Growing up, most of the men on screen were taught to win: hit harder, never cry, never doubt. Studio Ghibli kept giving us a different kind of man. A wizard who throws a tantrum over his hair and still faces a war for the people he loves. A prince who refuses to hate. A father who believes his daughter when she says she met a forest spirit.
These are the 12 best Studio Ghibli male characters, from the heroes everyone has a crush on to the quiet dads and the boys who just show up. For each one: the film, who voices him in Japanese and English, and why he matters.
The list at a glance
| Character | Film | Year | Voices (Japanese / English) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Howl | Howl's Moving Castle | 2004 | Takuya Kimura / Christian Bale |
| Ashitaka | Princess Mononoke | 1997 | Yōji Matsuda / Billy Crudup |
| Haku | Spirited Away | 2001 | Miyu Irino / Jason Marsden |
| Porco Rosso | Porco Rosso | 1992 | Shūichirō Moriyama / Michael Keaton |
| Pazu | Castle in the Sky | 1986 | Mayumi Tanaka / James Van Der Beek |
| Tombo | Kiki's Delivery Service | 1989 | Kappei Yamaguchi / Matthew Lawrence |
| Seiji Amasawa | Whisper of the Heart | 1995 | Issey Takahashi / David Gallagher |
| Sōsuke | Ponyo | 2008 | Hiroki Doi / Frankie Jonas |
| Tatsuo Kusakabe | My Neighbor Totoro | 1988 | Shigesato Itoi / Tim Daly |
| Jiro Horikoshi | The Wind Rises | 2013 | Hideaki Anno / Joseph Gordon-Levitt |
| Seita | Grave of the Fireflies | 1988 | Tsutomu Tatsumi (Japanese) |
| Mahito Maki | The Boy and the Heron | 2023 | Soma Santoki / Luca Padovan |
Heroes who choose kindness
They fight when they have to, and they stop the moment they can.
1. Howl (Howl's Moving Castle, 2004)
Film: Howl's Moving Castle (2004) · Director: Hayao Miyazaki · Voices: Takuya Kimura / Christian Bale
Howl is vain, dramatic and capable of a full meltdown when his hair dye goes wrong. He is also a wizard who transforms into a monster every night to stop a war he refuses to fight for either side, and who gave his heart to a fire demon as a boy. Sophie doesn't fix him. She gives him a reason to stop running, and he finally says it out loud. Based on Diana Wynne Jones's 1986 novel, he is the Ghibli crush for a reason.
2. Ashitaka (Princess Mononoke, 1997)
Film: Princess Mononoke (1997) · Director: Hayao Miyazaki · Voices: Yōji Matsuda / Billy Crudup
The last prince of the Emishi is cursed while protecting his village from a demon boar, and rides west to find a cure he knows may not exist. Instead of choosing between Lady Eboshi's Irontown and San's forest, he insists on seeing both sides clearly, even when both want him dead. He loses his home and keeps his kindness, which is the hardest thing anyone does in a Ghibli film.
3. Haku (Spirited Away, 2001)
Film: Spirited Away (2001) · Director: Hayao Miyazaki · Voices: Miyu Irino / Jason Marsden
Yubaba's apprentice is cold one moment and fiercely protective the next, because he is trapped too. Haku is the spirit of the Kohaku River, which was filled in and built over, and he has forgotten his own name. Chihiro fell into his river when she was little. He helps her keep her name, she helps him find his, and their goodbye is one of the most quietly devastating scenes Ghibli ever made.
4. Porco Rosso (Porco Rosso, 1992)
Film: Porco Rosso (1992) · Director: Hayao Miyazaki · Voices: Shūichirō Moriyama / Michael Keaton
Marco Pagot was a World War I ace who survived when his friends did not, and now he has the face of a pig and works as a bounty hunter over the Adriatic. Asked to rejoin the air force, he answers that he would rather be a pig than a fascist. Then he lets a seventeen-year-old engineer, Fio, rebuild his plane, and trusts her completely. Gruff, funny and sadder than he lets on.
Boys who show up
Ghibli boys are brave in small, practical ways.
5. Pazu (Castle in the Sky, 1986)
Film: Castle in the Sky (1986) · Director: Hayao Miyazaki · Voices: Mayumi Tanaka / James Van Der Beek
Pazu is an orphan who works in a mining town, plays the trumpet for the pigeons every morning and wants to prove that his father really saw the floating city of Laputa. When a girl literally falls from the sky, he catches her and keeps his promise to protect her through pirates, soldiers and a flying fortress. Castle in the Sky was the first film animated by Studio Ghibli, and Pazu is the original Ghibli boy.
6. Tombo (Kiki's Delivery Service, 1989)
Film: Kiki's Delivery Service (1989) · Director: Hayao Miyazaki · Voices: Kappei Yamaguchi / Matthew Lawrence
The boy with the round glasses and the striped shirt is obsessed with flying and builds a human-powered bicycle with a propeller. At first he's just annoying, but he is the one person who is genuinely amazed by Kiki instead of jealous, and when an airship accident leaves him hanging over the city, it's Kiki who saves him. A rare Ghibli boy who gets rescued, and is thrilled about it.
7. Seiji Amasawa (Whisper of the Heart, 1995)
Film: Whisper of the Heart (1995) · Director: Yoshifumi Kondō · Voices: Issey Takahashi / David Gallagher
Shizuku notices that every library book she borrows was checked out before by the same name: Seiji Amasawa. He turns out to be a boy who wants to make violins and plans to train in Cremona, Italy. Instead of a grand romantic gesture, he does something better: he inspires her to write her first story. Written by Miyazaki and directed by Yoshifumi Kondō.
8. Sōsuke (Ponyo, 2008)
Film: Ponyo (2008) · Director: Hayao Miyazaki · Voices: Hiroki Doi / Frankie Jonas
Sōsuke is five. He finds a goldfish with a girl's face stuck in a jar, names her Ponyo and promises to protect her, and he keeps that promise whether she is a fish, a girl or something in between. His father is a sailor who signals to their house from his ship with a lamp. Ghibli's youngest hero, and one of its most reliable.
Fathers, dreamers and grieving sons
The quietest men in Ghibli, and some of the most important.
9. Tatsuo Kusakabe (My Neighbor Totoro, 1988)
Film: My Neighbor Totoro (1988) · Director: Hayao Miyazaki · Voices: Shigesato Itoi / Tim Daly
Satsuki and Mei's father, a university researcher who often works at home, moves the girls to the countryside while their mother recovers in the hospital. When Mei says she met a giant forest spirit, he doesn't laugh: he believes her, and takes the girls to thank the camphor tree. He's gentle, distracted, a little clumsy, and one of the best dads in animation.
10. Jiro Horikoshi (The Wind Rises, 2013)
Film: The Wind Rises (2013) · Director: Hayao Miyazaki · Voices: Hideaki Anno / Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Based on the real engineer who designed the Mitsubishi A6M Zero, Jiro is too nearsighted to be a pilot, so he designs airplanes and dreams of the Italian designer Caproni. He builds beautiful machines knowing what they will be used for, and his love story with Naoko is the gentlest in Ghibli. Fun fact: his Japanese voice is Hideaki Anno, the creator of Neon Genesis Evangelion.
11. Seita (Grave of the Fireflies, 1988)
Film: Grave of the Fireflies (1988) · Director: Isao Takahata · Voices: Tsutomu Tatsumi (Japanese)
Seita is fourteen when the firebombing of Kobe in 1945 kills his mother, and he tries to take care of his four-year-old sister, Setsuko, on his own. He isn't a hero in the usual sense, and that's the point: he's a teenager trying to be a parent, too proud to ask for help, in a war that doesn't care. Isao Takahata's film is one of the most devastating ever made.
Heads-up: War and the death of a child.
12. Mahito Maki (The Boy and the Heron, 2023)
Film: The Boy and the Heron (2023) · Director: Hayao Miyazaki · Voices: Soma Santoki / Luca Padovan
Mahito loses his mother in a hospital fire during the war and moves to the countryside, angry and silent. A talking grey heron (Masaki Suda, Robert Pattinson in English) tells him his mother is still alive, and leads him into another world. It's Miyazaki's most personal film, about grief and choosing to live anyway, and it won the Oscar for best animated feature.
The Ghibli pattern
Look at the list again: almost none of these men win by being the strongest. Ashitaka wins by refusing to hate, Howl by deciding to stop running, Tatsuo by believing his kids, Seiji by inspiring someone else. They cry, they doubt, they ask for help, or they suffer because they didn't. Miyazaki and Takahata gave a whole generation a different picture of what a good man looks like, long before anyone called it "soft masculinity".
More gentle Ghibli men
- Kanta (My Neighbor Totoro): the shy neighbor boy who lends Satsuki his umbrella in the rain and runs away.
- Kamaji (Spirited Away): the grumpy six-armed boiler man who claims Chihiro is his granddaughter to get her a job.
- The Baron (The Cat Returns, Whisper of the Heart): a cat figurine and a perfect gentleman, voiced by Cary Elwes in English.
- Shō (Arrietty, 2010): a sick boy who discovers the tiny Borrowers under the floor and wants to protect them.
- Shun Kazama (From Up on Poppy Hill, 2011): the school newspaper editor in 1963 Yokohama.
Dress like a Ghibli hero
THRESHOLD is an arcane door with an all-seeing eye, mushrooms and flowers, and the words "an open mind opens doors". Howl's castle door would approve. It comes as a hoodie too. FAMILIAR is a black cat for the Kiki fans, and STEADY GROWTH wraps blackletter around wildflowers, very Totoro garden.
More in cats, creatures and cartoon shirts and oversized hoodies. Shipping is free in the US.
Studio Ghibli male characters FAQ
Who is the most popular Studio Ghibli male character?
Howl is the usual answer, followed by Haku and Ashitaka.
Who voices Howl in English?
Christian Bale. In Japanese, Howl is voiced by Takuya Kimura.
Who voices Haku in English?
Jason Marsden. In Japanese, Haku is voiced by Miyu Irino.
Which Ghibli male characters wear glasses?
Tatsuo Kusakabe, Totoro's dad; Tombo from Kiki's Delivery Service; Jiro Horikoshi from The Wind Rises; and Kamaji from Spirited Away.
Is Howl's last name Pendragon?
In the film Howl goes by several names, Pendragon and Jenkins among them, and "Howl Pendragon" is how most fans know him. In Diana Wynne Jones's novel, his real name is Howell Jenkins, and he comes from Wales.
What is Haku's real name?
Nigihayami Kohakunushi, the spirit of the Kohaku River.
More from the Journal: 15 Studio Ghibli quotes about life, love and courage · 12 comfort anime for hard days