From beginning to end, we’re taking a look at the vast and beautiful filmography of Studio Ghibli, ranked from worst to best. Founded on June 15, 1985, Studio Ghibli quickly became one of the defining companies in Japanese animation, as well as a household name worldwide akin to Disney.
Co-founded by the legendary director Hayao Miyazaki, the company has a remarkable success rate, not only critically but commercially. Six of the ten highest-grossing anime movies of all time are Ghibli titles, and the company has multiple awards, including an Oscar, to its name. Their influence stretches far and wide across animation and entertainment in general, from video games to music to literature.
Studio Ghibli was allegedly going to close in 2014 after Miyazaki retired again (he likes to announce his retirement every few years or so), but he's now working on a new movie! With How Do You Live set to be released sometime this year, now's as good a time as any for us to look back at Ghibli's work and rank the films from worst to best.
21. Tales From Earthsea
Hayao Miyazaki’s son Goro never really intended to follow in his father’s animation footsteps, but he was brought on board for an ambitious adaptation of Ursula K. Le Guin’s iconic sci-fi novels anyway. Sadly, the results speak for themselves, and Tales From Earthsea is easily the worst thing Ghibli ever made. On top of having almost nothing to do with its source material, the film is sorely lacking in that Ghibli magic that typically makes their films so unique, even when story or character moments are sorely lacking. It all feels too boring and generic to be truly Ghibli, and it does no favors to Le Guin’s stunning books. It’s all depressingly inert and uninteresting. Fortunately, Goro Miyazaki would be given an opportunity to redeem himself, but Tales From Earthsea remains arguably the only Ghibli title that can be skipped without any guilt.
20. Ocean Waves
Arguably the least-familiar Ghibli title to Western audiences, Tomomi Mochizuki's Ocean Waves (also known by the title I Can Hear the Sea) was made for TV in 1993 and didn't get an American release until early 2017. It's a sweet enough story of a love triangle between two adolescent friends and the new girl who transfers to their high school, but Ghibli would do this story and themes far better with later films. The movie was an attempt by the studio to cultivate animation talent beyond its founders, but the end result isn’t especially memorable. Ocean Waves is for Ghibli completionists only.
19. The Cat Returns
A spin-off from Whisper of the Heart, The Cat Returns is too slight and inconsequential to leave a true impact on viewers. Running at a scant 75 minutes, Hiroyuki Morita’s fantasy film has some whimsy in its story of a schoolgirl who saves a cat’s life and ends up in a magical feline kingdom where she is betrothed to their prince. Younger children will certainly find much here to ire, but the entire film feels so throwaway in a manner that Ghibli seldom is. At least the cats are cute.
18. My Neighbors the Yamadas
Isao Takahata took the first major stylistic shift for Ghibli in 1998 with My Neighbors the Yamadas, an adaptation of a manga that is drawn to look like a daily newspaper comic strip. The eponymous Yamada family is shown through a series of vignettes that offer bite-sized stories of relatable aspects of life, from losing a child in a department store to the son getting his first girlfriend. The episodic nature has its charm but the entire film just doesn’t have enough gas to maintain its 104 minutes running time.
17. Arrietty
British viewers will be all too familiar with The Borrowers, Mary Norton’s popular children's novel from the 1950s that formed a major part of many people's childhoods. The book has had its fair share of adaptations and Arrietty is certainly one of the most visually stunning of the lot. Animation is the perfect medium for this story of miniature people who live in the walls of humans’ homes and borrow items to survive. Don’t expect a faithful adaptation, of course. There’s a dreamlike, almost lackadaisical feeling to this one, but the story feels half-baked and deprived of the expected Ghibli magic.
16. Pom Poko
When Western audiences first saw Pom Poko, there was immense confusion over the central conceit: Are these raccoons with giant bouncy scrotums? Yes, they are, although the English dub insists they are only "pouches." Pom Poko is another Ghibli film with a hearty focus on environmentalism. The plot is somewhat unfocused, but everything comes to life when the tanuki go wild and take on the humans who are trying to destroy their home. At two hours long it also tends to outstay its welcome, but you’ll certainly never forget the image of those scrotums in action.
15. Whisper of the Heart
Yoshifumi Kondō was styled as Miyazaki's protege and heir to the Ghibli throne thanks to his animation on films like Only Yesterday and Princess Mononoke, but sadly, 1998's Whisper of the Heart was the only feature he directed before his tragic death at the age of 47. With a screenplay written by Miyazaki himself, this gorgeous romantic drama demonstrates exactly what made Kondō one to watch. Shizuku, an introverted teenager, dreams of being a writer but finds herself crawling back into her shell whenever she's around her bossy older sister. When she meets Senji, a charming but irritating boy her own age, and his grandfather, a kindly antique store owner in possession of a curious cat statue, her life changes forever. Ghibli has always loved a good coming-of-age story and Whisper of the Heart is no exception.
14. From Up on Poppy Hill
Goro Miyazaki returned to Ghibli with a vengeance with From Up on Poppy Hill, and while it’s still nowhere near the stratospheric heights of his father’s work, it’s a refreshing step up from his debut that shows the immense potential he has as a director of feature animation. The drama takes place in Yokohama during the early 1960s, following a young girl living in a boarding house who s up with a classmate to save their school's clubhouse from demolition. It's slight and predictable, but it's also emotionally honest and committed to its warmth and sentimentality. Goro Miyazaki's eye for period detail is what elevates this one well above Tales From Earthsea. For anyone familiar with Japan in the '60s, the nostalgic yearning will show in full force while watching From Up on Poppy Hill! If the director continues this upward trajectory then he very well may make a true masterpiece in the future.
13. When Marnie Was There
Originally intended to be the last ever Studio Ghibli film before Miyazaki decided to un-retire for the third or fourth time, When Marnie Was There would have been a low-key but suitably melancholy note for the animation titans to go out on. Adapted from a novel by the British writer Joan G. Robinson, Hiromasa Yonebayashi's drama is another fine addition to the studio's slice-of-life real-world tales. The movie almost feels like the opening of a new door to a “post-Ghibli” world of Japanese animation, one of controlled storytelling intended for the sophisticated adult audiences who grew up with Totoro and company. It would have been a quieter conclusion for Ghibli, but not an unworthy one.
12. Howl’s Moving Castle
Following up the worldwide Oscar-winning smash hit of Spirited Away was never going to be easy for Miyazaki or Studio Ghibli, and adapting the beloved children’s novel Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones was an equally difficult task. The end result is one of the studio’s messier films, with seriously low lows but incredible peaks. Visually, it’s unreal, with the castle of the title a staggering piece of animation that’s easily some of Miyazaki’s best work. The problems arise from the deeply confused story, which has little to do with the book but isn’t fully formed enough independent of the source material to stand alone. It remains endlessly watchable but works best when you don’t think too much about the muddled narrative.
