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Comment by duxup | Hacker News Reader

I signed up for HBO ... er whatever they call it now, just to share Miyazaki films with my kids.

There's a joy and generosity that the films have towards people, animals, and even food that you don't find in much media anymore.

More than once I watched expecting the "bad guy" to get his in the end, but the film ended just fine without it, maybe better because of it.

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Lots don’t even have a villain, really. They are really great for children, to help them see that not every story needs a villain to be compelling.

My daughter is 21 months old and has seemingly memorized Totoro—if she hears the soundtrack, she’ll start talking about what’s happening in that scene. If she hears the track where Mei grabs the soot sprite, she’ll yell out, “I caught one!”

Miyazaki movies are truly timeless. They’ll still be loved in the 2080s.

The music is so much of the experience, and the "Ghibili" style is unmistakable. I have not seen all of the films, but I have heard all of the music! It was even better in concert.

If you ever get the chance I am sure it would be an unforgettable experience for you and your family to see it performed in concert, it's quite regularly toured around various countries by different orchestras.

Absolutely. And generally great treatment of gender, and none of the Disney obsession with royalty.

There's a Western/Japan cultural gap here. Ghibli movies are not different from other anime. The reason anime stars women is because the animators are horny and like drawing women first, marketing second, and because they're feminists maybe like tenth. (Miyazaki's waifu is Clarissa from Castle of Cagliostro.)

And the opposite happens too; a work where all the characters are men is usually by/for women, and a lot of things Japanese women love to write look like "ugh some perverted guy did this" to unfamiliar Western readers, making it tricky to localize romances.

I think you can give Miyazaki a lot more credit than that for the girls and women in Totoro, Kiki, Mononoke, and Spirited Away.

I'm basing this comment on an interview I read where Oshii makes fun of him for it.

(Which unfortunately I can't link because it's on my own website, where Wordpress auto-updated itself and broke and I haven't fixed it.)

I think their thesis was that Miyazaki was most like this in the 80s-90s (see Porco Rosso, which stars a self-insert of himself), then was a dad in the 2000s (Spirited Away), then later entered a second childhood (see Ponyo and Wind Rises, which is mainly about how cool planes are.)

>Wind Rises, which is mainly about how cool planes are.

if that was your main take-away from that movie, I suggest you re-watch it.

it reminds me of the meme that Gundam fans ignore the fact that the story is about the brutality of endless human conflict for the fact that there are shiny robots and cool technologies.

It's a synthesis. War is bad because it detracts from the purity of thinking about how cool planes are.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/23/hayao-miyazaki...

The Gundam meme is an over-simplification; Tomino is moralistic but he's far too weird to just have a normal moral like that. Typical Tomino morals are like "all old people are evil, including myself", "we should have a matriarchy", and whatever Brain Powerd was about.

Have you considered that some works may focus on women without any underlying motive or intention

Yes, I have considered that.

But Ghibli doesn't do things without intention, I would say that's what people like about them. (Though you might say that about Goro Miyazaki's Earthsea movie.)

Make of this article what you will...

https://kotaku.com/hayao-miyazaki-wants-you-to-know-why-naus...

Apparently a lot of writers and animators are actually women: https://gamerant.com/great-series-written-female-mangaka

I have no idea how accurate this claim is (it’s a survey on a random news site) especially because in most anime women are indeed very sexualized. But I wouldn’t be super surprised. I think part of it is that anime artists just drop realism and like to draw idealized versions of women and men, whatever makes the most interesting story. And maybe women being the heroes and doing everything is a lot more interesting than men, at least to the writers.

For a great, under appreciated (in the west) Miyazaki series pre-Ghibli, check out “Future Boy Conan”[0]. It’s my personal favourite, and all 3 of my boys (and my wife) have watched it multiple times. It’s the source of a lot of Ghibli tropes, and I think they were expertly executed.

Of course it’s nice that it’s a TV series, so you get to spend that much longer in the world with the characters.

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Boy_Conan

Some kind soul uploaded it and made it available for anyone at the Internet Archive

I'd had Miyazaki's films on my watchlist for years, and when we found out we were expecting our first kiddo (now 3 years old), I decided to wait to watch any of them so that I could watch them, for the very first time, with her (well, "them" now, on account of our second kiddo).

I'd love to see suggestions from folk around which film might be a great first choice, I'll probably give that a go this week.

Edit: Thanks for the suggestions, everyone! :)

I haven't gone super-super-deep into Ghibli but I feel confident saying either My Neighbor Totoro or Spirited Away.

Be careful to keep your expectations straight for any of the Ghibli films you watch after Spirited Away though, because it's possibly their best. I go back and forth on that or Princess Mononoke taking the crown.

Spirited away is pretty scary for a 3 or even 6 year old. Perhaps Kiki? Or Arrietty?

Spirited away is one of the best.

Spirited Away is going to be too scary and too complicated for a lot of littler kids.

Spirited away: One of the best and has all all the flavours of Ghibli, I recommend starting with it.

Shorter: Totoro, great for kids with a short attention span, my toddler enjoyed it.

Totoro or Ponyo would be my recommendation.

For kids:

My Neighbor Totoro

Spirited Away - (3 year olds might find some moments scary, lost of strange creatures and scary moments for the protagonist but not for too long.)

The Secret World of Arrietty

Depending on how they handle those you could try others.

Totoro of course, but Kiki is highly underrated and great for little kids.

Kiki is pretty sad though. It's the definition of a coming-of-age story and the ending is not particularly upbeat.

She saves the day and writes a letter to her parents that she's doing great!

Ponyo or My Neighbor Totoro would probably be best for a first choice.

Kiki's Delivery Service and The Secret World of Arriety would be better for a (slightly) older child.

Spirited Away or Howl's Moving Castle for slightly older yet.

I've been doing this with my kids. It's been so enjoyable, we're all getting a lot of joy out of it. My youngest became obsessed with Totoro when she was 4 and I think I enjoy it more every time we watch it. Waiting a while before I show them spirited away, Ponyo spooked her first time round, but a year later and she loved it. There's a lot to process in some of them for small kiddos, so like most everyone else says, those two are probably the best ones to start with.

Totoro is probably the best for your kids age. Ponyo and Kiki's Delivery Service might also be good around this age.

A lot of suggestions for Spirited Away, but I think you're going to need to wait a few years for your kids to appreciate and connect with it -- I'd say 7 or 8y/o. Around that same age, Castle in the Sky and Nausicaa become palatable too. A little after that you can probably introduce them to Porco Rosso and Howls Moving Castle -- they both touch on some war stuff that might be hard for young kids to understand.

Whatever you decide though, hold off on Princess Mononoke until they're older. That one to me is the most visually jarring one, and I'm glad I was as old as I was when I first saw it because a younger me would have definitely had a nightmare or two.

You can see them every year on the big screen in a lot of cities and I highly recommend it: https://www.fathomevents.com/series/studio-ghibli-fest

The absence of true "bad guys" is one of the best part (Suliman, Yubaba).

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