François CholletVerified account

Okay tier Ghibli: 11. Porco Rosso (紅の豚) 12. Arrietty (借りぐらしのアリエッティ) 13. When Marnie Was There (思い出のマーニー)

Bad tier Ghibli: 14. Ponyo (崖の上のポニョ) 15. Pom Poko (平成狸合戦ぽんぽこ) 16. Tales from Earthsea (ゲド戦記) 17. My Neighbors the Yamadas (ホーホケキョとなりの山田くん) 18. The Cat Returns (猫の恩返し)

(missing a few, either because I haven't seen them, or in the case of Grave of the Fireflies, because I have seen it a long time ago and I can't remember it clearly) Now, a couple meta observations:

First, The Hayao is responsible for all of the great tier and 3/5 movies from the good tier (and wrote the screenplay for the remaining two). Meanwhile, not-Hayaos are responsible for 6/8 movies from the okay and bad tiers. So I don't think Ghibli will survive his retirement.

Second, there's a strong correlation between how serious and mature a movie is, and how high it lands in the ranking. Ghibli humor is generally not great. The fewer gags the better

The Wind Rises is, in my opinion, The Hayao's best movie, and it's also his most mature creation (which he released at age 72). The Hayao is clearly not in touch with his inner child (see: Ponyo)

Now, I understand that putting Ponyo in the bad tier may be controversial. Let me explain. Movies are like dishes: when they're bad, usually it's because of a bad cook or bad ingredients. Yet, Ponyo is prepared by a genius cook using pretty good ingredients. What happened?

Ponyo suffers from conflicting goals. The Hayao is trying to make a fun movie for the 5-to-10 year-old crowd, and at the same time, to make a movie about death and humanity's relationship to nature -- an abstract movie full of deep symbolism. It might have worked, but it didn't.