Studio Ghibli

[Crenners]

What are everyone's favourite Ghibli movies?

While I'd consider myself a fan if anyone asked, or if I were making a list of stuff I like, there are only a few I've wanted to watch twice. I'm not sure why that is.

Two of my favourites are Whisper of the Heart, mostly for the music and the relatively mundane slice of life charm; Porco Rosso for the Mediterranean beauty and the odd tone, a mixture of some kiddie elements and some almost adult elements. The flying sequences are beautiful and peaceful.

Best of all for me, though, is Ocean Waves. I understand it's rather maligned in some quarters as pedestrian high school romance anime, but I love it. It's very low-key and touching and quite painful in its own way. It's been a long time since I felt heartache or the butterflies of unrequited longing, but this film always evokes that lovelorn insecurity.

I've seen Laputa twice and I really love much of the visual design and the romp vibe, and the ending brought me to tears both times. It feels quite long, though. It's not something I'd look forward to sitting through again, oddly enough.

Mononoke, I remember enjoying, but only seen once. Spirited Away, Howl. Never seen Totoro or Kiki for more than fifteen or twenty minutes. Fireflies seems too depressing for me. Not seen the Princess Kaguya.


Love em but not seen em all. How about you?

[Midas]

Grave of the Fireflies - fun for all the family!

[Glebe]

Once in awhile I'll think 'I must watch Princess Mononoko again'. Not seen it for years but remember being mighty impressed.

RE: Whisper of the Heart, that's wonderfully heartwarming and charming. Is Grave of the Fireflies an official Ghibli production? In any case I'm not ashamed to say the ending actually made me cry.

[Endicott]

Wiki lists them as the production company but it's not straight forward. Anyway it's a brilliant film, like you it made me cry.

[Small Man Big Horse]

It's one of those questions which could change depending on the mood I'm in, but currently I'd say Laputa: Castle in the Sky, Porco Rosso, Pom Poko and My Neighbour Totoro were my favourites, but it's a long time since I've seen Spirited Away and Princess Mononoko and really should revisit them.

The only ones I've not seen are Tales from Earthsea and last year's Earwig and the Witch, I will eventually watch them for completist reasons but I've only heard some vaguely positive things about the former, and only negative things about the latter.

[Endicott]

Nausicaä is the one Miyazaki made before Ghibli was established, so it's often assumed to be Ghibli although it's not. Not that it matters, it's a good film.

[Endicott]

I didn't get on with Tales from Earthsea, it was dull, and I really need to catch up with Porco Rosso and Pom Poko. I like Laputa, Totoro is fabulous, but Spirited Away and Princess Mononoko are probably my favourites.

[ImmaculateClump]

It's been years since I saw them and I haven't seen anything after spirited away, but I reckon My Neighbor Totoro is the one that still looms largest.
Just gentle loveliness and a catbus, can't go wrong.

What the, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind isn't studio ghibli! That's my hat fucked.

[Glebe]

I've had Nausicaä on Blu-ray for yonks and still not watched it, what am I like.

[Midas]

Despite the dazzling imagery of classics like Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle, I've found myself going back to Arriety over the last few years. Not entirely sure why, it just seems to radiate a tranquillizing cosiness.

[Wonderful Butternut]

Been a while since I've seen them, but I've never been let down by one.

I'd say Princess Mononoke is probably the best one. Grave of the Fireflies obviously hits right in the feels, just don't watch it if you're already in bad form, and I remember Porco Rosso standing out as playing it's cards surprisingly straight considering the premise is that it's about a pilot who was turned into a pig.

[Jerzy Bondov]

I've seen My Neighbour Totoro more times than I can count and it always lifts my mood. Perfect film.

I love Whisper of the Heart as well, one of the best depictions of the creative process out there.

When Marnie Was There isn't top tier Ghibli, but it is very beautiful and lovely. It would have been a fine film to finish on, but then Goro done Earwig and the whatever it is. Looks like absolute fucking total gash. Good thing Miyazaki senior is coming back to recover Ghibli's glory.

[idunnosomename]

must say I either think Ghibli movies are absolutely incredible or they just they're a bit flat. at least for me, don't think any are bad or anything. I mean I really don't enjoy Nausicaa (not produced by the studio, but basically everyone who worked on it went to to work for them so, basically it is) and Princess Mononoke

Laputa: Castle in the Sky is just a brilliant action romp, absolutely perfect for what it is. owes a fair bit to Indiana Jones and other early 80s family action films

Grave of the Fireflies gets a lot of "augh most miserable movie ever" but it really isn't. the narrative is optimistic, you should feel sad, but it does have a positive spiritual conclusion. maybe you can reflect on it being flawed in its outlook about isolation from society leading to death. dont know really. that's why it's worth watching, it will make you think about stuff.

My Neighbour Totoro is perfect of course. clever marrying of magic with the horrible reality of a parent dying. best of the whole "coming of age" the studio rely on... well basically forever.

Kiki's Delivery Service is fucking brilliant. I also love the dub for Phil Hartman even though they change the narrative a bit for his character. don't care. the Japanese and English versions are slightly different because of it, good.

Porco Rosso is probably their best movie that isn't meant for children at all. such a bizarrely unique bit of magical realism really, but all the better for it. I mean, despite the whole context of the rise of Italian fascism being lost on kids, I think also the character themes would be too adult as well.

Spirited Away I always think is slightly too long but it is nevertheless very clever, especially with the constrained setting and how we explore it with the protagonist.

Howl's Moving Castle got panned so much when it came out, but I thought it worked well in character dynamics, and also having that mecha-in-pastoral idyll that reminded me of Orguss 02. and possibly Zelda 64. and also just looks lovely. it's an intriguing world certainly.

Ponyo and Arietty were quite good. Tales From Earthsea is a narrative disaster however good it looks (also Goro Miyazaki incidentally). I saw The Wind Rises and remember enjoying it.

[Crenners]

I'm reminded of how many Ghibli I've not even seen or considered. It feels like they're past the golden age to me. Howl seems like the last one to really make an impact, though I could well be wrong.

I didn't even think about watching Earthsea, Arietty or The Wind Rises. Should I make amends?

[Small Man Big Horse]

I'm reminded of how many Ghibli I've not even seen or considered. It feels like they're past the golden age to me. Howl seems like the last one to really make an impact, though I could well be wrong.

I didn't even think about watching Earthsea, Arietty or The Wind Rises. Should I make amends?

I've not seen Earthsea and didn't click with Arietty, but then loved The Wind Rises so would definitely recommend watching it, and it gives me hope that Miyazaki Sr's forthcoming film will be essential viewing.

[Catalogue Trousers]

whats the one with them raccoons with massive balls

[Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse]

whats the one with them raccoons with massive balls

Pom Poko. I watched it because lol tanuki-balls and didn't expect it to make me feel stuff the way it did. The tanuki try so hard to stop their home from being destroyed and every time they successfully complete a sabotage mission they celebrate... but it's all too small. The humans just keep coming back.

[Jerzy Bondov]

My Neighbours the Yamadas is worth a watch, it's based on some Japanese newspaper cartoon and is basically just little vignettes of this sweet family doing stuff.

[chveik]

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya is dead good

[bgmnts]

Pom Poko. I watched it because lol tanuki-balls and didn't expect it to make me feel stuff the way it did. The tanuki try so hard to stop their home from being destroyed and every time they successfully complete a sabotage mission they celebrate... but it's all too small. The humans just keep coming back.

Won't lie that's pretty triggering. Grim.

[Pavlov`s Dog`s Dad`s Dead]

They've never made a stinker, have they? Although I haven't seen the Earwig thing. Even Earthsea is visually astounding, even if - as mentioned above - it's all over the place as a narrative. Le Guin hated it, apparently, not least for white-washing Ged. But there are plenty of studios that would have given their right arms to have made it.

I'd like to speak up for Ponyo in particular, though. It seemed almost a return to Totoro levels of simplicity after the epic scale of Spirited Away and Howls Moving Castle. The fact that the father of the family is away at sea was apparently Miyazaki Senior's way of apologising to his family for putting in such long hours at the studio. The ramen that the mother cooks up remains my platonic ideal of comfort food. These themes of the conflicting impulses of parental love, over-protectiveness and, ultimately,  forgiveness are dealt with beautifully, and the scene with the empty wheelchairs in the old peoples home never fails to reduce me to a blubbering wreck. I lost my mum a couple of weeks ago, and just thinking of that scene now is bringing the tears to my eyes. I genuinely think that, if any single film can be said to sum Ghibli's virtues up, it is Ponyo.

Ok, now I've said that, what is it with Miyazaki's obsession over small flying things carrying much larger cargos?

[samadriel]

Great to see Porco Rosso getting lots of love in this thread, it's in my top five favourite movies. My next favourite is Kiki's Delivery Service; I don't know what to say about it, I just love it so much. I think maybe Adventure Time owes a debt to Ghibli, with the character of Marceline reminiscent of Ursula, and Jake of Jiji.

Next favourite is Spirited Away, which I think is their best-looking film. The bathhouse and the city lights are stunning.

I wasn't a big fan of Princess Mononoke, so I haven't rewatched it. I remember liking Howl's Moving Castle, but I don't remember the details. I mention those because they're easily the favourites on the Facebook Ghibli page.

I have a soft spot for Miyazaki's pre-Ghibli movie, The Castle of Cagliostro, it's a heck of an adventure.

[greenman]

Ok, now I've said that, what is it with Miyazaki's obsession over small flying things carrying much larger cargos?

I'm guessing its a good way to give a sense of weight, a small flying thing struggling to lift something heavy.

Am I the only one who remembers CITV showing Laputa sometime in the late 80's/ealy 90's? didnt have any idea what it was at the time and only recognized it years latter.

I do think Miyazaki is very good at making films tinged with melancholic regret, Porco Russo espeically I think pulls that off very well without being mopy.

Small scale drama wise I'd recommend Only Yesterday, you could argue I spose the most overly adult Ghibli.

[buzby]

Best of all for me, though, is Ocean Waves. I understand it's rather maligned in some quarters as pedestrian high school romance anime, but I love it. It's very low-key and touching and quite painful in its own way. It's been a long time since I felt heartache or the butterflies of unrequited longing, but this film always evokes that lovelorn insecurity.

I love Ocean Waves too. In a medium where Slice-Of-Life high school romance stories are ten a penny, Ocean Waves is one of the most realistic attempts to tell that type of story, precisely due to it's small scale and low key nature. If you liked that aspect of Ocean Waves, I can recommend the anime series Just Because! - it doesn't look as good as a Ghibli film (but then, not much does), but it has that same low-key realistic feeling.

Small scale drama wise I'd recommend Only Yesterday, you could argue I spose the most overly adult Ghibli.

Only Yesterday is also great - again, it's got that low-key realism and some absolutely stunning character animation, though is really a love letter to Japan's rural communities (which in 1990 were beginning to suffer from depopulation, something that has only got worse since). It's also the one Disney never picked up as part of their distribution deal because it references menstruation.

I am also a big fan of From Up On Poppy Hill, even though it's one of Goro's. Again, it's a more realistic, adult story, set around the wave of student activism in Japan in the 1960s.

[popcorn]

Is everyone calling it "Mononoko" instead of "Mononoke" some sort of in-joke I'm not getting or are you all just a bunch of baka gaijin?

Anyway, I saw it when I was 14 and it was absolutely revelatory. I'd spent my life really wanting to enjoy fantasy stories but finding it all boring and turgid, and then here was this beautiful, dark, strange, romantic, graceful thing. I just had no idea films or animation could be like that.

My other favourite is Kiki. I just think it's so charming and sweet, and manages to say a lot about growing up without being cloying or naff. It also has one of the most effective depictions of depression I can think of in a film, with Kiki losing her mojo and not being able to understand her cat. It seems unlikely but I've always wondered if it was an influence on His Dark Materials, with the loss of innocence and so on.

Wonderful music with Ghibli too.

[Twit 2]

I always played these films to my classes when it was a "stick a film on" moment (last day of term etc). The kids—brains rotted by YouTube—were always entranced and glad of the nourishment. Spirited Away and Kiki used to go down the best, followed by Mononoke and Totorro. Sometimes I'd plan a whole module of English work around bits. So I got them writing balanced/persuasive arguments around whether Chihiro should go in the tunnel or not, or writing adventure stories imagining they're Borrowers. Good times.

My fave is Spirited Away because it was the first one I saw. Have to stop myself crying when I hear the piano score over the opening scene of her in the car. Wistful, low-key things always hit me hard.

[Deliciousbass]

My fave is Spirited Away because it was the first one I saw. Have to stop myself crying when I hear the piano score over the opening scene of her in the car. Wistful, low-key things always hit me hard.

I'm not a big crier in general and almost never will with films but I think I've welled up and/or cried at just about every Ghibli film I've seen. I think you're right about the wistfulness. There's such attention to detail and the characters are so well realised, it lends an emotional richness to those small moments that I think is rare.

I found the granddaughter's reaction to receiving the pot pie in Kiki's DS such a gut-punch that I almost can't watch it again.

[Endicott]

Is everyone calling it "Mononoko" instead of "Mononoke" some sort of in-joke I'm not getting or are you all just a bunch of baka gaijin?

I blame Glebe for this. Definitely that, and not me blindly copying like an idiot.

[Glebe]

My apologies for misspelling Mononoke.

[popcorn]

some kind of baka gaijin?