A.li.ce (1999)
Anime/Dystopian Future/Time Travel
This was the first anime film made in CGI, an ambitious SF film involving a time travel plot and a struggle against a machine-dominated future
Anime
Anime refers to Animation produced in Japan. Anime has a number of distinctive differences from regular mainstream animation. It deals with subject matter in often more complex ways than the formulas of US animation, which is largely perceived as being for children.
Anime can be recognised by distinctive features. One of these is the design of the characters, which often (although not always) come with oversized eyes that can take up half their face. Other features can include wild and colourful hair or elongated bodies that can be three-quarters legs.
Anime can be pitched to young girls (shoujo) or young boys (shonin). There is also a body of anime that has often perverse sexual content (hentai). Plots covers fantasy subjects, talking animals, animal transformation and epic fantasy, or science-fiction themes like Cyberpunk, space opera, superhero and power-suit fantasies.
One distinctive genre to emerge from anime was that of the giant robot genre of 1960s tv, concerning giant human-powered robots and Mecha. This led to the Transformers fad of the 1980s, an anime tv series designed as a spinoff of the toy line.
Anime had been produced since the 1910s, gained popularity in the 1960s and 70s primarily on tv. The breakthrough film was Akira (1988), which created a cult for anime in the West. This had led to a fandom that has its own conventions and fans who cosplays as characters. Anime fandom has grown to the extent that there is now a far larger audience for anime outside of Japan than among native Japanese audiences.
From the 1990s onwards, there have been a number of live-action film adaptations of anime, made both by Japanese and Hollywood filmmakers. These are covered under Animation in Live-Action.
Aachi & Ssipak (2006)
Demented Korean Anime
South Korean anime that is set in a future world where people are obsessed with shit. This comes with a demented energy and a filthy-mindedness that is determined to outrage
Akira (1988)
Anime/Psychic Powers Amok
The film that created the cult of anime in the West. Essentially a Cyberpunk version of The Fury, this has been construed as a series of climaxes that get progressively larger in scale until they almost reach a point of sensory overload
Alakazam the Great (1961)
Mischievous Monkey's Adventures/Animation
Anime version of the classic tale Chinese legend Journey to the West made Osamu Tezuka, this comes with a fast-paced action and is undeniably likable
Angel’s Egg (1985)
Anime/Surreal Journey Across an Alien World
One of the earliest works of anime director Mamoru Oshii, later famous for Ghost in the Shell. This is a plotless, almost dialogueless work about a young girl journeying across a strange planet that is more surrealism than SF
The Animatrix (2003)
Compilation of Matrix Anime Shorts
To accompany their two Matrix sequels, The Wackowskis hired seven anime directors to each make a short film set in The Matrix universe. The results are often quite remarkable
Anthem of the Heart (2015)
Anime/Girl Cursed With Being Unable to Speak
Sweet and tender anime about a young girl who has a curse placed on her that causes her to lose her voice and how this actually allows everyone around her to voice things they don’t say.
Appleseed (1988)
Anime/Future Anti-Terrorist Squad
The first anime film to be based on the manga, this is set in a future where the heroine is the head of a heavily armoured SWAT team fighting terrorists. Several different incarnations followed.
Appleseed (2004)
Anime/Future Anti-Terrorist Squad
A dazzling reboot of the earlier manga/anime made with stunning photorealistic animation design and breathtaking action scenes that made this a benchmark for modern anime. Sequels followed.
Appleseed Alpha (2014)
Anime/Post-Holocaust Cyborg Action
Shinji Aramaki returns to the Appleseed franchise for a third time with this prequel. Though it abandons the Cyberpunk milieu, Aramaki crafts action scenes with a stunning realism
Appleseed Ex Machina (2007)
Anime/Future Anti-Terrorist Squad
Shinji Aramaki’s immediate sequel to his reboot of the Appleseed franchise. This lacks the visually stunning qualities of its predecessor and seems more conceptually muddled but Aramaki eventually gets it together
Arrietty (2010)
Anime/Miniature People Adventures
Studio Ghibli tackle Mary Norton’s classic books about a miniature family that live inside the walls of a house. Norton’s essential Englishness translates surprisingly well to anime and the results are quite magical
Astro Boy (2009)
Anime TV Series Remake/Android Boy
This animated theatrical remake of the old Astro Boy cartoon series is nicely made, although the film often feels over-simplistic in its scripting and use of cliches
Batman: Gotham Knight (2008)
Compilation of Batman Anime Shorts
Taking a leaf from The Wachowskis with The Animatrix, DC went to Japan and hired a bunch of anime directors to deliver an anthology of six different animated Batman stories
Batman Ninja (2018)
Batman Anime
This gets full marks for a WTF set-up, an anime that imagines Batman and most of the villains transplanted back to feudal Japan. There is fun to seeing the familiar characters reinterpreted in terms of Japanese imagery
Batman Ninja vs Yakuza League (2025)
Batman Anime
A sequel to Batman Ninja, which offered an anime treatment of Batman. This gives us a bizarre alternate Yakuza-ruled Japan with versions of the Justice League working for them
Beauty Water (2020)
Anime/Extreme Beauty Product
South Korean-made anime that takes a dive into horror grotesquerie in the story of a beauty product that offers to reshape flesh and a girl who becomes obsessed with it
Belladonna of Sadness (1973)
Anime Erotica/Temptation by the Devil
Osama Tezuka is a cult figure in anime and manga – what is less well known is that he also made adult animation. This, about a woman’s temptation by The Devil in mediaeval France, is a mind-boggling array of psychedelia and eroticism
Belle (2021)
Anime/Beauty and the Beast in Virtual Reality
A beautiful anime from Momoru Hosoda that retells Beauty and the Beast and spins it in SF terms as tale about a girl who finds fame as a singer in Virtual Reality
Blood: The Last Vampire (2000)
Vampire Battles Demons/Anime
Stunning Mamoru Oshii-prodcued anime short about a vampire girl who operates as an American agent eliminating vampires in post-War Japan
Blue Remains (2000)
Anime/Underwater Post-Holocaust Environmentalism
Epic and beautifully animated anime set largely underwater about the struggle to save a dying Earth from an evil super-computer that wants eradicate humanity
The Boy and the Beast (2015)
Anime/Boy Becomes Apprentice to a Beast Warrior
If Hayao Miyazaki ever follows through on his threat to retire, the one most likely inheritor would be Mamoru Hosoda. This is a perfectly enjoyably film that is sort of The Karate Kid by way of Disney’s The Jungle Book
The Boy and the Heron (2023)
Anime/Boy Enters Otherworld
The twelfth film from Hayao Miyzaki at age 82, a quasi-autobiographical if a slightly less classic work. A renaissance of many Miyazaki themes as a boy follows a heron though into a strange fantasy otherworld
Bubble (2022)
Anime/Mysterious Bubble Covers Tokyo
Anime in which Tokyo is covered by a mysterious energy bubble of alien origin and of a group of defiant youths who live on in its midst until the appearance of a mystery girl
The Cat Returns (2002)
Anime/Girl's Adventure in the World of Cats
Studio Ghibli anime in which a girl saves the life of a cat only to be drawn into a world of cats where a cat prince decides she will be his bride
Children Who Chase Lost Voices from the Deep (2011)
Anime/Lost Underground Realm
Makoto Shinkai conducts a flawless capturing of Hiyao Miyazaki’s style – the clean simplicity of the animation, reverence for nature, the tender intimacy of the characters – in this beautifully animated work about the discovery of an underground realm
Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (2001)
Anime/Future Bounty Hunters
The feature film spinoff of a cult anime tv series
Darkside Blues (1994)
Anime/Dark Future/Mysterious Stranger
Anime where a mysterious other-dimensional stranger aids future rebels. This has a wonderfully ornate Gothic feel but an entirely confusing plot
Demon City Shinjuku (1988)
Anime/Suburb of Tokyo Taken Over by Demonic Forces
Anime from Yoshiaki Kawajiri, director of Wicked City and Ninja Scroll, concerning a suburb of Tokyo that is transformed into a borderland zone inhabited by demonic forces
Digimon: The Movie (2000)
Animation/Cute Cyber-Creatures
The first film from Mamoru Hosoda based on a tv series that was a blatant attempt to copy the Pokemon phenomenon and concerning cute creatures that live on the internet
The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya (2010)
Anime/Alternate Timeline/Reality-Bending Teenager
Extraordinary anime where the members of an after school club secretly harbour great powers. From there, this expands out with reality-bending scope
Dracula (1980)
Anime/Dracula vs Satanism
Not an adaptation of Bram Stoker but an anime based on the Marvel comic-book Tomb of Dracula (the same title that gave birth to Blade)
Drifting Home (2022)
Anime/Apartment Building Drifts Out to Sea
Peculiar but very nicely made anime about a group of children who go on a fantastical journey in an abandoned apartment building that is washed away to sea
Earwig and the Witch (2020)
Anime/Witch’s Apprentice
Charming anime from Hayao Miyazaki’s son Goro about a young girl adopted into a witch’s strange household. The occasion where Studio Ghibli made the switch over to computer animation
The Empire of Corpses (2015)
Anime/Alternate Victorian England Based on Frankenstein Technology
Fascinatingly original anime set in an alternate history Steampunk version of Victorian England that has developed a technology based on Frankenstein’s corpse resurrection experiments
Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone (2007)
Anime/Invasion by Vast Alien Machines
The first in a series of film reboots of the Neon Genesis Evangelion anime tv series. Epic animation but you need to the part of the fanbase of the original to understand what is going on
Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance (2009)
Anime/Invasion by Vast Alien Machines
The second of the Neon Genesis Evangelion reboot films, this gets the essentials right and delivers some stunningly epic anime action scenes
Evangelion 3.0: You Can (Not) Redo (2012)
Anime/Invasion by Vast Alien Machines
Third of the Neon Genesis Evangelion reboot films. These films are frustrating – filled with stunning scenes of mecha battling cryptic alien machines but baffling as to what is going on
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (2005)
Anime/Computer Game Adaptation
Not a seventh sequel to Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, this adapts the videogame of the same name. Dazzling anime action but is take-no-prisoners with explanations about what is happening to non game players
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)
Anime/Alien Soul Devourers
Despite being made by the same company, this has absolutely nothing to do with the Final Fantasy videogame. It is a visually stunning work of anime that takes place on an epic scale set after Earth has been invaded by spirit beings
Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos (2011)
Anime TV Series Spinoff/Magician Heroes
Film spinoff from the popular anime tv series that seems caught between a film and a tv episode. While the film reaches for epic scale, the usual run of power blasts, there is nothing that we haven’t seen before
Galaxy Express 999 (1979)
Anime Space Opera
Classic anime space opera adventure made not long after Star Wars and filled with moments of glorious visual poetry including the conceptually absurd image of a spacegoing train
Genius Party Beyond (2008)
Anime Anthology
An anthology of short anime pieces from five different directors. Episodes range from traditional anime and Cyberpunk to mind-expanding surrealism
Genocidal Organ (2017)
Anime/The Manipulation of Language to Create Genocide
An extraordinary anime adapted from Project Itoh, a conceptually challenging work concerning a villain who can manipulate language to drive populations to genocide
Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (2004)
Cyberpunk Anime
Mamoru Oshii’s follow-up to Ghost in the Shell where he makes a work that pushes both an artistic envelope at the same time as taking his philosophical fascination with the Cyberpunk world to a stunning level
Ghost in the Shell (1995)
Cyberpunk Anime
Classic anime from Mamoru Oshii, a Cyberpunk work with a heroine who is a cyborg special forces officer, a work that delves deeply into the philosophical questions of what is human and what is machine
Ghost in the Shell: Arise (2013-2014)
Cyberpunk Anime
Reboot of the Ghost in the Shell series in a quartet of prequel stories. This funnels the essence of Cyberpunk superbly, creating a dazzling world with cyborgised security services fighting terrorists hacking people’s brains
Ghost in the Shell (2015)
Cyberpunk Anime
Another anime film in the Ghost in the Shell franchise. This was the fifth episode of the Ghost in the Shell: Arise reboot series that received a theatrical release
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006)
Anime/Time Travel
Mamoru Hosoda delivers an appealingly sweet anime about a girl who discovers that she has the ability to travel through time. Based on a popular Japanese Young Adult novel
Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle (2018)
Anime/Japanese Monster Movie
The second of the anime Godzilla films and much more successful than its predecessor. The reconceptions of some of the classic monsters has a dazzling ambitiousness while Godzilla has all the ferocity it should have had in the first film
Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters (2017)
Anime/Japanese Monster Movie
The 30th Japanese Godzilla film, this is the first anime Godzilla film and the first in a trilogy. More disappointingly, it is more a space opera and planetary adventure than it is ever a Godzilla film
Godzilla: The Planet Eater (2018)
Anime/Japanese Monster Movie
The concluding chapter in the trilogy of Godzilla anime films. This reintroduces two familiar monsters but takes a long time to build to the monster bash we have come to see
Halo Legends (2010)
Compilation of Anime Shorts/Videogame Adaptation/Space War
A compilation of shorts from anime directors set in the Halo videogame universe. The first two episodes have a breathtaking scale but the others are bitsy stories but nothing standout
Harmony (2015)
Anime/Disquiet Utopia
Anime set in a disquiet utopia where the populace is monitored by cyber implants. Almost completely eschewing the usual action scenes of sf anime, this tells a strong, intelligent and character-driven story
Highlander: The Search for Vengeance (2007)
Immortal Combat/Anime
The Highlander series conducts an anime variant on the franchise set in a post-apocalyptic future. Co-directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri of Ninja Scroll fame who adds some highly stylised moves
Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)
Anime/Epic Fantasy
This Hayao Miyazaki film about a girl who becomes assistant to a mysterious magician is not quite in the same league as Princess Mononoke or Spirited Away but has the sublime beauty, eccentric characters and tender charms that all his work does
Interstella 5555 (2003)
Anime/Intergalactic Rock Band
Dance music duo Daft Punk collaborate with anime directors to create an animated space opera based on their album Discovery
Iron Man: Rise of Technovore (2013)
Anime/Marvel Comics Superhero
An animated Marvel films released at the same time as Iron Man Three. Action scenes that kick every Marvel animated film out of the park and lots of Marvel fanservice cameos even if it doesn’t quite come together
Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade (1998)
Anime/Werewolf Anti-Terrorist Squad
Conceptually ambitious anime that builds a complex metaphor out of Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf in a story centred aroundthe self-doubting member of an anti-terrorist squad
Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)
Anime/Young Witch's Adventures
One of the loveliest of Hayao Miyazaki’s anime, the story of a young witch who creates a parcel delivery service using her broomstick . As always, Miyazaki gives the film is simple beauty and an adult emotional complexity that finds far more adult depth than anything in the equivalent Harry Potter series
Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV (2016)
Anime/Computer Game Adaptation
Anime film released to accompany the latest version of the computer game. This is dazzling, epic-sized animation, mocapped in photorealistic detail that wows the eye on a scale that Western animators never come near. Less convincing is the setting that mixes standard fantasy with modern technology
Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986)
Anime/Lost Floating City
Visually stunning Hayao Miyazaki film about the search for a lost city of the clouds Soaring adventure in an alternate world of airship fantasies before arriving at the title location, rendered in a series of breathtaking vistas
Legend of the Overfiend (1989)
Anime/Teen Demon
Cult anime about a demon war on Earth that quite takes you back with extremes of violence and sexual fetishism
Lensman (1984)
Anime/Space Opera
E.E. ‘Doc’ Smith’s space opera books are given the anime treatment, which abandons much adherence to the source material and ends up more as a copy of Star Wars
A Letter to Momo (2011)
Anime/Girl Befriends Goblins
Anime about the oddball friendship between a teenage girl and three goblins. Strongly reminiscent of Hayao Miyazaki’s My Neighbor Totoro, it becomes a film about a girl’s deep feeling for her parents that eventually ends up being greatly affecting
Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (1989)
Anime/Boy's Adventures in Dreams
Anime film based on Winsor McCay’s celebrated surrealist comic strip about a boy’s adventures in dreams. Despite some impressive names involved, including a script from Ray Bradbury, the film waters the comic-strip down to the formula of the modern children’s film
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (2024)
Epic Fantasy/Anime
A spinoff prequel to the Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films that takes the option that several other film/videogame franchises have of Going Anime
Lu Over the Wall (2017)
Anime/Mermaid Girl
An appealingly charming anime about the friendship between a lonely boy and a mermaid. She gains legs whenever music is playing and they form a pop band together
Maboroshi (2023)
Anime/Town Caught in a Timeloop
Anime that is a variant on Groundhog Day about a town that becomes caught in a time pocket following an industrial accident with the residents forced to live in the same day
Malice@doll (2001)
Anime/Sex Robot Becomes Human
Perversely original anime about a sex robot in the aftermath of civilisation who is transformed into a human. Imagine Pinocchio by way of H.R. Giger
Mary and the Witch’s Flower (2017)
Anime/Young Witch
The third film from former Studio Ghibli employee Hiromasa Yonebayashi. Yonebayashi is seen as the carrier of Hayao Miyazaki’s mantle, so much do his films look like lost Miyazaki works. This is sweet and amiable, even if it never hits the emotional heights Miyazaki does
Mass Effect: Paragon Lost (2012)
Anime/Videogame Adaptation
Another instance of a computer game or film franchise turning to anime to conduct a spinoff. While Mass Effect has an impressive reputation on the console screen, the film here is a dull piece that only comes in around the level of a production line animated tv episode
Memories (1995)
Anime Anthology
An anthology made up of three short films all adapted from the works of Katsihiro Otomo of Akira fame, of which Otomo also directs one of the segments
Metropolis (2001)
Anime/Retro Future/Android Girl
Stunning anime remake of Metropolis based on an Osasmu Tezuka. The visuals and particularly the design are overwhelming – like a Cyberpunk film set in a stylised Art Deco world
Millennium Actress (2001)
Anime/Actress's Surreal Biography
An anime from Satoshi Kon that tells the story of an actress and become a surreal journey through Japanese cinematic history
Mindgame (2004)
Surrealist Anime
Anime based on an autobiographical manga that leaps off into a variety of styles and comes filled with madcap surrealistic visuals
Mirai (2018)
Anime/Boy Meets Family from the Future and Past
Mamoru Hosoda film nominated for the Best Animated Film at Academy Awards. A young boy jealous at the arrival of a baby sister is visited by her future self and travels through time to meet his family at different periods
My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
Anime/Children Befriend Mysterious Creature
Possibly the most perfect of all Hayao Miyazaki’s anime, a work about childhood featuring an array of charmingly eccentric creatures. It is a film of absolutely magical charms beneath which lies a swim of adult emotions that children’s films rarely touch upon
Nausicaa in the Valley of the Wind (1984)
Anime/Post-Holocaust Environmentalism
Hayao Miyazaki’s second film, a visually stunning work set in the aftermath of a holocaust. Miyazai’s frequent themes of pacifism and respect for the environment and run through building to a emotionally wrenching climax
Ninja Scroll (1993)
Anime/Ninja vs Demonic Forces
One of the most extraordinary of all anime films – apparently a favourite of The Wachowskis (you can see they’ve borrowed moves from it), concerning ninja facing supernaturally empowered assassins demonic forces, directed with an extraordinary visual stylism
Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror (2009)
Anime/Adventures in a Magical Otherworld
Exquisitely lovely anime set in a world of creatures that live on scavenged human junk. If in the end, the heroine’s allegorical quest is on the generic side, the film captivates you with the richness of colour and detail that has gone into imagining its world
Paprika (2006)
Anime/Dream Therapy Device
A venture inside the dreamscape from anime director Satoshi Kon who creates a beautifully animated work even if some of the ideas become excessively convoluted
Patema Inverted (2013)
Anime/Two Worlds With Gravity in Opposing Directions
This anime has a surprising number of similarities to Upside Down, which was released one year earlier, both being set in two different worlds where gravity in each operates in the opposite directions and of the forbidden relationship between a boy and a girl from either world
Patlabor: The Mobile Police (1989)
Anime/Police Amok-Robot Squad
Early anime from Mamoru Oshii of Ghost in the Shell fame about a police squad set up to deal with giant robots gone amok. All of Oshii’s visuals and fascinating play of ideas are present
Perfect Blue (1997)
Anime/Psycho-Thriller
The directorial debut of Satoshi Kon, overseen by Katsuhiro Otomo, an anime concerning a troubled Japanese pop singer being cyber-stalked by a doppelganger
The Place Promised in Our Early Days (2004)
Anime/Alternate History/Mysterious Tower
Beautiful anime from Makoto Shinkai, made in the Hayao Miyazaki style set in an alternate history Japan concerning a mysterious hyper-dimensional tower
Planzet (2010)
Anime/Giant Robots vs Alien Invaders
Anime that has clearly been modelled along the lines of Neon Genesis Evangelion Initially, the animation is conducted with a dazzlingly realistic textured look but once the giant robot action scenes take over, these seem increasingly absurd in their anthropomorphism
Pokemon The First Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back (1998)
Animation/Cute Creatures
The first film spun off from the popular Pokemon phenomenon and animated series, this is largely incomprehensible to anyone who is not familiar with the series
Pokemon: The Power of One (1999)
Animation/Cute Creatures
The second of the animated films spun off around the Pokemon phenomenon and an altogether better film than its predecessor due to some imaginative animation
Pom Poko (1994)
Anime/Raccoons Declare War on Humanity
Delightful and charming Studio Ghibli film about shape-changing raccoons that blend with humanity when their forest is threatened
Ponyo on a Cliff By the Sea (2008)
Anime/Fish Girl Becomes Human
Probably the least great of Hayao Miyazaki’s films. The plot feels recycled from The Little Mermaid while Miyazaki’s recurrent themes seem more perfunctory and the film lacks many of the beautiful contrasts of epic and fragile he specialises in
Porco Rosso (1992)
Anime/Talking Pig Aviator
Hayao Miyazaki in a more whimsical comedic mood with this story of the adventures of a talking pig aviator. Even when in a lighter vein, Miyazaki cannot help but fill the film with images of charm and considerable beauty
Princess Mononoke (1997)
Anime/Epic Fantasy
Stunning work of fantasy from Hayao Miyazaki. Made on an epic-sized story canvas and with a breathtaking beauty, this is one of the few original screen works to capture something of the nature and scale of written epic fantasy
Psycho-Pass (2015)
Anime/Future Crime Prediction Force
Film spinoff of an anime series about a future police force that uses a system to monitor the brains of the populace for the potential to commit crime. Reminiscent of Minority Report, this is not uninteresting, although falls short of being another Appleseed or Ghost in the Shell
The Red Turtle (2016)
Animation/Castaway Befriends Turtle Woman
Studio Ghibli’s first ever international co-production. A desert island castaway fantasy, this makes interesting comparison to the recent Robinson Crusoe/The Wild Life, even if both films are poles apart in style. This is dialogueless, spare and contained with a minimalism of plot and drama
Resident Evil: Damnation (2012)
Anime/Videogame Adaptation
The second of the Resident Evil anime films. This is set before the release of the T-Virus and focuses on origin stories for some of the characters
Resident Evil: Degeneration (2008)
Anime/Videogame Adaptation
The first in a series of anime films that were produced by Capcom, the creators of the Resident Evil videogames, and intended to run parallel to the live-action films. I was never a big fan of the live-action films. The question is – does Resident Evil work better in the anime format?
Robot Carnival (1987)
Anime Anthology of Robot Tales
One of the earliest works from Katsuhiro Otomo, the cult director of Akira, although he only contributes one episode to an anthology of anime tales with the common theme of robots. The collection contains some impressive and visually striking episodes
Roujin Z (1991)
Anime/Rampaging Hospital Bed
Katsuhiro Otomo written anime that functions as a parody of the school of Transformer robots as the artificially intelligent hospital bed of a geriatric becomes a giant ramshackle colossus rampaging through the city
Scarlet (2025)
Anime/Journey Across the Afterlife
Mamoru Hosoda conducts the bizarre notion of an anime version of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It is a Hamlet that Shakespeare would barely recognise, following a heroine as she makes a journey across the afterlife