7. Spirited Away

Trailer

Spirited Away, one of many great Hayao Miyazaki anime films. Bluntly put, it is an incredible movie. The fact that most of the animation was made using traditional, hand-drawn pictures honestly astounds me. You don’t get much of that anymore.

I’ve seen this movie so many times, in English and in Japanese, for years. I’ve always loved this movie for the story, and now I can appreciate and worship it for its technical glory. You get immersed in the story and in the world so easily. The story is interesting, multi-layered, and unique. The characters are incredibly memorable (the baby). There are so many things that you can love about this movie. Which brings me to probably one of the main reasons why I love this movie so much:

The music. The soundtrack is amazing. I love the soundtrack. I love it so much that I own the entire soundtrack. I’ve learned four or five of these songs on the piano. I can’t say enough about the music because I worship it. It’s probably my all-time favorite soundtrack. Joe Hisaishi is just… I could listen to his stuff all day long.

Overall though this movie is just incredible. Definitely one of those movies I could watch over and over again and not get bored.