Isao Takahata’s penultimate feature My Neighbors the Yamadas features “rude” family comedy akin to his early career work, such as Chie the Brat. Tristan and Zoe Crombie, researcher and lecturer at Lancaster University, discuss how Studio Ghibli’s 1999 film, while sometimes seen as “just” a series of vignettes, is an incredibly refined commentary on modern life and family dysfunction (and indeed, is quite funny).

Malcolm Cook, Associate Professor of Film at the University of Southampton, is co-editor, with Kirsten Moana Thompson, of Animation and Advertising, and that particular research interest informs the prologue segment of this episode about Studio Ghibli’s commercial work. But Malcolm and Tristan of course certainly dedicate a lot of conversation to Hayao Miyazaki’s 1997 pop culture behemoth Princess Mononoke, Ghibli’s most violent film and, as is becoming a common refrain this season, one that doesn’t have any easy answers about how to face environmental destruction.

Esteem for Yoshifumi Kondo’s Whisper of the Heart has grown among Studio Ghibli fans in the 30 years since its release in 1995. Tristan and friend of the show Madeleine Clermont discuss why it deserves its dark horse “favorite” status due to, among many other things, its wonderfully understated yet emotional depiction of the creative process.

Isao Takahata’s 1994 eco-fable Pom Poko is simultaneously full of silly humor and morbid reflections on the fate of creatures affected by humanity’s destruction of the environment. As friend of the show J.J. DiUbaldi and Tristan discuss, however, the film doesn’t take the easy way out in its conclusion of these themes and its collective cast of tanuki represent utter joy and deep loss.

Ocean Waves is far and away the Studio Ghibli film with the worst reception so far and the first to not be directed by Hayao Miyazaki or Isao Takahata. But as friend of the show Michael Burns and Tristan discuss, Tomomi Mochizuki’s 1993 TV movie contains beautifully detailed backgrounds and touching threads of nostalgia and the high school experience.

The resonance of Hayao Miyazaki’s 1992 film Porco Rosso is hard to deny. From an iconic line to a chilling moment of morbid beauty, Tristan and film historian Matt Page address the many connections to Miyazaki’s personal temperament, life, and beliefs, even while they celebrate the movie’s ability to serve as a thrilling “genre picture” with universal appeal.

With Only Yesterday, Studio Ghibli’s 1991 film, director Isao Takahata took a number of creative liberties and experimented outside the bounds of typical animation processes of the day. As writer and critic Marta McFly (host of Rewind and Revive) and Tristan discuss, this approach is the basis of a reflective piece with universal empathy on growing up, centered on a young girl’s, then woman’s, experience.

Studio Ghibli broke into big box office hit territory with Hayao Miyazaki’s 1989 cozy movie Kiki’s Delivery Service. As friend of the show Garrett Arseneault and Tristan discuss, the film’s vibes are impeccable, with classic “I want to go to there” scenery, but they contain a depth of commentary on growing up, found family, and young womanhood.

David Blakeslee, host of the Criterion Reflections podcast, is used to thinking seriously about often overwhelming films. That comes in handy in his conversation with Tristan about Isao Takahata’s 1988 masterpiece Grave of the Fireflies, a stunning and moving work of art that many praise and proclaim they’ll never watch again in equal measure.

Hayao Miyazaki’s 1988 film My Neighbor Totoro is now an animation milestone and famed title in the Studio Ghibli catalog, although as writer and journalist Caroline Delbert and Tristan discuss, its success was not immediately assured. Their conversation attempts to explore the rich depths of the amazingly pleasant movie, a film so revered and analyzed in so many different ways.

Isao Takahata’s 1987 live-action documentary The Story of Yanagawa’s Canals is probably Studio Ghibli’s most obscure feature. As James Willey (@moviegoodormoviebad on TikTok and YouTube) and Tristan discuss, however, this seemingly uncharacteristic Ghibli film, only the studio’s second, still carries a lot of beautiful and recurrent themes for the director.

Shawn Hall, behind the @shawntokssilents TikTok account and The Everyday Cinephile, and Tristan both admire the beauty and deeper themes of the first official Studio Ghibli work, Hayao Miyazaki’s 1986 film Castle in the Sky. While a recurring disconnect from some of the characters and action doesn’t dominate the conversation, they commiserate on why this feels left out of the extremely warm feelings felt for Miyazaki’s other movies.

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is a thorny film without easy answers, as film historian and cultural critic Paul T. Klein and Tristan find. Their conversation does, however, attempt to plumb the depths of the pacifist, environmental, and feminist messages woven throughout the arresting images of Hayao Miyazaki’s 1984 classic.

Listeners to this show will soon hear a lot of quotations from Rayna Denison’s book Studio Ghibli: An Industrial History. Although Isao Takahata’s 1982 film Gauche the Cellist still resides in the pre-Ghibli history, Rayna’s great expertise on the director’s work is brought to bear on this conversation about this gorgeously animated movie with a classical music focus.

Journalist Andrew Osmond has made a career of writing about animation and anime, including the books BFI Film Classics: Spirited Away and 100 Animated Feature Films. So it makes sense that Tristan came upon his work, specifically Andrew’s review of the 1981 film directed by Isao Takahata: Chie the Brat, which the two discuss as an underseen yet delightful gem of its director’s varied career.

Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro, Hayao Miyazaki's feature directorial debut, seems like the product of immaculate conception. But as friend of the show Austin Clark and Tristan discuss, Miyazaki's incredibly fluid and beautifully structured 1979 film is a great success based on over 15 years of television work.

Welcome to The Complete Catalog, a podcast for media deep dives! For this first season, host Tristan Ettleman and his guests explore the 30 films of Studio Ghibli (including some pre-history and shorts, TV shows, and other projects).

Friend of the show Trevor Bermingham inaugurates The Complete Catalog by joining Tristan to talk about The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun, future Ghibli co-founder Isao Takahata’s feature directorial debut. This apparently simple 1968 film is an ambitious work of its time and the two find many layers to discuss in this “prehistoric” Ghibli film.