Studio Ghibli is best known for its distinctive anime feature films, which are loved as adults as much as children. Their masterful film slate includes Oscar-winning Spirited Away, My Neighbour Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke and The Tale of the Princess Kaguya. And now, the feature-length animations will be available in their native Japanese with global subtitles on Netflix. Until now, they were difficult to access and only available to watch by buying them on DVD, streaming illegally, or catching them when they showed on your local channels or a nearby movie screening. And with the first batch of Ghibli films dropping tomorrow on Feb 1, here’s a simple list of which films will be available and when.
- Castle in the Sky (1986)
- My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
- Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)
- Only Yesterday (1991)
- Porco Rosso (1992)
- Ocean Waves (1993)
- Tales from Earthsea (2006)
Once you’ve whittled your way through the first seven titles, that should bring you nicely up to the beginning of March, where another seven titles will land on on the streaming platform.
The next batch include 2001’s Spirited Away – the first and only hand-drawn and non-English language animated film to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
- Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
- Princess Mononoke (1997)
- My Neighbors the Yamadas (1999)
- Spirited Away (2001)
- The Cat Returns (2002)
- Arrietty (2010)
- The Tale of The Princess Kaguya (2013)
And just when you thought you’d got through them all, the good people at Netflix will release another seven titles in early Spring. The most famous is probably Howl’s Moving Castle – their Oscar-nominated 2004 flick, which is set in a fantastical realm, but heavily influenced by the then-ongoing Iraq war.
- Pom Poko (1994)
- Whisper of the Heart (1995)
- Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)
- Ponyo (2008)
- From Up on Poppy Hill (2011)
- The Wind Rises (2013)
- When Marnie Was There (2014)
There are several different Netflix subscriptions you can take out – the basic monthly plan starts at £5.99, while the standard costs £8.99 and premium will set you back £11.99 per month.
All plans offer unlimited streaming, and the main difference between the plans is the number of people who can watch at the same time – basic allows only one person to view at any time, standard offers two, while premium allows four people to access the service at once.
Head along to the Netflix website to sign up.