Directed by Isao Takahata and based on a concept by Hayao Miyazaki, this is a charming early-career classic from two animation legends before they co-founded the award-winning Studio Ghibli. 

Intended to address the crisis levels of pollution in postwar Japan, the King of the Monsters fights an alien life form that arrives on Earth and steadily grows by feeding on industrial waste. Director Yoshimitsu Banno infuses the film with equal parts ecological horror, humorous monster antics, and sixties psychedelia straight out of San Francisco, making for a truly unique—and divisive—entry in the series.

A Japanese businessman goes on an unwitting journey of self-discovery when he takes a company trip from Tokyo to a Montana cattle ranch