"Bungaku Shoujo" Movie - Recommendations

• TV (26 eps)
• 2001

Tohru Honda is a compassionate girl who is down on her luck. Her mother having recently died, she has been forced to camp out in the woods for shelter. However, things start to turn around once she is invited to live with class hunk Yuki Sohma and his family... but all is not as it seems! Yuki's family is burdened with a dark curse which causes them to turn into the animals of the Chinese zodiac once hugged by a member of the opposite sex... and Honda may be the only one who can help them.

• Movie (1 ep x 90 min)
• 2004

At the end of World War II, Japan was split and a great tower was erected that reached the skies. For three friends, Hiroki, Takuya, and Sayuri, memories of their summer spent together would stay with them forever. During that precious time, the three promised to one day travel to the tower in the skies on the wings of a white plane -- to finally see its brilliance and the surrounding land of Ezo -- but when Sayuri suddenly disappeared from their lives, the promise that once was made was broken. Though time continues to pass, will the three ever meet again some day?

• Movie (1 ep x 111 min)
• 1995

Whisper of the Heart is a touching Ghibli slice-of-life story, about a young girl named Shizuku. While riding the train, she notices a fat cat riding alongside her. Following the cat, she finds a shop where she is told an enchanting story of a gold statue named "The Baron". WotH follows Shizuku in her struggles to grow, and her budding love with the shopkeeper's son.

• TV (12 eps)
• 2007

In a high school setting, there are many people whose stories must be told: Hiro, an aspiring manga artist whose view of the world is "missing a certain color," according to himself; his childhood friend Kei, who is vying for his attention; Kyosuke, a photographer and cameraman who seeks to capture true emotion in his work; the ever-cheerful Miyako, who meets Hiro by chance and immediately becomes attached to him; the gentle Renji, unsure of his aspirations to become a novelist; and Kei's mysterious and quiet sister Chihiro, who seems to be a different person every day. As time passes and they interact with one another more, their paths increasingly intertwine as shades of regrettable pasts emerge.

• TV (13 eps)
• 2008

Natsume is lonely; he has an ability that separates him from others: he can see and interact with spirits. Soon, however, Natsume discovers that he’s not alone: his grandmother Reiko also had the gift. But things get hectic and possibly dangerous for Natsume when he finds out that he also inherited the 'Book of Friends', a book that contains the names of all the spirits Reiko defeated and subjugated. He finds himself hounded by his grandmother's underlings and, with the help of a 'cat' charm spirit, decides to free them from the Book's shackles, as well as protect the book from those who seek to misuse its power...

• TV (13 eps)
• 2004

If life teaches us anything, it is that love sometimes happens in the most unlikely of places, with the most unlikely of people. Koshiro is a run-of-the-mill salaryman who has recently been dumped by his partner. With his heart broken and hope lost, he soon comes to realize that he can love again, once he sets eyes on a beautiful young schoolgirl riding the train. However, there is one catch -- this girl named Nanoka is his sister, who he has not seen in years. Knowing that their forbidden love will always be scrutinized by society; will Koushirou and Nanoka be able to resist the temptation?

• Movie (1 ep x 110 min)
• 1985

Giovanni is a young cat with a troubled childhood -- he is bullied in school, and waits patiently day after day for his father to return from his journey. One festive evening, Giovanni and his friend Campanella find themselves aboard a great train which takes them to the edge of the universe and back. However, in the midst of the sights and wonders, Giovanni soon begins to discover that the train's purpose might be much different than it appears.

• OVA (2 eps x 43 min)
• 2009

Juu Juuzawa is a tough kid in a rough town. One day, he is approached by an odd girl by the name of Ame, who claims that she was connected to him in a past life and insists on serving as Juu's knight. His first reaction is to ignore her, distancing himself as quickly as possible. However, when a serial killer murders one of Juu's classmates and Ame seems to know something about the killings, he is forced into cooperating with her to get to the bottom of the mystery. Can this enigmatic stranger really be trusted?

• Movie (1 ep x 62 min)
• 2007

Although today Tono Takaki and Shinohara Akari live far apart due to a family move shortly after elementary school, they were once two shy young students brought together by their shared differences from their peers. It is because of this that the two built a bond of closeness between them that still survives through their continued correspondence, even over such a distance. Secretly they both fear the loss of this bond over time, and for this reason they arrange a meeting between just the two of them. The journeys both of them take in their minds and in their lives create an atmosphere of intense emotional upheaval, but also a sense of peace. It is a twist of fate and a series of decisions that put the two in place to carry what they choose of their pasts into the future they will create for themselves.

• TV (24 eps)
• 2017 - 2018

Chise Hatori was a child nobody wanted. Told by her own mother that she should never have been born and passed from one neglectful guardian to the next, the young girl has grown up feeling lost, hopeless, and emotionally numb. At age fifteen she sells herself into slavery, desperate for a home where somebody - anybody - actually wants her to be there, and is purchased by a mysterious being with a skull for a head. He whisks Chise off to his home in England and introduces her to a world of talking animals, dragons, and faeries, declaring that she is to become his apprentice in magic... and also his bride!