What was your “first” Ghibli film? Not necessarily the first one you saw, but the one that really clicked for you and made you a Ghibli fan?

I first stumbled on Castle in the Sky, playing on British TV on New Year’s Eve, 1988—I wrote about the experience in an essay on mbh4h dot substack dot com if anyone is interested.

Over the past few years, I’ve found myself watching and rewatching more of Hayao Miyazaki’s films (admittedly, I’ve still yet to see Porco Rosso) and learning as much as I can about his creative process. It’s made what to ask the people here: What was your “first” Ghibli film? Not necessarily the first one you saw, but the one that really clicked for you and made you a Ghibli fan? I can’t decide if mine was Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, or Spirited Away.