The Top 11 Movies of Hayao Miyazaki

I reckon that Hayao Miyazaki draws ideas for his stories from real-world experiences and subsequently uses his boundless imagination to produce them into adventures, fantasies, epic sagas, or pretty much anything else. His movies are universally acclaimed as family-friendly entertainment. Even though many of his works are intended for children, they have deeper meanings for adults to consider and act upon.

Miyazaki is indisputably the most celebrated Japanese animator, director, manga artist, and co-founder of Studio Ghibli, revered for his legendary Japanese animated feature films. One of the most gifted animators in the history of the medium, his works are the most prolific, appealing, and exquisitely drawn tales of amazement. I’ve included a selection of the top 11 below.

The Castle of Cagliostro (1979)

A stunning tapestry of vivid creativity—with a swashbuckling thief, his band of outlaws, and a dauntless cop taking on a vile lord to free a princess and untangle the secret of a treasure— It is the sophomore film starring master thief Lupin III from the same-titled manga series by Japanese manga artist Monkey Punch and Hayao Miyazaki’s debut feature film. Exciting with unique levity, aesthetics, and ethnic allusions, The Castle of Cagliostro underscores Miyazaki’s inimitable style.

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)

A teenage princess from the “Valley of the Wind” gets embroiled in a duel with the kingdom of Tolmekia when it tries to exterminate a forest replete with massive mutant bugs. We encounter a post-nuclear dystopian time when she embarks on her mission to appease the strife-torn scenario. Critically, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is one of the best anime films ever produced. In my mind, it’s a sci-fi fantasy, in a class of its own—nothing less than an artistic achievement brimming with hope and invaluable life lessons.

Castle in the Sky (1986)

Miyazaki’s sense of the sublime uncovers the most astounding expression of adventure, delight, and romance intertwined at their finest in this rich narrative laden with exquisite visual content. Miyazaki’s films are too good for me to view critically. They are sheer genius, with Castle in the Sky being no exception. How ingeniously the director conjures up the story of a boy and girl who, armed with a magic crystal, must outrun pirates and secret servicemen to locate an infamous floating castle and its numerous treasures!

My Neighbor Totoro (1988)

You won’t likely be unfamiliar with this jewel if you’re into Miyazaki and Ghibli films. A fervent experience, My Neighbor Totoro is distinctly more than a movie—it’s brilliant, beautiful, and cathartic in its unassuming charm, which may rekindle your childhood heyday memories. Two little girls are introduced to us when they move to the countryside to care for their sickly mother. There, they set out on escapades with a mammoth forest spirit discovered in the neighborhood. As you follow them, essential ideas about animism, ecology, and the joys of rural life are sensitively put forth through these most adorable characters.

Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)

Kiki, a teenage witch in her required year of independence, struggles to blend into a new ethos while sustaining herself through an air delivery service, evolving through experiences of self-exploration thereby. It’s remarkably impressive how Miyazaki leverages Kiki’s journey to demystify the variances between freedom and dependency on the path to adulthood and the potential roadblocks one encounters along the way—ambiguities, aversions, moral dilemmas, and so on.

Porco Rosso (1992)

Once a highly decorated Italian World War I pilot, Porco Rosso got cursed into an anthropomorphic pig and now earns money in the Adriatic Sea, hunting down “air pirates.” He sets off to expel the pirate gang with the aid of a sassy girl mechanic and his lifelong buddy. Porco Rosso, set in 1930s Italy, is a stellar adventure-fantasy tale that triumphs in its wit, irony, and dazzling visual grandeur.

Princess Mononoke (1997)

A scrupulously made adult historical fantasy film of serious matters—nature, sexuality, and impairment; a morally dubious conflict between human growth and a need to sustain nature—together with loss of innocence, dual consciousness, autonomy, and conformist society, with fate and hope thrown in for good measure. Princess Mononoke relates to a young Emishi prince, Ashitaka, in late Muromachi-era Japan, at war between a forest’s deities and humans who raid its resources. The picture is at the vanguard of imagination and visual art. Its strong, soul-stirring sentimentality and ideals expressed via fully fleshed-out characters lend more meaning to the story.

Spirited Away (2001)

A classic per se, this film—the recipient of the biggest awards worldwide—is rightfully recognized as one of the greatest films ever. A melancholy 10-year-old girl named Chihiro is given to us as her family is relocating to the suburbs. Chihiro wanders off, winding up in a mystical land run by gods, witches, and spirits where people are transformed into creatures. To free herself and her parents, she now needs to work there. The story lingers in your memory, evoking in viewers of all ages an enchanting, eloquent dream of wonder, thrills, and delight—representing Miyazaki’s creative brilliance perhaps to the best extent.

Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)

Sophie’s only key to undoing a witch’s curse causing her young body to age is Howl, a young wizard, and his friends living in a magical, moving castle. Based on Media reports, Miyazaki’s opposition to the 2003 American invasion of Iraq is what inspired the movie’s vehement anti-war themes. It also promotes love and devotion in life—a life that is so worth living and offers mystery and a variety of rich, exotic panoramas you’d love to explore and immerse yourself in.

Ponyo (2008)

Ponyo is ethereal, engrossing, captivating, and, at its cutest, an opus I can enjoy over and over again. It kind of mesmerizes me with its exotic setting, the way it whisks me away to a fantasy life under the ocean, and the enigma of it all, which keeps me curious until the very end. As I see the five-year-old Sosuke bonding with Ponyo (a tiny goldfish princess who yearns to be a human after falling for him), I’d be like, “Take me to your unfettered world, guys.” It’s so beguiling. Watch it.

The Wind Rises (2013)

An intense portrayal of Japanese aviation engineer Jiro Horikoshi, whose illustrious career includes the creation of fighter aircraft during World War II. As an introspective memoir, it also sheds light on Jiro’s aching love life and the steadily worsening condition of his wife, who passed away after a protracted battle with tuberculosis. It is one of Miyazaki’s most significant, albeit unusual, renditions—highly thought-provoking in its entirety.