Studio Ghibli Films, Ranked

Won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and was long the highest-grossing film in Japanese history; a peerless coming-of-age fantasy with limitless imagination.

A gentle, near-plotless portrait of childhood wonder whose title creature became Ghibli's mascot and one of animation's most beloved icons.

An epic, morally complex clash between industry and nature with striking animation and no easy villains; it broke Japanese box-office records in 1997.

Takahata's devastating WWII drama about two orphaned siblings is one of the most powerful anti-war films ever made in any medium.

A lavish, whimsical wartime romance with gorgeous mechanical design and a career-best Joe Hisaishi score, if a slightly muddled third act.

A warm, low-stakes story of a young witch finding independence; its honest depiction of burnout and self-doubt gives it lasting charm.

The proto-Ghibli film that established Miyazaki's ecological themes; ambitious world-building and a fierce pacifist heroine.

Ghibli's official first film delivers pure adventure — sky pirates, ancient ruins, and a soaring sense of wonder.

Miyazaki's mature, bittersweet biographical drama about an aircraft designer; less magical but among his most personal and beautifully drawn works.

A stylish, melancholy tale of a cursed pilot in the Adriatic; effortlessly cool but slighter than Miyazaki's grander epics.

Takahata's final film uses a stunning watercolor-sketch style to retell an old folktale; visually radical, though deliberately slow.

A grounded, heartfelt teen romance about creative ambition; quiet but genuinely affecting, with a memorable cat-figurine fantasy interlude.

Miyazaki's dense, dreamlike return won him a second Best Animated Feature Oscar; gorgeous and personal but more opaque than his classics.

A playful, hand-drawn riff on The Little Mermaid aimed at young kids; visually inventive though narratively thin.

Takahata's reflective drama about an adult woman revisiting her childhood; mature and understated, a landmark for grown-up animation.

A lovely, small-scale adaptation of The Borrowers with lush detail, but a modest story that never fully takes off.

Takahata's eco-fable about shape-shifting raccoon dogs is inventive and heartfelt but tonally scattered and overlong.

A gentle mystery about friendship and belonging with pretty visuals; competent but forgettable compared to the studio's peaks.

Gorō Miyazaki's directorial debut is a plodding, incoherent adaptation that Ursula K. Le Guin herself publicly criticized.

Ghibli's first full 3D-CG feature is widely panned for stiff animation, a flat unlikable lead, and a story that ends abruptly with no resolution.