Drifting Home

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Drifting Home

PG

2022

1h 59m

Adventure

Anime

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

69%

Tomatometer

16 Reviews

80%

Popcornmeter

100+ Ratings

Kosuke and Natsume have been friends since childhood, but as time goes on the relationship between the two sixth graders seems strained as they keep avoiding one another. One day during their summer vacation, they go to a housing complex that is scheduled to be demolished. Having grown up there, the place holds a lot of memories. While playing, they suddenly get caught up in a mysterious phenomenon and when they regain consciousness, they see an entire ocean before them as the housing complex has drifted into a mysterious sea along with Kosuke and Natsume with it. Will they be able to return to their previous world? A summer farewell journey begins.

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Robbie Collin

Daily Telegraph (UK)

'Dreamlike’ is an easy word to swat around with animation – but this strange and beautiful new film from Studio Colorido really does feel like the product of a child’s imagination on rest mode.

Rated: 4/5

Oct 28, 2022

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Kambole Campbell

Polygon

There’s enough liveliness to Drifting Home that two hours in a single location against a minimal background doesn’t actually feel like overkill.

Sep 19, 2022

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Noel Murray

Los Angeles Times

The deep strangeness of “Drifting Home” can take some time to adjust to. But in this quirky and boisterous picture, the surreal predicament is ultimately just an offshoot of these kids’ common fears about growing up.

Sep 16, 2022

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Charles Hartford

But Why Tho? A Geek Community

Drifting Home delivers a strong cast and deep emotional moments, even if it leaves too many questions unanswered and gets a bit drawn out in its final act.

Apr 15, 2023

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Sam Haysom

Mashable

Weird, surreal, imperfect, and — despite its faults — memorably beautiful.

Sep 23, 2022

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Brian Costello

Common Sense Media

It has some of the perpetual problems of anime, such as at least one character too many and some overwrought emo melodrama. Fortunately, these limitations don't distract from the story, and they are far outweighed by everything that works about this movie

Rated: 4/5

Sep 22, 2022

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Tom F

A powerful story of kids finding themselves in either a vivid dream or a dreamy reality, processing childhood memories and feelings as they navigate adolescence.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

09/13/25

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Audience Member

I actually think this movie is pretty good overall. It has the feeling of a fever dream, with surprisingly deep character development. Watching it is a bit like experiencing those strange, vivid dreams you have just before you wake up.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

08/14/25

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Gustavo R

Trippy anime. Childhood friends , Sasuke and Natsume. When Natsume gets nostalgic about the lose of her adopted grandfather, she spends time at the abandoned apartment building where he used to live. When Sasuke and other school friends find her, the whole building appears to be drifting in the ocean. Good animation. Story is a little trippy. Worth to check out for the anime Fan 🍿🍿🍿🍿/5 on Netflix

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

04/10/25

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Paul S

I've seen this movie so many times and it warms my heart every time. The characters are fun and the plot is intriguing, and the visuals the film presents are spectacular. I highly recommend it!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

04/16/25

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THE NASHVILLE I

Very pleasant, but it seriously lacks premise. The characters are well developed and actually likeable enough you stay invested in them. Sadly though the plot really does “Drift” too much without setting up the stakes and ideas in the story.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

06/10/25

Full Review

Joseph R

Love it, it feels like it comes from a child’s imagination. Many people mention how pacing is lacking but, the pacing is better than it ever could be especially when these kids are trapped drifting on an apartment they know precisely how to keep the story going before the audience loses attention. Stunning visuals, there are many points where I was given chills from the animation of some scenes. Amazing stories, again some people mention how the story was predictable, but imagine this from the mind of a child. One thing I haven’t heard enough about is the score there isn’t much I can say but it was amazing, truly can’t put it to words. This is an amazing movie, nowadays people think too literally about movies. One of my favorite things to do is shut my brain off and watch a movie instead of going through a movie and trying to guess what happens next and then precede to call it predictable. A movie being “predictable” isn’t always a bad thing and if you think about it every movie is predictable because of a little thing called the heroes journey. Don’t worry about being predictable worry about executing that predictability.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

01/29/25

Full Review

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Hiroyasu Ishida

Director

Mutsumi Tamura

Kosuke Kumagai

Asami Seto

Natsume Touchi

Daiki Yamashita

Yuzuru Tachibana

Kana Hanazawa

Shuri Ando

Inori Minase

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Synopsis

Kosuke and Natsume have been friends since childhood, but as time goes on the relationship between the two sixth graders seems strained as they keep avoiding one another. One day during their summer vacation, they go to a housing complex that is scheduled to be demolished. Having grown up there, the place holds a lot of memories. While playing, they suddenly get caught up in a mysterious phenomenon and when they regain consciousness, they see an entire ocean before them as the housing complex has drifted into a mysterious sea along with Kosuke and Natsume with it. Will they be able to return to their previous world? A summer farewell journey begins.

Director: Hiroyasu Ishida
Producer: Koji Yamamoto
Screenwriter: Hayashi Mori, Hiroyasu Ishida, Minaka Sakamoto
Production Co: Studio Colorido Co., Twin Engine
Rating: PG (Peril|Language|Brief Smoking|Some Bloody Images|Thematic Material)
Genre: Adventure, Anime
Original Language: Japanese
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 16, 2022
Runtime: 1h 59m
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital

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