Top 15 Studio Ghibli Movies, 15-10

Top 15 Studio Ghibli Movies

15. Only Yesterday(July 20,1991) 
by: Isao Takahata

Only Yesterday is significant among progressive anime films in that it explores a genre traditionally thought to be outside the realm of animated subjects. In this case a realistic drama written for adult, particularly female, audiences. In spite of its subject matter, the film was a surprise box office success, attracting a large adult audience of both sexes.

14.The Cat Returns(July 19,2002) 
by: Hiroyuki Morita

The Cat Returns began as the "Cat Project" in 1999. Studio Ghibli received a request from a Japanese theme park to create a 20-minute short starring cats. Hayao Miyazaki wanted three key elements to feature in the short — these were the Baron, Muta (Moon) and a mysterious antique shop. Hiiragi was commissioned to create the manga equivalent of the short, which is called Baron: The Cat Returns lit The Cat Baron and is published in English by Viz Media. The theme park later canceled the project.

Miyazaki then took the existing work done by the "Cat Project" and used it as testing for future Ghibli directors — the short was now to be 45 minutes long. Responsibility was given to Hiroyuki Morita, who had started as an animator in 1999 for the film My Neighbors the Yamadas. Over a nine-month period he translated Hiiragi's Baron story into 525 pages of storyboards for what was to be The Cat Returns. Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki decided to produce a feature-length film based entirely on Morita's storyboard; this was partly because Haru, the main character, had a "believable feel to her". It became the second theatrical (third overall) Studio Ghibli feature to be directed by someone other than Miyazaki or Takahata.

  

13. Tales from Earth Sea (July 29,2006) 
by: Goro Miyazaki

The film is based on a combination of plots and characters from the first four books of Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea series: A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore and Tehanu. The change of plot was "entirely different" according to the author Ursula K. Le Guin who told director Gorō Miyazaki, "It is not my book. It is your movie.

12. The Secret World of Arriety (July 17, 2010) by:Hiromasa  Yonebayashi

The film was directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, written by Hayao Miyazaki and Keiko Niwa, and stars the voices of Mirai Shida as the titular character, Ryunosuke Kamiki as Sho, and Tatsuya Fujiwara as Spiller. The film tells the story of Arrietty, a young Borrower who lives under the floorboards of a typical household. She eventually befriends Sho, a human boy with a heart condition since birth who is living with his great aunt Sadako. When Sadako's maid Haru becomes suspicious of the floorboard's disturbance, Arrietty and her family must escape detection, even if it means leaving their beloved home.

11. Pom Poko (July 16,1994)
by: Isao Takahata

 

   An interesting departure for Ghibli, whose films are normally broad enough to appeal to all countries, Pom Poko contains numerous Japanese cultural and religious references that could baffle unsuspecting foreign audiences.
Again directed by Isao Takahata, Pom Poko is an ecological fable about a society of shape-shifting, mischievous raccoons and their efforts to protect their forest from the urbanisation project of 60s Japan.
Notable for its surprisingly common display of testicles (it's not uncommon for raccoons to be depicted with prominent genitalia in Japanese tradition), Pom Poko is easily Studio Ghibli's most anarchic feature to date.
The spectacular animation reaches its zenith in an enchanting ghost parade sequence, and the film's often laugh-out-loud humour is undercut by a particularly stinging, unsentimental conclusion.