My top three Ghibli films.
Only Yesterday at the top,
Whisper of the Heart and
Porco ever so slightly behind are my favorites.
Only Yesterday will always be my number one. The film just felt so calm, soothing and relaxing while also transporting you to this whole different time period where the characters act like real people and everything becomes so tangible that you swear that you could feel the sun shining on your skin and the wind blowing through your hair while watching it. The soundtrack is sublime and ever so powerful. It's a simple story, a quiet story that is very personal and yet inviting as you get pulled into this persons life.
Whisper of the Heart is a film that has a place within my heart. One of the best looking Ghibli films in my opinion, a film that effortless captures the mannerisms and essence of two young people falling in love with each-other but also a story of trying to find your place within the world when youre younger. A film that shows just how fleeting life truly is when youre in that stage of life. We're always trying to discover that thing that defines us to the point that people can become disheartened as they wonder about without an identity. But that's the beauty of being young, you have time to learn more about yourself and discover your talent.
Porco Rosso is a film that centers around a Pig flying a plane, but even so it contains one of the most human characters in an animated film and a very human story about ones identity. A hauntingly beautiful soundtrack encapsulates this tragic yet poignant story about the wear that time has a person as they build up a history, both make and lose friends and ultimately how people define oneself on the past and where one person see's himself as a pig, others see the inner beauty, but sometimes, the past never lets go as we become cursed, forever carrying the burden on our shoulders.