Editor’s Note: This article contains spoilers!

With the end of summer comes the end of late-night movie watching. Over the past three months, I have watched a variety of shows and movies, most of which by Studio Ghibli. Studio Ghibli, co-founded by Hayao Miyazaki, Toshio Suzuki, Isao Takahata, and Yasuyoshi Tokuma and created in 1985, is an acclaimed Japanese animation studio that has created internationally admired films, including Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Ponyo, and Howl’s Moving Castle. As an avid Studio Ghibli, and especially Miyazaki, supporter for multiple years, I can now confidently say the best Ghibli movie is… actually, there are multiple.

(This list is in no particular order; all of these movies are good.)

1. Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)

Unlike a lot of the other Ghibli films, such as Grave of the Fireflies, Princess Kaguya, and Howl’s Moving Castle, where themes of war, death, and separation are emphasized, Kiki’s Delivery Service’s charm comes from its simplicity. Following a 13-year-old girl (Kiki) who has finally come of age to move to another town for a year to train as a witch, this film tackles issues such as losing inspiration and hitting rock bottom. Despite the lack of physical violence and explosions that mesmerize Castle of the Sky fans, Kiki fights an internal battle to keep her flying abilities and, consequently, her delivery business. Because Miyazaki focuses the story on real-life problems, this story can feel closer to the heart and more relatable than any of the other movies the studio has produced. 

2. From Up On Poppy Hill (2011) 

Centered around the time of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics after World War II, the story follows a group of schoolchildren trying to save their beloved old clubhouse from being replaced by a new one, an effort by the government to bring in the new and rid the old. The two main characters, Umi and Shun, quickly become friends during this effort to clean the old building. Umi, the oldest out of all of her siblings, takes care of cooking and cleaning because her mother is away studying, and her father died during the Korean War. The boy, Shun, realizes that he had the same photo of his father that she had of his, and the complicated search for the reason for this highlights the complex issue of family separation caused by the Second World War. One of the reasons this is one of my top favorite movies from this studio is not only because of the amazing soundtrack, with songs like “The Latin Quarter” and “Sunrise ~ The Breakfast Song,” but also because of how the historical time period plays an active role in the misunderstandings that occur between the two main characters, showing viewers how past events screw up the present and that every action has a consequence. 

3. Ponyo (2008)

I might be biased because it came out the year I was born, but Ponyo is genuinely just a heartwarming tale of how two worlds meet that shouldn’t have and how familial ties sometimes need to be broken for new ties to begin. Although the movie is already mesmerizingly beautiful in its art, music, and characters, the story has an important moral: true love and friendship is unbreakable, no matter how hard one tries to avoid it. In this case, the father of Ponyo (a magical fish creature) tries to keep her under the sea after she meets Sasuke, a young boy she quickly becomes friends with. Despite her father encaging and chasing her with waves, she escapes to Sasuke. Their unbeatable bond, despite their young age, is touching and cute.