Studio Ghibli, the company founded by directors Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, and producer Toshio Suzuki, may be the greatest animation studio in history. Much of its films' successes can be attributed to great characters. The characters in Ghibli films tend to be more multi-dimensional and morally and psychologically complex than those in the films of Walt Disney Animation Studios, or the characters in most other anime for that matter. Their human characters are realistic and deeply relatable, while their more fantastic creations can be adorable, terrifying, or sometimes both.
With so many classics, not everyone's favorite is going to make this list, but we've assembled a collection of 30 outstanding Studio Ghibli characters from 17 of the studio's 23 animated features (apologies to Pom Poko and My Neighbors the Yamadas, which were more ensemble pieces as opposed to developing stand-out individual characters, as well as to the more forgettable Ocean Waves and the three films of Goro Miyazaki). This list does not include characters from the studio's short films (most of which are only viewable at the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo), nor does it include projects on which Ghibli handled outsourcing work for other studios (a list that includes the likes of Neon Genesis Evangelion, Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, and somehow also Recess: School's Out).
This one's for the furries. Baron Humbert von Gikkingen is one of a small number of Studio Ghibli characters to appear in two different films from the studio. The first of these is 1995's Whisper of the Heart, the only film directed by the late animator Yoshifumi Kondo. In this movie, The Baron is a fictional character from Shizuku's story-within-the-story, inspired by a statue in an antique shop. Shizuku's story sees The Baron seeking to reunite with his lost lover, Louise — which coincidentally parallels what happened to the antique statue set and its owners.
Studio Ghibli Creatures Inspired By Actual Folklore
The Baron's scenes in Whisper of the Heart were so popular that he was elevated to a major character in the 2002 spinoff movie The Cat Returns, directed by Hiroyuki Morita. In this film, The Baron and the other members of his Cat Bureau help the high school girl Haru Yoshioka escape from the Cat Kingdom, where she will turn into a cat forever if she stays for too long.
Also appearing in two different Studio Ghibli films are the soot sprites, adorable little black balls of dust anthropomorphized with arms, legs, and big cartoony eyes. They first appear in Hayao Miyazaki's 1988 film My Neighbor Totoro as the first supernatural creatures Mei notices at her new house in the countryside — the exact sort of thing a young kid might imagine when entering a dusty new place. They're driven away from the house by the family's laughter, flying off to find a new place to stay.
The soot sprites return in another Hayao Miyazaki film, 2001's Academy Award-winning Spirited Away, in which they're presented with greater personality. There, they work for the multi-armed boiler man Kamaji carrying lumps of coal much bigger than themselves into the furnace, and are fed with star-shaped candy (konpeito) as payment. Chihiro helps one particularly tired soot sprite by carrying their coal for them, which results in more soot sprites dropping their coal so that she'll do all of their work. They end up repaying her kindness by holding onto her clothes and shoes for her.
The Amazing Films From Studio Ghibli Forever!
In his review of the film Mr. Bug Goes to Town (collected in the book Starting Point: 1979-1996), Hayao Miyazaki dismissed Fleischer's Superman short films as masturbatory (via Nishikata Film Review). Despite these harsh words, Miyazaki has paid clear homage to the robots from the Superman short The Mechanical Monsters twice: first in the Lupin the Third Part II episode Farewell My Beloved Lupin, and then with the robots in the 1986 film Castle in the Sky.
Two robots from the floating island of Laputa play a major role in the film's plot. The first is accidentally reactivated by Sheeta and destroyed by the military as it tries to rescue her. The second is a peaceful lone survivor on Laputa, caring for the plants and animals while all the humans and other robots have long since died. It's fair to assume that the likes of WALL-E and The Iron Giant might have drawn inspiration from the Laputa robots. You can take photos with a statue of one of the robots at the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo (via Truly Tokyo).
Frequently crossing paths with Hayao Miyazaki's wide-eyed young heroines are slightly older, more experienced women who have a slightly harder edge but provide wonderful mentorship and support. Lin from Spirited Away is a great example of this particular character archetype, showing the human girl Chihiro the ropes for working in the spirits' bathhouse and growing increasingly protective of her.
All The Films Of Studio Ghibli, Ranked
Not human but decidedly humanoid in design, many viewers might not be sure what sort of spirit Lin is supposed to be. Concept art in The Art of Spirited Away book confirms she's a byakko, a creature whose name is ordinarily translated as white fox, but is specifically translated as weasel in the book's official translation. Lin has a bit of a weasel-like trickster nature to her, and she doesn't understand humans' concepts of romantic love. Lin is also an incredibly expressive character — just look at her incredible reaction (pictured above) to the Radish Spirit joining her on the elevator.
Studio Ghibli's 2010 release The Secret World of Arrietty, the first feature film directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, is based on 1952 British children's novel The Borrowers by Mary Norton. The movie's title character, Arrietty, is among the most resourceful of Ghibli heroines, and for good reason: She's only a few inches tall and has to borrow tiny objects from humans for survival while working to stay undetected.
On her first borrowing mission, Arrietty does end up being seen by a human boy, Sho (Shawn in the American dub). Fortunately for her and her family, the two end up becoming unlikely friends. Both characters are connected by and bond over their anxieties about death: Arrietty and the other Borrowers' survival is always on the precipice, while Sho has heart problems and is uncertain whether he'll survive the surgical operation that he needs. Arrietty's story beautifully balances whimsy with sadness in classic Ghibli fashion.
The Studio Ghibli Issue
Another example of the mature mentor figure archetype a la Lin, Ursula is an artist who lives in a cabin in the woods outside of town and becomes a friend of the young witch Kiki in Hayao Miyazaki's 1989 film Kiki's Delivery Service. Kiki inspires one of her paintings, and when Kiki is feeling so burdened with work that she can no longer do magic, it's Ursula who helps her deal with the problem by relating it to her own experiences with creative burnout.
People often associate the works of Studio Ghibli with the cottagecore aesthetic, and Ursula's rustic artistic life may be about as cottagecore as you can get. She's a relatively minor character in the movie (her name isn't even stated in the original Japanese version and only mentioned in passing in the English dub), but she's an extremely memorable one thanks to both her cool style and her helpful wisdom.
Taeko Okajima from Only Yesterday, the 1991 film by Isao Takahata, is unique among Studio Ghibli protagonists in that viewers get to know her at two different points in her life. At 27 years old in 1982, she's an office worker under pressure to get married. She takes a trip to visit her brother-in-law's safflower farm in part as an excuse to escape from city life. On her trip, she has many nostalgic memories of herself as a schoolgirl in the 1960s.
The Magic Of Studio Ghibli
Hyper-detailed realistic animation is used to depict the present i the film, while more stylized animation is used for the past. Moving to the country has long been one of Taeko's ambitions, and taking this trip inspires her to think deeply about whether she's grown into the sort of adult she wanted to be as a kid. Getting to experience Taeko's perspective on herself at different points in life makes for a psychologically nuanced portrayal in one of Ghibli's subtler, more realistic stories.
What makes My Neighbor Totoro such a truly special film is how effectively it captures the perspective of childhood. Picking our favorite human character from the film is tough — with 10-year-old Satsuki carrying the film's most dramatic moments and father Tatsuo being a paragon of supportive parenting — but it's 4-year-old Mei who is our primary guide to the magical wonders surrounding the Kusakabe family's new house.
Mei is the one who sees the soot sprites and is the first to see the Totoros — her mispronunciation of the word troll gives the latter creatures their name. She's fun-loving, adventurous, and takes the sort of risks that feel perfectly sensible when you're 4 years old while leaving all the older kids and adults justifiably worried. She struggles with complicated big emotions around her mother's illness in a way that feels very realistic. Mei is also the subject
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