The CultureCritic Guide to Studio Ghibli...

Comparisons to Disney may reflect the success of the studio, but don't come close to capturing their unique brilliance, and subtle championing of commendable political messages. Their skills were acknowledged in 2002 when Spirited Away won an Oscar for Animated Feature Film (the first anime film to win the accolade).

Although Hayao Miyazaki is the name most people associate with the company, it is often overlooked that he co-founded Studio Ghibli with another talented director, Isao Takahata, in 1985. It is their collective talent, with Miyazaki's penchant for fantasy and mythology and Takahata's for a more grownup realism, that has resulted in such a richly varied body of work, one that demonstrates the true versatility of anime.

That being said, a recognisable aesthetic, and persistent themes link the studio's films, such as the uneasy relationship between human beings and their environment, the destructiveness of war and the redemption to be found in empathy, motifs such as airborne adventures and the recurring use of composer, Joe Hisaishi. Nevertheless, if you are new to anime, the world of Studio Ghibli is an excellent place to start. Here's our pick of their best...

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)


Although made before Studio Ghibli was founded, this film is significant for its far-reaching success, which, combined with the popularity of Miyazaki's manga, led Tokuma Shoten Publishing to establish the company. The epic story paralleled topical environmental issues and solidified Miyazaki's status as an artist, director and box-office draw. Its post-apocalyptic setting - vast desert and toxic forests - provides the perfect narrative drive and delivers an implicit warning against the dangers of war and industrial pollution. Nausicaä, the plucky young heroine, partly inspired by Grecian and Japanese legends, must save the remnants of her home, the Valley of the Wind, from the ravages of war  - the very thing that led her people to inhabit the windswept area in the first place. Although the film has its weaknesses, it remains an exemplary piece of science fiction and should be lauded for, if nothing else, providing the inspiration for Ghibli's first international box office breakthrough, Princess Mononoke.
 


Grave of the Fireflies (1988)


Isao Takahata's powerful World War Two drama paints such a devastating portrait of the cruel realities of conflict for ordinary citizens that it has become a part of Japan's cultural heritage, and is screened every year in August on Japanese television in memory of those who lost their lives in Hiroshima. Based on Akiyuki Nosaka's semi-autobiographical novel, the story follows two siblings struggling to survive after they are separated from their mother during a bomb attack in Kobe. The title alludes to a beautiful scene in which Setsuko, the four-year-old sister of Seita, takes delight in the creatures that glow in the children's hiding place at night. However, the fireflies' death, come morning, is a painful reflection of the children's own circumstances, and while the viewer is warned of a tragic ending, nothing quite prepares you for this film's heartbreaking conclusion. Keep tissues within reach.
 





Princess Mononoke (1997)


Miyazaki's most pressing concerns about mankind's impact on the environment culminate in this beautiful, historical fantasy epic. Ashitaka, the young prince of a small tribe seeks a cure for a debilitating disease cast on him when he tries to protect his village from a demonically possessed boar. His only chance of survival is to find the source of a mysterious object found in the animal's carcass. His quest takes him to an iron mill, where he finds himself in the midst of an all-out war between man and nature. What makes this film one of Miyazaki's best is his nuanced handling of the complicated relationship between technology and nature, personified by the figure of Lady Eboshi. It is her iron mill that is endangering the surrounding forest, but it also provides refuge for social outcasts. Her arch nemesis is a feral and noble young woman to whom the title refers, adopted by a wolf spirit. The iconography of the indigenous Japanese religion, Shinto, adds to this visually rich and rewarding philosophical story, which helped launch Studio Ghibli and Miyazaki's international reputation. 



My Neighbour Totoro (1984)


A family favourite in Japan and utterly delightful. The title refers to a large, furry spirit of the woods, who is one of Miyazaki's earliest creations and now the iconic Ghibli motif. The hugely popular Totoro spawned a merchandising industry unto himself, and made a notable cameo in Toy Story 3, a respectful homage born from the working relationship between the two preeminent animation studios. Miyazaki paints a simple but striking portrait of rural Japanese life, from the innocent perspective of two young sisters and the magical inhabitants of the nearby forest that they encounter. In a masterful reflection on the escapist power of imagination, Totoro helps the girls forget the woes of moving home, loneliness and absent parents. Beautifully rendered landscapes and lush forest vegetation come courtesy of Ghibli's talented artist, Kazuo Oga.




Spirited Away (2001)

Alice in Wonderland gets a thorough Japanese makeover in Miyazaki's Oscar-winning fantasy. Like her English predecessor, Chihiro ends up in another world populated by strange creatures (in this case a bathhouse for Shinto gods, run by a witch), after following her greedy parents, who are transformed into pigs for their sins. With the aid of an enigmatic young man, Chihiro discovers courage and an intuition she never thought she had as she works at the bathhouse to free her parents. Following Princess Mononoke, this is an artistic highpoint in Miyazaki's career - from the wrinkled, stately sorceress of the bathhouse to the vast treasure extracted from a river god (himself trapped inside the sludge-oozing body of a stink god). With its exhilarating and often quite terrifying sequences (most notably, Chihiro's escape from an ever growing ‘no-face'), this is not recommended for young children.



Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986)


The first film released by Studio Ghibli after its formation used the now familiar dream-team: Miyazaki writing and directing, Takahata producing and Joe Hisaishi providing a fittingly lively score. The well-read will recognise the name ‘Laputa', the lost floating civilization that the young hero, Pazu is determined to find, from Gulliver's Travels. Orphaned after the death of his father, shunned by society for his belief in the lost castle, Pazu comes a step closer to clearing his name when a descendent of the city, Sheeta, literally drops from the sky into his arms. Despite the historical setting, Laputa: Castle in the Sky employs a host of 1940s sci-fi inspired gadgetry, including a spectacular robot, as well as a volley of aircraft (the company's predilection for flight shows itself once again), lending the film a pleasant, anachronistic flair. The young pair's attempts to retrieve a magical pendant from the clutches of a crew of pirates and the mercenary villain of the piece, Colonel Muska, and the discovery of Laputa, make for adventurous family viewing.

 


Kiki's Delivery Service (1989)

A delightful, although lesser-known offering, this charming, coming-of-age film perfectly exemplifies Miyazaki's talents as a storyteller. Kiki is a witch in training, who leaves home to set up her own business using her one magical power: the ability to fly. The film's opening credit sequence affords a beautiful panorama of a seaside town (inspired by Stockholm which Miyazaki visited in the 1970s), viewed from Kiki's airborne broomstick, and where she gains works as delivery girl for a heavily pregnant local baker, Osono. Despite her magical duties, Kiki is still a typical teenage girl, a fact that becomes apparent when she gazes enviously at the well-dressed, carefree girls of the town, and in her sense of helplessness when she begins to lose her powers. However, the attentions of besotted local boy Tombo help the young heroine, and a friendly female artist helps her stay true to herself, all of which comes in handy later when an emergency requires her magical assistance.



Howl's Moving Castle (2004)


Just like Arrietty, this flamboyant and visually mesmerising story has a Western flavour, loosely based as it is on a novel by the Welsh writer Diana Wynne Jones. In a marked departure from the author's original intentions, the film makes a self-conscious political stance about the futility of war. Howl, a handsome wizard, is summoned to aid the war effort under the guise of several different identities. A young and humble hat maker Sophie, braves a land full of sorcerers and magical beings, to lift the curse that has turned her into an old woman. Howl's large, bumbling castle, seemingly made from a patchwork of mechanical junk, is an impressive feat of animation, but it is the interaction of the characters that distinguish this film. It also holds a simple (if unsubtle) message about the power of inner beauty versus superficial appearances and material possession. Its jarring, optimistic finale undermines an otherwise wonderful film that Miyazaki supposedly came out of retirement to direct.

Arrietty is out on Friday 29 July and will be featured as part of the Barbican's Studio Ghibli season, find out more here.

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