Redline 

(Action packed with slight nudity) 

Summary: In the future people from all over the universe race in high action, dangerous competitions for glory and fame. This year’s REDLINE (a championship race that occurs every five years) is being held on a hostile foreign planet that wants nothing but to destroy all the racers before they stumble upon dangerous government secrets. The characters must race while also dogging the attacks of the army who are trying to stop the racers by any means necessary.

Notes: This movie is sort of like speed racer meets Mario Kart. Some cars can turn into mechs and fight each other! There is also a giant monster battle during the race and there’s even a romantic subplot. It has a really neat animation style with thick black lines and shading which only adds to the wow factor.

Summer Wars

(Action packed in a wholesome way) 

Summary: Math genius Kenji Koiso accidentally helps an A.I. hack into OZ (a super powerful website that controls basically the entire world) while on a trip with his crush Natsuki Sakuraba to her hometown. This A.I. starts wreaking havoc on the world, eventually trying to crash a satellite into a nuclear powerplant nearby his crushes house, threatening to kill all of them. Now Kenji and his found family have to stop this hostile A.I. before he causes devastating damage.

Notes: Most of the action in this movie happens in the virtual world. In the real world, Kenji is at his crushes family home for her great-grandma’s birthday to pose as her fiancé. Her family ends up getting wrapped in all the virtual drama and Kenji becomes very close with the family.

Paprika

(Intense, inception like with moderate nudity) 

Summary: When genius man child, Kōsaku Tokita, creates a device called the DC Mini which allows doctors to dive into people’s dreams, his research team is excited about the prospect of using it to help the mentally ill. However, due to his carelessness it gets stolen by someone bent on stealing people’s dreams and turning them insane. A skilled dream diver named Paprika now has to search through the dreams of the insane in order to find the perpetrator and stop all of Neo-Tokyo’s citizens from being corrupted.

Notes: One of Satoshi Kon’s best works. It has very fluid animation, great music that really helps you feel the disorientation and insanity of the stolen dreams, and Kon’s signature trippy and slightly confusing editing and plot. I recommend any of Kon’s other works but Paprika is my favorite because of how much personality it has.