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| Studio Ghibli Animated Movies, 2000's - present (1980's - 1990's click here) ¦¦ Titles are translated from the Japanese release. To see the Pre-Studio Ghibli anime & Studio Ghibli shorts, 1960's - 1970's, click here. To see the Pre-Studio Ghibli anime & Studio Ghibli shorts, 1980's - present, click here.
¦¦ Other names: 千と千尋の神隠し :: Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (a.k.a. Spirited Away) Originally released in 2001, 124 minutes long.
While on their way to their new home in a country town, Chihiro and her parents get sidetracked and discover a mysterious tunnel that leads to what appears to be an old, but fabricated Japanese village. But this isn't an ordinary village at all — it adjoins a bathhouse for magical spirits — who are none too happy to find humans among them. Chihiro's parents fall under a spell, and Chihiro herself must work under the bathhouse's manager, an intimidating, greedy old witch named Yuubaba who binds her with a contract and steals her name, renaming her Sen. With the help of various otherworldly employees, including the young man Haku, she must find a way to undo the spell on her parents and return home to the human world before she loses her identity forever.
|  | 猫の恩返し :: Neko no Ongaeshi (a.k.a. The Cat Returns) Originally released in 2002, 75 minutes long.
Haru, a schoolgirl bored by her ordinary routine, saves the life of an unusual cat, and suddenly her world is transformed beyond anything she ever imagined. The Cat King rewards her good deed with a flurry of presents, including a very shocking proposal of marriage to his son! Haru embarks on an unexpected journey to the Kingdom of Cats where her eyes are opened to a whole other world and her destiny is uncertain. To change her fate, she'll need to learn to believe in herself and appreciate her everyday life.
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 | ハウルの動く城 :: Howl no Ugoku Shiro (a.k.a. Howl's Moving Castle) Originally released in 2004, 118 minutes long.
Sophie, a quiet girl working in a hat shop, finds her life thrown into turmoil when she is literally swept off her feet by a handsome but flamboyant and mysterious wizard named Howl. The vain and vengeful Witch of the Waste, jealous of their friendship, puts a spell on Sophie that turns her into an old woman. The next day, to avoid her family from noticing what happened to her, Sophie decides to leave town, eventually ending up in a castle that literally moves. She befriends the fire demon Calcifer, who promises to lift the curse if she helps liberate him from the influence of Howl, and Markl, who protects the four-way door which can instantly take visitors to other lands and dimensions.
|  | ゲド戦記 :: Gedo Senki (a.k.a. Tales from Earthsea) Originally released in 2006, 110 minutes long.
Ged was on a journey, searching for the source causing evil disturbances to the world. Ged — once an impetuous and arrogant goatherd boy — is now a mature man, called by others as "Lord Archmage", the greatest of wizards. During his travels, he meets Arren, Prince of Enlad. The youth was being pursued by a "shadow". The disastrous force destroying the world's balance and driving people mad was nearing Arren as well.
The two in their quest, seek refuge in Tenar's place, an old acquaintance of Ged. Tenar was once a priestess that guarded the dark Tombs of Atuan when she was a girl. When Ged recovered the broken Ring of Erreth-Akbe from the Tomb, she was brought out to the world of freedom and light by him. Also living in Tenar's house was Therru, a girl whose face was marked with a scar of fire. Therru who had been abandoned by her parents, avoids Arren who holds darkness within and occasionally devastated with despair. Arren spends his days laboring in the fields and interacting with nature, taught and guided by Ged how all creation in the universe is realized on a balance. Therru gradually opens her heart to Arren. Yet even during this time, Arren's fear toward the shadow grows severe and he is troubled by nightmares of being chased by the shadow.
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 | 崖の上のポニョ :: Gake no ue no Ponyo (a.k.a. Ponyo On A Cliff) Originally released in 2008, 100 minutes long.
Small, five-year-old Sosuke lives in a village built at the top of a cliff which overhangs the Inner Sea. One beautiful morning, while playing on the beach below, he discovers a little girl goldfish named Ponyo, trapped in a jar. Sosuke saves her and decides to keep her with him in a bucket. Ponyo is fascinated by Sosuke as he is by her. The little boy promises to protect her and to take care of her, but Ponyo's father, Fujimoto, the formerly human wizard who lives at the bottom of the sea, forces her to return with him to the depths of the sea. Determined to become human, Ponyo escapes to find Sosuke. But before fleeing, she spreads Fujimoto's magic elixir, the Water of the Life, in the ocean. The sea level rises, and Ponyo's sisters are transformed into gigantic waves which reach up to Sosuke's house on the cliff, and floods the village...
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借りぐらしのアリエッティ :: Kari-gurashi no Arietti (a.k.a. The Secret World of Arrietty) Originally released in 2010, 94 minutes long.
The Clock family is a family of "little people", living underneath the porch of an old country house. Once in a while they head upstairs to borrow some of the inhabitant's stuff, but only things that will not be missed. When Arrietty is old enough to undertake her first borrow, she is spotted by a young boy living in the house. The two learn to appreciate each other's company, but when the cleaning lady discovers the hideout of the little people things get a little too hairy for Arrietty's family, urging them to move out of the house.
The movie is based on the book The Borrowers by Mary Norton, who also wrote the book on which Disney's "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" movie is based.
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コクリコ坂から :: Kokuriko-zaka Kara (a.k.a. From up on Poppy Hill) Originally released in 2011, 91 minutes long.
Umi is a high school girl who is spirited and headstrong. She raises signal flags to honor her father, a captain, who died in the Korean War. She lives at a lodging house with her sister and a few other women, and she waits for her mother to come back from America. She meets Shun, a popular student, at a spontaneous student rally opposing the demolition of the clubhouse -- an old, dirty building that holds several clubs and organizations such as the Latin Quarter, the school newspaper. Shun is passionate about the newspaper and the protection of the building. Umi and Shun take charge to clean up the clubhouse and appease the head of the school. They begin to have stronger feelings for each other, but their parents’ curious past interferes with their love.
The film, based on a 1980 manga by Tetsura Sayama and Chizuru Takahashi, takes place just before the Tokyo Summer Olympics of 1964, a period of revitalization and change. The goal was to alter the world’s attitude of Japan since World War II. Old buildings are demolished to make way for the new and the spectacular. The Clubhouse in the film is a magnificent building that holds several niches of different interests. To Shun and to the supporters of the building, this clubhouse signifies the memory of Japan. Shun and Umi believes their connection to the past and family is ambiguous, and desire a concrete answer to their identities.
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The two main people at Studio Ghibli are Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, and now Goro Miyazaki (Hayao's son) has joined the directing team. Both made movies before starting Studio Ghibli, but this page will just focus on their Studio Ghibli movies (although, technically, Nausicaä is a pre-Ghibli movie). To see the pre-Studio Ghibli efforts of either of these great animators or to view a list of the Studio Ghibli shorts (1960's - 1970's), check out the third Ghibli page, or (1980's - present) check out the fourth Ghibli page. (For lots of great info, check out Nausicca.net, a great site with LOTS more information.) The official Studio Ghibli site is also awesome, but is completely in Japanese.
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