So you might have heard of them. They started in the 80s after some movie called Nausicaa. Since then, they've been making a bunch of movies.
Rather than highlight their works (since there are a lot of them), I think I'll go through the various directors.
Sure looks pretty (「もののけの」/「坂上 海」)
Hayao Miyazaki is the guy that everyone and their parents and their friends and everyone else has heard about and is the guy that everyone brings up when they want to talk about the power of animation. He is the director of the only animu to have won an Oscar. He's responsible for most of Ghibli's films, especially the well-known ones, so much so that Miyazaki and Ghibli are almost synonymous.
Nausicaa, Laputa, Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, Porco Rosso, Princess Mononoke, Spirted Away, Howl's, and Ponyo are all his doing.
I couldn't not use this picture (「全員？集合」/「鳥取太郎」)
But those are not the only directors they have!
Isao Takahata is the guy with the next largest amount of films directed. He's responsible for the most well-known serious Ghibli work, Grave of the Fireflies. The other big one he did was Only Yesterday.
And then there are a bunch of one-offs. Miyazaki's son, Goro Miyazaki, had his go at directing with Earthsea. Yoshifumi Kondo, who was to be Miyazaki's successor only directed one film, Whisper of the Heart (BEST GHIBLI MOVIE EVER), before his untimely passing. Tomomi Mochizuki did Ocean Waves, a great movie revolving around a love triangle. Hiroyuki Morita directed The Cat Returns, a sidestory of Whisper of the Heart. And newbie Hiromasa Yonebayashi directed the most recent Ghibli production, The Borrowers Arrietty.
Best Ghibli movie of all time, OF ALL TIME (「結婚してくれー！」/「むっしゅ」)
So yeah, these movies turned out to be pretty neat. Depending on your tastes, you'll like some more than others, but I think almost all of them are worth watching.
! But, I think I may just give it a try.
