This post is intended to serve as the prelude to my ‘Ghibli review season’. As with all things, some background and context never hurts.

I was first introduced to the works of the talented Hayao Miyazaki when my sister happened to rent Spirited Away. A good movie, yes, but it would still be a while before I would discover that it was far from the best that Studio Ghibli had to offer.

A few years on I happened to be in HMV browsing, as you did before HMV closed, (may you rest in peace, sweet prince), and I spotted in the DVD section an array of titles that appeared to belong to the Studio Ghibli collection. My eyes lit up and childhood excitement took over. I spent the next few months using every cent I had to collect them all.

While I can’t tell you what order I bought them in, the first few titles included Howl’s Moving Castle, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and of course Spirited Away.

I’ll be aiming to do a review on each of the titles in the Ghibli series. Caution to the faint-hearted however, gushing will most likely be included. For those unfamiliar with the series, I’ll outline the collection for you. ‘Cus I’m a nice guy.

(I’ll be listing them in terms of their number in the series as opposed to their year of release.)

  1. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.
  2. The Cat Returns
  3. Porco Rosso
  4. Pom Poko
  5. Kiki’s Delivery Service
  6. Laputa: Castle in the Sky
  7. Howl’s Moving Castle
  8. Princess Mononoke
  9. My Neighbour Totoro
  10. Grave of the Fireflies
  11. Whisper of the Heart
  12. My Neighbours the Yamadas
  13. Spirited Away
  14. Only Yesterday
  15. Tales from Earthsea
  16. Ocean Waves
  17. Ponyo
  18. Arrietty

To prevent the ‘those guys’ from being, well, ‘those guys’… Yes, there are a few other titles in the series. I will not be covering:

  • From Up on Poppy Hill
  • The Wind Rises
  • The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
  • When Marnie Was There

I am not as familiar with these films, also I don’t own them, so I will aim to procure/watch these at some point. I might do a separate review ‘season’ for these.

I decided going through them in order might be a little boring, so I’ve re-ordered them to make it more interesting. Random Number Generators are actually useful, whaddayaknow.

While I won’t spoil the order of the films . . .

I will reveal that the first film I’ll be covering . . .

*drumroll please*

will be . . .

. .

. .

giphy2

. .

. .

. .

. .

. .

. .

original

PONYO!

I haven’t decided on a schedule or how frequently I will release the reviews but I am aiming to have this out in the next two weeks and from there well.. we’ll see!

*Exit Kaze*

*Watching Ponyo*