Entertainment
Every Hayao Miyazaki Movie From the 20th Century, Ranked
There might not be a more consistent director than Hayao Miyazaki, whether you want to talk about directors who are still alive and/or active, or directors of any time in cinema history. Miyazaki’s output has slowed down as he’s gotten older, with an especially long gap between The Wind Rises (2013) and The Boy and the Heron (2023), but a dozen movies released between 1979 and 2023 is still a decent amount.
In other words, it’s not like quantity has been overlooked, but it’s quality that Miyazaki focuses on. And what quality, you know? None of his 12 movies come anywhere close to being bad, so ranking them is always difficult. Just sticking to his first seven doesn’t make things a whole lot easier, but that’s what you’ve got below, in any event: all seven Hayao Miyazaki movies that came out in the 20th century, ranked from good to great.
7
‘My Neighbor Totoro’ (1988)
People do really love My Neighbor Totoro, so it being in last place here might seem sacrilegious, but something has to go at the bottom. It just does. Nothing really deserves to be at the bottom, and since My Neighbor Totoro is a Hayao Miyazaki movie, it is, at the very least, quite good, but to be perfectly honest, it just doesn’t have enough going on.
That’s the reason for it being here. It’s slow, and it can be hard to figure out what really feels like the point of this one is, and similarly difficult to work out what it does that appeals to people when everything here is done/explored better in all of Miyazaki’s other movies. You’ve probably quit scrolling at this point, out of frustration, and if not, thank you, and also, apologies. “There are no bad Hayao Miyazaki movies” is the point that should continue to be stressed.
6
‘Porco Rosso’ (1992)
Porco Rosso is about an anthropomorphic pig who can fly planes, and since he gets into some dogfights and the film’s a bit of an adventure one, it’s technically more exciting than My Neighbor Totoro, though it does remain a bit light on plot. There is a goofiness here that’s charming, owing to the premise, and then Porco Rosso does have some emotional moments, or at least reasons to care about what’s going on beyond just enjoying the vibes.
The vibes are the main thing here, though, admittedly. It also feels a bit like Miyazaki’s Ponyo (2009) in the sense that it really doesn’t feel like things were planned out narratively, and the resulting movie (again, like with Ponyo) ends up feeling a bit longer than it is. But things are sometimes fun, occasionally sweet, and always gorgeous to look at (the quality of the animation, as always, is impossible to find fault with), and so even with it being a bit aimless, it’s never unenjoyable to spend that amount of time with.
5
‘Kiki’s Delivery Service’ (1989)
Just one year on from My Neighbor Totoro, Hayao Miyazaki returned to the realm of coming-of-age stories, in turn coming dangerously close to repeating himself. The film that followed so close to My Neighbor Totoro was Kiki’s Delivery Service, but it’s a step forward in the sense that the protagonist here is a little older than either of the two young girls in Miyazaki’s previous film, and the story here also sees her venturing off entirely on her own.
Well, actually, she does have a cat. Not a catbus, but a cat. Kiki’s Delivery Service is about her taking steps to become independent, doing what all witches apparently do when they reach their teenage years. Beyond that premise, there’s not a ton of narrative, and things wrap up especially abruptly once the film’s 100-ish minutes are up, yet it’s still a decently engaging film. Probably goes without saying, but it’s a winner as far as animation and music are concerned, too, as can be said about all of Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli-era movies.
4
‘Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind’ (1984)
There are two movies Hayao Miyazaki directed before Studio Ghibli was officially founded, though of the two, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is the easiest to classify as a Studio Ghibli movie. Maybe it is spiritually, because it’s got a ton of recognizable elements thematically and stylistically, and then it’s also worth singling out that it’s the first Miyazaki film with a score composed by Joe Hisaishi, who’d go on to compose music for the 10 that followed Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, too.
It feels like one movie isn’t really enough for all that’s engaging here, which makes sense when you realize that Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind was originally a manga written by Miyazaki himself.
This film’s a post-apocalyptic one that combines sci-fi and fantasy elements very effectively, telling a story that’s a bit more interesting than some of the stories found in certain previously mentioned movies, but then also, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind succeeds in terms of having an especially interesting world. It feels like one movie isn’t really enough for all that’s engaging here, which makes sense when you realize that Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind was originally a manga written by Miyazaki himself (and one that the film couldn’t adapt in its entirety, since it took until 1992 for the manga series to be concluded).
3
‘Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro’ (1979)
The other Miyazaki movie that pre-dated the formation of Studio Ghibli was Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro, which is pretty easy to single out as the most underrated Hayao Miyazaki movie. It’s probably the lack of connection to Studio Ghibli that’s made that happen, and it’s also difficult to mistake this one for a Studio Ghibli movie the way you possibly might’ve with Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, outside a castle – or castles – being important (Miyazaki loves his castles).
This one’s incredibly entertaining, and if you want one more bit of hyperbole, it’s also comfortably the funniest Hayao Miyazaki movie. Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro is about a charismatic and skilled (albeit also unlucky) thief and his partner-in-crime getting wrapped up in a less-selfish-than-usual mission to save a princess from an evil count named Cagliostro, and he does indeed have quite the castle. This movie’s so much fun, and if you’re a fan of Miyazaki’s and have somehow missed out on watching it so far, that’s something you should try to amend as fast as possible.
2
‘Castle in the Sky’ (1986)
Another movie with “Castle” in the title, Castle in the Sky is once more one where it feels tempting to call it underrated, even with the acknowledgment that everyone seems to like and/or love it. But it’s, like, even better than the general consensus. The entertainment value here is important, as it was with Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro, because Castle in the Sky is consistently fun, and there’s a story here that gives the feeling of things always going somewhere.
Miyazaki’s first three movies are, overall, a bit more exciting than the next two he’d do: My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki’s Delivery Service. They feel like better entry points to Miyazaki, or anime generally, than those two other movies, even if those two (and especially My Neighbor Totoro) might be more famous. Castle in the Sky is exciting and never boring, all the while also standing as perhaps Miyazaki’s most ambitious film in terms of genres covered, since this is a bit of an action/adventure/comedy/family/fantasy/sci-fi film, all at once.
1
‘Princess Mononoke’ (1997)
Princess Mononoke does absolutely everything right, and the only Hayao Miyazaki movie you’re likely to see most people ranking ahead of it, when they’re trying to go over all his films, would be Spirited Away. For now, it’s easy to call it the best film Miyazaki directed in the 20th century, since Spirited Away came out in 2001. But the gap in quality between these two masterpieces is an incredibly small one.
Narratively and thematically, Princess Mononoke has the most in common with Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, since both are heavily about environmental-related conflicts, though Princess Mononoke arguably refines and/or perfects everything that Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind already did exceptionally well. It’s such a beautiful and thought-provoking film, animated or otherwise, and more than worthy of its status as an untouchable classic.
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