Magical anime

Whimsical, strange and wonderful. Magic here is not a power system — it is a way of letting the world be a bit more alive than it is, and the best of these treat that seriously.

Watch one when you want to be delighted, or when you are tired of stories that explain everything. These are the shows that trust you to accept a cat that talks.

Spirited Away and My Neighbour Totoro are the doorway for almost everyone. Flying Witch is the gentlest. Uchouten Kazoku is the strangest and best-written. Paprika is the loud one.

Worth saying: magical is not the same as fantasy. A show with elves and spells can be entirely mechanical. The ones on this page are the ones where the world feels like it has more in it than you can see, and that feeling is the point.