5 Studio Ghibli films to watch

One - Spirited away :

This movie is about a girl and her family, they arrive at a abandoned amusement park flooded with supernatural beings. Her parents are turned into giant pigs and she learns what she must do to free herself and turn her parents back to humans. I love this movie, the style, plot, and development of the characters is absolutely wonderful and of course it is cause it’s a freaking Studio Ghibli film so it’s bound to be awesome. I’ve watched this movie about five times and I’m sure I’ll watch it many more times as the years go by just because it’s such a classic, comforting movie.

Two - When Marie Was There :

This movie is about a girl who is sent to the country regarding her health, there she meets a girl named Marie and the story dives deep into their connection and relationship. Honestly I’ve been stalling on watching this movie because it seems quite sad, and I hate crying when watching movies cause then your vision get blurry while you’re still trying to see what’s going on, it’s a mess lol. But since we’re quarantined I figured I’d watch it one of these days because just from the cover and description it seems like a great movie with lots of emotion and good connection to the viewer.

Three – Ponyo :

This movie is about a little goldfish princess who’s father won’t let her rise to the surface to see the world where the humans live. She does escape and goes to the surface where she meets a boy who gives her a human name, she begins to live with him and his mother and forms a wonderful bond with him. As their bonds gets stronger she becomes more like a human, but her father finds her and that’s where the real trouble starts. Once again I love this movie, it was the very first Studio Ghibli film I saw and I loved it. The color, the characters, the plot, the way you get little peeps of everyday life so it’s not so much of a fantasy but still has magic.

Four - Mary and the witches flower :

This movie is about a girl named Mary who finds herself following a cat that leads her to a flower. From there she arrives at a school for witches all the way up in the clouds, but during her stay she discovers horrible things taking place there and is devoted to stopping it. This movie had a lot of adventure aspects which I loved, the start was a bit slow but as things got more complicated the pace sped up and it became more interesting to watch. I would definitely watch it again and maybe lay more attention to the little things because once the pace speeds up it was easy to forget what was really going on and that made it seem like any other movie with a villain and hero. Other than that obviously the style and art is beautiful and there’s hits of comedy which is actually funny.

Five - Only yesterday :

This movie is about a women who takes an extended trip to visit family, there she ponders on her youth and daydreams. And as the vacation goes on she starts to wonder what her younger self would’ve wanted. This movie is the oldest out of the ones above, which means it has a hit of nostalgia in it especially with the flashbacks through the movie. I will say I didn’t enjoy the style as much as the others but that’s just my personal opinion and it’s honestly just due to me not liking the way older animations were done. Putting my pickiness aside, this movie was wonderful. It felt like I was living her life in a way, basically seeing her grow up and just seeing how she ended up where she is now. I also liked how this movie wasn’t super happy or had magic elements, it was very nice but subtle enough to enjoy as well as not overly depressing. Overall if you need a break from the fantasy genre and just want to watch a realistic, chill movie this is the one to watch.