My own love of Ghibli stems from a chance encounter with Castle in the Sky, which I saw on television when I was eight years old. That image of the robot in the garden instilled in me a kind of dry-throated awe: it was so peaceful and poetic, and unlike any cartoon I had ever seen. What I did not know aged eight was the name of this film or how to find it again, and when I rented Castle in the Sky on a whim 10 years later and slowly realised as I watched that yes, this was it, my jaw ended up between my feet. When I made my own pilgrimage to Mitaka last year and looked up at the robot on the rooftop, it felt like a primary school reunion.
Castle in the sky