For me it would be Princess Mononoke, which is also one of my favorite films, period. I really appreciate the maturity and nuance it brings to it’s environmental themes, which have been done in many other films, but not as well.
Very hard to pick one but The Wind Rises has a special place in my heart (tbf most Ghibli movies do). First of all, I watched it when I was very young and forgot about it so it was like rediscovering something I’ve almost forgotten. Second, I’m in and engineering program and know a bit about planes and such so I could relate to the MC. Third, I love the more adult feel of it and the Shakespearian romance. Lastly, it does all the usual Ghibli stuff great like animation, ost and wholesomeness.
I haven’t seen The Wind Rises, yet! Your description of it is giving me a pretty strong hankering to sit down with it tonight!
Are you in a mechanical engineering program or something aero related?
I’m in a technology center half the day and my highschool the other half. Its more of an introduction to different engineering subjects along with calculus and physics. Aerospace was one of the main courses we took last year which was the same time I watched The Wind Rises.
The Wind Rises is so beautiful, and so sad. It’s like the essence of bittersweetness in movie form.
Princess Mononoke is a beautiful film. It’s one of the Ghibli films that’s transcended being dismissed by friends and family that don’t like animated media, let alone anime. Good choice!
Mine is Porco Rosso. The setting and characters (like all Ghibli movies lol) make me feel so comfortable. It’s fun and exciting, with a lot of small, genuine moments. Plus, the airplanes and idea of sky pirates is rad.
There’s a game being worked on called The Brew Barons that’s pretty much “Porco Rosso: The Game”, and I’m friggin stoked for it.
Kiki’s delivery service because I like the atmosphere and natural aesthetic.
Kiki is the probably the best children’s movie I’ve ever seen. Not saying it’s not suitable for adults but it’s one that I can imagine watching with my kids over and over again.
I’m with you on this one. Something about that movie just feels good.
My Neighbour Totoro. It’s so serene and peaceful. I used to watch it all the time here since we had it in VHS, it’s beyond nostalgic for me. Also that soundtrack is gorgeous, I doubt I’ll ever be able to forget it.
Same. Nostalgia is a huge part of it for me, but it’s also a legitimately amazing movie.
not exactly ghibli but i love nausicaä of the valley of the wind. one of my favorite movies in general. it has my favorite take on the environmentalist thread that so many miyazaki movies have, and the world building is a favorite of mine in anime, with so much more to offer in the manga. not to mention out of all the miyazaki flying contraptions, nausicaä’s glider is definitely the coolest.
I have the box set (the books) and they are fantastic. Highly recommend picking them up if you like Nausicaa.
oh i’ve eyeballed picking up the physical box set before, the full page colors look great and it looks fantastic on a shelf. grabing that is definitely something i’ll do even if it’s only to have on display 😅
They aren’t full page colour but they still look fantastic. I started colouring mine in a little based off the movie.
Spirited away, just because I saw it as a child and it got me hooked on Miyasaki for life. It remains one of the most fun ones for me. It has the right balance between reality and fantasy, between fun and action/danger.
It also has that feeling of looking at a strange world as an outsider that I love, which is the reason I liked the first harry potter film/book for example. The wonder of a new, strange world with new rules that we do not comprehend.
The worldbuildling inside the bathhouse is incredible.
I always really liked how they showed the furnaces and living quarters.I also like the world building outside very much. It’s not as strong as inside the bathhouse but very mysterious. When the train goes past that house on the island, you can see that there are drying clothes on the line. So someone actually lives there. I wonder where the ghost go that get off the train. Most hauntingly there is a small ghost child on one of the platforms just standing there and looking at the train as it goes by. Does she want to get on? And then they go past these neon adds looking things before they get to the swamp. Really puts the bathhouse in perspective and makes you feel that there is a whole world out there in just a few minutes.
Princess Mononoke is my favorite for sure. I love the character design, the setting, the environmental storytelling. And wulfy
Besides that though…I really really liked Spirited Away. So rich and nuanced. I liked the twists and turns the film took
I absolutely love Mononoke. I just rewatched it a few days ago and it really impressed me again. It’s one of the most soft-spoken movies I’ve ever seen, and the story is top-tier. Unlike some of Ghibli’s other movies, it’s a movie that’s actually about humans – not fantastical human-shaped characters, but the real nature of human beings and their place in a dangerous primordial world full of other thinking beasts and gods.
Princess Mononoke for me as well, but Nausicäa has also a special place in my heart.
The reason for that is that in my childhood, there was a mystical animated movie in the video store next to my home that I didn’t quite understand but which captivated me like no other, which is why I rented it over and over again. But one day, the store had gotten rid of it, which made me quite sad. Over time, I could only recall some of the images and the name, which was “Star-Warriors” (although the story wasn’t set in space). This was all pre-internet.
Fast forward years later, I’m an adult and I have already watched Princess Mononoke and Chihiro.
When I came upon an older movie by Studio Ghibli called Nausicäa, of course I watched it immediately. There was also something about the cover image which was vaguely familiar. Imagine my surprise when that movie turned out to be the magical movie from my childhood, but longer and better.
As it turned out, the reason I didn’t understand it wasn’t that the movie was to complicated for my age, but because I watched a Western version that had been butchered by cutting out over twenty minutes of the story, which was most of the scenes dealing with concepts such as pacifism and the conservation of nature, also changing the names of the characters, so Nausicäa was now “princess Sandra” and the Ohmus were called “Gorgon monsters”.
Ah yes, Warriors of the Wind. That was the version that made me fall in love with Studio Ghibli, and after finally watching Nausicaä in my twenties I became a lifelong fan.
Porco every time for me, feels like a mini holiday every time I watch it, but Totoro would be a close second.
Not my favorite, but no one mentioned howls moving castle.
For me it is Spirited Away, followed closely by Princess Mononoke. I watched the latter first and absolutely loved it, but Spirited Away has a little bit more of surreal feeling that made me absolutely love it even more.
Both of them are incredible.
For me it’s mononoke followed closely by nausicaa. Both have similar themes and are really philosophically important.
I come in here planning to upvote every Nausicaa post and then just end upvoting everything because I keep going “damn that one is so good too!”
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YES!!! finally some love for Castle in the Sky!
Mine is Ponyo. Something about the sense of wonder and the two young kids out exploring and coming to love each other is just so endearing. My partner always screams “Ham!” Just like Ponyo when I make her a ham sandwich.
Laputa: Castle in the Sky for me. The scale of the story is so grandiose, much more than later Ghibli films. It breaks some of the character structures that become very common. The soundtrack is just incredible, as it shifts away from the more 80’s synth heavy Nausicaa score. Also, it’s the first film under the studio! The first Studio Ghibli film.
