All Studio Ghibli Movies In Order of Release Date (Including The Boy and the Heron) (2024)

Studio Ghibli

All Studio Ghibli Movies In Order of Release Date (Including The Boy and the Heron) (1)

By Carlyle Edmundson

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Studio Ghibli

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All Studio Ghibli Movies In Order of Release Date (Including The Boy and the Heron) (5)

Summary

  • Studio Ghibli films blend fantastical elements with deeper themes like environmentalism and war.
  • The studio is famous for award-winning movies like Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and The Tale of Princess Kaguya.
  • Some less-known but equally powerful movies, like Grave of the Fireflies, showcase Ghibli's versatile storytelling range.

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Everyone with even a casual awareness of anime knows Studio Ghibli, Hayao Miyazaki's animation studio responsible for some of the greatest anime films in the last 40 years. Ghibli is often compared to Disney, in that many of their films are very family-friendly, and lighter, softer affairs overall than many other well-known anime movies. That's not exclusively true, as will soon become apparent, but the studio has had a long life in the industry, producing many different kinds of fantastical stories that are now considered beloved classics.

Studio Ghibli got their start in 1985, although many of the key players, like Miyazaki, were already working together even a bit before that. Ghibli films are some of the only anime movies to get respect when it comes to awards, with Spirited Away even earning the studio an Oscar for best animated feature. Ghibli's work has received high praise from fans and critics from the very beginning, though, and that will become clear in this list.

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1 Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)

Directed by: Hayao Miyazaki

Nausicaä was directed and written by Hayao Miyazaki, but it was technically just before Studio Ghibli was founded in 1985. Nausicaä was released and distributed by Ghibli, though, so it definitely counts. Nausicaä tells the tale of the eponymous Nausicaä, a princess of the Valley of the Wind who strives for a way for humans and creatures to coexist in the post-apocalyptic world in which the story is set. When a long-lost weapon reappears in her territory, Nausicaä must stop the militaristic forces from reclaiming it, lest the tragedy that destroyed the world happen again.

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Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

PG

Princess Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind embarks on a perilous journey to save her people and the environment from a spreading toxic jungle filled with dangerous creatures. Gifted with the ability to understand and communicate with the jungle's giant insects, she seeks to find a way for humans and nature to coexist. As she battles against opposing factions and uncovers the truth behind the devastation, Nausicaä's courage and empathy become the keys to healing her world.

Director
Hayao Miyazaki

Release Date
March 11, 1984

Cast
Sumi Shimamoto , Gorô Naya , Yôji Matsuda

Runtime
117 Minutes

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2 Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986)

Directed By: Hayao Miyazaki

All Studio Ghibli Movies In Order of Release Date (Including The Boy and the Heron) (6)

Another film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, Castle in the Sky is the first film by Studio Ghibli proper. The story is about young Sheeta, the owner of a mysterious crystal that certain people are after, and Pazu, a boy who hopes to fulfill his father's dream of finding the mythical floating island of Laputa. Sheeta and Pazu must search for Laputa and make their way to the island before these opposing groups do, and use the crystal to lay claim to the island themselves.

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Castle in the Sky

Director
Hayao Miyazaki

Release Date
August 2, 1986

Writers
Hayao Miyazaki

Cast
Kotoe Hatsui, Keiko Yokozawa, Mayumi Tanaka, Anna Paquin, Cloris Leachman, James Van Der Beek

Rating
PG

Runtime
124 minutes

Genres
Family, Animation, Romance, Action, Adventure, Fantasy

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3 Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

Directed by: Isao Takahata

All Studio Ghibli Movies In Order of Release Date (Including The Boy and the Heron) (7)

Grave of the Fireflies is a lesser-known Ghibli film directed by Isao Takahata, but that has more to do with it being very different from their other work than a problem with its quality.

Due to a licensing deal, Grave of the Fireflies is the only Ghibli movie unavailable for streaming on Max.

Possibly one of the saddest movies of all time, Grave of the Fireflies tells the story of orphaned siblings struggling to survive in World War 2-era Japan. Having lost everything but each other, the pair get through one misfortune after another as the war slowly winds down. The film has a softer visual style, with less noticeable outlining, giving it an almost painting-like quality that adds a degree of beauty to the stark and heart-wrenching tale.

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Grave of the Fireflies

4 My Neighbor Totoro (1988)

Directed by: Hayao Miyazaki

Miyazaki's next film with Ghibli was the famed My Neighbor Totoro, which tells the story of two young girls and their relationship with the forest spirit that lives nearby, Totoro. Totoro took off in popularity and remains one of Ghibli's most well-known films to this day, with Totoro eventually becoming the mascot for the entire Studio Ghibli. It sets the stage for many of the Ghibli films that follow with its fantastical elements and lighter and softer tone, making it a must-see anime film, even if only for its influence on later works.

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All Studio Ghibli Movies In Order of Release Date (Including The Boy and the Heron) (8)
My Neighbor Totoro

5+

Fantasy

Family

Director
Hayao Miyazaki

Release Date
April 16, 1988
Writers
Hayao Miyazaki

Cast
Dakota Fanning , Elle Fanning

Runtime
86minutes

Budget
$236, 677,550

5 Kiki's Delivery Service (1989)

Directed by: Hayao Miyazaki

Another film by Miyazaki, Kiki's Delivery Service recounts the tale of Kiki, a young witch heading off to make her way in the world with little more than a flying broomstick and a cat familiar. Finding a new town to call home, Kiki starts up a service for delivering packages using her flying capabilities, eventually making her a beloved figure around town. It's very much a coming-of-age story, dealing with one's first attempts to strike out and live on their own, away from their parents, and what it truly means to be independent.

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Kiki's Delivery Service

G

Animation

Family

Fantasy

Kiki's Delivery Service is a coming-of-age fantasy film that follows 13-year-old witch Kiki, who sets out on her own to find her place in the world and develops a delivery service in a new town.

Director
Hayao Miyazaki

Release Date
July 29, 1989
Writers
Hayao Miyazaki

Cast
Minami Takayama , Rei Sakuma , Kappei Yamaguchi , Keiko Toda , Mieko Nobusawa

Runtime
103 Minutes

6 Only Yesterday (1991)

Directed by Isao Takahata

All Studio Ghibli Movies In Order of Release Date (Including The Boy and the Heron) (9)

The second film by Isao Takahata, Only Yesterday is a lesser known movie in the Ghibli catalog, despite having near-perfect review scores. For some reason, the film remained untranslated to English until 2016, when Western fans finally got their chance to see this "forbidden" Ghibli film. Only Yesterday follows Taeko Okajima, an adult woman taking a break from city life to experience life in the countryside. It's a more adult film, in the sense that it deals with themes like work and finding love, and the sense of nostalgia that comes with growing older.

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Only Yesterday

PG

Drama

Romance

A twenty-seven-year-old worker travels to the countryside while reminiscing about her childhood in Tokyo.

Director
Isao Takahata

Release Date
February 26, 2016

Cast
Miki Imai , Toshirô Yanagiba

7 Porco Rosso (1992)

Directed by: Hayao Miyazaki

Miyazaki's fifth film on this list is Porco Rosso, a bit of a strange one. Porco Rosso is about an Italian fighter pilot after World War 1, who takes to the skies on his own initiative to defeat the dastardly air pirates who pillage from planes. Oh, and the fighter pilot is also cursed to look like a pig, naturally. It's considered by some to be the most underrated of all Ghibli's films, and clearly shows a lot of loving detail when it comes to depicting these early aircraft. Porco Rosso has long had sequel rumors, but the film seems unlikely to ever happen.

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8 Ocean Waves (1993)

Directed by: Tomomi Mochizuki

All Studio Ghibli Movies In Order of Release Date (Including The Boy and the Heron) (10)

Ocean Waves is a romance/coming-of-age drama that was originally meant to be a project specifically for the younger generation of creatives at Studio Ghibli. It was a television film rather than a theatrical one, which makes it difficult to compare to other Ghibli films. The movie's plot revolves around a love triangle that emerges among friends and the new transfer student, and all the drama that entails. Like Only Yesterday, Ocean Waves wasn't released in English until 2016, but it ultimately didn't fair well in reviews or at the box office.

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9 Pom Poko (1994)

Directed by: Isao Takahata

All Studio Ghibli Movies In Order of Release Date (Including The Boy and the Heron) (11)

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Isao Takahata's third Ghibli film is Pom Poko, a fantasy film with heavy themes of environmentalism. The film focuses on Tanuki, or raccoon dogs, real animals which were thought to be magical creatures in Japan's past. When the Tanuki's land is threatened by urban development, they begin to resist, using their magic powers to interfere with construction. The film is less well-known abroad in part because of the... anatomical features of traditional depictions of Tanuki, which threatened to give it a rating unsuitable for its target audience.

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10 Whisper of the Heart (1995)

Directed by: Yoshifumi Kondo

All Studio Ghibli Movies In Order of Release Date (Including The Boy and the Heron) (12)

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While this film was written by Hayao Miyazaki, it was actually directed by Yoshifumi Kondo, his only film for Ghibli due to his untimely passing. The film is a romance about young Shizuku and a boy named Seiji. It focuses heavily on writing and what it means to be a writer, with Shizuku writing her own story within the film. An odd fact about the film is that the John Denver song "Take Me Home, Country Roads" plays a pivotal role in the film's plot, which made it rather difficult to localize due to rights issues surrounding the song.

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Whisper of the Heart

G

Drama

Family

Whisper of the Heart, directed by Yoshifumi Kondō and written by Hayao Miyazaki, is a heartwarming tale of adolescent love and finding one's passion. The story follows Shizuku, a young girl who aspires to be a writer, as she embarks on a journey of self-discovery after encountering a mysterious cat statue that leads her to Seiji, a boy determined to become a master violin maker.

Release Date
July 15, 1995

11 Princess Mononoke (1997)

Directed by: Hayao Miyazaki

One of Studio Ghibli's best-known films written and directed by Miyazaki, Princess Mononoke is known for its strong environmentalist message. The film mostly follows a young prince, Ashitaka, as he embarks on a quest to cure himself of a curse that will one day kill him. On the way, he meets San, the eponymous princess, who was literally raised by wolves and has come to despise humankind for their reckless ways, destroying the natural world around them.

The translated English script for the film was famously written by Neil Gaiman, and the movie's success helped increase Ghibli's reputation abroad.

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All Studio Ghibli Movies In Order of Release Date (Including The Boy and the Heron) (13)
Princess Mononoke

In this epic animated fantasy by Hayao Miyazaki, Princess Mononoke explores the struggle between the supernatural guardians of a forest and the humans who consume its resources. The story follows Ashitaka, a young warrior inflicted with a deadly curse, as he navigates a battle that pits the industrialized human society against the gods of the forest, alongside San, a fierce girl raised by wolves.

12 My Neighbors the Yamadas (1999)

Directed by: Isao Takahata

All Studio Ghibli Movies In Order of Release Date (Including The Boy and the Heron) (14)

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My Neighbors the Yamadas is a slice-of-life comedy directed by Isao Takahata, and at first glance looks nothing like what one would imagine as a Ghibli film. The movie uses a simplistic style inspired by comic panels, and the story is told as small, loosely connected vignettes. While the film was well received by most critics, it didn't see much box office success compared to other Ghibli films, and had a particularly rough time as a follow-up to Princess Mononoke.

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13 Spirited Away (2001)

Directed by Hayao Miyazaki

Perhaps the most well-known Ghibli movie among the general populace, Spirited Away was again written and directed by Miyazaki. Spirited Away tells of Chihiro, a young girl on a vacation trip whose parents wander off into a magic realm, where they're turned into pigs by an evil witch named Yubaba. Chihiro must find a way to escape this magical land and turn her parents back into humans in the process, or risk having them eaten.

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It was at one point the highest-grossing film in Japan, and it won dozens of awards, securing Ghibli as a powerhouse studio in the world of animation that even Disney needed to pay attention to.

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All Studio Ghibli Movies In Order of Release Date (Including The Boy and the Heron) (15)
Spirited Away
Director
Hayao Miyazaki

Release Date
July 20, 2001

Cast
Rumi Hiiragi , Miyu Irino , Mari Natsuki , Takashi Naitô , Yasuko Sawaguchi , Tsunehiko Kamijô , Takehiko Ono , Bunta Sugawara

Runtime
125 minutes

14 The Cat Returns (2002)

Directed by: Hiroyuki Morita

The Cat Returns was directed by a new face to Ghibli's director chair: Hiroyuki Morita. The Cat Return s is actually a spin-off of Whisper of the Heart, focusing on a minor character from that film, such that it's unnecessary to watch the first film to understand it. It starts off with young protagonist Haru saving a cat from being hit by a truck, and this cat turns out to be a cat prince. Haru then gets whisked away to the Cat Kingdom for a wedding to the prince, and must find a way to get home.

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15 Howl's Moving Castle (2004)

Directed by: Hayao Miyazaki

Directed and written, once again, by Hayao Miyazaki, Howl's Moving Castle is based on a book of the same name. The story follows Sophie, a young girl who is cursed to appear 90 years old by an evil witch. In searching for a way to break this curse, Sophie comes into the service of the wizard Howl, and learns about his situation, being asked to use his skills to fight in a war. The film obviously has some very strong anti-war themes, but also deals with concepts such as aging.

Howl's Moving Castle was originally supposed to be directed by acclaimed director Mamoru Hasoda before he left Studio Ghibli.

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All Studio Ghibli Movies In Order of Release Date (Including The Boy and the Heron) (16)
Howl's Moving Castle

Animation

Action

Adventure

Family

Fantasy

Romance

Director
Hayao Miyazaki

Release Date
November 20, 2004

Writers
Diana Wynne Jones

Cast
Chieko Baisho , Takuya Kimura , Akihiro Miwa , Tatsuya Gashûin , Ryûnosuke Kamiki , Mitsunori Isaki

Runtime
119minutes

16 Tales from Earthsea (2006)

Directed by: Goro Miyazaki

All Studio Ghibli Movies In Order of Release Date (Including The Boy and the Heron) (17)

Tales from Earthsea is an unusual movie in the Ghibli filmography for a number of reasons. It was based on Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea series, as well as a manga by Miyazaki himself, making it a rare Ghibli film adapting two sources, both Eastern and Western. The film itself was directed by Hayao Miyazaki's son, Goro Miyazaki, making it his debut film. Unfortunately, most reviews for the film are rather negative, although it is often praised for its beautiful animation.

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Tales from Earthsea

PG-13

Animation

Adventure

Fantasy

Sci-Fi

Tales from Earthsea is a 2006 animated film directed by Goro Miyazaki, set in a fantastical world where balance is essential. The film follows a young prince named Arren who teams up with the wizard Sparrowhawk to battle a growing evil threatening the land. Released by Studio Ghibli, the movie features themes of redemption and inner conflict.

Director
Goro Miyazaki

Release Date
July 29, 2006
Writers
Ursula K. Le Guin , Goro Miyazaki , Keiko Niwa , Hayao Miyazaki
Cast
Junichi Okada , Aoi Teshima , Bunta Sugawara , Yûko Tanaka , Teruyuki Kagawa , Jun Fubuki , Timothy Dalton , Willem Dafoe , Mariska Hargitay

Runtime
115 minutes

17 Ponyo (2008)

Directed by Hayao Miyazaki

Ponyo is another family-friendly animated film by Hayao Miyazaki, about a goldfish named Ponyo who leaves the ocean on a quest to become a human. Loosely based on The Little Mermaid, Ponyo gains magic that can help her to become a human, but its use can have devastating consequences on the ocean at large. The film was pretty well received by audiences and critics alike, with much attention paid to the quality of the animation work in the film.

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All Studio Ghibli Movies In Order of Release Date (Including The Boy and the Heron) (18)
Ponyo

tv-14

Fantasy

Adventure

Director
Hayao Miyazaki

Release Date
February 4, 2010

Studio(s)
StudioCanal
Distributor(s)
Disney , StudioCanal
Writers
Hayao Miyazaki
Cast
Liam Neeson , Matt Damon , Betty White , Tina Fey

Runtime
111minutes

18 The Secret World of Arrietty (2010)

Directed by: Hiromasa Yonebayashi

Arrietty is adapted from the book The Borrowers, about a family of tiny people who "borrow" objects from the ordinary-sized humans who live around them. Arrietty is one of the Borrowers, and is sent on her first mission to obtain certain items, only to be spotted by a boy named Sho. The film was written by Hayao Miyazaki and directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, making Arrietty his directorial debut. The film was very well received, and particularly noted for its beautiful and detailed aesthetic style, which was an excellent fit for its whimsical premise.

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19 From Up on Poppy Hill (2011)

Directed by: Goro Miyazaki

All Studio Ghibli Movies In Order of Release Date (Including The Boy and the Heron) (19)

From Up on Poppy Hill was Goro Miyazaki's second film, adapted from a Japanese novel, Kokuriko-zaka Kara. Set in the 1960s, the film follows a high school girl, Umi Matsuzaki, who attends a boarding school. The film follows the classic plot of two teens working to save a clubhouse building with special meaning to them that's set to be demolished soon. The story was criticized for being a bit predictable as a result, but the film was overall well-received by critics, once again noting the beautiful Ghibli art style at work.

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From Up On Poppy Hill

PG

Animation

Documentary

Drama

Family

From Up On Poppy Hill, directed by Goro Miyazaki, follows two high schoolers in 1963 Yokohama as they work to save a historic clubhouse from demolition amid preparations for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. The story explores themes of renewal and remembrance during a time of cultural change in post-war Japan.

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Director
Goro Miyazaki

Release Date
July 16, 2011
Writers
Tetsuro Sayama , Hayao Miyazaki , Keiko Niwa , Chizuru Takahashi

Cast
Masami Nagasawa , Junichi Okada , Keiko Takeshita , Yuriko Ishida , Rumi Hîragi , Jun Fubuki

Runtime
91 minutes

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20 The Wind Rises (2013)

Directed by: Hayao Miyazaki

Another film by Hayao Miyazaki, long believed to be his last, The Wind Rises is a rare animated historical biopic, telling the life story of Jiro Horikoshi, who developed key planes used by Japan in World War 2. The film was very well reviewed for its content and presentation, although the choice of subject matter was somewhat controversial outside of Japan, and the film did face accusations of whitewashing darker parts of the story.

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All Studio Ghibli Movies In Order of Release Date (Including The Boy and the Heron) (25)
The Wind Rises

PG-13

War

Romance

Director
Hayao Miyazaki

Release Date
July 20, 2013
Writers
Hayao Miyazaki

Cast
Hideaki Anno , Hidetoshi Nishijima , Masahiko Nishimura , Keiko Takeshita , Jun Kunimura

Runtime
126 minutes

Budget
$30 million

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