Like a certain skyscraper-size radioactive monster, HBO Max is always going through changes — be they existential or in name only. The latest shift? Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming service is adding 20 acclaimed Japanese films to its library starting September 1, a mix of idiosyncratic anime and live-action titles that will be exclusive to the platform in the United States. Many of the movies, which are licensed by GKIDS, either haven’t been released on streaming in North America before or, in some cases, have had their licenses lapse for years.
Notable entries in the lineup include Makoto Shinkai’s Your Name. in its 4K streaming debut, 2024’s charming Ghost Cat Anzu, Hideaki Anno’s bureaucracy parable (and city-quaking monster movie) Shin Godzilla, and Angel’s Egg, a 1985 art film directed by Ghost in the Shell’s Mamoru Oshii, legally available to stream Stateside for the first time. Films by celebrated directors Satoshi Kon, Masaaki Yuasa, Mamoru Hosoda, and Naoko Yamada will land on the service in the coming months.
HBO Max beefing up its library with GKIDS titles comes in no way as a surprise. The respected licenser now owned by Japanese conglomerate Toho is already the North American steward of the streaming service’s beloved Studio Ghibli titles. And like every other major streamer in 2025, HBO Max has an anime strategy — in its case, one that blends releasing original titles co-produced by its corporate cousins at Warner Bros. Animation, like The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, with buzzy licensing plays like this one. And this slate of titles from the so-called “A24 of animation” is mostly geared toward mature viewers and tracks with WBD CEO David Zaslav’s retreat from children’s entertainment. Its licensing relationship with GKIDS (the name notwithstanding) is insulated from that, at least until the company splits up again in mid-2026.
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Below is a list of the titles hitting the service on September 1. We’ve given a 🏆 to the ones worth watching first.
• Children Who Chase Lost Voices (directed by Makoto Shinkai)
• Fireworks (directed by Akiyuki Shinbo, Noboyuki Takeuchi)
• Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko (directed by Ayumu Watanabe) (North American streaming debut)
• 🏆 Ghost Cat Anzu (directed by Yôko Kuno, Nobuhiro Yamashita) (North American streaming debut)
• Lonely Castle in the Mirror (directed by Keiichi Hara) (North American streaming debut)
• Love & Pop (directed byHideaki Anno) (North American streaming debut)
• The Place Promised in Our Early Days (directed by Makoto Shinkai)
• 🏆 Your Name. (directed by Makoto Shinkai) (4K streaming debut)
And these are the titles that will arrive on the service later in 2025 and 2026:
• 🏆 Angel’s Egg (directed by Mamoru Oshii) (North American streaming debut, 4K streaming debut)
• Liz and the Blue Bird (directed by Naoko Yamada)
• Lu Over the Wall (directed by Masaaki Yuasa)
• Millennium Actress (directed by Satoshi Kon)
• Mind Game (directed by Masaaki Yuasa)
• 🏆 Perfect Blue (directed by Satoshi Kon) (4K streaming debut)
• 🏆 Shin Godzilla (directed by Hideaki Anno, co-director Shinji Higuchi) (4K streaming debut)
• Summer Wars (directed by Mamoru Hosoda) (4K streaming debut)
• The Boy and the Beast (directed by Mamoru Hosoda) (4K streaming debut)
• 🏆 The Colors Within (directed by Naoko Yamada) (North American streaming debut)
• The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (directed by Mamoru Hosoda) (4K streaming debut)
• 🏆 Wolf Children (directed by Mamoru Hosoda) (4K streaming debut)
