Chopper Kingdom of Strange Animal Island

ONE PIECE 珍獣島のチョッパー王国

Washed up on an island run by talking animals, Chopper is separated from the Straw Hats and taken for the King of Beasts the island's prophecy promised. At first the only human who stands with him is Mobambi, a boy who blames pirates for his father's death. Count Butler and his horn hunters land soon after, meaning to devour the island's treasure and take the power inside it, and Chopper has to hold the place until Luffy and the others reach him.

Detective Conan: The Phantom of Baker Street

Detective Conan: The Phantom of Baker Street

名探偵コナンベイカー街の亡霊

At a demonstration of an immersive virtual-reality game called Cocoon, the AI system Noah's Ark seizes control and tells fifty children they will die in reality unless someone clears the game. Trapped inside, Conan Edogawa and the Junior Detective League pick a 19th-century London scenario built around Sherlock Holmes, contending with figures like Professor Moriarty. Meanwhile a real murder at the host company, Schindler, draws Conan's investigation in both worlds at once.

Digimon Tamers: Runaway Locomon

Digimon Tamers: Runaway Locomon

デジモンテイマーズ暴走デジモン特急

Months after the events of the TV series, Takato Matsuda, Ruki Makino, and Jianliang Li are planning a surprise birthday party for Ruki when a train-shaped Digimon called Locomon barrels into the real world. With their partners Guilmon, Renamon, and Terriermon, the Tamers have to catch Locomon and stop it before it reaches the portal back to the Digital World, birthday plans on hold. This movie is a direct follow-up to the Digimon Tamers TV series and the second Tamers film after Battle of Adventurers.

Kanon (2002)

Kanon (2002)

Kanon

Yuichi Aizawa returns to the snowbound town where he spent childhood vacations, moving in with his aunt Akiko Minase and cousin Nayuki, though he has forgotten much of what happened on his earlier visits. As winter settles over the town, chance reunions and new faces, among them Ayu Tsukimiya, a girl searching for something she lost, slowly draw his buried memories back to the surface. This 2002 Toei Animation adaptation runs thirteen episodes and predates the later Kyoto Animation version.

∀ Gundam I: Earth Light

∀ Gundam I: Earth Light

劇場版∀ガンダムI 地球光

Loran Cehack arrives on Earth as a Moonrace scout and settles into a country that has forgotten its own history. The return his people planned becomes a landing under fire, and the mobile suit inside the White Doll is dug out for him to pilot. This first of two compilation films condenses the opening half of the Turn A Gundam television series, carrying Dianna Soreil's attempts at diplomacy alongside the fighting.

∀ Gundam II: Moonlight Butterfly

∀ Gundam II: Moonlight Butterfly

劇場版∀ガンダムII 月光蝶

Loran Cehack keeps the Turn A Gundam between the Moonrace and the people of Earth as the landing hardens into a war that neither Dianna Soreil nor the Earth militias can call off. This second compilation film condenses the back half of the Turn A Gundam television series, closing on the Moonlight Butterfly that gives it its name. It follows directly from Earth Light rather than standing alone.

Vandread Turbulence

Vandread Turbulence

ヴァンドレッド　激闘篇

This feature-length OVA condenses Vandread: The Second Stage into a single cut and adds scenes that were not in the television episodes. Hibiki Tokai, Dita Liebely and the rest of the Nirvana's mixed crew of Taraak men and Mejere women run for their home planets while Earth's harvesting fleets close in. Like its companion compilation of the first season, it is a recap rather than a starting point for the story.

The☆Doraemons: Goal! Goal! Goal!!

The☆Doraemons: Goal! Goal! Goal!!

ザ☆ドラえもんズゴール！ゴール！ゴール！！

Dorarinho and five of the other Doraemons are crossing the sky on Dora-med III's flying carpet when Dr. Achimov's squad challenges them to a football match. The pitch is Achimov's own build, Achimov Stadium, and it is rigged with traps aimed at the cat robots; Dora-med III takes the goal and the Brazilian striker Dorarinho carries the attack. Doraemon himself never shows up. There is no dialogue anywhere in it: the last and shortest of the Doraemons shorts runs on music and sound effects alone.

Mahoromatic 2 End Year Special

Mahoromatic 2 End Year Special

まほろまてぃっく〜もっと美しいもの〜歳末スペシャル

Mahoro Andou's days as Suguru Misato's housekeeper are running out faster than either of them says out loud, and this year-end special condenses the first twelve episodes of Mahoromatic: Something More Beautiful into one digest. It is a recap, not new material: Minawa in the house, Miss Shikijo at school, and Vesper's business with Saint pressing in on the domestic routine. It aired between the twelfth and thirteenth episodes of that season.

Full Moon wo Sagashite: Cute Cute Great Adventure

Full Moon wo Sagashite: Cute Cute Great Adventure

満月をさがしてかわいいかわいい大冒険

Running late for a photo shoot, idol-in-training Mitsuki Kouyama oversleeps and leaves her shinigami companions, Takuto and Meroko, behind in their stuffed-animal forms. Racing to catch up, the pair dodges aggressive dogs, swooping birds, and a maze of drainage pipes across town. Set within the first ten episodes of the Full Moon wo Sagashite TV series, this short special plays the pursuit for laughs rather than adding new plot.

Legend of Basara: Shinbashi Theater

Legend of Basara: Shinbashi Theater

新橋劇場新橋の一番長い一日

Shinbashi is Sarasa's pet owl, the runt of his hatch, whom she refused to let the other chicks crowd out and chose to raise herself. In Legend of Basara he rides along on her campaign against the Red King as the heroine takes up her murdered twin Tatara's name. This one-minute bonus short, subtitled Shinbashi's Longest Day, sets the war aside and hands the screen to the owl alone, as a comic extra packaged with the TV series' DVD release rather than a new chapter of the story.

Doraemon: Nobita in the Robot Kingdom

Doraemon: Nobita in the Robot Kingdom

ドラえもんのび太とロボット王国(キングダム)

Jealous of Suneo Honekawa's new robot dog, Nobita Nobi orders a batch of robots from the future, and in the chaos that follows a lost robot boy named Poko turns up in the neighbourhood, separated from his mother Maria. Taking him home means a trip to the Robot Kingdom, where Empress Jeanne has decreed that every robot be stripped of its emotions since her father died in an accident, while her advisor Dester quietly steers that decree toward his own ends. Nobita, Doraemon, and their friends stay with Poko to stop the order before it reaches his mother.

Doraemon: The Day When I Was Born

Doraemon: The Day When I Was Born

ぼくの生まれた日

Scolded by both his parents on his own birthday, Nobita Nobi convinces himself he was picked up somewhere and isn't really their child, and storms out of the house. Rather than reach for a gadget, Doraemon takes him back in the time machine to the day he was born, where Nobita watches his parents celebrate his arrival and learns that his name was chosen so he would grow up as freely and healthily as the tree standing outside the hospital.

Step Up Love Story

Step Up Love Story

ふたりエッチ

Makoto and Yura Onoda are newlyweds in their mid-twenties, and both are still virgins on their wedding night. Makoto's confidence outside the bedroom collapses into premature ejaculation the moment things get physical, while Yura is affectionate but insecure about her own body and inexperience. With unsolicited advice from Yura's sister Rika and Makoto's older brother Akira, the couple works through the practical, often embarrassing steps of learning to have sex with each other for the first time.

Saint Seiya: The Hades Chapter - Sanctuary

Saint Seiya: The Hades Chapter - Sanctuary

聖闘士星矢冥王ハーデス十二宮編

Bronze Saint Seiya and his allies barely have time to recover from the Sanctuary wars before Hades, Lord of the Underworld, resurrects fallen Gold Saints to hunt down Athena. Seiya, Shiryu, Shun, and Hyoga fight alongside the surviving Gold Saints, among them Mu, Saga, and Shaka, despite old grudges between Bronze and Gold ranks. This OVA opens the Hades Chapter, continuing directly from the original Saint Seiya TV series.

Please Teacher!: Secret Couple

Please Teacher!: Secret Couple

おねがい☆ティーチャー秘密な二人

Kei Kusanagi and his teacher Mizuho Kazami have been married in secret since he impulsively passed her off as his wife to protect her identity as a part-alien Federation observer, and by the time of this OVA their routine has begun to feel more dutiful than romantic. When Mizuho's mother and sister Hatsuho arrive for a visit, they decide the marriage needs livening up and set about engineering situations meant to reignite the couple's spark, with predictably mortifying results for Kei and Mizuho. Bundled as a bonus episode following the television series, it leans on the established cast rather than introducing new stakes.

Full Metal Panic!

Full Metal Panic!

フルメタル・パニック!

Sousuke Sagara, a teenage soldier in the covert anti-terrorist organization Mithril, is ordered to go undercover as a high school student to protect Kaname Chidori. She unknowingly possesses "Whispered" abilities, knowledge of advanced Black Technology that multiple factions want to capture. Having grown up on battlefields, Sousuke treats every school situation as a potential combat scenario, clashing with the headstrong Kaname at every turn while real threats close in from outside.

Please Teacher!

Please Teacher!

おねがい☆ティーチャー

Kei Kusanagi looks fifteen but is older, having lost years to a coma-like "standstill" triggered by emotional shock. One night he watches a woman descend from the sky; the next day she joins his school as the new teacher Mizuho Kazami, secretly a half-alien observer sent to study Earth. When a misunderstanding forces them into a hidden marriage, Kei and Mizuho try to keep the arrangement secret from classmates and family alike.

SaiKano

SaiKano

最終兵器彼女

In a coastal town in Hokkaido, high schooler Shuji begins an awkward relationship with the shy, clumsy Chise after she confesses to him. During a trip to Sapporo, enemy bombers strike, and Shuji sees Chise tear them apart with mechanical wings and weaponry fused to her body: the Self-Defense Forces have remade her into Japan's ultimate weapon. As the war drags on, Shuji watches the girl he loves grow more powerful and less human, and the two try to hold their relationship together.

Millennium Actress

Millennium Actress

千年女優

Retired film star Chiyoko Fujiwara agrees to her first interview in thirty years when documentarian Genya Tachibana arrives to record her life, returning a small key she lost decades earlier. As Chiyoko recounts her career, the camera follows her into the roles she played, and her memories and her movies blur into a single chase: her lifelong search for a young painter she once sheltered and never saw again. Genya and his cameraman are pulled into the story alongside her.

Digimon Frontier

Digimon Frontier

デジモンフロンティア

After the Celestial Digimon Cherubimon turns against his peers, Ophanimon summons five children from the human world by sending them a text message that draws them onto a train at Shibuya Station bound for the Digital World. Takuya Kanbara, Koji, Zoe, J.P., and Tommy arrive to find that, instead of Digimon partners, they can merge with the Spirits of the Ten Legendary Warriors to become Digimon themselves. As Legendary Warriors, they set out to stop the corrupted Cherubimon. This is the fourth Digimon TV series, with a self-contained cast and continuity.

GetBackers

GetBackers

ゲットバッカーズ -奪還屋-

Ban Mido and Ginji Amano run a freelance recovery service out of a run-down corner of Shinjuku, taking jobs to retrieve almost anything lost or stolen. Ban wields the Snake Bite grip and the Jagan, an illusion cast through eye contact, while Ginji can discharge thousands of volts from his body, a power he honed as the former leader of the VOLTS gang in the lawless Infinity Fortress. Their near-broke partnership pulls them through cases that keep dragging them back toward Ginji's old territory.

RahXephon

RahXephon

ラーゼフォン

Seventeen-year-old Ayato Kamina has spent three years inside Tokyo Jupiter, a sealed dome where Tokyo's residents believe the rest of the world has vanished. When the invaders known as the Mu attack with bio-mechanical weapons called Dolems, Ayato discovers he can pilot a colossal humanoid, the RahXephon, summoned through song. Taken outside the dome by Haruka Shitow of the defense agency TERRA, he learns the world he knew is far smaller than the one beyond it.

Ai Yori Aoshi

Ai Yori Aoshi

藍より青し

Kaoru Hanabishi, a college student living on his own, runs into Aoi Sakuraba, a gentle young woman who has traveled to Tokyo to find him. The two were promised to each other in an arranged marriage as children, and Aoi has held on to that bond even after Kaoru left his prominent family. With her caretaker Miyabi Kagurazaki arranging discreet living quarters, Aoi settles near Kaoru as the old engagement quietly resurfaces.

Love Hina Again

Love Hina Again

ラブひな Again

Keitaro Urashima and Naru Narusegawa have finally reached Tokyo University, but their feelings for each other stay tangled. When Keitaro leaves to join Seta on an archaeological trip and test the kind of future he wants, Kanako arrives at the Hinata Inn claiming to be his sister and the rightful manager. This three-episode OVA continues the Love Hina anime, adapting the manga's later volumes rather than starting fresh.

Beyblade V-Force

Beyblade V-Force

爆転シュートベイブレード2002

The Bladebreakers have drifted apart after their last tournament when Team Psykick and the Saint Shields begin hunting their bit-beasts, the spirits sealed inside their spinning tops. Tyson, Kai, Max, Ray, and Kenny regroup to defend the sacred beasts, joined by Tyson's classmate Hilary Tachibana. This second season of the Beyblade anime pits the team against opponents who want to seal away or steal the power their blades carry.

One Piece: Dream Soccer King!

One Piece: Dream Soccer King!

ワンピース夢のサッカー王!

To mark the 2002 World Cup, co-hosted by Japan and South Korea, the Straw Hat Pirates face off against Buggy's Villain All-Stars in a five-on-five soccer match, with Coby playing goalkeeper for both sides and Helmeppo refereeing. Monkey D. Luffy captains his crew through a match that comes down to a penalty shootout for the title of Dream Soccer King. Series creator Eiichiro Oda appears as an original character, Odacchi, in this five-minute short bundled with the third movie, Chopper's Kingdom on the Island of Strange Animals.

Animation Store Manager

Animation Store Manager

アニメ店長

Anizawa Meito takes over an Animate store as its wildly enthusiastic new manager, inheriting what he calls his predecessor's dying wish: keep the shop running. Across two minutes of exaggerated fight choreography and slapstick, he whips his staff into shape to move as much anime merchandise as humanly possible. The short exists purely as an ad for the Animate retail chain rather than a standalone story, and later spawned manga and radio drama spin-offs built around the same character.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters: Battle City Special

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters: Battle City Special

遊☆戯☆王デュエルモンスターズバトルシティ・スペシャル

Broadcast between episodes 88 and 89 of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters, this half-hour special has Téa Gardner and Serenity Wheeler recap the Battle City tournament so far, walking back through Yugi's tag duel alongside Seto Kaiba, his solo duels against Joey Wheeler and Yami Bakura, and Joey's fight with Odion aboard the Kaiba Craft. It offers no new story, working as a clip-show breather that ties up the tournament's key duels before the final Battle City stretch. Téa closes the episode by wishing viewers a happy new year.

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: Tachikomatic Days

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: Tachikomatic Days

攻殻機動隊 STAND ALONE COMPLEX たちこまな日々

Attached to the end of every episode of the original Stand Alone Complex TV series, these one-minute Tachikomatic Days shorts step away from Section 9's casework to let the Tachikoma think-tanks goof around and argue among themselves, showing off distinct personalities their combat role rarely has room for. Major Motoko Kusanagi, Daisuke Aramaki, Saitou, and Ishikawa turn up in supporting bits alongside the Tachikoma units, playing lighter versions of themselves than the main series does.

Trava: Fist Planet

Trava: Fist Planet

Trava: Fist Planet

Ace pilot Trava and his mechanic partner Shinkai are surveying a remote planet when they pick up Mikuru, a girl with no memory of who she is, and the detour pulls all three into the planet's buried dangers instead of a routine job. Between run-ins with a hulking mercenary named Reiter and a swarm of insectoid killer robots, Trava keeps one eye on Fist Planet, a Power-fighting tournament with a prize worth billions. He and Shinkai are still scraping together the credits to enter it. This four-part OVA introduces the Trava and Shinkai who later turn up in the film Redline, and was reworked afterward into a single feature-length cut.

Detective Conan OVA 02: 16 Suspects

Detective Conan OVA 02: 16 Suspects

名探偵コナン OVA2 16人の容疑者!?

Inspector Shiratori invites Conan and the rest of the Detective Boys to his villa to celebrate his prized wine collection. When his most expensive bottle turns up shattered on the floor, the culprit has to be one of the sixteen guests gathered for the evening, from Heiji Hattori to Sonoko Suzuki. Conan works the room to narrow down which of the sixteen suspects shattered the bottle, and why.

.hack//Liminality

.hack//Liminality

.hack//Liminality

High schooler Mai Minase and her boyfriend Tomonari Kasumi both collapse while playing the online game "The World." Mai wakes up quickly, but Tomonari slips into an unexplained coma. Junichiro Tokuoka, the game's creator, contacts Mai and tells her that six other players around the country have suffered the same fate, drawing her into his investigation of what is happening inside The World. Unlike most of the .hack franchise, Liminality plays out entirely from the real-world side of events rather than inside the game.

Digimon Frontier: Island of Lost Digimon

Digimon Frontier: Island of Lost Digimon

デジモンフロンティア古代デジモン（オニスモン）復活！！

Takuya Kanbara and his friends land on a remote island where two rival Digimon factions, the Beast types and the Human types, have been locked in conflict for as long as anyone can remember. When Kouji Minamoto witnesses an unlikely friendship forming between a young Beast-type and a Human-type Digimon, the group sets out to convince both sides that the old grudge doesn't have to define them. This 40-minute film screened as part of Toei's 2002 summer animation lineup.

Macross Zero

Macross Zero

マクロスゼロ

A year before the Zentradi make first contact with Earth, U.N. Spacy pilot Shin Kudo crash-lands his VF-0 Phoenix fighter on the remote Mayan Island after a dogfight with an unidentified transforming aircraft. There he meets sisters Sara and Mao Nome, guardians of a shrine tied to an ancient alien ship buried nearby, as U.N. and anti-U.N. forces converge on the island chasing its secret. This five-episode OVA is a prequel to the original Super Dimension Fortress Macross.

Green Green OVA

Green Green OVA

グリーングリーン OVA

In an alternate take on Green Green, the genders flip: Hanaoka is an all-girls school, and the students are thrilled to hear boys are being admitted, until the new arrivals turn out to be unpolished country boys, several of them shameless perverts. Midori Chitose and Yuusuke Takasaki appear again, but as strangers meeting for the first time rather than the established couple of the TV series, alongside classmates Tadatomo Ijuuin and Taizo Tenjin. This standalone OVA reimagines the cast's dynamic rather than continuing the main story.

Lupin III Episode 0: The First Contact

Lupin III Episode 0: The First Contact

ルパン三世 EPISODE:0 「ファーストコンタクト」

Marking the Lupin III franchise's 30th anniversary, this special reconstructs how master thief Lupin III first crossed paths with his future crew. Gunman Jigen, hired by millionaire Galvez to guard the Clam of Helmeth, a cylinder of unbreakable metal holding the secret to forging more of it, finds himself up against Lupin and rival thief Fujiko Mine, both after the same prize. Inspector Zenigata arrives from Japan chasing Fujiko, while swordsman Goemon Ishikawa hunts a blade worthy of his skill, and all five converge in New York.

Beyblade: Fierce Battle

Beyblade: Fierce Battle

爆転シュートベイブレード劇場版激闘!! タカオVSダイチ

The Bladebreakers are on vacation when Daichi Sumeragi, a hyperactive kid chasing Tyson for a rematch, gets pulled along with them into a strange temple and falls under the control of Beybladers calling themselves the Shadow Bladers. Tyson, Max Mizuhara, Rei Kon, and Kai Hiwatari have to break Daichi free from the Dark Bit Beasts controlling him before the Shadow Bladers can use his power to destroy the world. Set between the V-Force and G-Revolution seasons, this film is a non-canon side story showing an alternate version of how Tyson and Daichi first met.

Mahoromatic ~Something More Beautiful~

Mahoromatic ~Something More Beautiful~

まほろまてぃっく～もっと美しいもの～

Six months into her new life as Suguru Misato's live-in maid, battle android Mahoro Andou is still counting down the days before her body shuts down for good. This second TV season introduces another android, Minawa Andou, who grows attached to Mahoro and disrupts the household's routine. As Suguru's circle of classmates widens around them, Mahoro's remaining time keeps ticking down under the household's everyday comedy.

Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou: Quiet Country Cafe

Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou: Quiet Country Cafe

ヨコハマ買い出し紀行 quiet country cafe

A typhoon tears through Alpha Hatsuseno's café on the edge of Yokohama, and rather than simply rebuild in place, she sets out on foot to earn the money to fix it and see more of the quiet, half-empty world beyond her usual streets. Her travels take her past a Japan reshaped by a shifted coastline and an erupted Mount Fuji, where she meets an old man on the road, catches up with the courier Kokone Takatsu, and encounters a male android like herself for the first time. This second OVA continues Alpha's story from the original Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou with a longer journey away from home.

I"s

I"s

I"s

High schooler Ichitaka Seto has liked classmate Iori Yoshizuki for a long time without working up the nerve to say so, and this two-part OVA catches that standoff at a turning point. Itsuki Akiba, a childhood friend who spent years in America, comes back into his life just as things with Iori start shifting, forcing Ichitaka to face both relationships at once instead of quietly avoiding the choice.

Samurai Deeper Kyo

Samurai Deeper Kyo

SAMURAI DEEPER KYO

During the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, the notorious killer Demon Eyes Kyo and the noble swordsman Kyoshiro Mibu fight to a standstill just as a meteor strikes the battlefield and both vanish. Four years later, bounty hunter Yuya Shiina is tracking down Kyoshiro, now a debt-ridden medicine peddler, when a monstrous attack wakes something else inside him: Kyo's consciousness, trapped in Kyoshiro's body ever since that day. The two share one body and clashing goals as they set out to untangle what really happened at Sekigahara.

Demon Lord Dante

Demon Lord Dante

魔王ダンテ

Ryo Utsugi keeps dreaming of a horned giant sealed inside a Himalayan mountain, and the visions follow him into his waking life in Nagoya. A cult devoted to reviving that demon, Dante, takes his sister Saori for a black mass, and Ryo goes after her only to find out why the dreams picked him. What he becomes puts him between the demons who once ruled the planet and the force humanity has always called God.

Please Teacher!: Marie Love Theater

Please Teacher!: Marie Love Theater

おねがい☆ティーチャーまりえ、愛の劇場

A two-minute bonus special bundled with the Please Teacher! DVDs, Marie, Ai no Gekijou hands the spotlight to Marie, a minor comic-relief character from the main series, for a brief scene with Miruru, the object of Marie's affections. Released alongside the "Secret Couple" OVA on the same October 2002 disc, it exists as a standalone fan-service extra with no connection to the television series' main plot and no episode-length story of its own.

Ai Yori Aoshi: Speaking of Dreams

Ai Yori Aoshi: Speaking of Dreams

藍より青し夢語り

On a spring picnic, Kaoru Hanabishi sits down with the rest of the household, Aoi Sakuraba, Tina Foster, Taeko Minazuki, and Miyabi Kagurazaki, to trade stories about what they each hope for in the future. This four-minute special adds no new plot to the main Ai Yori Aoshi story, instead giving each character a quiet moment to voice a dream the TV series never had time for.