Just like last time, the 2020 Ghibli Cup will have one film as a "host". The main point of this is to add some variety at the beginning, as this will be placed in a group as a top seed, regardless of its place in the Tavern rankings. It also serves as the theme for the group names.

Apart from that, the perks for 2020's host are that it will skip this year's new qualifying playoffs (this is already the case for those that reached the quarter finals last time - including Totoro), and that it will receive a few ranking points for having been picked.


So here are the options and the reasons I've included them:

Grave of the Fireflies (current ranking: 12)
Last time the host was Nausicaa, which was directed by Miyazaki, so I'm including Takahata's first Ghibli film as an option this time.

My Neighbour Totoro (current ranking: 6)
I picked Nausicaa partly because it's considered somewhat representative of Ghibli, so Totoro is in there this time. Totoro even appears in the studio's logo!

Kiki's Delivery Service (current ranking: 9)
I chose a bit arbitrarily last time, which meant Kiki didn't get the chance for its 30th anniversary, so it's getting a shot now. Also, 2020 will be the 35th anniversary of the original book (which I'm reading right now)!

Arrietty (current ranking: 23)
A bit of a wild card, Arrietty is in here as the only film with a round-number anniversary in 2020 apart from Whisper of the Heart, which wouldn't benefit from the host perks anyway.


This is just a normal poll, but please post about your reasons if you want to! It could be useful for me when making other decisions later.

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I'm torn between Totoro and Kiki as I like both. I'ver explained my reasons before for not re-watching GotF, so having only seen it once, I don't feel that I know it well enough to choose it. Arrietty is a nice story, etc, but is (to me anyway) very different from the rest...

I ended up choosing Totoro, because of the warmth of the story overall, and I remember when my Grandkids would come over to my house and walk in the door, sayingL "Totoro, Grandpa, Totoro" and keep returning to that request until I put the DVD in the player... And they would sit there, raptly watching it in Japanese, not understanding a word of it, but loving it anyway...

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quote:

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Originally posted by husky51
Arrietty is a nice story, etc, but is (to me anyway) very different from the rest...

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It's now very common to hear people say, 'I'm rather offended by that.' As if that gives them certain rights. It's actually nothing more... than a whine. 'I find that offensive.' It has no meaning; it has no purpose; it has no reason to be respected as a phrase. 'I am offended by that.' Well, so loving what - Stephen Fry.

Does anyone want to cast the deciding vote? If nobody else votes in the poll, maybe I'll just make an executive decision.

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If somebody else votes for Arietty you are still going to have to decide yourself, so just do it now

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It's now very common to hear people say, 'I'm rather offended by that.' As if that gives them certain rights. It's actually nothing more... than a whine. 'I find that offensive.' It has no meaning; it has no purpose; it has no reason to be respected as a phrase. 'I am offended by that.' Well, so loving what - Stephen Fry.

Well, I think most members don't just seek to troll everybody, so I wasn't really worried that anyone would make that weird choice.

Anyway, if there are no more votes in the next couple of days, I'll break the tie.

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Alright, I waited a bit and it's still the same, so let's stop there. Totoro and Kiki have two votes each, and Arrietty has one.

I'll call this in favour of the one I voted for myself, and that is Kiki's Delivery Service! Stay tuned for further updates about the next Ghibli Cup.

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