Highlights
- Ponyo's transformation powers and ability to manipulate objects show her potential for immense strength.
- San's physical strength and resilience, enhanced by god-like capabilities, make her formidable.
- Totoro's incredible speed, strength, and ability to summon powerful spirits suggest that he may be a divine being with unmatched power.
One of the most famous worldwide animation studios, Ghibli, has long been producing internationally renowned films and characters that stick with viewers. In spite of their more recent struggles, this is a company that has brought international attention to Japanese animated films, and they deserve a huge amount of credit for their work over the past few decades, particularly by names like Hayao Miyazaki.
Ghibli Gifts Galore! 16 Must-Read Books for Studio Ghibli Enthusiasts
Looking for the best Studio Ghibli-related books? These books are perfect for anyone who's both a reader and a big Miyazaki or Ghibli fan!
But across the various fantasy worlds that Ghibli has brought to the big screen, it is interesting to try and determine who are the strongest characters they have introduced in their films. From flamboyant cats to strangely powerful children and even more unusual characters, the films of Studio Ghibli have contained some incredibly powerful characters.
7 Ponyo
Ponyo is a strange character in a beautiful self-titled film. She starts out as a sort of fish, but after ingesting the blood of a boy, she begins to transform into a human. While this ability alone opens up her power-set to some massive potential upgrades, it isn’t the only impressive capability she was shown to have over the course of her adventure.
Later, Ponyo also manages to turn Sosuke’s toy boat into a real boat, proving that the limits of her powers are both completely unknown and potentially extremely high. While there are other magical creatures with unknown limits both in Ponyo and other Studio Ghibli works, the seeming randomness of Ponyo’s whims and wants helps to make the idea of her later in life a terrifying prospect in strength terms.
6 San
Princess Mononoke is a much more adult-themed film from Studio Ghibli, with an incredible soundtrack, whose works seemingly bounce back and forth between more suitable for children and adults. This environmental fantasy work features San, a young woman raised by a Wolf Goddess in the forest, who works to protect the forest from her fellow man.
San isn’t a Goddess herself, but she is shown over the course of her film to have remarkable strength physically, and resilience far beyond that of other humans. It is likely that despite not being a God, she was given some sort of god-like capabilities and powers by those who wanted her to guard the forest for them.
5 Princess Kaguya
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya is one of the stranger titles among Studio Ghibli’s works. About a bamboo cutter who finds a child inside a bamboo shoot and raises it with his wife, there is little surprise in finding out that this child is somehow special.
Princess Kaguya is based on an old Japanese fairytale, and it is about a celestial being or God who wanted to experience mortal life. While the Princess probably doesn’t have many of her powers while on Earth, when she is reclaimed by the moon at the conclusion of the film, she likely regains many capabilities and much of her former strength.
4 Totoro
Another unusual but clearly divine being, Totoro is a large, iconic creature who protects nature and is considered the great keeper of the forest. In spite of his friendly appearance, Totoro is shown to have incredible speed and strength, leaping around the world in great bounds.
10 Best Anime That Pass The Bechdel Test
The following anime all pass the Bechdel Test, meaning that at least two named female characters speak about something other than a man.
Additionally, Totoro can summon other friendly spirits with great powers, such as the cat bus, and he makes great trees grow immediately. This power especially showcases just some of the degree to which Totoro may be an actual God of some sort. My Neighbor Totoro is an extremely friendly film, with a huge impact on the anime genre, and this beast is never forced into combat of any sort, but it seems like it would take something extreme to stop him.
3 Howl
Howl’s Moving Castle is another of the best-known works in Ghibli history. Howl himself is shown to be a powerful wizard beyond that of many magical creatures in other Ghibli works. Despite his cursed transformation into a bird-like creature, Howl has managed to avoid other powerful wizards in his elusive castle for a long time.
Additionally, in battle Howl has proven himself, unlike many other Ghibli characters, showcasing that he has the fighting skills to back up his talents. This impressive and dangerous character is a strange one, hard to root for at times throughout the adventure, but he definitely has the strength to end wars, which is why his allegiance was sought so desperately by Suliman.
2 No-Face
There are a lot of Studio Ghibli films that deal with spirits of various sorts, delving at times deeply into Japanese folklore and fairytales. Spirited Awaysees an amazing young girl, Chihiro, running into a variety of spirits, but No-Face is one of the most infamous ones that she meets during her time in the bathhouse of the spirits.
This spirit is able to mimic whatever he eats, prompting some dangerous moments and transformations over the course of the widely beloved, generational animated film. From turning mud into gold and the angry fits he has that lead to him showing his potential for evil, No-Face is a great character who is shown to really just want a friend. However, he is also one of the most powerful spirits or characters of any sort seen throughout the works of Studio Ghibli.
1 The Forest Spirit
Another character from Princess Mononoke, the Great Forest Spirit, is a God that roams the forests in the guise of a large deer. This creature is mostly peaceful, but when provoked, can transform into a huge Night Walker, a much more destructive form. While the Forest Spirit is brutally killed mid-transformation, even in death, it is able to destroy or save the world.
This kind of power and strength are rarely seen, even in the fantastical worlds created by Studio Ghibli, making the Forest Spirit seem all the more impressive. Though other Gods and powerful celestial beings have been seen throughout the Studio’s works in the past, nothing that places other characters in quite the same place of awe has been seen since the Forest Spirit.