# What is the best Isao Takahata movie?

> Decades of hand-drawn storytelling, from gut-wrenching wartime tragedy to gentle slice-of-life comedy and folktale fantasy. Which one moves you most?

*By YPB Team · Published June 29, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-is-the-best-isao-takahata-movie*

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## Current results (3 votes)

1. **Grave of the Fireflies** — 66.67% (2 votes · score 1000/1000)
   Takahata's devastating 1988 wartime drama about two siblings struggling to survive in the final months of WWII Japan.
2. **Pom Poko** — 33.33% (1 votes · score 591/1000)
   A 1994 environmental fable about shape-shifting raccoon dogs fighting to save their forest from urban development.
3. **Gauche the Cellist** — 0% (0 votes · score 577/1000)
   A 1982 musical drama about a struggling cellist who learns to play through nightly visits from animals.
4. **My Neighbors the Yamadas** — 0% (0 votes · score 409/1000)
   A 1999 comic-strip-style slice-of-life comedy following the everyday misadventures of an ordinary Japanese family.
5. **Horus, Prince of the Sun** — 0% (0 votes · score 409/1000)
   His 1968 debut feature, a landmark fantasy adventure that helped define modern Japanese animation.
6. **The Tale of the Princess Kaguya** — 0% (0 votes · score 409/1000)
   His final film, a 2013 watercolor-style retelling of a Japanese folktale nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
7. **Only Yesterday** — 0% (0 votes · score 300/1000)
   A 1991 introspective drama about a Tokyo office worker reflecting on her childhood during a countryside trip.
8. **Panda! Go Panda!** — 0% (0 votes · score 300/1000)
   A charming 1972 children's film about a girl who befriends a pair of pandas, an early collaboration with Hayao Miyazaki.
9. **Chie the Brat** — 0% (0 votes · score 167/1000)
   A 1981 comedy about a streetwise young girl running her family's restaurant in working-class Osaka.

Tags: movies, directors, animation, japan, isao takahata