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[Randam]

I haven't watched any, where should I start ?

Laputa: Castle in the Sky
Kiki's Delivery Service
Prince Mononoke
Me Neighbor Totoro
Nausicaa

Don't forget:
Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro

 

[Freeglader]

I don't think he's overrated. I think a lot more westerners need to try his films out. Nausicaa and Mononoke are my personal favorites. As far as I'm concerned Nausicaa probably has the coolest fantasy setting in any work of fiction I've ever experienced. I loooooove it (fun fact: Aloy from HZD was partially inspired by Nausicaa )
Also, I find Mononoke particularly interesting because of the way it tells it's story. The story itself might be somewhat familiar because it bares some similarities to western films like Pocohontas or Avatar, but the beauty of Mononoke is that it isn't set in stone back and white, good vs evil like many animated movies. It's much more nuanced than that as every character has realistic motivations.
Plus, one of the main protagonist's chief motivations in the film is "to see with eyes unclouded by hate."
I feel this is the type of message everyone in the world needs to hear and that films like Princess Mononoke are an excellent medium through which to spread that message.

 

[SeroTyler]

Some are. For example, Totoro is unwatchable garbage. Like...even as a kid, I was too mature to sit through that mindless snoozefest.

Death Note now available for streaming on Netflix.

 

[enigmatic_alex44]

Ghibli top 5:

Spirited Away
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
Princess Mononoke
Nausicaa
Howl's Moving Castle

 

[Megalosaro]

Speaking of underrated anime movies, do you know which movie is super under rated?

The ideon: be invoked. Masterpiece.

 

[PSqueak]

no, but i think people who make threads like this are more about wanting to be validated than expressing and actual critique of the subject they're talking about.

You're free to dislike miyazaki, but why the fuck would you expect brownie points for it?

 

[matt360]

no, but i think people who make threads like this are more about wanting to be validated than expressing and actual critique of the subject they're talking about.

You're free to dislike miyazaki, but why the fuck would you expect brownie points for it?

You might be right, but on the other hand, the blind loyalty to all things Ghibli that so many people buy into can also get pretty annoying. But that speaks about the person, not the movies themselves. I've got a few friends here in Japan who, like clockwork, will text me after each new Ghibli film and go on and on about what a masterpiece it was. I realized they were full of shit after they wouldn't shut up about what a masterpiece Marnie was.

 

[psyfi]

I'm a huge Miyazaki fan, but Howl's is one of his worst works. I really don't like it much at all.

Watch Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, and Totoro. Those are his best films.

 

[Ratrat]

You might be right, but on the other hand, the blind loyalty to all things Ghibli that so many people buy into can also get pretty annoying. But that speaks about the person, not the movies themselves. I've got a few friends here in Japan who, like clockwork, will text me after each new Ghibli film and go on and on about what a masterpiece it was. I realized they were full of shit after they wouldn't shut up about what a masterpiece Marnie was.

1. Marnie is good.
2. Do these clockwork friends love Earthsea?

I think you are the one thats full of shit.

 

[Poyunch]

Ghibli films are all beautiful both in score and in art.

Some Ghibli films are amazing masterpieces. Some are just alright.

I think if you go into a film attaching yourselves to the characters more you'll enjoy them a lot more. Almost every Ghibli protagonist start off relatively normal until being thrusted into a strange complicated world. Just like the protagonist a lot of things don't make sense or seem complicated but that's alright because the main character might be just as confused.

 

[matt360]

1. Marnie is good.
2. Do these clockwork friends love Earthsea?

I think you are the one thats full of shit.

Marnie was simply ok. Sub-par as far as Ghibli movies go. And no, not even my clockwork friends have anything good to say about Earthsea.

 

[hateradio]

Some of his films are better than others, that is definitely true.

 

[MemoryHumanity]

Nope.

 

[brianjones]

maybe a little cuz there doesn't seem to be much competition with anime films

im not sure if any of them are masterpieces and some are just okay at best

howls is downright bad Imo, couldn't even finish that one.. don't base the rest of his work on that one

 

[FloweryMarston]

i never understood the concept of something being "overrated". You disliking it doesn't make the vast majority that likes it wrong.

 

[Wood Man]

I don't think so, but not all his movies are great. With that said Castle of Cagliostro was one of the first anime I saw. It blew me away as a kid. Been a fan of his stuff ever since.

I never saw Totoro until I got if for my daughter a few years ago. What a charming and delightful movie. She's probably seen the movie 20 since then.

Wasn't a huge fan of Howl's

 

[wandering]

I am interested to see your top ten anime directors.

I haven't put too much thought into it, but in no particular order:

Hayao Miyazaki
Isao Takahata
Osamu Tezuka
Satoshi Kon
Shinichiro Watanabe
Mamoru Oshii
Masaaki Yuasa
Katsuhiro Otomo
Hideaki Anno
Hiroyuki Okiura

 

[Finalizer]

Oh hey, subbed version of Castle in the Sky was in theaters tonight, at least in the US. Fantastic seeing it on the big screen, and the theater I saw it at at some point upgraded to reclining leather seats for extra cozy viewing, heh.

Wished I'd known that the other movies had been airing throughout summer, missed Totoro. Bummer...

Also OP is a terrible person, and Thor 2: The Dark World.

 

[CloudyTuba]

Anyone else think Miyazaki films are overrated?

• No.
• No, man.
• Shit, no, man.
• I believe you'd get your ass kicked sayin' something like that, man.

 

[Finalizer]

Anyone else think Miyazaki films are overrated?

• No.
• No, man.
• Shit, no, man.
• I believe you'd get your ass kicked sayin' something like that, man.

So I wasn't the only one who thought of this when I saw the title, heh.

 

[Aizo]

I haven't put too much thought into it, but in no particular order:

Hayao Miyazaki
Isao Takahata
Osamu Tezuka
Satoshi Kon
Shinichiro Watanabe
Mamoru Oshii
Masaaki Yuasa
Katsuhiro Otomo
Hideaki Anno
Hiroyuki Okiura

Damn good list.

 

[digdug2k]

Was coming to post the same thing. My wife and I love Howls Moving Castle.

Also just recently reached Kiki, Totoro, and Poco Rosso with my daughter and Totoro was the one where she enjoyed the least.

Heh. I like Howl too. My Miyazaki tastes have kinda changed with time though. Like, Mononoke got me hooked, but I really can't stand to sit through it anymore. At the same time, first time through, I hated Ponyo. But its probably my favorite of his now. Animation is fucking incredible, and I love that he took the Little Mermaid story and managed to tell it without having to create a badguy-goodguy-princess thing.

 

[Bruce Springsteen]

They're showing castle in the sky in theaters apparently now

 

[deim0s]

Ghibli films draws up emotions better from the watcher than Disney-like stuff.

 

[New002]

Not really an excuse at all. Howl's is entirely his movie, he didn't inherit any of the work Hosoda did on the project. When Hosoda worked on the film, the script was written by Reiko Yoshida, and entirely storyboarded by Hosoda. But Ghibli's animators constantly clashed with Hosoda and Kondo just didn't like working with him. When Miyazaki took over he scrapped everything and decided to write and storyboard the new film himself. So it being a bad movie is entirely on Miyazaki. He's a bad father and a bad director.

Man do I LOVE Howl's Moving Castle. I rewatch it fairly regularly. I've read the criticisms, but can't say I've ever felt the same. One of my faves.

 

[blummer102]

Don't think he's necessarily overrated, but I do agree that not all of his films hit the mark. (I also didn't really like Howl's Moving Castle.) He also has some trouble with endings - a lot of his movies basically just kinda dwindle off and stop a little too abruptly for my liking. Then again that's kinda a thing I notice in a lot of Japanese media. Haruki Murakami has the same problem.

 

[CaviarMeths]

I haven't put too much thought into it, but in no particular order:

Hayao Miyazaki
Isao Takahata
Osamu Tezuka
Satoshi Kon
Shinichiro Watanabe
Mamoru Oshii
Masaaki Yuasa
Katsuhiro Otomo
Hideaki Anno
Hiroyuki Okiura

I mean... these guys are good and all, but half of these guys are really only notable for a single work. This is the same sort of list that anyone would come up with if they just googled the name of the director of their 10 favorite anime. Not saying your opinion is invalid or anything, but Hosoda and Shinkai are definitely glaring omissions here if this was a more aggregated list.

 

[shintoki]

I think Howl's is overrated and a fairly messy film.

But a large body of his work is fantastic

 

[Chichikov]

i never understood the concept of something being "overrated". You disliking it doesn't make the vast majority that likes it wrong.

I don't like the word "overrated" because it implies that you think people are wrong about what they, themselves, think of the film, since ratings reflect the entirely subjective and individual opinions of the individual reviewing the film. If you say "this deserves a three" and I give it a four, who are you to tell me I'm wrong? Maybe you can convince me to notice some flaws that I didn't notice before, but you're unlikely to be able to do that on a macro scale.

Overrated just means "I don't think as highly of this as what seems to be the general consensus".
I didn't see the OP makes the claim that people who likes that film are somehow objectively wrong, in fact, I see mostly fans of Miyazaki doing it in this thread.

 

[Conkersbadfurday]

I find all of his movies to be absolutely enchanting, so I'd say no. There's a reason people really like and respect his body of work.

That being said, most of his movies feel kind of long. It's always something I know i have to consider when sitting down for one of his movies.

 

[bomma_man]

Wind Rises still ultra divisive I see.
I like that I'm seeing more people speaking for its greatness.

I think it's great too but it's very different to the rest of his filmography, so I can understand why people might be put off.

 

[Phu]

Wind Rises still ultra divisive I see.
I like that I'm seeing more people speaking for its greatness.

Wind Rises definitely ranks near the top for me.

 

[Fjordson]

No. Miyazaki is a master at his craft to me, but opinions and whatnot yada yada.

Worth noting that Howl's is one of his weaker movies imo. Not nearly as good as some of his other work like Princess Mononoke, Porco Rosso, Spirited Away, etc.

 

[bionic77]

no, but i think people who make threads like this are more about wanting to be validated than expressing and actual critique of the subject they're talking about.

You're free to dislike miyazaki, but why the fuck would you expect brownie points for it?

Maybe when there is critical and popular consensus that spans decades and different cultures it is the rest of us who are wrong and the hot take OPs who are right.

Be right back. Going to make a thread about how Stanley Kubrick was overrated

 

[wandering]

I mean... these guys are good and all, but half of these guys are really only notable for a single work. This is the same sort of list that anyone would come up with if they just googled the name of the director of their 10 favorite anime. Not saying your opinion is invalid or anything, but Hosoda and Shinkai are definitely glaring omissions here if this was a more aggregated list.

It's my personal top ten. I'm not huge on Hosoda nor Shinkai. However, I'd maintain that everyone on the list is as good as if not better than both of them from the standpoint of craft or influence. The only ones who might fit your description are the last three (and even then not really, they've all had multiple well received works) -- if you want to go by body of work then subtract them and add Leiji Matsumoto, Noburo Ishiguro, and Kunihiko Ikuhara. But can you really say that Hosoda is better than Otomo just because he directed more films?

 

[snap]

I got the Studio Ghibli boxset and am slowly making my way through it (I've gotten through Nausicaa and Castle in the Sky) and I've really loved what I've seen so far, and I'm someone who generally looks down upon anime. I may not like the man for how he treats those who work under him, but I do admit that he's wonderful at creating characters and stories that exude raw emotion.

 

[Chichikov]

Maybe when there is critical and popular consensus that spans decades and different cultures it is the rest of us who are wrong and the hot take OPs who are right.

Be right back. Going to make a thread about how Stanley Kubrick was overrated

Do you personally like everything that has popular consensus?
I know I don't, I'm not a contrarian or anything, I think I do like most of the universally loved films and filmmakers, but there are exceptions.

And to ground this discussion a bit, the OP talks mostly about Howl's Moving Castle, that movies sit at 80 on metacritic (not that it's the best measure for quality, but you brought critical acclaim).
That's the same score as The Simpsons Movie, do you think it's OMG HOT TAKE to not love that film too?

 

[MattKeil]

After reading this thread I'm beginning to think the most overrated Ghibli movie is Only Yesterday. Total dud of a film by Ghibli standards.

 

[bionic77]

Do you personally like everything that has popular consensus?
I know I don't, I'm not a contrarian or anything, I think I do like most of the universally loved films and filmmakers, but there are exceptions.

And to ground this discussion a bit, the OP talks mostly about Howl's Moving Castle, that movies sit at 80 on metacritic (not that it's the best measure for quality, but you brought critical acclaim).
That's the same score as The Simpsons Movie, do you think it's OMG HOT TAKE to not love that film too?

Of course I don't love everything that has popular consensus. I am not a huge fan of the Marvel movies. Those have popular consensus and have now been around for enough years to show that it is not a fluke.

But that goes to my individual tastes and should not be considered to be a serious judgment on the entire franchise. We are getting a lot of these threads in reaction to anything that is really popular that can be summed up as 'this shit is not for me' but instead of saying that the OP will take it a step further and say that the movie/game/album was terrible.

 

[Alucard]

Watching Miyazaki, you really have to unlearn a lot of what you've learned from typical animated movies. Some of them are quite weird at first, and you may even wonder "what's the big deal?" but after two or three times, it usually "clicks" and you wonder how you ever went so long without experiencing them. I thought "I don't get it" after watching Spirited Away the first time, but after waiting a few months, I watched it again and thought it was one of the most emotionally satisfying adventures ever animated.

Miyazaki movies that are the most "immediate" and that don't require this...

Castle in the Sky
Kiki's Delivery Service

I'd watch those if you want something a little more traditional, at least in terms of structure.

 

[Alucard]

Do you personally like everything that has popular consensus?
I know I don't, I'm not a contrarian or anything, I think I do like most of the universally loved films and filmmakers, but there are exceptions.

And to ground this discussion a bit, the OP talks mostly about Howl's Moving Castle, that movies sit at 80 on metacritic (not that it's the best measure for quality, but you brought critical acclaim).
That's the same score as The Simpsons Movie, do you think it's OMG HOT TAKE to not love that film too?

I can also understand people not liking Howl's Moving Castle. I think it's okay, but because it's an adaptation, I think it's missing something that other Miyazaki movies possess. It feels like a paint-by-numbers story and doesn't have the same magical feeling that I associate with stuff like Spirited Away, Totoro, Kiki, etc.

 

[tuffy]

I can also understand people not liking Howl's Moving Castle. I think it's okay, but because it's an adaptation, I think it's missing something that other Miyazaki movies possess. It feels like a paint-by-numbers story and doesn't have the same magical feeling that I associate with stuff like Spirited Away, Totoro, Kiki, etc.

Kiki's Delivery Service was also an adaptation of someone else's story, though its more dramatic elements were original (like the zeppelin accident). So while I agree that Howl's is low-tier Miyazaki, I don't think being an adaptation is the root cause.

 

[Alucard]

Kiki's Delivery Service was also an adaptation of someone else's story, though its more dramatic elements were original (like the zeppelin accident). So while I agree that Howl's is low-tier Miyazaki, I don't think being an adaptation is the root cause.

Huh. Fair enough. I wasn't aware of that. Come to think of it, Nausicaa was a manga first, wasn't it?

I still like Howl's Moving Castle, and it gets bonus points because it's my five-year-old daughter's favourite animated film ever at the moment, but it doesn't affect me the same way Totoro, Kiki, and Castle in the Sky do.

 

[emalord]

I can agree that later Miyazaki is better than early Miyazaki
Lupin III, Nausicaä and Laputa are not as good as later works IMHO

 

[RipperGrim]

tough choice between what is wrong with you and Thor 2. Thor won of course

 

[Alucard]

I can agree that later Miyazaki is better than early Miyazaki
Lupin III, Nausicaä and Laputa are not as good as later works IMHO

Maybe...I still love the innocence and adventurous feeling of Kiki and Laputa. I also adore those early Joe Hisaishi soundtracks and trademark themes, so I'm sure that increases my love of those early films.

I should re-watch Porco Rosso...remember not really getting it the first time. I also haven't watched Nausicaa in ages.

 

[VendettaRed07]

The wind rises is the only one that I would say gets too much praise. It shouldn't get any. Simply terrible.

All his other movies I think are rated appropriately.

 

[higgsboson1997]

I've only watched Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke.

Thought Spirited Away was decent, but really didn't like Mononoke.

 

[7Th]

Hosoda and Reiko Yoshida's Howl's Moving Castle would have been a masterpiece that would rank alongside Ghibli's top movies.

 

[Village]

I don't think they are overrated. I'm not as enamored with them as some, they aren't really my thing. I think they are fine, and and like a few on visual alone ,but if you said " hey wanna watch some miyazaki films..." i would decline.

I don't think they are overrated, I think they provide a Disney like playfulness with a seriousness sometimes that Disney wont really touch. Disney when adpting stories with horrible implications, horrible origins , or just horrible things happening to characters, while having conflicts kinda skirt all that stuff away. Things can be just strait fucked up in miyazaki films. So I can see why folks like it.

I'm just not the most into it is all .