Best movies like Sanctuary
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Two Japanese survivors of the Khmer Rouge massacres in Cambodia vow to find a sanctuary, even if they have to build it themselves. Returning to Japan, they take seemingly opposite paths: one becomes a politician, the other a gangster. As Asami and Houjou work through the linked worlds of politics and crime in modern Japan, they don't hesitate to do anything necessary to secure their own positions and stay true to their vow. Loyal to no one else, they find their friendship increasingly tested as they rise in their chosen fields.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 77
Genere: Animation, Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 70 min
Plot tags: anime
Best tv shows and movies like Sanctuary (1995):
Similar in 83%
Lupin The 3rd vs. Cat’s Eye (2023)
Plot Summary:
Lupin III competes with the Kisugi sisters to steal a triptych of paintings that once belonged to their father, and which hold the key to a long-unsolved mystery.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 460
Genere: Animation, Action, Adventure, Comedy, Crime, Mystery
Country: Japan
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: anime
Similar in 84%
Shirobako Movie (2020)
Plot Summary:
The "Musashi-Sakai x Shirobako Harumatsuri" (Musashi-Sakai x Shirobako Spring Festival) event in Tokyo for the Shirobako anime revealed on Saturday that the franchise will get an anime film project. P.A. Works is starting production on the film, but the film does not have a set release date yet. The staff at the event confirmed that the film will be an all-new work.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 248
Genere: Animation, Comedy, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: anime, manga
Similar in 82%
Sanctuary: The Movie (1996)
Plot Summary:
Based on the popular Manga/Animated Film Series, Sanctuary: The Movie is the live action version of Sanctuary telling the story of two boys who survived the Khmer genocide in Cambodia and now try to create their own sanctuary in Japan. Asami is going into politics to become a national leader, seeking to create a new and better Japan, whereas Hojo wants to improve Japan by "infiltrating" and changing the other side of Japanese society, the Yakuza, becoming one of their bosses and most influencial members. Together, they are working their way up, each if them in his very own way, just to fulfill their dream: creating their very own sanctuary in a world that has gone mad.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 19
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 81%
Blue Thermal (2022)
Plot Summary:
Arriving from Nagasaki with her wishful mantra is Tamaki Tsuru, who in high school could think only about volleyball. Things don’t begin well, however, when she looks for an extracurricular club to join and proceeds to immediately ding a glider at aviation club tryouts ending up having to work it off. She is initially disillusioned with campus life. Then Kuramochi, the club leader and glider pilot, takes Tamaki under his wing, and from the moment he takes her up for a flight in a glider, Tamaki becomes a captive of the vast beauty of the skies.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 320
Genere: Animation, Drama, Romance
Country: Japan
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: anime
Similar in 81%
Domain of Murder (1992)
Plot Summary:
On the trail of a missing husband, private investigator Goro crosses paths with a deranged killer.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 49
Genere: Animation, Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: Japan
Duration: 51 min
Plot tags: anime
Similar in 77%
High Card (2023)
Plot Summary:
Fourland Kingdom is an island nation in the North Atlantic. In this country, there are 52 X-Playing Cards, considered the origin of playing cards. A card with a unique supernatural ability can gift its abilities to a qualified person: the player. One day, the X-Playing Cards in government's custody were spread all over Fourland leading to troubles caused by the supernatural abilities of the players with cards across the country. The king secretly assigns Pinochle, one of the top corporations of the nation, to a mission, to collect the cards that are causing all the chaos in the country.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 344
Genere: Animation, Action, Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
Country: Japan
Duration: 24 min
Plot tags: anime
Similar in 86%
Sound! Euphonium: The Movie - Welcome to the Kitauji High School Concert Band (2016)
Plot Summary:
Recap of Season 1. After swearing off music due to an incident at the middle school regional brass band competition, euphonist Kumiko Oumae enters high school hoping for a fresh start. As fate would have it, she ends up being surrounded by people with an interest in the high school brass band. Kumiko finds the motivation she needs to make music once more with the help of her bandmates, some of whom are new like novice tubist Hazuki Katou; veteran contrabassist Sapphire Kawashima; and band vice president and fellow euphonist Asuka Tanaka. Others are old friends, like Kumiko's childhood friend and hornist-turned-trombonist Shuuichi Tsukamoto, and trumpeter and bandmate from middle school, Reina Kousaka. However, in the band itself, chaos reigns supreme. Despite their intention to qualify for the national band competition, as they currently are, just competing in the local festival will be a challenge—unless the new band advisor Noboru Taki does something about it.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 206
Genere: Animation, Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: Japan
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: anime, compilation film
Similar in 77%
My Home Hero (2023)
Plot Summary:
The story centers on a salaryman who has a reliable wife and a daughter in university who can sometimes act a bit rebellious, but has a happy life in his own way. Until one day he finds out his daughter has been beaten, and thus begins his journey into a dangerous world to protect his family.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 594
Genere: Animation, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 23 min
Plot tags: anime, seinen, 2d animation
Similar in 88%
Twittering Birds Never Fly: The Clouds Gather (2020)
Plot Summary:
The sexually masochistic yakuza boss, Yashiro, isn't the type to warm up to others easily. But when Chikara Doumeki, his newly hired bodyguard, catches his interest, he reconsiders his "hands-off" policy with subordinates. As Yashiro's invitations fail, the yakuza boss finds out his bodyguard has a very personal reason for staying at arm's length.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 904
Genere: Animation, Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: Japan
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: yaoi, anime, manga, enigmatic, unusual plot structure, controversial, intense, poignant, adult animation, gay cinema
Similar in 80%
Riding Bean (1989)
Plot Summary:
A superhuman outlaw courier and his female partner/manager are framed for the kidnapping of a millionaire's daughter.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Animation, Action, Comedy, Crime, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 46 min
Plot tags: anime, adult anime, exciting, serious, suspenseful, seinen
Similar in 83%
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: The Empty Battlefield (2004)
Plot Summary:
The economic gap widens between the affluent, technologically advanced, hybrid Coordinators and the simple Earth Alliance known as the Naturals; the rift, unsurprisingly, has driven them apart in the 70th year of the Cosmic times. In an effort to bridge the chasm between them and the Coordinators, the Naturals have built five Gundam warriors that they hope will serve as their potent weapons. But will their plan work?.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 24
Genere: Animation, Action, Drama, Sci-Fi, War
Country: Japan
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: mecha, anime, fable
Similar in 88%
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny TV Movie I: The Broken World (2006)
Plot Summary:
The year is Cosmic Era 73. The Bloody Valentine War, fought between the PLANTS space colonies and the nations of the Atlantic Federation, has ended and an uneasy truce has settled upon the Earth sphere. With the signing of the Junius Seven Treaty, the world's soldiers have left the battlefield and the grizzly sights of war behind. Many who fought now seek peace and refuge in the shelter of civilian life. But one boy, Shin Asuka, is finding that incredibly hard. A coordinator who lost his entire family during the Battle of Orb, he now fights with ZAFT in one of their newest machines, the Impulse Gundam. Of course, ZAFT is only developing these machines for defensive applications - or so they claim - but when a group of Federation operatives steal some of these prototype machines, the world is once again plunged towards war.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 20
Genere: Animation, Action, Drama, Sci-Fi, War
Country: Japan
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: anime, mecha
Similar in 90%
Your Voice -KIMIKOE- (2017)
Plot Summary:
The story focuses on high school girl Nagisa Yukiai who lives in a seaside town. She has believed her grandmother's story that spirits dwell in words and they are called "kotodama" (word spirit). One day, she strays into a mini FM station that has not been used for years. As an impulse of the moment, she tries to talk like a DJ using the facility. But her voice accidentally broadcasted reaches someone she has never expected.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 240
Genere: Animation, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: anime
Similar in 76%
Aria the Benedizione (2021)
Plot Summary:
Neo-Venezia has reached a long winter. Ai, Azusa and Anya, who were practicing jointly in the cold weather, visit the Undine Museum, led by Akira who seems not her usual self. At the museum, the trio meet its director, Asuka who is Akira's senior known as Himeya's legendary undine. The two of them are the successors to a gondola that has been carefully passed down since the founding of Himeya Company. However, Akira reveals that Aika, who is expected to inherit the gondola, has no intention of doing so. Azusa, who is not convinced, tries to find out why.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 47
Genere: Animation, Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: Japan
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: anime, shounen
Similar in 78%
Golgo 13: Queen Bee (1998)
Plot Summary:
Based on Takao Saito's graphic novel, Golgo 13 is Japan's most celebrated and notorious assassin, and a man as adept with a rifle as he is with the ladies. He meets his match here in Queen Bee, the leader of a South American liberation army, whom he must kill before she can assassinate a popular presidential candidate. However, once Golgo 13 penetrates the Queen's hive, he realizes that the machinations behind the planned assassination are more complex than he could have imagined.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 801
Genere: Animation, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 57 min
Plot tags: anime, serious, suspenseful, tense, suspense, sexy, mecha, rough, realistic, surprise ending
Similar in 89%
Kite Liberator (2007)
Plot Summary:
Years after the events that transpired in Kite, Sawa's whereabouts are a mystery. During this time, rumors of a new killer have begun to circulate the city. They call her the Angel of Death, an unfeeling assassin who eliminates her targets with grace and precision, leaving only a flurry of feathers as her calling card. What the public is unaware of is the fact that this notorious hitman is a actually a polite young lady named Monaka. Like her spiritual predecessor, Monaka has lost most of her family, and her father's duty as an astronaut keeps hims practically worlds apart. However, they are close despite the physical distances and Orudo promised his daughter that he would return. Until then, daily life for the timid and somewhat clumsy Monaka involves mostly school and her part time job as a waitress, but her nature completely changes once she receives an assignment.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 851
Genere: Animation, Action, Crime, Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: Japan, USA
Duration: 58 min
Plot tags: anime, exciting, rough, psychological, suspenseful, bloody, adult animation, serious
Similar in 80%
Silent Möbius (1991)
Plot Summary:
In a futuristic Tokyo, several policewomen fight a monster. One of them, Katsumi Liqueur, remembers where she saw it before... Katsumi Liqueur, an American-born woman of Japanese descent, travels to Tokyo to visit her mother, Fuyuka, who is sick in the hospital. She takes a shortcut through an alley after her taxi gets stuck in traffic, only to encounter a monster and two policewomen fighting it. Later, she meets their chief, Rally Cheyenne, who, it seems, has been expecting her, though Katsumi has never met her before. The policewomen want Katsumi to help them fight the monster, but Katsumi, who does not want to believe in magic, resists.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 251
Genere: Animation, Action, Drama, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
Country: Japan
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: anime, futuristic, mecha, cyber, cyberpunk anime
Similar in 90%
Mezzo DSA (2003)
Plot Summary:
Mezzo DSA is a 13-episode anime series created by Yasuomi Umetsu and the first not to be licensed by Anime Works, but instead licensed by ADV Films. It is a follow up to the 2001 OVA Mezzo Forte.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 332
Genere: Animation, Action, Comedy, Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 22 min
Plot tags: anime, exciting, rough, serious, suspenseful, adult anime, realistic
Similar in 77%
Giant Killing (2010)
Plot Summary:
Giant Killing follows a ragtag bunch from East Tokyo who are struggling in Japan's top football league. Nearing the bottom, they have lost 5 matches in a row which hasn't done much to team morale. Even with the fan's turning their backs on the team, it seems as if the end is near. East Tokyo United can only blame their coach right now. However, their Coach is going to do something drastic to prove to his team and fans, that against the biggest club in the nation, he can make this team win.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 280
Genere: Animation, Drama, Sport
Country: Japan
Duration:
Plot tags: anime
Similar in 88%
Vampire Wars (1990)
Plot Summary:
The rural American west is the setting for this OVA, in which a bizarre and brutal attack on a NASA base in Arizona attracts the attention of a French secret service agent, Monsieur Lassar, when a dead CIA agent is found floating on the Seine in Paris. Lassar is convinced that these two events are related, and sets out to prove it. His investigation leads him to film star Lamia Vindaw and a vampire cult that may be far more vicious and dangerous than its eccentric exterior makes it seem.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 229
Genere: Animation, Action, Crime, Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, Romance
Country: Japan
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: anime, manga, scary, exciting, rough, serious, suspenseful, adult animation
Similar in 75%
Lupin the Third: Fujiko's Lie (2019)
Plot Summary:
Fujiko Mine, the devastating femme fatale whose only loyalty is to her desire, befriends a young boy whose late father hid away a fortune. A killer is on the boy's trail and it's up to Fujiko to stop him: but where do her interests really lie? Fujiko faces her greatest enemy in this twist filled followup to "Jigen's Gravestone" and "Goemon's Blood Spray.".
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 485
Genere: Animation, Adventure, Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 58 min
Plot tags: anime, adult anime, detective, manga
Similar in 83%
Moyashimon (2007)
Plot Summary:
Follow the life of Tadayasu Sawaki as he enrolls in an Agricultural University and learn about bacteria and viruses that he alone can see with the naked eye.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 202
Genere: Animation, Comedy, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 24 min
Plot tags: anime
Similar in 89%
Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might (1997)
Plot Summary:
A normal day on Earth, Goku and his friends are in peace as the rest of the world, but suddenly, a giant tree appears and threats Earth for being absorbed. Goku must solve this and defeat the culprit of this, being the evil saiyan pirate Turles.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Animation, Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Country: Canada, Japan, USA
Duration:
Plot tags: anime
Similar in 77%
Judge (1991)
Plot Summary:
What comes around goes around...even from beyond the grave. Most criminals are only concerned with earthly justice - the laws of man. All too often, the guilty go free, their deeds unpunished. But there is another law. Deep within the spirit world, the wrongful dead seek retribution for the crimes against them by the living. These restless spirits have their own code of justice, and they've chosen the Judge of Darkness and his Demons of Hell to enforce them. An appeal for justice leads to an investigation of a successful, high-ranking corporate executive. Who would believe he'd be involved with embezzlement and murder? But the Judge of Darkness soon discovers that the roots of corruption run deep as he slowly works his way up the corporate pyramid.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 182
Genere: Animation, Action, Crime, Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 49 min
Plot tags: anime, psychotronic
Similar in 80%
Kimera (1997)
Plot Summary:
Strange "lifepods" have crashed in the western mountains, bringing with them supernatural beings previously found only in the realm of folk-lore and fantasy. Vampires walk the Earth, at war with Humanity an each other, driven by the most terrifying of genetic imperatives! Like wasps seeking a spider, they have come to this planet for only one purpose: to perpetuate their species. To save Mankind, Kimera must die.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 178
Genere: Animation, Horror, Sci-Fi
Country: Japan
Duration: 55 min
Plot tags: anime, yaoi
Similar in 87%
Devilman Volume 3: Devilman Apocalyps (2000)
Plot Summary:
Fear runs rampant throughout Tokyo with the revelation that demons in fact exist amongst us. Paranoia and the darker side of humanity boils onto the streets as people turn on one another, suspecting that anyone could in fact be a demon hiding in human clothing. Amidst the growing tensions, tragedy strikes Akira causing his mind to snap, retreating into his subconscious, allowing his Devilish alter-ego Amon to break free from Akira's cage of flesh and wreak havoc on both human and demons alike.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 775
Genere: Animation, Action, Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Country: Japan
Duration: 46 min
Plot tags: anime, adult anime, ecchi
Similar in 77%
Silent Möbius 2 (1992)
Plot Summary:
After the death of her mother Katsumi wants nothing more to do with this horrible place known as Tokyo. Forced into staying an infuriated Katsumi returns to AMP HQ where chief Rally Cheyenne pleads with her to stay and join the team. However, her pleading falls on deaf ears as Katsumi exclaims that she wants nothing more to do with them, leaving to find another way home. Meanwhile the Demons taking over Tokyo begin their final move against humanity and the AMP. They realize that the key to opening their demon world lies within Katsumi. Her unwanted abilities mean everything to them and without her their plan would fail. The stage is set once again on the destroyed Tokyo Bay Bridge. Will Katsumi choose her destiny and defend her new found friend or will she fall to the weakness and despair within her?.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 123
Genere: Animation, Action, Drama, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
Country: Japan
Duration: 58 min
Plot tags: anime, futuristic, mecha, cyberpunk anime
Similar in 85%
Appleseed (1988)
Plot Summary:
In the futuristic city of Olympus, built on the ashes of the third world war, a police officer and her cyborg partner fight terrorism.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Animation, Action, Crime, Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: Japan
Duration: 71 min
Plot tags: anime, futuristic, mecha, manga, cyber, adult anime, adult animation, serious, suspenseful, stylized
Similar in 90%
Kingdom (2012)
Plot Summary:
Kingdom (2012) In the Warring States Period of ancient China (475-221 BCE), Shin and Hyou are war-orphans in the kingdom of Qin. They dream of one day proving themselves on the battlefield. One day, however, Hyou is taken to the palace by a minister. Winding up on the losing side of a power-struggle, Hyou manages to return to the village, barely alive. Shin then meets a boy who closely resembles Hyou, Ei Sei. For now he is the king of Qin; later he will become the emperor Shi Huangdi.
IMDB Rating: 8.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Animation, Action, Drama, History, War
Country: Japan
Duration: 25 min
Plot tags: anime