Your favorite Studio Ghibli movie

[mysecondlife]

Spoiler: pointless ramble

I was in South Korea this past month and I went to Seoul Art Center where they were featuring a collection of hand drawn work by Ghibli.

It's pretty amazing but it made me wish I've seen more of their movies beforehand to fully appreciate it. (I only watched Totoro.)

So I aim to correct that.

Which Studio Ghibli film is your favorite? Which one should I watch first?

Please list your Top 3, 5, 10, etc.

(I know No Right Answer did the whole Pixar vs Ghibli thing but I would also like to hear your opinion)
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EDIT: Thank you all for kind response. I'll be starting with Spirited Away and Moving Castle.

If you haven't shared your opinion yet, feel free to do so. I'll be checking frequently.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I keep seeing this thread now and then, it's been done to death. They're all lovely movies, easily separated between grand sweeping epics (Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Castle in the Sky, Princess Mononoke); smaller, personal stories of escapism (Spirited Away, Porco Rosso, Howl's Moving Castle) and cutesy slice-of-life (My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service and Miyazaki's latest movie, from the looks of it).

I honestly can peg down my favorite. The first one I saw was Spirited Away, which made me want to watch more Miyazaki movies, so you might as well go for that one. It's the easy entryway, I guess. Totoro is a great movie and I think it was the most humane, touching movie of the lot.

 

[Silvanus]

I think it's between Mononoke, Spirited Away, and perhaps Porco Rosso. Mononoke is just so grand and imaginative, while Porco Rosso seems to me one of the most perfect self-contained little fables I've ever seen.


I've only seen Laputa (Castle in the Sky) once, and it has mostly slipped my memory, though. I'll have to rewatch that one.



All of those mentioned so far have been Hayao Miyazaki's own creations, I see. I agree that they tend to be the best of Ghibli's crop: I found both The Cat Returns and Whisper of the Heart (neither of them Hayao Miyazaki's) to be a bit underwhelming, but found Grave of the Fireflies incredibly affecting. Christ, did I cry during Grave of the Fireflies. More than during any other film.

 

[Weaver]

In a weird way, I really like Whisper of the Heart and The Cat Returns. They were kind of different, and it was nice to see movies not directed by Miyazaki. There was something very flawed about them that I liked in a strange way I don't even understand to be honest.

Grave of the Fireflies was probably the "heaviest" movie they've ever done that is direct in its subject matter. I know there are many compelling theories about some of their others more innocent seeming movies metaphorically standing for other things, but Grave of the Fireflies is pretty much about what it's about.

 

[NinjaNikki]

This is hard for me. I've seen some of Miyzaki's movies and they're good movies. But If I have to choose which are my top favorite, I guess I would I have to say:
1)Princess Mononoke
2)Spirited Away
3)My Neighbor Totoro
4)Howl's Moving Castle
5)The Secret World Of Arreitty

 

[Scarim Coral]

There is no specific favourites for me as that would be like picking only one Pixar movies you liked the most!
I will say that my favourites tiers would be Porco Rosso, Laputa Castle in the Sky, Spirited Away and Whisper of the Heart and Howl Moving Castle.

 

[[Kira Must Die]]

I don't really have a favorite, but I guess if I did it would be a toss up between Princess Mononoke and Kiki's Delivery Service. I also really enjoyed Arrietty, and Spirited Away is a good one. too. Everything else is pretty good, I guess, but I was never a huge fan of theirs. I prefer Satoshi Kon over Hayao Miyazaki.

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

Hmmm...

1) Porco Rosso
2) Princess Mononoke
3) Spirited Away
4) The Castle of Cagliostro
5) Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

Porco Rosso is my absolute favorite... I just love the flying scenes, the scenery of the Adriatic, the dogfights and the meditation on aging that is the storyline.

 

[TehCookie]

I keep seeing this thread now and then, it's been done to death. They're all lovely movies, easily separated between grand sweeping epics (Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Castle in the Sky, Princess Mononoke); smaller, personal stories of escapism (Spirited Away, Porco Rosso, Howl's Moving Castle) and cutesy slice-of-life (My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service and Miyazaki's latest movie, from the looks of it).

I honestly can peg down my favorite. The first one I saw was Spirited Away, which made me want to watch more Miyazaki movies, so you might as well go for that one. It's the easy entryway, I guess. Totoro is a great movie and I think it was the most humane, touching movie of the lot.

Let me ruin Totori for you then. http://my.opera.com/sukekomashi-gaijin/blog/tonari-no-totoro

OT: I'd have to choose Princess Mononoke with Nausicaa being my second. They both of similar themes of peace with the earth, but I found the characters of Mononoke is more compelling. All the movies are great, but as the person above me sorted them I like the sweeping epics the most.

 

[Pinkscare]

1) Whisper of the Heart
2) The Cat Returns
3) My Neighbor Totoro

I LOVE the top two.

 

[Little Woodsman]

We get this thread every couple of months...that's fine though
My answers remain the same:
Depends on what you are in the mood for.
Edge of seat nail-biting action? Castle in the Sky or Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
Help me feel like things are going to be all right? Kiki's Delivery Service or My Neighbor Totoro
Amazing mystical world right around the corner? Spirited Away.
Just some fun? Porco Rosso or Castle of Cagliostro.

Can't tell where you are from by your profile, but if you are a UK escapist you should be able to see Omode Poro Poro, which is not a Miyazaki film but is by studio Ghibli fairly easily. Very different sort of movie, entire thing is introspection by a single character. I thought it very sweet. Others here have mentioned Whispers of the Heart, which is also an amazing slice of life movie.

All of them are fantastic films, hope you enjoy.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I keep seeing this thread now and then, it's been done to death. They're all lovely movies, easily separated between grand sweeping epics (Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Castle in the Sky, Princess Mononoke); smaller, personal stories of escapism (Spirited Away, Porco Rosso, Howl's Moving Castle) and cutesy slice-of-life (My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service and Miyazaki's latest movie, from the looks of it).

I honestly can peg down my favorite. The first one I saw was Spirited Away, which made me want to watch more Miyazaki movies, so you might as well go for that one. It's the easy entryway, I guess. Totoro is a great movie and I think it was the most humane, touching movie of the lot.

Let me ruin Totori for you then. http://my.opera.com/sukekomashi-gaijin/blog/tonari-no-totoro

Ugh not THIS again. Enough with the gritty readings between lines, must we tarnish everything with dark and edgy cynicism?

 

[Galletea]

My top 5 would be:
Howl's Moving Castle
Kiki's Delivery Service
Spirited Away
Princess Mononoke
The Cat Returns

I find some of them a bit heavy on the moral story, and conversely I don't really like Laputa, simply because on the insanely high body count.
As far as Pixar goes, they make some amazing films too, with Up and the Toy Story films being some of my favourite films ever. But I don't think of comparing them as I find them quite different from each other.

 

[Gatx]

Kiki's Delivery Service. I remember the first time I ever saw it - it was in the summer and I was still in elementary school. This was before Disney Channel started their endless march of sitcoms featuring their latest triple threat teen idols and made original movies that weren't musicals. It was about the time of night they would show a movie, and they announced something about a witch, but it didn't sound like any of their original movies or a movie I had heard about before. What followed was an absolutely magical 2 hours of unexpected wonderment. Not only were they showing an ANIME movie on a network that never showed any anime, it was just a good movie overall, with a nice story and stellar animation.

 

[aba1]

Personally I like spirited away such a gorgeous film.

 

[Dr. Cakey]

snip

snip

Ugh not THIS again. Enough with the gritty readings between lines, must we tarnish everything with dark and edgy cynicism?

Ash Ketchum has been in a coma since episode idgaf and everything that has happened since then has been a dream.

Uh, anyway, I'm...not the biggest Ghibli fan, despite and/or because of the fact that I am an enormous anime fan. I've seen, in order:

Spirited Away
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
Princess Mononoke
Kiki's Delivery Service (never finished it, though)
Howl's Moving Castle
Porco Rosso

I liked Nausicaa the most at the time, but now that I've chewed it over for a while (and seen JesuOtaku's review of it) I have the feeling it's not all that great. It does have fucking epic bug monsters, though, and it features Hideaki Anno's first animation work ever (he worked on the scene of the God-Warrior collapsing), so that's cool.

Princess Mononoke I found to be confusing and had one of the most ????????? endings I've ever seen. I'm not even sure if what happened was good or bad.

Kiki's Delivery Service was lots of fun, but as I said I didn't finish it (it's also the only Ghibli movie I've seen subtitled as opposed to dubbed).

Howl's Moving Castle was good, but with another ????? ending. And some ????? middle, too.

Porco Rosso was zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Watched it with my whole family, we were all bored.

So I guess I like Spirited Away the most, although that had its own share of "wait...what?" to it.

I also have a DVD of Grave of the Fireflies which I have not yet watched despite having purchased seven months ago. Partly it's due to trepidation about seeing this thing, but mostly it's because every couple months I manage to hear spoilers about what happens in the movie, so I have to wait until I forget them.

 

[TehCookie]

I keep seeing this thread now and then, it's been done to death. They're all lovely movies, easily separated between grand sweeping epics (Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Castle in the Sky, Princess Mononoke); smaller, personal stories of escapism (Spirited Away, Porco Rosso, Howl's Moving Castle) and cutesy slice-of-life (My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service and Miyazaki's latest movie, from the looks of it).

I honestly can peg down my favorite. The first one I saw was Spirited Away, which made me want to watch more Miyazaki movies, so you might as well go for that one. It's the easy entryway, I guess. Totoro is a great movie and I think it was the most humane, touching movie of the lot.

Let me ruin Totori for you then. http://my.opera.com/sukekomashi-gaijin/blog/tonari-no-totoro

Ugh not THIS again. Enough with the gritty readings between lines, must we tarnish everything with dark and edgy cynicism?

Or just take it as a crazy conspiracy theory and have fun with it like a ghost story.

 

[vun]

My Neighbor Totoro is easily my all-time favourite movie. I'm not big on movies, but Totoro is one of the few I can watch over and over again and it makes me just as happy every time I watch it.

It's hard to list films after that, but I tend to prefer the slice of life ones as they're more relaxing to watch.

In short; Ghibli films make me all fuzzy inside, specially the slice of life ones. If I want my entertainment to do anything else I'll often prefer to play a game or read a book.

 

[Lilani]

Howl's Moving Castle is definitely my favorite. Whenever I watch it, I don't feel like I just watched a 1.5 hour movie. I feel like I read a ~20 hour novel. The world and characters are so rich with detail--there's a lot that the movie barely scratches the surface of and just leaves unsaid, and I love it. I feel like the more thoroughly you explore a world and explain EVERYTHING about EVERY SINGLE land and EVERY SINGLE city, the smaller it becomes. It also helps that they visit many places, again not seeing everything these places have to offer, but just enough to know they have their own things going on.

And so much happens in that short amount of time, as well. Sophie gets old and she gets young, there's the stuff with the Witch of the Waste, and Madame Salaman, and the move, and going to the past, and the flower garden, and the cleaning, and the lake, and then back to the flower shop...so much happens, yet none of it seems rushed. The pacing is amazing.

Spirited Away is a pretty close second, just because it's such a sweet and unique story. Like Howl's Moving Castle, a lot happens and a lot of interesting places are visited but the pacing gives each of these things all the time they need. The reason I like Howl better I guess is because I like the world better. Howl's Moving Castle just feels more detached and fanciful to me, I guess because in Spirited I'm aware that a lot of what's going on is based on Japanese folklore. I also love every other film of his I've seen--there isn't one I'd say I dislike. I haven't seen Porco Rosso, Pom Poko, Grave of Fireflies, or Castle of Caligostro, but not because I don't want to. I simply haven't had the chance yet. And I'm REALLY hoping his newest film gets at least a few showings in my area when it hits the states. I didn't miss Arietty, and I don't plan on missing it either. I realize neither of those are directed by Miyazaki himself, but he still had to do with their writing so I'm still excited.