Studio Ghibli movies ranked

[bikingjahuty]

To celebrate the kickoff of Studio Ghiblifest 2019 which just started this week via Fathom events, I thought it would be cool to see how people rank the Studio Ghibli movies they've seen from best to worst. Here are mine:


1. Princess Mononoke
2. Whisper of the Heart
3. Howl's Moving Castle
4. Spirited Away
5. Castle in the Sky
6. My Neighbor Totoro
7. Pom Pokko
8. Porco Rosso
9. The Secret World of Arrietty
10. Ponyo
11. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Winds
12. Kiki's Delivery Service
13. The Cat Returns
14. The Wind Rises
15. From up on Poppy Hill
16. When Marnie Was There


And these are Ghibli movies I do not like to varying degrees.


17. Tales of Earthsea
18. Grave of the Fireflies
19. Only Yesterday

[baileykun]

I won't rank them all, also haven't seen a few yet due to availability. Top 5 though?

1. The Wind Rises
2. Castle in the Sky
3. The Princess Kaguya
4. The Secret World of Arrietty
5. Howl's Moving Castle (I wanted to put this higher, but can't due to the kind of lack luster ending.)

Honestly, my least favorite and only one I can never recommend is Spirited Away. None of my friends liked it either. Like some of the cultural stuff is neat, but none of it comes together well.

I really want to see Grave of the Fireflies and Porco Rosso soon. Although even if they were playing I can't justify travelling an hour and a half to see them.

[kamikazekeeg]

Don't think I could place them all, but my favorites are...

-Princess Mononoke
-Spirited Away
-Howl's Moving Castle
-Kiki's Delivery Service
-My Neighbor Totoro
-Castle in the Sky
-Nausicaa

[snyderec3]

I'm not going to rank all of them, but if I had to choose five favourites, they would be, in no particular order:

1. Spirited Away
2. Princess Mononoke
3. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
4. When Marnie Was There
5. The Secret World of Arietty

[bikingjahuty]

For the record, no one has to list every Ghibli movie, I didn't even do that. There are only three Ghibli movies I've never seen (My neighbors the Yamadas, Princess Kaguya, and Ocean Waves) so I didn't rank those. I just thought it would be fun to go through every Ghibli movie I have seen and rank them

[kamikazekeeg]

For the record, no one has to list every Ghibli movie, I didn't even do that. There are only three Ghibli movies I've never seen (My neighbors the Yamadas, Princess Kaguya, and Ocean Waves) so I didn't rank those. I just thought it would be fun to go through every Ghibli movie I have seen and rank them

There's a good handful I haven't seen...Only Yesterday, Pom Poko, My Neighbor the Yamadas, Princess Kaguya, Marnie, and Ocean Waves.  Also none of the short films.

[Flashback2012]

I own most all of them on DVD/Blu Ray and really need to re-watch some again and others for the first time (just like games, it's always "when I get around to it"). Kiki's and Porco Rosso are definitely at the top of my list. I remember Pom Poko being a little on the disappointing side. Not sure I could sit through Grave of the Fireflies again, that movie is depressing. 

[Cartagia]

Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away are straight up masterpieces.  Everything else is varying degrees of good to great.

[stealthrush]

1. Princess Mononoke
2. Spirited Away
3. My Neighbor Totoro
4. Kiki's Delivery Service
5. Castle in the Sky
6. Whisper of the Heart
7. Howl's Moving Castle
8. Grave of the Fireflies
9. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Winds
10. When Marnie Was There
11. The Tale of The Pricess Kaguya
12. The Wind Rises
13. The Secret World of Arrietty
14. Tales of Earthsea

Have yet to watch: From up on Poppy Hill, Only Yesterday, Pom Pokko, The Cat Returns, Porco Rosso, Ponyo etc.


First seen Princess Mononoke in the early 2000s from noticing a Blockbuster (video-rental store) giant movie poster. Was intrigued why I missed out seeing trailers or commercials of this film. Watched this film shortly after when I was a child. Which led me to renting My Neighbor Totoro on VHS that captured a haunting innocence. Eventually leading up the US theatrical release of Studio Ghibli's next masterpiece Spirited Away (before Disney), I asked my parents to see it - it was in limited theaters and we drove over 2-hours away just to watch it. Caught up on other films down the line on DVD. Easily 9-10/10 for majority of films listed- the only film I was disappointed in was Tales of Earthsea.

[bikingjahuty]

I own most all of them on DVD/Blu Ray and really need to re-watch some again and others for the first time (just like games, it's always "when I get around to it"). Kiki's and Porco Rosso are definitely at the top of my list. I remember Pom Poko being a little on the disappointing side. Not sure I could sit through Grave of the Fireflies again, that movie is depressing. 

I have seen Grave of the Fireflies once and I will never watch it again. The movie unfortunately portrays events and hardships that actually happened, which makes it important, but it's still to this day the most unrelentingly sad movie I've ever seen. There is no levity at all, it just goes from bad, to awful, to horrific, to tragic. I'm a pretty happy person for the most part, but that movie seriously put me in a 3-day long depression after watching it. My girlfriend was very depressed for about a week, so much so I considered having her seek help. It's definitely a movie I feel like I have to warn people about if they ever consider watching it. I can't help but not like the movie for how terrible it made me feel for days :/

[kamikazekeeg]

There's only a handful of movies that have broke me after watching them, one of them being The Mist (2007) and the other being Grave of the Fireflies lol I'm more than happy to never see it again. 

[ferraroso]

It is petty interesting how, when asking what is the best Ghibli movie, Westerners and Japanese tend to have very different opinions. Around here, almost no one would cite Sen to Chihro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away)... i feel that most people in Japan (at least around me) would probably answer in favor of Kaze no Tani no Nausicaä (Nausicaä of The Valley of the Wind)...
Particularly, my favorites are Hotaru no Haka (Grave of the Fireflies) and (especially) Omoide Poroporo (Only Yesterday).

In time, I’m really looking forward to watching Kimitachi wa dou Ikiru ka (How do You Live?). I really love the book!

[dreama1]

Howls moving castle is good but flawed. It's nowhere close in quality to nausicaa, Laputa, and spirited away.

[undertakerprime]

I keep meaning to watch more Ghibli movies, I just haven’t gotten around to it. So, out of the ones I’ve seen...

1: Spirited Away
2: Princess Mononoke
3: Howl’s Moving Castle
4: Nausicaa

Spirited Away instantly became one of my favorite movies when I rented it from a Hollywood Video years ago.

[aliensstudios]

Never seen any of these except for Spirited Away which weirded the hell out of me when I was little. I can still remember that part where they eat until they turn into pigs and the dad swallows a whole chicken