Japanese Film, Drama, and Anime Roundup 2025-2026 — Two Records That Got Rewritten, and the Shadow They Cast

• Introduction — 40 Billion Yen and 20 Billion Yen, Two Records Broken in One Year
• Anime Carried the Theaters
  • 劇場版 鬼滅の刃 無限城編 第一章 猗窩座再来 — Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Infinity Castle Arc, Chapter 1
  • 劇場版チェンソーマン レゼ篇 — Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc
  • ひゃくえむ。— 100 Meters
  • 果てしなきスカーレット — Scarlet
  • ベルサイユのばら — The Rose of Versailles
• The Exception in Live Action — The Space Kokuho Made
  • 国宝 — Kokuho (National Treasure)
  • 8番出口 — The Exit 8
  • TOKYOタクシー — Tokyo Taxi
• The Films Made by Festivals
  • 旅と日々 — Travels and Days
  • ルノワール — Renoir
  • Sheep in the Box
  • All of a Sudden
• The Anime Series Streaming Changed
  • ダンダダン 第2期 — Dandadan Season 2
  • タコピーの原罪 — Takopi's Original Sin
  • 光が死んだ夏 — The Summer Hikaru Died
  • 呪術廻戦 第3期 死滅回游 — Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3: The Culling Game
• Drama — Between Netflix and NHK
  • イクサガミ — Last Samurai Standing
  • べらぼう — Berabou
• The List at a Glance
• Closing — A Year of Records, But Also a Year the Middle Disappeared

Introduction — 40 Billion Yen and 20 Billion Yen, Two Records Broken in One Year

Japan's film industry went through something uncommon in 2025. The all-time box office record was broken twice, once by an animated film and once by a live-action film.

The theatrical release of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Infinity Castle Arc, which opened in July, passed 40 billion yen domestically, becoming the highest-grossing Japanese film of all time. Kokuho, directed by Sang-il Lee and released in June, passed 20 billion yen, breaking a live-action record that had stood for 22 years. One is manga-derived action; the other is a three-hour drama about an artist's life built around Kabuki. The fact that these two films set records side by side in the same year sums up the character of Japanese film during this period.

That said, the shadow cast by these two records is just as clear. Squeezed between a major manga IP and an exceptional work of overwhelming craft, mid-budget Japanese films have had a harder time finding their footing than ever. This piece looks at both the peaks and the valleys. It covers 18 titles, and notes the way to watch only where confirmed. Only the premise of each is introduced, not the turns of the story.

Anime Carried the Theaters

Across this period, anime nearly monopolized the top of Japan's box office. Even so, the outcomes within that category diverged sharply.

劇場版 鬼滅の刃 無限城編 第一章 猗窩座再来 — Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Infinity Castle Arc, Chapter 1

July 2025 · Directed by Haruo Sotozaki · Produced by ufotable — Official site

The first installment of a trilogy adapting the manga's final arc for film. The decision was to make the series' final battle a theatrical-scale event rather than a TV one, and that decision proved out in the numbers. It earned over 40 billion yen domestically and roughly 117.9 billion yen worldwide cumulative with 98.52 million admissions, becoming the highest-grossing Japanese film of all time. It won Best Animation of the Year at the Japan Academy Film Prize and Anime of the Year at the 2026 Crunchyroll Anime Awards.

Who'll love it — Readers who've followed the manga, and audiences who want to see ufotable's battle animation on the big screen. Who won't — Viewers coming in without knowledge of the series. There's almost no explanation provided.

劇場版チェンソーマン レゼ篇 — Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc

September 2025 · Directed by Tatsuya Yoshihara · Produced by MAPPA — Wikipedia

Adapts the manga's "bomb girl" arc into a standalone feature. It starts out looking like a romance before heading somewhere else, and it pushes the action density the TV series struggled to sustain using a theatrical budget. It earned 10.4 billion yen domestically, and in Korea it drew 3.44 million admissions, ranking 6th at the Korean box office for 2025.

Who'll love it — Readers who want to see a specific manga arc as a complete film in its own right. Who won't — Viewers who find the source material's emotional discomfort and level of violence hard to take.

ひゃくえむ。— 100 Meters

September 2025 · Directed by Kenji Iwaisawa · Produced by Rock 'n' Roll Mountain · Released on Netflix — Anime News Network

An entirely different kind of anime, released the same day as Chainsaw Man. It's the story of a naturally gifted sprinter and the classmate who learned to run from him, colliding across a lifetime. Rotoscoping is used to make the act of running itself the subject of the frame, and that physicality is the whole point of the film. It had its world premiere at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in June 2025, then landed on Netflix on December 31, 2025, and made the global Top 10 for non-English films.

Who'll love it — Viewers who want to see the feel of a body in a sports film, rather than who wins and who loses. Who won't — Viewers expecting the polish of mainstream commercial animation art style. The linework here is deliberately rough.

果てしなきスカーレット — Scarlet

November 2025 · Directed by Mamoru Hosoda · Produced by Studio Chizu — Wikipedia

A revenge story built on the bones of Hamlet, following a princess who chases her father's killer across a fantastical afterlife. It's the most aggressive film in Mamoru Hosoda's filmography, and also the least successful commercially. Its Japanese opening weekend earned 210 million yen across 388 screens with 136,000 admissions, about 23.6 percent of Belle's opening weekend numbers.

Who'll love it — Viewers who want to see Mamoru Hosoda step outside the safety of a family drama. Who won't — Viewers who came expecting the emotional register of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time or Wolf Children.

ベルサイユのばら — The Rose of Versailles

January 2025 · Produced by MAPPA · Released on Netflix — Wikipedia

A feature-length remake of Riyoko Ikeda's 1972 manga. It follows Oscar, raised as a man to command the royal guard, up through the eve of the French Revolution. It was released internationally on Netflix on April 30, 2025. The attempt was to see how a text often called the archetype of shojo manga would read to a 2025 audience.

Who'll love it — Viewers who know the original or the Takarazuka stage adaptation and want to trace that lineage. Who won't — Viewers who feel the result of compressing such a vast original into a single feature comes out thin.

The Exception in Live Action — The Space Kokuho Made

While anime filled the upper ranks of the box office, one live-action film shook up the field.

国宝 — Kokuho (National Treasure)

June 2025 · Directed by Sang-il Lee · Starring Ryo Yoshizawa, Ryusei Yokohama, Ken Watanabe — Wikipedia

A yakuza boss's son is taken in by a great Kabuki family and finds himself locked in a lifelong rivalry with the family's biological son. Based on Shuichi Yoshida's novel, it depicts artistic achievement not as something that redeems a life, but as something that devours it. The film's method is running the onnagata performance scenes at nearly documentary length.

It's the highest-grossing Japanese live-action film of all time, and it won Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor among 10 categories at the 49th Japan Academy Film Prize. It was submitted as Japan's entry for Best International Feature at the Academy Awards and made the shortlist, ultimately receiving a nomination in the Best Makeup and Hairstyling category — the first time a Japanese national had been nominated in that category, though it didn't win. It premiered at Cannes in Directors' Fortnight, and in Japan it's available on Amazon Prime Video.

Who'll love it — Viewers willing to sit through a three-hour life story of an artist. Who won't — Viewers who feel the film's treatment of talent and class ultimately collapses into a genius myth.

8番出口 — The Exit 8

August 2025 · Directed by Genki Kawamura · Starring Kazunari Ninomiya — eiga.com

A man has to find the anomalies as he walks the same subway passage over and over to escape. Adapted from an indie game by KOTAKE CREATE into a live-action feature, it's effectively a test of whether a single game rule with almost no plot can sustain a theatrical runtime. It was invited to Midnight Screenings at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, and it earned in the 5.1 billion yen range domestically, the best opening of any Japanese live-action film that year.

Who'll love it — Viewers drawn to how tension builds within a simple rule set. Who won't — Viewers who expect narrative payoff from a repeating structure.

TOKYOタクシー — Tokyo Taxi

November 2025 · Directed by Yoji Yamada · Starring Chieko Baisho, Takuya Kimura — Wikipedia

A taxi driver takes an 85-year-old woman from Shibamata to a care facility in Hayama, stopping one by one at the places she's lived. It's a remake of the 2022 French film Driving Madeleine, moved to Japan, and it's director Yoji Yamada's 91st film, made to mark Shochiku's 130th anniversary. Chieko Baisho won Best Actress at the 49th Japan Academy Film Prize for this role.

Who'll love it — Viewers who like a film that follows an elderly person's reminiscence without rushing it. Who won't — Viewers who've already seen the original French film, and viewers uneasy with direction that pre-decides how they should feel.

The Films Made by Festivals

Outside the box office, it was film festivals that built Japanese cinema's presence. 2026 Cannes in particular was exceptional.

旅と日々 — Travels and Days

November 2025 · Directed by Sho Miyake · Starring Shim Eun-kyung, Shinichi Tsutsumi — Locarno Film Festival press release

Based on two manga by Yoshiharu Tsuge, told as two loosely connected movements dealing with travel, isolation, and things left unsaid. Director Sho Miyake's characteristic quiet, weather-sensitive style stays intact, and the film deliberately avoids dramatic resolution. It won the Golden Leopard at the 78th Locarno Film Festival in August 2025 — the first win for a Japanese film there in 18 years. It topped the Japanese films list in the 99th Kinema Junpo Best Ten, and Shim Eun-kyung won Best Actress.

Who'll love it — Viewers who like a film driven by atmosphere and rhythm rather than plot events. Who won't — Viewers who want an explanation for why the two stories are bundled into one film.

ルノワール — Renoir

June 2025 · Directed by Chie Hayakawa · Starring Yui Suzuki, Lily Franky — Wikipedia

Set in the Tokyo suburbs in the summer of 1987, it follows an eleven-year-old girl drifting between adults who are each preoccupied with something else. Her father is ill, her mother absent. Director Chie Hayakawa never explains the adult world to the audience directly — the film only shows as much as the child understands. It was the only Japanese film in competition at the 78th Cannes Film Festival in 2025.

Who'll love it — Viewers who discovered Chie Hayakawa's restraint in Plan 75. Who won't — Viewers who feel the device of a child's point of view holds emotion at arm's length.

Sheep in the Box

Cannes competition, May 2026 · Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda — Wikipedia

Begins when a couple brings home a humanoid robot modeled after their deceased son. Hirokazu Kore-eda takes the themes he's long returned to — the family you make and the grief that never ends — and moves them into a near-future science-fiction frame. The director has said he wrote it after reading an article about a Chinese company using generative AI to recreate the deceased. It received a three-and-a-half-minute standing ovation at Cannes but didn't win the Palme d'Or. Its Japanese release date hasn't been confirmed yet.

Who'll love it — Viewers who want to see Kore-eda's family drama collide with a question of technology. Who won't — Viewers who'd be disappointed to see the science-fiction setup used purely as a device for emotion.

All of a Sudden

Cannes competition, May 2026 · Directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi · Starring Virginie Efira, Tao Okamoto — Wikipedia

The director of a Paris care facility and a terminally ill Japanese theater director move from strangers to the closest of relationships. Set between Paris and Kyoto, it extends Ryusuke Hamaguchi's dialogue-centered method across two languages and two continents. Tao Okamoto and Virginie Efira jointly won Best Actress at Cannes in 2026. For reference, the jury president that year was Park Chan-wook, and the Palme d'Or went to Cristian Mungiu's Fjord.

At the 2026 Cannes, Kore-eda, Hamaguchi, and Koji Fukada landed in competition at the same time — the first time three Japanese directors had entered competition together in 25 years, and Japan was also the featured country at the Marché du Film that same year.

Who'll love it — Viewers who can sit with the long conversations and silences of Drive My Car. Who won't — Viewers who care about the ratio of runtime to plot density.

The Anime Series Streaming Changed

In 2025 and 2026, anime series went global the same day they aired in Japan, not the day after. The speed at which buzz forms has changed.

ダンダダン 第2期 — Dandadan Season 2

July-September 2025 · Produced by Science SARU · Simulcast on Netflix and Crunchyroll — Science SARU official

A comedy where the occult collides with aliens, and this series' signature is dead-serious emotion breaking out in the middle of slapstick. Season 2 moves the setting to a cursed countryside house. The reason people keep talking about this show ultimately comes down to the animation. Among currently airing mainstream anime, it's the least constrained stylistically.

Who'll love it — Viewers who take a rapidly shifting tone as a source of pleasure. Who won't — Viewers who find the placement of sexual jokes and violence scattered and unfocused.

タコピーの原罪 — Takopi's Original Sin

June-August 2025 · 6 episodes · Directed by Shinya Iino · Produced by Enishiya · Available on Crunchyroll and elsewhere — Wikipedia

An alien life form comes down to Earth to make a lonely girl happy, but has no framework to understand what's actually happening to her. The six-episode length is a deliberate choice, and the gap between the cute character design and the subject matter is the whole point of the work. At the 2026 Crunchyroll Awards it was nominated in four categories including Anime of the Year.

Who'll love it — Viewers who prefer short, intense stories and are prepared to sit with discomfort. Who won't — Viewers who have trouble with depictions of child abuse and self-harm. This one has a clear entry barrier.

光が死んだ夏 — The Summer Hikaru Died

July 2025 · Directed by Ryohei Takeshita · Produced by CygamesPictures · Released on Netflix

A boy in a rural village realizes that whatever is now wearing his best friend's body isn't his friend — and chooses to keep it close anyway, knowing that. It's folk horror driven by atmosphere and the uneasy intimacy between two characters, rather than plot events. At the 2026 Crunchyroll Awards it was nominated for Anime of the Year and Best New Series, and a second season has been confirmed.

Who'll love it — Viewers who like unexplained dread layered with the emotional register of adolescence. Who won't — Viewers who find the slow pace of events frustrating.

呪術廻戦 第3期 死滅回游 — Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3: The Culling Game

January-March 2026 · 12 episodes · Produced by MAPPA · Aired on Crunchyroll, released on Netflix July 2026 — Anime News Network

Begins as sorcerers are drawn into a nationwide death game. It's the arc the manga's readers had waited longest for, and it was the most-watched anime on Netflix in the first half of 2026, logging 9.4 million views. A fourth season has been confirmed.

Who'll love it — Viewers who've followed the series, and those who come for MAPPA's battle direction. Who won't — Readers already skeptical of the source material's later arcs.

Drama — Between Netflix and NHK

Japanese drama's international presence has effectively been built by Netflix, while its domestic prestige still belongs to NHK. The two axes came away with completely different report cards.

イクサガミ — Last Samurai Standing

November 2025 · Directed by Michihito Fujii · Starring Junichi Okada · Netflix — Netflix official announcement

In 1878, 292 samurai who've lost their place in the world kill their way toward Tokyo, chasing an enormous cash prize. It borrows the battle-royale format, but what it's actually interested in is what became of the warrior class in a country that abolished it. It hit number one globally on Netflix's weekly non-English series chart, made the Top 10 in 88 countries, and held the number one spot in Japan for four straight weeks. A second season has been confirmed.

Who'll love it — Viewers who find the combination of a period piece and a survival-genre format interesting. Who won't — Viewers who find it hard to get attached to characters in a structure with this much recurring death.

べらぼう — Berabou

2025 · NHK Taiga drama · Starring Ryusei Yokohama — Oricon report

Covers the life of Juzaburo Tsutaya, the Edo-period publisher who discovered Utamaro and Sharaku — a story of prosperity and dreams built around his rise. That an NHK Taiga drama was built around media and commerce rather than war was unusual in itself. The result split cleanly down the middle. Household ratings were the second-lowest in Taiga drama history, while NHK Plus streaming views set a Taiga drama record high. Total viewership averaged 14.91 million.

Worth adding: lead actor Ryusei Yokohama also had a major role that same year in Kokuho, the top-grossing live-action film of 2025.

Who'll love it — Viewers who want a period drama about publishing and distribution rather than politics. Who won't — Viewers for whom committing to 52 episodes across a full year is itself too much.

The List at a Glance

Titles without a confirmed way to watch are listed as such. Japanese films often take a long time to move from domestic theatrical release to streaming.

Closing — A Year of Records, But Also a Year the Middle Disappeared

Look at these 18 titles together, and it becomes clear the Japanese film market has split apart at the top and bottom. At the top sit a 40-billion-yen manga IP and a 20-billion-yen exceptional outlier. At the bottom sit films that won at Locarno and Cannes yet remain hard to find a way to watch domestically. The mid-budget films that used to fill the space in between have visibly thinned out.

Anime tells a similar story. In the same year Infinity Castle Arc became the highest-grossing Japanese film ever, Mamoru Hosoda's new film opened to about a quarter of his previous film's opening-weekend audience. It probably means the era when a name alone could draw a crowd has ended in animation too.

Which is what makes the scene at 2026 Cannes interesting. Three Japanese directors landed in competition together for the first time in 25 years, with a Korean director as jury president. It also suggests that films of a scale that's lost its footing within the market are being evaluated outside the market instead. Whether that's a good sign or not probably won't be clear until we see how these films actually reach audiences.