King of Thorn

King of Thorn (いばらの王, 2010) is a feature-length Japanese sci-fi anime you can watch online on iFILM. Director Kazuyoshi Katayama adapts Yuji Iwahara's manga: a virus called Medusa is turning people to stone across the globe, and with no cure in reach, 160 of the infected are frozen in cryosleep until science catches up.

Kasumi wakes after an unknown stretch of time — not in a clean lab but inside a collapsed building swallowed by giant thorned vines and crawling with lizard-like beasts. Only a handful of the sleepers are still alive, and they have to work out how long they were under, what wiped out civilization, and why the world looks half-eaten. Kana Hanazawa voices Kasumi. The film runs a tight 109 minutes and stays packed with action, but it's holding back a twist that pays off the whole runtime. A solid pick for fans of bleak survival sci-fi. Stream King of Thorn (2010) online on iFILM.