Why Joe Hisaishi's Music Is Essential to the Ghibli Experience

Article

Ask a Ghibli fan to hum a few notes from any Miyazaki film, and there's a good chance what they're humming is Joe Hisaishi — his scores are that inseparable from the studio's identity.

A Four-Decade Partnership

Hisaishi's collaboration with Hayao Miyazaki began with Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind in 1984 and has continued across nearly every major Miyazaki film since: My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Princess Mononoke (1997), Spirited Away (2001), Howl's Moving Castle (2004), Ponyo (2008), The Wind Rises (2013), and The Boy and the Heron (2023).

An International Concert Career

Beyond film scoring, Hisaishi has built a major international concert career performing his own film music live. In 2026, he was named the Hollywood Bowl's "Composer in Focus" and announced a summer residency in New York City.

Why the Music Matters

Hisaishi's scores are widely credited as essential to why Ghibli films land emotionally the way they do — for many fans, hearing a few bars is enough to place the exact film and scene before a single image appears.

What To Know

For most fans, Ghibli's emotional impact is inseparable from Hisaishi's music — the scores aren't background noise, they're core to why scenes like Totoro's bus stop or Spirited Away's train land the way they do.

Hisaishi's collaboration with Miyazaki is one of the longest-running director-composer partnerships in film history, and his concert career performing this material live — including at venues like the Hollywood Bowl — has become significant on its own.

What Fans Are Saying

• "Hear one Hisaishi note and I know exactly which movie and scene."
• "His concert performances hit even harder live than in the films."

Original Japanese

• 「久石譲の音を聞くだけでどの映画か分かる」
• 「ライブで聴くとさらに感動する」

Easy Japanese

久石譲は、スタジオジブリの映画音楽を長年作曲してきた作曲家です。「となりのトトロ」など多くの名作を手がけました。