Japanese animation everyone will love!

In 1984 before Studio Ghibli was created "Nausicaa of the Valley of the wind" Hayao Miyazaki`s first written and directed film! This is now considered the beginning for Studio Ghibli! Nausicaa is a princess of a settlement named "the valley of the wind". She is a skilled "Wind rider", charismatic and peace-loving with a special gift to communicate with giant insects. Her story takes place 1,000 years after "the seven days of fire" an event that almost destroyed human civilization and the earths ecosystem. In this new world the human settlements are divided by a giant sea of decay where a giant insect called the "Ohmu" resides. The princess explores these toxic environments conducting experiments in an attempt to define their true nature and origins. Yupa( an inspiring mentor of princess nausicaa) is searching for the mythological man in blue who, according to the legend, will appear surrounded by a sea of gold and reunite the people and nature. Tolmekians (a neighboring settlement of people) invade the valley of the wind with an ancient monster warrior stolen from the Pejite (a slightly more friendly neighbor to the valley of the wind) they plan to destroy the sea of decay.The pejite people reveal that they too plan on destroying the sea of decay but they must recapture their warrior by luring angry giant insects in to the valley of the wind. Nausicaa must find the mythological man in blue in order to save her home and friends.

In the Magical tale of mystery and adventure you will get lost in the clouds with "Castle in the sky". In a world of flying cities and fortresses a catastrophe occurs and most of the flying cities were either destroyed or crashed back to the ground, forcing most of the survivors to live on the ground as before. One city "Laputa" is said to remain in the sky, concealed within the swirling clouds of a violent thunderstorm. This mystical city is believed to be just a story for most but there are some that roam the skys in aircrafts that still search for the flying city. In this story a young orphan girl("Sheeta") falls from the sky and floats into the arms of a young boy ("Pazu" who is also orphaned). Enchanted by her beauty and the magical blue glowing pendant she wears around her neck he takes her to his home. When Sheeta awakens, she and Pazu are chased by a band of sky pirates lead by their mother "Dola", a large, active, older lady with plan on finding treasure belonging to the flying city of Laputa. The sky pirates are not the only ones after Sheeta and Pazu, government agents soon capture the two orphans and take them to a fortress commanded by general "Muska". Muska tells sheeta that she must tell him the secrets of her crystal or Pazu will come to harm. Sheeta absent-mindedly recites a spell given by her grandmother, causing the crystal to illuminate a strange blue light that points to Laputa. This in turn awakens a giant sleeping robot in the bowls of the fortress. The robot rescues Sheeta, demonstrating its loyalty, as it destroys the fortress in a blanket of flames. Pazu saves Sheeta from the burning wreckage. Now Sheeta and Pazu must find Laputa with the help of Dola and her sky pirates, before general Muska and discover the power behind the crystal pendant before it is to late!

"My Neighbor Totoro" was based off Miyazaki's childhood. Between 1947 and 1955 his mother underwent treatment fro spinal tuberculosis, Miyazaki's memories of visiting his mother inspired this movie setting it in the same time period and featuring a family whose mother is similarly afflicted. The star characters are two young girls "Satsuke" and "Mei" (ages approximately 10 and 4 years old). Their father relocates them to an old house in a rural part of japan so that they may be close to the hospital their mother is recovering at from a long term illness. One day, the younger daughter, Mei, sees two white, rabbit-like ears in the grass. She follows the ears under the house where she discovers two small magical creatures, they lead her through a briar patch, and into the hollow of a large cinnamomum camphora tree. She meets and befriends a larger version of the same kind of spirit, which identifies itself by a series of roars she interprets as "Totoro". One day the girls find out that a planned visit by their mother has to be postponed because of a temporary setback in her treatment. Satsuki takes this very hard, having reached the age where she fully understands the concept of death, and she worries that she might lose her mother. Frustrated and frightened, she yells at Mei, then stomps away. Mei, believing that her mother can be cured by healthy food, sets off on foot to the hospital with an ear of corn. While all of the neighbors look for Mei, Satsuki joins Totoro and friends in search for her missing sister.

The film "Kiki's delivery Service" won the Animage Anime Grand Prix prize in 1989.The film adaptation from the book by Ekio Kadono includes only some of the episodes from the book; it ends at the end of summer while the book covers an entire calendar year. It was the first Studio Ghibli movie released under the Disney/Studio Ghibli partnership. Kiki is a 13-year-old witch-in-training, One Day she flies off on her mother's broom with her closest companion, Jiji, a loquacious black cat. She settles in the beautiful seaside European city of Koriko, and finds friends and a new home with a baker and her husband, and starts a delivery service that takes advantage of her ability to fly. Slowly growing insecure her powers diminish and until they disappear. She also learns that, because of her loss of powers, Jiji has lost the ability to speak to her. Having caught the eye of Tombo, a local boy about her age who has an interest in aviation, a moment of deadly crisis, Tombo is accidentally lifted into the air when some strong summer winds blow the dirigible into town. When she is his only hope of rescue, Kiki must learn to overcome her obstacles in order to save her friend and the other towns people!

In 1992 Miyazaki released "Porco Rosso" showing that he can create an intriguing male lead for his movies. An anti-fascist aviator transformed into an anthropomorphic pig. The film is set in 1920s Italy and the title character is a bounty hunter who fights air pirates and an American soldier of fortune. World War I fighter ace, now living as a freelance bounty hunter chasing "air pirates" in the Adriatic Sea. In love with the women that runs a sea pilots' club and hotel (Gina), Porco befriends a girl named Fio, who is a talented aircraft engineer, and learns how she is involved in his rivalry with a hotshot American pilot named Curtis. Porco discovers that the sea pilots' club and hotel has been infiltrated by pirates! Fio talks them out of killing Porco by appealing to the honor of the seaplane pilots when Curtis then reveals himself and challenges Porco to a duel. The terms of the duel are agreed upon: If Porco wins, Curtis will pay off his airplane repairs; if Curtis wins, Fio will marry him. The next day, Porco and Curtis meet for the dogfight. The duel is organized by the pirates and held on a secluded island. Meanwhile, Gina has received a message from a friend that the Italian Air Force are rushing toward the fight with an arrest warrant out for Porco, and she takes it upon herself to warn him. How does the dog fight turn out? And Will Porco get arrested?

"Princess Mononoke" became the highest grossing movie in Japan until Titanic took over the spot several months later. Overall, Mononoke is the third highest grossing anime movie in Japan next to 2001's Spirited Away and 2004's Howl's Moving Castle, both also by Miyazaki.
In this adventure a giant boar demon attacks a village. The prince of the village ("Ashitaka") engages in battle. During the fight, Ashitaka is wounded on his arm. After the boar is killed, the village wise woman tells the prince that the wound is cursed and will spread to the rest of his body, eventually killing him. He cuts his hair, signifying his permanent departure from his village and leaves.

His cursed arm displays supernatural powers and attracts some unwanted attention. This brings him to the company of a monk that tells him of the god of the forest in the mountains of the west that may be able to help him. A nearby town in the mountains of the west, called "IronTown", continually clears the nearby forests to make charcoal . This devastation leads to battles with beasts attempting to protect their diminishing forest. Of these beasts there are three giant wolves, led by the wolf god Morohey and accompanied by San, a human girl adopted by the wolves whom the people of Iron Town call "the wolf girl". He learns from the leader of Irontown ("Lady Eboshi") that the giant boar which cursed him was once a forest god called Nago and that Eboshi had shot the boar, driving it to madness. Now Lady Eboshi employs lepers and other interesting characters to help her battle the unruly creatures. Later San attacks Eboshi and Ashitaka intervenes to stop the two sides' fighting and takes San back to the forest, but is severely wounded when he is shot through the chest. San presents Ashitaka to the Forest Spirit who heals his wounds but does not remove the curse. The head of the Forest Spirit is believed to grant immortality. Ashitaka later finds that lady Eboshi will do anything to free the land beneath the forest for her prosperity, even if it means killing the forest spirit! Now San and Ashitaka must find a way to save the forest spirit and Ashitaka's life!

During his period of semi-retirement, Miyazaki spent time with the daughters of a friend, one of whom became his inspiration for "Spirited Away". Released in Japan in July 2001, the film broke attendance and box office records with approximately $300 million in total gross earnings from more than 23 million viewings. Spirited Away overtook Titanic in the Japanese box office to become the highest-grossing film in Japanese history! It has received many awards, including Best Picture at the 2001 Japanese Academy Awards, Golden Bear (First Prize) at the 2002 Berlin Film Festival, and the 2002 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
In this wonderful adventure Ten-year-old "Chihiro" and her parents are moving to a new town, much to Chihiro's displeasure. While driving, they get lost and her father decides to take a 'shortcut' down a mysterious forested pathway. They arrive at a passage way and venture inside to find them selves at the entrence to an old abandoned theme park. Her parents find a stall full of freshly-cooked food. They greedily help themselves while Chihiro refuses to eat. She wanders off and when she returns she finds they have turned into pigs, and that the way back has become a deep river. Confused and scared she hides and begins to disappear!

A Boy named "Haku" helps her and secretly takes Chihiro to a large bathhouse. Haku then tells her that she must get a job from the witch "Yubaba", the owner of the park's bathhouse, until he can help her recover her parents and escape. With the help of the six-armed boiler room master "Kamajii " and a bathhouse servant girl named "Lin", Chihiro is able to convince Yubaba to give her a job; in exchange, Chihiro is forced to give up her name so that Yubaba may keep her in service for eternity. Chihiro is put to work alongside Lin, helping to bathe and serve the most difficult spirits in the bathhouse.

Chihiro discovers Haku's a dragon, and he is later attacked in this form by paper birds controlled by "Zeniba", Yubaba's twin sister. Haku had stolen and swallowed Zeniba's sigil under orders from Yubaba, which has a spell on it that made Haku very sick. Chihiro tries to help Haku recover from his injuries using the medicine given to her by a river spirit, recovering Zeniba's sigil and squashing a peculiar black slug that had been attached to it. Haku remains comatose, so Chihiro decides to travel to Zeniba's home to return the sigil, hoping to break her curse over Haku. Chihiro sets out on a train ride across the spirit world, along with a wraith-like spirit called No-Face, who terrorized the bathhouse and tried to earn the affection of Chihiro, Yubaba's pet raven (who has been turned into a small, fly-like creature by Zeniba), and Boh, Yubaba's gigantic infant son whom Zeniba had transformed into a mouse. Will Chihiro save Haku? will she save her parents? will she even remember her name?

Based on Diana Wynne Jones' novel "Howl's Moving Castle" this 2004 animated fantasy film became one of the most financially successful Japanese films in history. The film had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September 2004 and was released two months later in Japanese theaters. Later it was dubbed in English and distributed in North America by Walt Disney Pictures.
In a world where witches and wizards prowl in unsuspecting villages, A young "Sophie Hatter ", who runs her late fathers hat shop, encounters a mysterious wizard named "Howl". This meeting provokes "The witch of the waste", who has been seeking howl's heart for herself.She Curses Sophie, turning her into an old women. The curse prevents her from telling anyone of her true form so Sophie decides to run away. Along the way, she befriends a scarecrow that she names "Turnip Head", and they come across Howl's castle. Inside Sophie meets the fire demon "Calcifer " who powers the castle and recognizes that Sophie has been cursed. Calcifer offers to break the curse in exchange for Sophie's help in breaking the pact between him and Howl. Sophie announces that she is the castle's new cleaning lady!

One day Sophie runs into the Witch of the Waste, who reveals that she cannot reverse the spell she cast on Sophie. "Madame Suliman" the witch to the king helping to fight in the war started by the disappearance of Crown Prince Justin, strips the Witch of the Wastes powers and leaves her an old women. Sophie ends up bringing home the old Witch of the Waste and Suliman's asthmatic lapdog "Heen".Sophie's still young and beautiful mother visits one day. She is actually under Suliman's threats, and the former Witch of the Waste discovers the spying "bug" she leaves behind in her bag. She also finds a cigar which she begins to smoke, not realizing that the smoke from the cigar weakens Calcifer, making it harder for him to protect the house from being discovered by Suliman's henchmen. Howl transforms and draws the guards away, while Sophie and Calcifer bring the castle to the Wastes. Sophie pulls Calcifer out of the castle to cut off all ties to the city to protect Howl, then moves him back in to create a smaller version of the moving machine so they can rescue him. The Witch of the Waste sees Howl's heart in Calcifer's diminishing flames, and grabs it. To save her from burning, Sophie douses her with water. The castle breaks apart, and Sophie and Heen are thrown over a cliff! What will Sophie do to save Howl now? Did she kill Calcifer? And will she ever be young again?

"Ponyo"! Miyazaki's eighth film for Ghibli. The film won the Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year 2008.
The plot is centered on a fish-girl who lives in an aquarium in her father's underwater castle with numerous smaller sisters. One day gets caught in a glass jar and is rescued by a boy named "Sosuke". Sosuke names her "Ponyo" and promises to protect her forever. Her father believes that she has been kidnapped and sends wave spirits to return her to him. Ponyo and her father have a confrontation, where Ponyo refuses to let her father call her "Brunhilda" (her birth name). She declares her name to be Ponyo, and voices her desire to become human because she has started to fall in love with Sosuke. Suddenly she starts to grow legs and turning into a human. Ponyo, with the help of her sisters, breaks away from her father.The huge amount of released magic into the ocean causes an imbalance in the world, which in turn results in a huge storm.

Ponyo goes back to Sosuke. "Lisa" (his mother), Sosuke, and Ponyo stay the night at Sosuke's house, hoping the storm will be over, whereupon Lisa leaves the house to check up on the residents of the nursing home where she works. The next morning they wake up to find that most of the land around where the house has been covered by the ocean. Lisa has not come home yet, so with the help of Ponyo's magic, they set out to find Lisa. They find Lisa's empty car near a tunnel and enter. Upon their entrance Ponyo loses her human form and resumes the form of a fish. Sosuke and Ponyo are taken into the ocean and down to the protected nursing home where they're reunited with Lisa and meet Ponyo's mother. Here Ponyo's mother must give him a test. If he can pass a test, Ponyo can live as a human and the world order will be restored. If he fails, Ponyo will turn into sea foam. Does Sosuke love Ponyo too or will this young gold fish become sea foam?