Top 10 Best Studio Ghibli Movies
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10. Castle in the Sky (1986)
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Runtime: 124 mins
With its heavy steampunk aesthetic, Castle in the Sky is Studio Ghibli’s most straightforward action-adventure movie. Sheeta is a young, orphaned girl who is wanted by air pirates, who, more importantly, seek the necklace she’s wearing that contains a crystal said to be from a lost civilization that lived in a castle amongst the clouds. Themes about the industrial war machine and tenuous trust in bureaucratic entities play heavily too. What is home and what does it mean to go home are all important questions the movie asks.
09. The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013)
Director: Isao Takahata
Runtime: 137 mins
When a bamboo cutter from the mountainside finds a baby in a magically glowing bamboo shoot, he quickly sets out to create the perfect life for her with his wife. “Princess” ages at in incredible rate to a teenager in a very short period of time. The bamboo forest continues to gift her father things like gold and fine clothes, which he interprets as how she should live her life and soon rips her from the rural life she loves so much to live in the capital that he believes she is meant for. The Tale of the Princess Kaguya ponder with the notion of nature versus nurture, about the life someone wants for themselves versus the life a parent or guardian may vicariously want for their child. The movie’s soft water-color palette lends a dreamlike quality that amplifies its message about reality and the idyllic.
08. Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Runtime: 103 mins
Hayao Miyazaki meditates on coming of age and finding a purpose in life here. Kiki is a 12-year-old, which happens to be the age that witches go out on their own into the world to begin their training. With her trusty black cat at her side, she discovers that her skill is flying and begins a courier service run out of a bakery in the town she settles in. Kiki’s Delivery Service is delightful and joyous. It recognizes that coming up in life is full of trial and error but youthful exuberance lessens the burdens of the latter. Like a bird soaring to new heights, Kiki finds her wings along the way.
07. Porco Rosso (1992)
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Runtime: 94 mins
Porco is an Italian World War I ace who has been transformed into a pig that lives his days as a bounty hunter tracking down pirates. His only loves in life are his plane, flying, and his solitude. Porco Rosso is an enigma in that it challenges that things are not what they always seem. It’s easy to assume a man who’s a pig would be chauvinistic, boorish, and selfish, especially considering the movie’s setting in time; however, the man that Porco really is is quite the opposite. Inner beauty is the movie’s central theme with a side slice about adjusting back to regular life after the war.
06. Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
Director: Isao Takahata
Runtime: 89 mins
**Not Available on HBO Max**
A boy and his young sister must navigate life together roaming the country as their home is taken from them during the firebombings of Japan during World War II. By far and away, this is Studio Ghibli’s bleakest movie. The bond between the two siblings is enrapturing and heart-wrenching as they endure constant obstacles living in war-torn Japan. It serves as a constant remainder that at the end of the day, it’s the people around you that matter most in life and not the trappings. Grave of the Fireflies is a movie you’ll be glad you watched but probably will never want to revisit again.
05. Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Runtime: 119 mins
In the world of Howl’s Moving Castle, magic and technology coexist and are weaponized against one another during wartime. The movie centralizes on Sophie, a young hatter who is placed under a spell to make her appear as an elderly woman by a spiteful witch. With nowhere else to go, she befriends the young wizard Howl who accepts her as his cleaning woman in his fantastical walking castle. The movie has some of Studio Ghibli’s most colorful characters. It also reexamines the ideas of inner versus outer beauty as seen in Porco Rosso but with the notion of vanity in mind this time.
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Runtime: 119 mins
In the world of Howl’s Moving Castle, magic and technology coexist and are weaponized against one another during wartime. The movie centralizes on Sophie, a young hatter who is placed under a spell to make her appear as an elderly woman by a spiteful witch. With nowhere else to go, she befriends the young wizard Howl who accepts her as his cleaning woman in his fantastical walking castle. The movie has some of Studio Ghibli’s most colorful characters. It also reexamines the ideas of inner versus outer beauty as seen in Porco Rosso but with the notion of vanity in mind this time.
04. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Runtime: 117 mins
The unofficial first Studio Ghibli movie remains one of Hayao Miyazaki’s finest. Set in a post-apocalyptic future where humanity is pushed to the outskirts of the land due a Toxic Forest overtaking everything else and overrun by giant insects, Nausicaä is every Disney princesses’ badass dream combined. Drawing some heavy inspiration from Dune among others, the movie contemplates humanity’s place in the world alongside nature and the responsibility to maintain that delicate balance. The movie is inherently anti-war and contains a powerful message about the dangers of that and greed that remains relevant even thirty-five years after its release.
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Runtime: 117 mins
The unofficial first Studio Ghibli movie remains one of Hayao Miyazaki’s finest. Set in a post-apocalyptic future where humanity is pushed to the outskirts of the land due a Toxic Forest overtaking everything else and overrun by giant insects, Nausicaä is every Disney princesses’ badass dream combined. Drawing some heavy inspiration from Dune among others, the movie contemplates humanity’s place in the world alongside nature and the responsibility to maintain that delicate balance. The movie is inherently anti-war and contains a powerful message about the dangers of that and greed that remains relevant even thirty-five years after its release.
03. My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Runtime: 86 mins
Few movies encapsulate the sense of childlike wonder and awe in the world as well as My Neighbor Totoro. Although it is rather devoid of conflict, its purpose has always been about the belief in the power of make-believe and at what age we lose this facet in life. The movie stresses family togetherness and the bonds inherent between siblings. Totoro and his mini-iterations not only strengthen this bond but also strengthen their unity to the world around them, helping the two young protagonists feel at home during a time of great upheaval in their lives. It’s the kind of movie that has layered meaning to it depending on what stage you’re at in your own life.
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Runtime: 86 mins
Few movies encapsulate the sense of childlike wonder and awe in the world as well as My Neighbor Totoro. Although it is rather devoid of conflict, its purpose has always been about the belief in the power of make-believe and at what age we lose this facet in life. The movie stresses family togetherness and the bonds inherent between siblings. Totoro and his mini-iterations not only strengthen this bond but also strengthen their unity to the world around them, helping the two young protagonists feel at home during a time of great upheaval in their lives. It’s the kind of movie that has layered meaning to it depending on what stage you’re at in your own life.
02. Princess Mononoke (1997)
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Runtime: 134 mins
Driven from his village by a curse he contracted while saving it from a forest demon, Ashitaka roams the land searching for a cure and gets caught between an iron-making community and the forest denizens its ravaged. Princess Mononoke is Studio Ghibli at its most mature. Interweaving a storyline that involves humans, nature, and gods, it is a movie steeped in tribalism and a strong ecological viewpoint. The movie does not glorify violence but rather contextualizes it as a natural outcome that occurs while defending one’s own in-group. Princess Mononoke makes for an enrapturing viewing with its tightly written story, gorgeous animation, and moving score.
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Runtime: 134 mins
Driven from his village by a curse he contracted while saving it from a forest demon, Ashitaka roams the land searching for a cure and gets caught between an iron-making community and the forest denizens its ravaged. Princess Mononoke is Studio Ghibli at its most mature. Interweaving a storyline that involves humans, nature, and gods, it is a movie steeped in tribalism and a strong ecological viewpoint. The movie does not glorify violence but rather contextualizes it as a natural outcome that occurs while defending one’s own in-group. Princess Mononoke makes for an enrapturing viewing with its tightly written story, gorgeous animation, and moving score.
01. Spirited Away (2001)
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Runtime: 125 mins
The movie that won Studio Ghibli its Academy Award, Spirited Away is its most complex work. The film carries many strong themes and chief among them is the transition from childhood into adulthood, Eastern versus Western culture, and commentary on contemporary Japanese culture. Its main character, Chihiro, serves as the perfect foil to navigate each one of these facets as well as guide the viewer along the movie’s symbolically rich and spiritual journey. Even taken at just face value, the movie makes for a compelling watch and just one of the many reasons why Spirited Away remains Hayao Miyazki’s defining masterwork.
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Runtime: 125 mins
The movie that won Studio Ghibli its Academy Award, Spirited Away is its most complex work. The film carries many strong themes and chief among them is the transition from childhood into adulthood, Eastern versus Western culture, and commentary on contemporary Japanese culture. Its main character, Chihiro, serves as the perfect foil to navigate each one of these facets as well as guide the viewer along the movie’s symbolically rich and spiritual journey. Even taken at just face value, the movie makes for a compelling watch and just one of the many reasons why Spirited Away remains Hayao Miyazki’s defining masterwork.
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