The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013). 🤍 “The Procession of Celestial Beings I” by Joe Hisaishi is such an ethereal piece of music.
Absolute favourite:
Kiki’s Delivery Service. Character and story that I relate with most of our of all of the movies. I wish I’d watched it when I was a kid.
Other favourites:
- Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
- Pom Poko
- Whisper of the Heart
- Howl’s Moving Castle
- The Tale of Princess Kaguya
- When Marnie Was There
It’s probably too basic, but Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke have always been my favorites, the latter of which was where I started.
Favorite is not the right word.
I think there are different Ghibli movies for different questions.
Which is the most rewatched in my home? Probably Porco Rosso since it’s light-hearted and easy to consume. Miyazaki’s Magnum Opus? Mononoke or Nausicaa. Best to watch with your kids? Totoro, Kiki, and Ponyo. Most emotionally impactful? Grave of the Fireflies.
“Favorite” though? No idea. Depends on how I’m feeling.
Spirited Away is my favorite with Ponyo close behind. Mononoke is what got me started and is probably the best one, but the other 2 just hit differently.
Porco Rosso 100%, the music is amazing in that one and the end makes me smile every time.
Probably a tie between The Cat Returns and Pom Poko. I love the way Pom Poko is told, along with the various animation styles. And who doesn’t love The Baron?
grave of the fireflies, nausicaa, and kiki
GotF wasn’t ghibli
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grave_of_the_Fireflies
Wikipedia says it was produce by ghibli?
Ah sorry I always do that - it wasn’t Miyazaki, but yes it was produced by ghibli
Whisper of the heart
Mononoke is probably the “best” in my book but my personal favorite will always be Nausicaa. Although I just found it out predates the founding of studio Ghibli by one year.
Little personal story: As a kid, I repeatedly rented an animated movie called Warriors of the Wind from my local videostore. It was fairly short and the story was confusing as if there was something missing, but I loved it regardless. One day, the videostore didn’t have it anymore since they got rid of older VHS in favour of newer ones. I was heartbroken and didn’t managed to track it down (this was way before the internet).
Fast forward about 15 years, when I had already watched Princess Mononoke and wanted to watch other movies by that studio. So I watched Nausicaa, and the longer it ran, the more I realized it was that movie from my childhood.
Turns out that a US studio had gotten the rights in the 80s and cut 23 minutes of the run time to make the story simpler, even changing names completely (Nausicaa became princess Sandra for example). This was the version I saw as a kid.
Nausicaa is my favorite, too. The hand-drawn animation is incredible, the conflict is nuanced, the setting is beautiful, and the characters have interesting motivations. Its a masterpiece.
a fellow Nausicaa appreciator! It’s hard to find people that have even seen it tbh.
Have you read the Nausicaa manga? It’s really good.
Agreed, and I never see anyone claim Nausicaa as their favourite. If the studio ever revisits earlier material, I hope they do a fuller adaptation of the source. It’s such a rich world, it deserves more time spent within it.
Yeah, Castle in the Sky is considered the first “official” Ghibli movie.
I’d also have a pre-Ghibli film as my favourite with Lupin III: Castle of the Cagliostro. Although hard to argue with Mononoke or Nausicaa.
Ponyo or Pom Poko. Maybe Spirited Away? It’s hard to pick… good question OP.
Huge fan of Princess Mononoke.
Not sure what exactly it is, but the characters and setting have just stuck with me since the first time I saw it.
Love the themes of environmentalism and societal diversity in Princess Mononoke.
Same.
Kiki’s Delivery Service
My Neighbor Totoro
Porco Rosso
Spirited Away
PonyoI like Only Yesterday. There’s just something appealing about getting away from a stifling job in the city and just going out to live in the country for fun, even if just for a week.
Skipping the ones I did not mark 10/10 with a star:
- 1986 Laputa: Castle in the Sky - 10/10 ⭐
- 1988 My Neighbor Totoro - 10/10 ⭐
- 1989 Kiki’s Delivery Service - 10/10 ⭐
- 1997 Princess Mononoke - 10/10 ⭐
- 2001 Spirited Away - 10/10 ⭐
- 2002 The Cat Returns - 10/10 ⭐
- 2004 Howl’s Moving Castle - 10/10 ⭐
- 2006 Tales from Earthsea - 10/10 ⭐
- 2010 The Secret World of Arrietty - 10/10 ⭐
- 2011 From Up On Poppy Hill 10/10 ⭐
- 2014 When Marnie Was There 10/10 ⭐
I rated these in 2022. I thought I didn’t enjoy Princess Mononoke like I did long before. Either way, baffling how many Studio Ghibli films are great or exceptional.
I think Princess Mononoke was my entry point into anime (other than weekly series on TV). I still have the German DVD.
Pom Poko is the only one I really enjoy. I keep falling asleep during Spirited Away lol
