There isn’t a huge amount of 3D anime movies to choose from: if this had been a list of the best 2D anime films, it would have been a lot harder to sift through them!
However, there are some incredible, boundary-pushing movies on this list. From the photo-realistic anime Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV to the fascinating 2004 movie Steamboy, these are great to watch if you want to see the possibilities for future anime movies.
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Best 3D Anime Movies
The 3D movies on this list are in no particular order, ranging from children’s tales to sci-fi to fantasy. So there should be something here for everyone. Whether you’re watching because you love the genre or getting inspired for an animation project, these movies will provide entertainment and give you a history lesson in developing 3D anime.
Look no further if you want ideas for your next anime movie night. Here are 10 of the most interesting 3D anime movies out there.
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Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (2005)
Final Fantasy VII, the 1997 RPG published by Square Enix (then Square), is one of the most beloved video games of all time. A fan favourite, FFVII is considered by many to be the best in the series, thanks mostly to the dramatic, emotional storyline.
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children was released in 2005 in Japan and 2006 in North America and the UK. The film picks up the story two years after the game ends. With the central character Cloud on a rescue mission to save children inflicted by a disease. The plan involves resurrecting Sephiroth, a risky move, and the gang is quickly swept up into a dangerous adventure.
Advent Children received mixed reviews on release. On the one hand, critics felt that the story didn’t make sense unless viewers had already played the original video game, and there were some issues with the pacing. On the other hand, most critics agree that the 3D animation is absolutely beautiful, with some incredible CGI.
Gantz: O (2016)
An action sci-fi thriller, Gantz: O follows the main character Katou Masaru, an ordinary high school student, trying to take care of his brother and attend school as usual. But one day, while he waits for a train, Masaru is caught up in a random attack. When he wakes, he finds himself in the monstrous plane known as Gantz, and he is forced to battle against hidden evil spirits. If Masaru can collect enough points, they can escape from this strange, dangerous game.
It’s an action-packed movie, and it’s not exactly light: it’s violet and relentless and not for the faint-hearted. It’s fast-paced and interesting but not exactly uplifting! Based on the original manga, it’s an incredible visual spectacle.
Not completely photo-realistic, Gantz: O feels like watching a manga come to life, and the characters and creatures are beautifully rendered.
Check out Gantz: O if you like survival thrillers and sci-fi – fans of similar stories like Battle Royale and Squid Game may enjoy this movie.
Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV
One of the criticisms of the 2016 RPG Final Fantasy XV was the lack of a coherent story. Players found it difficult to follow what was happening, which hurt the more emotional story beats. Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV fills in a lot of these gaps.
The story focuses on the war between the Niflheim realm and Lucis and how this impacts the leaders on each side as they fight for future freedom. This is an exciting tale with incredible animations, a traditional fantasy story with knights and monsters.
Kingsglaive is, it has to be said, absolutely stunning. A technical wonder, the animators pushed to make the most photo-realistic characters possible. And the effort is worth it: everything from hair to skin to eyes looks incredible. Animators-in-training will enjoy marveling at the visuals of Kingsglaive, and many viewers praised how it looked on release.
Unfortunately it’s not a perfect CGI anime movie: the camera movements are strange, sometimes even making it difficult to track what is happening when the action scenes kick in, and the plot is thick with world building details.
It’s the ideal companion to Final Fantasy XV, and fantasy lovers will enjoy the depth of the story. Just keep in mind that it might be hard to follow at times!
Directors: Takashi Yamazaki, Ryuichi Yagi
Adapted from: Doraemon
Sequel: Stand by Me Doraemon 2
Distributed by: Toho Co., Ltd., Viz Media, MORE
Doraemon is a popular Japanese manga series by Fujiko F. Fujio. Running from 1970 to 1996, there have been a number of movie tie-ins over the years, including the 3D anime Stand By Me Doraemon, which brings Doraemon’s world into a new dimension.
In this story, young Nobi Nobita isn’t happy: he’s kind of bad at everything he tries and the other kids don’t respect him. Fortunately, Nobita is visited by a relative from the future and the robot helper Doraemon.
Doraemon is supposed to help Nobita to focus and grow as a person. It’s a fun, sweet movie with a tear-jerking ending, and it’s the Doraemon’s first foray into 3D animation. The animation itself is excellent, managing to maintain the original charm of Doraemon in a whole new dimension.
It also has an excellent balance between an emotional and lovely story, excellent visuals, and some comedy moments, too.
It did amazingly well at the box office on release, being the third-highest-earning film in Japan in 2014, following Frozen and The Eternal Zero. Stand By Me Doraemon is a good story about friendship for all ages, not just children.
Steamboy is an interesting entry to this list: it’s technically a mixture of hand-drawing and 3D animation, and the result is a deep, rich, beautifully animated film. It follows Rei, a young boy living in 19th century London, and the story is lovely.
Directed by Katsuhiro Otomo (the director behind Akira), it’s a whimsical tale, and the visuals really help to bring it to life.
The 3D animation helps to create a sense of depth, with many moving layers. It’s the kind of movie that is worth watching more than once, so you can catch all the small details you may have missed the first time.
It’s an interesting example of how different animation styles can blend together, and hopefully, we’ll see more of this innovation in the future.
Steamboy was also the single most expensive anime film ever made on release. At $20 million, it held the top spot for a while before being overtaken by The Tale of Princess Kaguya, a Studio Ghibli film that cost an incredible $53 million.
If viewers are looking for a movie similar to the Final Fantasy movies we mentioned earlier on this list, they could check out the 2014 film Appleseed Alpha. It’s a gorgeously animated movie; it takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, and the battle scenes are incredible. The lighting is excellent, and the colour palette helps to create more drama.
The story follows the main characters Deunan and Briareos, in debt after a failed mission. When they find a resistance faction in a designated safe space, Olympus, they decide to join them.
This becomes a battle of good vs. evil, a classic tale with some exciting twists and turns. You’ll root for Deunan and Briareos as they try to decide what to do, and celebrate as they grow as characters.
It’s a smart and interesting story, and the setting makes it different from other fantasy/sci-fi adventures.
Resident Evil: Vendetta was always going to be difficult to get right. Video game to movie adaptions are often hard to do well, and with a series as beloved as Resident Evil, there was a lot of pressure involved from all parties to get things right.
While the plotline is contentious (and it certainly sparked much debate from Resident Evil fans), we have to call out Resident Evil: Vendetta as an incredible 3D anime movie.
Purely from a visual perspective, this is an incredible movie. The action scenes are fast-paced and exciting to watch, the lighting is great, and the characters are lovingly imagined.
Plus, the dialogue-heavy scenes really highlight the skill of the team involved. The small details are great to look at, and eagle-eyed fans will be able to spot several easter eggs as the plot thickens.
2017 was clearly a good year for 3D anime movies! In Godzilla: Kaijuu Wakusei, the planet is under attack by a range of monsters, and humans have left the earth years ago in order to find somewhere safe to live. However, finding somewhere habitable is not that easy, and humanity realizes that they have no other option but to return to Earth and defeat Godzilla – and any other monsters that stalk the land – once and for all.
Godzilla: Kaijuu Wakusei isn’t a perfect sci-fi movie: it has some pacing issues, and some viewers find it hard to connect with the characters.
However, it’s worth watching to enjoy how they animated Godzilla himself. In this movie, he’s a huge, imposing beast, and to watch him rampaging across the desolate Earth is a sight to behold.
This could be truly brilliant with a little more work on the story. From an animation perspective, however, it’s absolutely worth watching, even just to enjoy the characters as they traverse the ruined world.
![Expelled from Paradise [Blu-ray]](https://vertexmode.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/09_expelled.jpg)
Production companies: Toei Animation; Graphinica
In Expelled From Paradise, humans have left the Earth (much like in Godzilla) to live in a space station, DEVA. Now digitized, humans are free from all the problems that ailed them before. There’s no sickness, no need to eat, nothing to worry about.
Of course, it doesn’t stay this way. Trouble emerges as a rebel programmer starts to interfere, and the inhabitatents of DEVA start to question whether they are truly happy living a food-free, music-less life with the strict rules imposed upon them.
This looks like a classic 2D anime but with 3D elements. This means the landscapes really ‘pop’, bringing to life the world of the story.
Unusually, this movie was shown in 15 different theatres across the USA, and it had a generally good reception from viewers. The Matrix-style plot and non-stop action make it a thrilling watch as well as an interesting one from an animation perspective.
An impressive reboot of the anime series Space Pirate Captain Harlock, this is a technical marvel and it’s definitely worth watching just for the animation alone. The main character stands out in this movie for being quirky, cheeky, and a bit stubborn as he tries to run away from his would-be assassins.
However, Harlock’s friends aren’t as interesting, and the movie runs into some story problems, which means this movie isn’t as good as it could have been.
Having said that, the visuals are absolutely stunning. The space battles, in particular, are amazing to watch. This movie pushes the boundaries in terms of what is possible when it comes to animation. With a slick, interesting aesthetic that will appeal to sci-fi fans and anime fans alike.
It also holds the title of the most expensive Japanese CG anime film at the time of writing. Costing an incredible $30 million. It will be interesting to see if more epic 3D anime films appear some time in the future, given the successful results here.
Which is the Best 3D Anime?
If you normally love 2D animation when to comes to anime, you might be surprised at how much you enjoy some of the films on this list.
Best 3D Anime
From a technical standpoint, Steamboy is worth checking out. It combines 2D and 3D in a fascinating way, and it feels like a traditional anime while adding more depth and life to the background scenes.
Best CGI Anime
If you prefer full on CGI anime, then Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV is absolutely worth checking out. It’s the kind of film you want to pause from time to time, so you can zoom in on the small details: animating a human so well is a great skill.
Hopefully, this has inspired your next movie marathon!
Megan is a freelance writer based in Somerset, England. She writes about videogames, books, and pop culture.
