What's your most important memory connected to studio Ghibli? Mine is when I saw my first Ghibli film, in autumn 2001. I was visiting an alternative film festival, Love and anarchy, for the first time and without knowing anything about it picked out a japanese animated movie. The only anime I'd seen up to this point was Pokemon. As I said, I didn't know anything about the movie I was going to see, so I had no expectations. I just thought that it might be interesting. The movie started and...it was magic. I hadn't seen anything like that before. It was like I forgot where I was and had gone into a different world. Miyazaki wrote in his biography how he fell in love with the heroine of an anime as a young boy. That evening, I fell in love with an animated heroine too, and her whole world. The girl's name was San, or Princess Mononoke. 12 years on, I'm still in awe every time I see a Miyazaki movie. And my love for a certain wild free forest child has only grown stronger.

My most important memory connected to Studio Ghibli is the fact it was what made me become aware of Anime in general.
All that followed wouldn't have necessarily been possible if I hadn't seen the work of Hayo Miyasaki, And immerse myself in the adventures that the characters embarked on.
I found myself become strongly attached to the character Shizuku from Whisper of the heart, I felt I could relate to her. I also become attached to San, and later on to Kiki.
I wouldn't call them love interests, But I would describe them as schoolboy crushes at the time. This was also around the same time I felt quite abandoned in the real world from what I recall.
Later on in life I fond another strong bond with the Ghibli films, The soundtracks. And come on people lets be honest.. The soundtracks in these films, Especially Spirited away and Howls moving castle are breathtaking.
My favorite films would be as follows in no specific order:

Princess mononoke for the storyline and soundtrack *And San*
Spirited away for again, The storyline and soundtrack. But also for visuals and sheer wow factor.
Whisper of the heart due to what I mentioned beforehand.
Howls moving castle.. This is a tough one to describe really, I guess I'll put it down for soundtrack and setting off emotions inside me.
Porco rosso, Plaaanes! *cough* And the storyline.
Kiki's Delivery service, This one just makes me feel warm and happy inside.
And Arrietty for its soundtrack and visuals.

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It is hard for me to put a specific time or place for my 'Ghibli awakening'. The best that I can come up with was seeing "Spirited Away' on TV two or three times and then seeing some other Ghibli's like "Kiki..." and realizing that, 'Hey! These are great! And made by the same studio!!!'

At that point, I started looking around for more and actually started looking at more and more anime in general...

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I fell in love gradually, specially with the movies that I value most now (Totoro and Chihiro). If I had to choose some moments which moved me strongly on the first vision, I'd pick two memories:
1. The starting credits of Kiki
2. The ending credits of Omoide Poro Poro

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HernĂ¡n (Argentina)
My Ghibli guitar covers with tabs -My Ghibli page

quote:

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Originally posted by leonbloy
1. The starting credits of Kiki

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I don't know why, but the scene with daddy and Kiki in her room as she's put on her witch dress for the first time always chokes me up. Daddy looking at his girl and realizing she's grown big and is leaving and then Kiki asking daddy to pick her up like he used to when she was little. .

I remember being obsessed with Kiki. I owned a black dress (now a shirt) known to my family as my "Kiki Dress".

In addition to my above post, the more I watched Ghibli, the more it reminded me of my time when I lived in Japan in the mid-sixties... It brought a warm feeling into my heart... And a longing for times long past...

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