Club Ghibli - Wrap party: Rank your favourites

[Diddy]

Well Ghiblets, it's almost the end of our journey - we've watched all the movies (I hope @Queen of the Bay got through "Grave of the Fireflies"), so to bring proceedings to a close, I wanted to do a little RANK!

I'm going to do one more thread soon with all the additional movies that aren't in the main Ghibli canon as such, but at least deserve a mention, so look out for that soon. And I guess at some point in the future we can all meet back again when "How do you live?" is finally released.

I WILL go through the threads and calculate the average scores for each movie, to be revealed soonish, but that's just number crunching and a bit impersonal. So what are your favourites? I'm not going to compile them together or anything, I just want to know how they stack up against each other.

I also wanted to give a big thank-you to everyone who watched these movies with me, or just commented/voted in the threads. I know I'm always bleating on about Japanese stuff but I really wanted to make some connections with you guys with something I love, and I definitely feel like mission accomplished. So thanks @Queen of the Bay @Eyes @Peekaboo @Christian @Mats @Haiku @GNL @Lucille

Here are all the movies in chronological release order:

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
Castle in the Sky
Grave of the Fireflies
My Neighbor Totoro
Kiki's Delivery Service
Only Yesterday
Porco Rosso
Ocean Waves
Pom Poko
Whisper of the Heart
Princess Mononoke
My Neighbors the Yamadas
Spirited Away
The Cat Returns
Howl's Moving Castle
Tales from Earthsea
Ponyo
Arrietty
From Up on Poppy Hill
The Wind Rises
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
When Marnie Was There
Earwig and the Witch

 

[Peekaboo]

Thanks Diddy, it was a lovely initiative and I enjoyed very much reliving some of my best films ever and reading other people's reactions to them! Sorry I wasn't more involved, I've been a bit busy over the last few months.

Are we giving an 11? If not, just swap it for a 10.

10 Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
10 Castle in the Sky
10 Grave of the Fireflies
10 My Neighbor Totoro
11 Kiki's Delivery Service
08 Only Yesterday
10 Porco Rosso
06 Ocean Waves
07 Pom Poko
09 Whisper of the Heart
10 Princess Mononoke
06 My Neighbors the Yamadas
10 Spirited Away
06 The Cat Returns
08 Howl's Moving Castle
?? Tales from Earthsea
07 Ponyo
08 Arrietty
07 From Up on Poppy Hill
08 The Wind Rises
?? The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
07 When Marnie Was There
?? Earwig and the Witch

 

[Diddy]

Thanks Diddy, it was a lovely initiative and I enjoyed very much reliving some of my best films ever and reading other people's reactions to them! Sorry I wasn't more involved, I've been a bit busy over the last few months.

Are we giving an 11? If not, just swap it for a 10.

10 Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
10 Castle in the Sky
10 Grave of the Fireflies
10 My Neighbor Totoro
11 Kiki's Delivery Service
08 Only Yesterday
10 Porco Rosso
06 Ocean Waves
07 Pom Poko
09 Whisper of the Heart
10 Princess Mononoke
06 My Neighbors the Yamadas
10 Spirited Away
06 The Cat Returns
08 Howl's Moving Castle
?? Tales from Earthsea
07 Ponyo
08 Arrietty
07 From Up on Poppy Hill
08 The Wind Rises
?? The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
07 When Marnie Was There
?? Earwig and the Witch

Ah I was just ranking - I was going to get the scores from the polls because it’s a hassle for people to rate them

 

[Peekaboo]

Oh I see. I may have scored them differently in here than in the polls

 

[Diddy]

Oh I see. I may have scored them differently in here than in the polls

I’ll take these scores first then

 

[Eyes]

so here's how I would rank them, I think they're similar to all the scores I gave in the threads.

1. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
2. Princess Mononoke
3. Howl's Moving Castle
4. Grave of the Fireflies
5. The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (best one I hadn't seen before)
6. Spirited Away
7. My Neighbor Totoro
8. Ponyo
9. Whisper of the Heart
10. From Up on Poppy Hill
11. Porco Rosso
12. Arrietty
13. When Marnie Was There
14. Tales from Earthsea
15. Earwig and the Witch
16. My Neighbors the Yamadas
17. Ocean Waves

top 8 are absolutely fantastic, 9-13 varying degrees of very enjoyable and the bottom 4, flawed films but they have... at least something fun about each of them. Except perhaps Ocean Waves' disaster of a romance plot

Top 2 I think will forever be between Mononoke and Nausicaa for me, but I think the latter takes it for just being a very perfect vision of the future related to Japan's place in the modern world. AKA Miyazaki's most passionate beliefs and fears about the world put to film, plus one of the coolest of all of his heroines.

I wasn't here for and I haven't seen these, so that's my list of things to catch up on and slot in:

Castle in the Sky
Kiki's Delivery Service
The Wind Rises
Only Yesterday
The Cat Returns
Pom Poko

Thank you Diddy, I'm glad I explored a lot more Ghibli and it's been great reading your thoughts everyone throughout.

 

[Diddy]

OK, my verdict! Not THAT hard to decide, apart from the top 3 GOD TIER ones

1. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
2. Spirited Away
3. Castle in the Sky
4. Kiki's Delivery Service
5. Only Yesterday
6. Ponyo
7. My Neighbor Totoro
8. Pom Poko
9. Grave of the Fireflies
10. From Up on Poppy Hill

11. Whisper of the Heart
12. The Cat Returns
13. Porco Rosso
14. Princess Mononoke
15. My Neighbors the Yamadas
16. The Wind Rises
17. Howl's Moving Castle
18. The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
19. Ocean Waves
20. When Marnie Was There

21. Arrietty
22. Earwig and the Witch
23. Tales from Earthsea


I'd been thinking that Nausicaa and Castle in the Sky were the top 2, but Spirited Away really is iconic from head to toe, and has such a tangible and exciting impact on culture from that moment on.

I'd say everything from Porco Rosso up, I'd have no problem in watching right now. Even as far as Howl (which hasn't aged as well as I'd expected for me) I'd happily watch if it was on. Just those bottom 6 (out of 23!!) Are ones I'd need a bit of a push to watch again - Kaguya for the length, the others for the pace and interest.

Sort of surprised myself to sneak Poppy Hill into the top 10, and I was very close to putting Cat Returns above Whisper of the Heart in the Baron-verse movies. Grave of the Fireflies is hard to place really, I guess I favour joy over emotional gravitas in this ranking, but that doesn't diminish what it is - just noticed that it's next to its double-bill-mate Totoro too, maybe they were a good match after all

A truly fantastic repertoire that I will never stop banging on about.

Perched to hear from the other juries!

 

[Diddy]

Are @Queen of the Bay @Christian or @Mats ready to share their rankings?

 

[Saltwater]

Not yet hopefully next week tho

 

[Diddy]

WELL! I meant to do this several months ago, but you can't say I never finish what I started. I have finally tabulated the average scores from the 22 polls in the Club Ghibli threads, with @Peekaboo 's votes above thrown in where applicable too.

Obviously a lot of joint positions because only Ponyo (of all things) got more than 5 scores

1. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (10)
1. Grave of the Fireflies (10)
1. Spirited Away (10)

4. Castle in the Sky (9.8)
4. Kiki's Delivery Service (9.8)
4. Only Yesterday (9.8)
7. My Neighbor Totoro (9.6)
8. Princess Mononoke (9.4)
9. Howl's Moving Castle (9)
9. Porco Rosso (9)

11. The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (8.8)
11. Whisper of the Heart (8.8)
13. Ponyo (8.7)
14. From Up on Poppy Hill (8.5)
14. The Wind Rises (8.5)
16. Pom Poko (8.3)
17. Arrietty (8)
18. When Marnie Was There (7.2)
19. Earwig and the Witch (7)
20. My Neighbors the Yamadas (6.7)
20. Tales from Earthsea (6.7)

22. The Cat Returns (6)
23. Ocean Waves (4)

No big surprises there, I wonder if @Queen of the Bethlehem 🌟 's lost vote for Grave of the Fireflies would have partly-broken the tie for the top spot. Did you watch it yet, bitch?
Also waiting for your final ranking, dear heart <3

Unfinished business aside, I guess that really is the end of Club Ghibli's year-long mission. Stay tuned for my Ghibli video on YouTube on January 1st, and I'll also be visiting newly-opened Ghibli Park next month

 

[Saltwater]

Still haven't watched the Grave but I completely forgot to rank the rest.
Not going to check what points I gave each right after having watched them so this will be more of a ranking of overall impressions and intention of rewatchability after letting them all sink in.

1. KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE
2. SPIRITED AWAY
3. MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO
4. THE WIND RISES
5. ONLY YESTERDAY
6. FROM UP ON POPPY HILL
7. THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY
8. OCEAN WAVES
9. EARWIG AND THE WITCH
10. PONYO
11. WHISPER OF THE HEART
12. WHEN MARNIE WAS THERE
13. THE TALE OF THE PRINCESS KAGUYA
14. PRINCESS MONONOKE
15. HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE
16. CASTLE IN THE SKY
17. PORCO ROSSO
18. NAUSICAÄ OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND
19. THE CAT RETURNS
20. POM POKO
21. MY NEIGHBORS THE YAMADAS
22. TALES FROM THE EARTHSEA
?? GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES

​

 

[Diddy]

Nausicaa at 18?!
Below MARNIE?! EARWIG?! OCEAN WAVES?!

 

[Saltwater]

Nausicaa at 18?!
Below MARNIE?! EARWIG?! OCEAN WAVES?!

I had a feeling you wouldn't be happy with this

 

[Saltwater]

Also Earwig was a masterpiece

 

[Diddy]

You gave Nausicaa a 10

 

[Saltwater]

You gave Nausicaa a 10

I know but that was right after watching it

 

[Diddy]

WELL WATCH IT AGAIN THEN DAMMIT

 

[Saltwater]

 

[Diddy]

 

[Diddy]

Well let’s not fight <3

And no refunds on previous poll votes