The 10 Best Studio Ghibli Movies, Ranked
Flying castles, forest spirits and a bathhouse for gods: every one of these is a film to fall in love with.
Ranking Ghibli films is a little cruel, because almost every one of them is someone's favourite. But some have shaped childhoods, won Oscars and changed what people think animation can be.
Here are the ten that matter most, from Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata and the studio they built.
1. Spirited Away (2001)
2001 · Film · Studio Ghibli
Ghibli's most magical world, and its bravest little heroine.
Chihiro has to work to free her parents and find herself. Along the way she meets Haku, No-Face and the grumpy boiler man Kamaji, and grows up without ever losing her kindness.
Every frame of the bathhouse is packed with life. It is the film people think of when they hear the word Ghibli.
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2. Princess Mononoke (1997)
1997 · Film · Studio Ghibli
A film about seeing with eyes unclouded by hate.
Ashitaka and San stand between humans and gods in a war over the forest. Nobody is a pure villain, and the film asks you to understand all sides.
Huge, violent and beautiful, it is Ghibli at its most powerful.
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3. My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
1988 · Film · Studio Ghibli
The Catbus, the umbrella at the bus stop, and childhood in its purest form.
Satsuki and Mei discover forest spirits near their new home while their mother is in hospital. Nothing terrible happens, and every scene still glows.
Totoro is the studio's logo and its heart, and the bus stop scene in the rain is pure magic.
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4. Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
1988 · Film · Studio Ghibli
Takahata's quiet, devastating war story.
Seita and Setsuko struggle to survive alone in wartime Japan. The film is calm, observant and heartbreaking, never manipulative.
It is one of the greatest films about war ever made, animated or not.
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5. Howl's Moving Castle (2004)
2004 · Film · Studio Ghibli
A cursed hat-maker, a vain wizard, and a castle that walks.
Sophie is turned into an old woman by a witch and finds work as a cleaner in the moving castle of the wizard Howl. Calcifer the fire demon steals every scene.
It is a love story with an anti-war heart, and Joe Hisaishi's waltz is one of the most beloved pieces of film music ever written.
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6. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
1984 · Film · Topcraft
The film that made Studio Ghibli possible.
A thousand years after a war destroyed civilisation, Princess Nausicaa flies her glider over a toxic jungle full of giant insects that everyone else wants to burn.
Its success led to the founding of the studio, and Nausicaa is still one of the great heroines in animation.
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7. Kiki's Delivery Service (1989)
1989 · Film · Studio Ghibli
A young witch, a talking cat, and the first year of living on your own.
Kiki flies to a seaside city to start her training and opens a delivery service. When she loses her ability to fly, the film becomes a gentle story about burnout and finding your spark again.
It is the best Ghibli film for anyone who has ever moved to a new city alone.
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8. Castle in the Sky (1986)
1986 · Film · Studio Ghibli
A girl falls from the sky with a glowing crystal, and the adventure begins.
Sheeta and the mining boy Pazu are hunted by sky pirates and the army, all searching for the floating city of Laputa. It is the purest adventure film Ghibli ever made.
The robot soldier tending the garden is one of the most quietly moving images in the studio's history.
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9. The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013)
2013 · Film · Studio Ghibli
Takahata's final film, drawn like a watercolour scroll come to life.
A bamboo cutter finds a tiny girl inside a stalk of bamboo, and raises her to be a princess she never wanted to be. The charcoal and watercolour style is unlike anything else Ghibli made.
The scene of Kaguya running from the palace, the lines breaking apart as she goes, is one of the greatest pieces of animation ever made.
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10. The Boy and the Heron (2023)
2023 · Film · Studio Ghibli
Miyazaki's most personal film, about grief, growing up and letting go.
Mahito loses his mother in the war and moves to the countryside, where a grey heron leads him into a strange world beneath an old tower.
It won Miyazaki his second Oscar, and it plays like a farewell letter from the man who made all the films above.
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If you are new to Ghibli, start with Totoro or Kiki's Delivery Service and work up to Spirited Away. Save Grave of the Fireflies for when you are ready. And make Howl's Moving Castle your rainy-day rewatch.
How we ranked: drawn from the Ghibli films that rank highest across critic scores and the major fan rankings, then ordered by Anime Crush. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind was made just before the studio was founded and is counted as part of its catalogue, as Ghibli itself does.