Everyone calls Ghibli untouchable, but how many can name more than Spirited Away and Totoro? Sacred genius — or a fandom running on reputation?
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Add your commentGhibli isn't overrated, it's UNDER-watched. People worship Spirited Away and never touch Mononoke, Porco Rosso or Grave of the Fireflies. That's on them.
People treat liking Ghibli as a personality and THAT'S the overrated part, not the films.
Half the 'Ghibli is perfect' crowd would be bored to tears by the slow middle of any non-Spirited-Away film and we all know it.
Overrated implies they don't deserve the rating. They do. The FANS who've seen two films are the overrated ones.
It's not the films that are overrated, it's the merch-cult around them. The art is real, the tote-bag personality is not.
Name me another studio with a 35-year run where even the 'weak' films would be another studio's masterpiece. I'll wait.
Princess Mononoke is the best thing Ghibli ever made and it's not Spirited Away, and that proves your whole point.
Totoro is genuinely a slow film where not much happens and that's the POINT, but try telling that to someone raised on Marvel pacing.
Miyazaki himself is brutally critical of his own films. The fandom canonizes him harder than he canonizes himself.
Saying Ghibli is overrated is like saying water is overrated. The reputation exists because the films EARNED it.
The hand-drawn artistry alone justifies every ounce of praise. There's a reason no studio in 40 years has matched it.
I've seen all of them and the catalogue is wildly uneven. Some are transcendent, some are forgettable. The brand smooths over the gap.
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