Film

Pom Poko

Name: Pom Poko
Genre: Adventure, Animation, Fantasy
Released: 1994
Cast: Makoto Nonomura, Nijiko Kiyokawa, Shigeru Izumiya, Norihei Miki, Yuriko Ishida

Fantasy

Pom Poko is Studio Ghibli's wildest, most politically alive film: a shapeshifting fantasy about raccoons resisting suburban sprawl through trickery, magic, and increasingly desperate theatre. It's funny, melancholic, strange, and utterly sincere about ecological loss. For anyone who loves animated worlds that refuse to be simple.

TMDb rating

3.6

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy shaggy, digressive folk comedy that treats a vanishing countryside with real grief and still finds room for slapstick, and you don't mind a story that wanders between tones.

Skip it if you need brisk plotting, since this one is loose, long at nearly two hours, and often more interested in mood and mischief than in a clear through-line.

What it asks of you: Settle in for a leisurely shape of nearly two hours, with long digressions, sudden tonal swerves from bawdy to elegiac, and patience for a tale that circles its point before landing it.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Princess Mononoke1997

Miyazaki's epic about humans and nature at irreconcilable odds, with the same moral weight and visual splendour. Humans aren't villains; the conflict is real and tragic on both sides.

But Nearly three hours long, darker and more violent than Pom Poko, with a pace that demands patience.

Warriors of the Wind1984

An animated masterpiece about environmental catastrophe, human survival, and one girl trying to broker peace. The same blend of spectacle, melancholy, and stubborn hope.

But The source manga is different in tone and scope; the film condenses it and softens the ending, which bothers some purists.

My Neighbor Totoro1988

Ghibli at its gentlest: a film about childhood wonder and connection to nature. The raccoon tanuki in Pom Poko are shaped by the same Japanese folklore that haunts Totoro.

But Almost nothing happens; it's a mood and memory rather than a plot. Not for viewers who need forward momentum.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Pom Poko

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time2006

Both centre on a supernatural gift that characters use to fight the unbearable. Both end with the realization that you have to accept the world as it is, not magic it away.

A tender time-loop film about love, regret, and discovering the limits of magic. Quieter than Pom Poko, but the same realization that you cannot wish away reality.

But Structurally simple—not much happens until the last act. If you're impatient with character-led stories, it will feel thin.

Spirited Away2001

Ghibli's most visually inventive film, with the same commitment to transformation, folklore, and the strangeness lurking beneath the mundane. Hypnotic and gorgeous.

But The second half becomes abstract and plotwise baggy. Some find the pacing frustrating after the brilliant first act.

The Tale of The Princess Kaguya2013

Isao Takahata's heartbreaking meditation on loss, nature, and an impossible world. If Pom Poko made you ache, this will devastate you with painterly beauty.

But Slow, deliberately so. It's a folk tale, not a narrative—if you need dramatic momentum, this will feel static.

Urusei Yatsura: Only You1983

A romantic adventure through magical transformation and time. Lighter than Pom Poko, but from the same era of Japanese animation with wit and genuine stakes.

But Entirely dependent on knowledge of the TV series; newcomers will find it bewildering and thin.

Porco Rosso1992

Miyazaki's most playful film: a man cursed to be a pig, flying seaplanes, falling in love. The same blend of whimsy and melancholy that makes Pom Poko sing.

But It's set-piece driven rather than plot-driven; some find it charming, others find it slight.

Belladonna of Sadness1973

A visionary animated film about a woman cursed and transformed, using folklore and painterly abstraction. Radically different in tone, but the same commitment to the supernatural as resistance.

But Sexually explicit and deliberately disturbing; the animation style is experimental and not for all tastes.

Grave of the Fireflies1988

Takahata's unflinching look at suffering and human fragility. If Pom Poko's sadness moved you, this is what animation can do when it refuses comfort.

But Devastating and bleak; watching it is an ordeal, not an escape. Many find it almost unbearably painful.

The Wind Rises2013

Both films watch as civilization develops at nature's expense. Pom Poko fights back with magic; The Wind Rises watches a man enable the machinery of progress. Opposite poles of the same tragedy.

Miyazaki's final film: a dreamer building beautiful machines as fascism rises. Animated, yes, but textured and observed like live-action cinema. A meditation on complicity and the compromise of talent.

But Explicitly about wartime Japan and imperial ambition. Some find it self-justifying or evasive about its own politics.