What is your favourite anime of Hayao Miyazaki?

I have just seen ( again) "Spirited Away" and "Princess Mononoke" and I am always filled with wonder when I see these animes!

Did you see other films of Hayao Miyazaki? What do you think about his art? and about Joe Hisaichi, The type-setter who made the music of these two films?

I've got Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and My Neighbor Totoro on DVD. I love all of them. I think Princess Mononoke had a really awesome film score so Joe Hisaichi did a great job. I also love the cute songs in the My Neighbor Totoro image song collection. I don't really remember the music from Spirited Away. I'll have to watch it again. I've also seen Kiki's Delivery service and Whispers of the Heart (Mimi o Sumaseba) subtitled. I need to track down a copy of Whispers of the Heart. I remember that one being really really good. I don't know which is my favorite. Maybe Spirited Away. I remember hearing Glenn Keane (lead character animator at Disney) describing Miyazaki's films as films about the senses (smells, sounds, touch, etc.). He mentioned the part in Totoro when the raindrops fell on the Totoro's umbrella as he stomped the ground.

Miyazaki is a highly regarded animator among professional American animators which says a lot since most professional American animators don't really care for anime. What's cool about Miyazaki's films is that they are all very different but somehow very much alike. Each film has it's own mood. I'd love it if he made a sequal to Totoro.


EDIT:
I just found out Miyazaki is in the latest issue of TIME Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Pretty cool huh.

I saw Kiki's Delivery Service, it is very beautiful, moreover all his films are splendid. I did not see Totoro yet but I saw extracts, I would love to see it. On the other hand I would like to see Nausicaa or the valley of the wind, I read the manga and it is super, I believe that it is thanks to Nausicaa that Miayazaki was made known.

I've heard too that Myazaki's films evokes all the senses, I remember to have seen a documentary on this subject, there was precisely a scene of Totoro where the young heroin went up in a sort of cat in the shape of bus and to only see the girl touching the fur, one could think as it was to be silky.

Me neither I do not have really a favourite film, I like Mononoke for the charisma of these characters, I like Kiki for the freshness and the cheerfulness of this film, I like Spirited Away for the beauty of these drawings as well as the fantastic side of the story... I love the way in which the characters are animated especially Chihiro , the animators take care to describe all the feelings of the little girl, we can see her surprised, angry, curious, grumpy, terrified, cheerful, moved, determined...

I agree with you when you said that every film is different and yet we can feel the art of Myazaki behind, that makes his talent too.

I think that thanks to his films, the stereotyped conception of the manga ( action violence and blood) breaks.

Woah who made that post? That's so odd that it made a post without recording who made it. I think it may have happened because the person was logged off automatically while they were typing the post.

It was me, I am sorry, I thought that I was logged on.

Don't appoligize. You were logged in but your session expired while you were typing. It's a problem with my programming. I don't quite know how to fix it yet. But I'm sure I'll figure it out. I've changed the post to show it as your post now.

Spirited away is my favorite. Because I saw it in Japan. I bought the soundtrack before I left and every time I hear it I think of Japan. *sigh* Subarashii.

I've been privledged to watch just about all the Miyazaki films. They all have somthing that I like about them. Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli are awesome!

I absolutley LOVE all of Hayao Miyazaki's films. The fist one I ever saw was "My Neighbor Totoro" back in the 90s before I even knew who Miyazaki was. Then a few years after that I was babysitting the neighbor kids at their house and we watched "Kiki's Delivery Service" (which I loved as well). Then just recently I bought "Spirited Away" and "Castle in the Sky" on tape and "Grave of the Fireflies", "Princess Mononoke", " Nausicaa", and "Porco Rosso" on DVD. over about 2 years. Do you think I've become obsessed? nahh.... Anyway its VERY hard to pick a favorite because I love them all. If you really want to cry, watch "Grave of the Fireflies"...if you want to laugh, watch "Porco Rosso"...and the others are excelent as well. I'll have to say my fav. is "Porco Rosso", its extremely cute and funny!

-EBS

I really admire Miyazaki's anime but I've only watched 4 of them.
Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Castle in the Sky and Kiki's Delivery Service. I have those on DVD and keep them locked up in my secret box! My fave is probably Spirited Away but it depends on my mood.