One of the most important animators of our age is Hayao Miyazaki, who’s made some of the most important animated films of the past 40 years, and defined for many of us the potential that anime could have and uniting the world in the love of animation from Japan. I’ll never forget the magical experience of watching Nausicaa or My Neighbor Totoro or Laputa in large groups at anime conventions, and I’ve been a fan ever since. So I decided to do a blog post on the top anime films by Hayao Miyazaki!
As I did on my posts on the best and worst anime harems and the best isekai and worst isekai shows, I’m looking at the rankings from My Anime List, pretty much the largest online database of every anime series, movie, and creator. While some anime fans dislike the MAL community for this or that quirk — they certainly seem to rank shows with ecchi fanservice lower than most J-List customers, causing great series like How Not to Summon a Demon Lord or Okaa-san Online to show up on the rank of “worst” isekai series — in the end, there is something like 900,000 registered fans casting 50,000+ rankings on the favorite anime shows, making the rankings at least worth our consideration, the way we might browse Rotten Tomatoes and see how our personal tastes compare.
A Ranking of the Top Anime Films by Hayao Miyazaki
I’ve got a confession to make. I’m a huge fan of Hayao Miyazaki and love all his films, but I’m less of a fan of Studio Ghibli films not expressly made by Miyazaki-sensei. Maybe it stems from my disappointment at riding trains for three hours to go see Isao Takahata’s Only Yesterday (Omoide Poro Poro), a 1991 slice-of-life about a girl growing up in the Showa Period and starting to menstruate while figuring out how to eat a pineapple. I ended up not liking the film, which taught me a lot about managing my own expectations before going into something new. So while I love many non-Miyazaki Ghibli works, including The Cat Returns, Ocean Waves, and one of the most important animated films ever made, the wartime tale of Grave of the Fireflies, they won’t be on this list as they weren’t directed by Hayao Miyazaki.
Why should fans of Studio Ghibli watch Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken? Read my blog post here.
Mei and the Kitten Bus (7.32)
In the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Tokyo, there’s a theatre where short films by the studio are shown. The best one is a “sequel” to My Neighbor Totoro about Mei and her adventures with the Kitten Bus, giving a lot of additional context of the world Totoro inhabits. When all this Corona nonsense is over and you’re able to plan a trip to Japan, you might want to plan it around the next time this film is scheduled to be shown, if you’re an obsessive Totoro fan like me. The current film schedule at the museum can be seen on this page.
Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (7.90)
A fun film about a curious fish-girl who comes to the human world where she befriends a boy named Sosuke. It’s a great film!
Porco Rosso (8.00)
The reason Miyazaki loves airplanes so much is that he grew up around them, with his father running a company that manufactured aircraft parts called Miyazaki Airplane. (It’s kind of ironic that the rudders on the Zeros that attacked Pearl Harbor may have been made by his father.) Miyazaki’s films come in two types: tightly scripted adventure stories, and “slow stories” that set up a unique world and it’s characters without having a specific plot to follow, except for a problem and resolution that crops in the final act. This film follows the latter pattern.
The Wind Rises (8.14)
I was surprised to find that this film became one of my favorite of Miyazaki’s creations. The story of Joro Horikoshi, a boy who wants to grow up and design airplanes, it’s based on a true story of a man Miyazaki knew as a boy. It features Evangelion creator Hideki Anno as the voice of Joro, and is the best love story in the Ghibli universe.
The Castle of Cagliostro (8.15)
The first “big budget” animated film, The Castle of Cagliostro helped make Lupin III one of the most famous anime characters around the world. While manga artist Monkey Punch based the iconic character of Fujiko on Bond girl Diana Rigg, it seems Miyazaki-sensei inserted some homages of his own from her film.
Kiki’s Delivery Service (8.24)
Another of Miyazaki’s “slow” stories, this is a coming-of-age tale of a young witch who must go out into the world and find out what kind of woman she’ll become. It features gorgeous animation and the best soundtrack of any Ghibli film, by Joe Hisaishi.
Castle in the Sky Laputa (8.33)
One of the best-written adventure stories I can think of, it tells the story of Sheeta and Pazu as they try to discover the mystery of the legendary castle in the sky, Laputa. It’s become a huge source of memes in Japan, and every time it’s shown on TV millions of Twitter users tweet the final spell of destruction (Barus) at the same time, in what’s become known as the annual Festival of Barus.
If you speak Spanish, you might be giggling at the title, which sounds like “the whore.” The original Laputa was one of the four kingdoms visited in Gulliver’s Travels, and the joke was inserted by Jonathan Swift on purpose. We’re all basically being trolled by the man almost 300 years into the past.
My Neighbor Totoro (8.35)
Considering it was made as a “B-side” to a double feature with Grave of the Fireflies, 1988’s Tonari no Totoro managed to define anime for a lot of people in the 32 years since its release. Another “slow” story about a Lorax-esque protector of the forest who only children can see, it’s the movie that made us all want our own Catbus to ride in.
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (8.41)
One of the most important animated films of its day, this is the amazing story set 1000 years after a total ecological breakdown of the world, where humans fight giant insects. It’s also the film responsible for the much-maligned Anime Production Committee system, which was created when the financial failure of The Castle of Cagliostro nearly bankrupted Tokyo Movie Shinsha. The film also helped launch the career of Hideki Anno.
Howl’s Moving Castle (8.67)
A film about an enigmatic magician living in a magical moving castle and the plain girl — then old lady — who comes to love him. The film has many scenes of magic-based war and was specifically made as a critique against the U.S. war against Iraq. While it was a good film, this one of the MAL rankings I personally disagree with.
Princess Mononoke (8.73)
Another incredible film with environmental undertones, it tells the story of humans with their industry coming into contact with nature, and a plot to kill the Great Forest Spirit and take his head as a prize. It features some of Miyazaki’s most legendary characters and scenes.
Spirited Away (8.85)
Finally, the top anime film of Hayao Miyazaki according to MAL’s ranking system, Spirited Away (Japanese title Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi, literally “The Spiriting Away of Sen and Chihiro”). I have to agree: this film was so well executed and the journey Sen/Chihiro go on so well written, that it deserves the top ranking.
Thanks for reading this listing of the top anime films by Hayao Miyazaki. Do you agree with the list? If not, tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!
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