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Studios & universes

Best Studio Ghibli

The 16 movies of the “Best Studio Ghibli” bracket, with year, director, runtime and rating for each — then play the knockout tournament and let your own duels pick the winner.

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What is in this bracket

The bracket spans 39 years of cinema, from 1984 to 2023, with an average TMDB rating of 8/10. The dominant genres are Animation (16 movies), Fantasy (12 movies), Family (8 movies), Drama (6 movies). Hayao Miyazaki appears 11 times, Isao Takahata appears 2 times, Hiromasa Yonebayashi appears 2 times — a good sign of how much one filmography weighs on the outcome. Watching the whole line-up back to back would take about 29 hours. The 1980s are the best represented decade with 5 entries.

The highest-rated entry going in is Spirited Away (2001) at ★ 8.5/10 — but a bracket is not a ranking: it only takes one duel against a favourite of yours for it to go out in the first round.

The full line-up (16 movies)

Seeded in the order they enter the bracket. 16 titles means 4 rounds and 15 duels to a champion.

  1. Spirited Away 2001 · Hayao Miyazaki · 125 min · ★ 8.5/10

    A young girl, Chihiro, becomes trapped in a strange new world of spirits. When her parents undergo a mysterious transformation, she must call upon the courage she never knew she had to free her family.

  2. Princess Mononoke 1997 · Hayao Miyazaki · 134 min · ★ 8.3/10

    Ashitaka, a prince of the disappearing Emishi people, is cursed by a demonized boar god and must journey to the west to find a cure. Along the way, he encounters San, a young human woman fighting to protect the forest, and Lady Eboshi, who is trying to destroy it. Ashitaka must find a way to bring balance to this conflict.

  3. Grave of the Fireflies 1988 · Isao Takahata · 89 min · ★ 8.4/10

    In the final months of World War II, 14-year-old Seita and his sister Setsuko are orphaned when their mother is killed during an air raid in Kobe, Japan. After a falling out with their aunt, they move into an abandoned bomb shelter. With no surviving relatives and their emergency rations depleted, Seita and Setsuko struggle to survive.

  4. Howl's Moving Castle 2004 · Hayao Miyazaki · 119 min · ★ 8.4/10

    Sophie, a young milliner, is turned into an elderly woman by a witch who enters her shop and curses her. She encounters a wizard named Howl and gets caught up in his resistance to fighting for the king.

  5. My Neighbor Totoro 1988 · Hayao Miyazaki · 86 min · ★ 8.1/10

    Two sisters move to the country with their father in order to be closer to their hospitalized mother, and discover the surrounding trees are inhabited by Totoros, magical spirits of the forest. When the youngest runs away from home, the older sister seeks help from the spirits to find her.

  6. Warriors of the Wind 1984 · Hayao Miyazaki · 95 min · ★ 7.9/10

    After a global war, the seaside kingdom known as the Valley of the Wind remains one of the last strongholds on Earth untouched by a poisonous jungle and the powerful insects that guard it. Led by the courageous Princess Nausicaä, the people of the Valley engage in an epic struggle to restore the bond between humanity and Earth.

  7. Castle in the Sky 1986 · Hayao Miyazaki · 125 min · ★ 8/10

    A young boy and a girl with a magic crystal must race against pirates and foreign agents in a search for a legendary floating castle.

  8. Kiki's Delivery Service 1989 · Hayao Miyazaki · 103 min · ★ 7.8/10

    A young witch, on her mandatory year of independent life, finds fitting into a new community difficult while she supports herself by running an air courier service.

  9. The Wind Rises 2013 · Hayao Miyazaki · 126 min · ★ 7.8/10

    A lifelong love of flight inspires Japanese aviation engineer Jiro Horikoshi, whose storied career includes the creation of the A-6M World War II fighter plane.

  10. Porco Rosso 1992 · Hayao Miyazaki · 93 min · ★ 7.8/10

    In Italy in the 1930s, sky pirates in biplanes terrorize wealthy cruise ships as they sail the Adriatic Sea. The only pilot brave enough to stop the scourge is the mysterious Porco Rosso, a former World War I flying ace who was somehow turned into a pig during the war. As he prepares to battle the pirate crew's American ace, Porco Rosso enlists the help of spunky girl mechanic Fio Piccolo and his

  11. The Tale of The Princess Kaguya 2013 · Isao Takahata · 137 min · ★ 8.1/10

    Found inside a shining stalk of bamboo by an old bamboo cutter and his wife, a tiny girl grows rapidly into an exquisite young lady. The mysterious young princess enthrals all who encounter her. But, ultimately, she must confront her fate.

  12. The Boy and the Heron 2023 · Hayao Miyazaki · 124 min · ★ 7.4/10

    While the Second World War rages, the teenage Mahito, haunted by his mother's tragic death, is relocated from Tokyo to the serene rural home of his new stepmother Natsuko, a woman who bears a striking resemblance to the boy's mother. As he tries to adjust, this strange new world grows even stranger following the appearance of a persistent gray heron, who perplexes and bedevils Mahito, dubbing him

  13. Ponyo 2008 · Hayao Miyazaki · 100 min · ★ 7.8/10

    When Sosuke, a young boy who lives on a clifftop overlooking the sea, rescues a stranded goldfish named Ponyo, he discovers more than he bargained for. Ponyo is a curious, energetic young creature who yearns to be human, but even as she causes chaos around the house, her father, a powerful sorcerer, schemes to return Ponyo to the sea.

  14. Whisper of the Heart 1995 · Yoshifumi Kondo · 111 min · ★ 7.9/10

    Shizuku lives a simple life, dominated by her love for stories and writing. One day she notices that all the library books she has have been previously checked out by the same person: "Seiji Amasawa."

  15. The Secret World of Arrietty 2010 · Hiromasa Yonebayashi · 94 min · ★ 7.7/10

    14-year-old Arrietty and the rest of the Clock family live in peaceful anonymity as they make their own home from items "borrowed" from the house's human inhabitants. However, life changes for the Clocks when a human boy discovers Arrietty.

  16. When Marnie Was There 2014 · Hiromasa Yonebayashi · 103 min · ★ 7.9/10

    Upon being sent to live with relatives in the countryside due to an illness, an emotionally distant adolescent girl becomes obsessed with an abandoned mansion and infatuated with a girl who lives there - a girl who may or may not be real.

How this tournament works

  1. 16 movies enter a knockout bracket.
  2. Two titles face off at a time — you pick the one you would rather watch.
  3. Winners advance round by round until one champion is left: your pick for tonight.

There is no “right” answer and no algorithm deciding for you: the bracket only forces a series of small, easy comparisons instead of one impossible choice in front of a catalogue. You can also play it with friends — everyone votes the same duels from their own phone in a Brawl Room.

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