What Ghibli Understands About Love That Disney Doesn t

Disney might have taught us about true love's kiss, love at first sight, and happily ever after, but Ghibli sees love differently. It's quiet, slow, and makes you reconsider everything you thought you knew about love. These studios don't just tell different love stories, they believe radically different things about what love is and how it works. But ultimately, who understands love better? And more importantly, how do they change the way we think about relationships, commitment, and what it even means to be truly in love? By the end of this video, you'll see love and your own relationships completely differently. To be fair, no one does romantic love quite like Disney. From the first swell of orchestral music, you know exactly what you're getting. Their love stories are built on grand gestures and the unwavering belief that true love conquers all. Take Snow White, Disney's first princess, and the template for everything that followed. She meets her prince for maybe 30 seconds, she sings a song, and that's it. The entire relationship literally hinges on a single kiss that brings her back from death. That's a pretty insane relationship. What's crazy about this setup is how efficient it is. The prince doesn't need character development, or even a name, for that matter. He exists purely as the solution to Snow White's problem. Evil stepmother, true love's kiss. Poison apple, true love's kiss. The message is pretty damn obvious. Love is salvation, and the right person can fix everything wrong in your world. But here's what never happens in Snow White. They never actually talk. They never learn about each other's dreams, fears, or favorite foods. The story suggests that love is recognition. You'll just know when you meet the one. And everything else, unnecessary details. Ariel takes Disney's formula and cranks it to 11. She falls in love with Eric after watching him for a few minutes on a ship. Without ever speaking to him, she trades her voice, her identity, for legs and a chance at love. What's both beautiful and slightly concerning about Ariel's story is how much she's willing to sacrifice for someone she's never had a conversation with. The movie frames this as romantic dedication, but it also suggests that love means fundamentally changing yourself to fit someone else's world. Ariel literally gives up a huge piece of herself, her voice, to pursue romance. Other earlier Disney movies were similar, in that the couple barely knew each other, like in Cinderella or The Sleeping Beauty. And although many of the following renaissance films do improve on this, their love stories aren't really that grounded in their chemistry and can seem hollow at times. Love, as we all know, can often be a battlefield. It takes patience and teamwork to truly make it work, which is something you won't find in fairy tale kisses alone, but you'll definitely find it in War Thunder. Today's sponsor. It's the most comprehensive vehicle combat game ever made, and it's completely free on PC, consoles, and mobile. Command over 2,500 tanks, planes, helicopter, and ships from 10 major nations. From clunky 1920s biplanes to sleek modern fighter jets and main battle tanks, the level of immersion is insane. With one of the most sophisticated vehicle damage models in gaming, realistic graphics, and authentic sound effects to put you right at the helm of those war machines. Unlike Snow White and her prince, you can't win with just one perfect moment. War Thunder demands real strategy, communication, and actual teamwork if you want to survive. Join over 95 million players worldwide in epic PVP battles, where unlike fairy tale romance, you actually have to earn your victories through skill and patience. Use my links in the pinned comment or the video description to sign up. New players and those who haven't played in six months will also receive a massive bonus pack on PC or consoles that includes multiple premium vehicles, the exclusive vehicle decorator Eagle of Valor, 100,000 silver lions, and seven days of a premium account. Available for a limited time only, so don't miss out. Now, let's talk about how Disney has actually gotten better with love recently. Don't get me wrong, I'm as much a sucker for love at first sight as a lot of you might be, but it portrays a message about love that isn't very beneficial in my opinion, but I'll get into that soon. Now, in their defense, Disney has evolved. One of their best relationships is a more modern example, and one of my personal favorites, Flynn and Rapunzel. They actually get to know each other. They have really good banter, their chemistry builds over shared adventure, and crucially, they both change as people over time. Flynn stops being a selfish, thieving prick, and Rapunzel gains confidence and independence in her newfound freedom. It's still Disney magic, but with great character development and romantic chemistry. Similarly, Tiana and Naveen in The Frog start as complete opposites who genuinely dislike each other. Their love grows through conflict, compromise, and learning to respect each other's dreams, which is beautiful. Naveen has to earn Tiana's affection by becoming responsible. Tiana learns to balance ambition with joy. These movies show Disney can do nuanced relationships when they want to, but even here, the core DNA is the same. Love as transformation, obstacles as external forces that love can overcome, and happily ever after as the ultimate goal. What all these stories share is Disney's core belief that love is a force of nature that strikes without warning and changes everything instantly. Even in their more sophisticated movies, conflict comes from outside, like evil queens, curses, etc, and love is supposed to overcome it all. From a storytelling perspective, this approach is super effective. It's clean, it's satisfying, and it gives most of us exactly what we came for, the promise that love will save the day. I mean, it's romantic. Kids understand it immediately, and adults get the nostalgic comfort of believing in the simplicity of that concept. But here's the catch. Even Disney's best romances focus on the falling in love, not the being in love. The story ends when the couple gets together, not when they learn how to stay together. Not only that, it depicts a kind of love that is usually impossible and unrealistic, making us all believe that we all need to find that love at first sight with a person that's going to help make us whole. Step into Ghibli's world, and the very definition of love shifts beneath your feet. Miyazaki's movies aren't stories about finding the one, but rather about the countless ways people can matter to each other, and how truly caring for someone changes who you are completely. Spirited Away is Ghibli's most famous movie, and it might have one of the most subtle but gorgeous depictions of love. Chihiro and Haku's relationship develops entirely in the margins of a larger story. It's never the main focus. The film never stops to ask, are they in love, or are they going to end up together? Instead, it simply shows two people who desperately want to help each other survive, grow, and be happy. What makes their bond so powerful is how it's built on mutual rescue and recognition. Haku helps Chihiro remember her name, while Chihiro helps him remember his true identity as the Kohaku River. In one of my favorite scenes of all time, the beauty of that moment and the euphoria they both show gets me every time. Their love, and in my book it is love, even if the movie doesn't explicitly label it, exists in the space between friendship and romance, defined not by what they are to each other, but by what they do for each other. Their goodbye is heartbreaking precisely because it's not about promises or reunion, but rather about two people who changed each other's lives, expressing gratitude for that gift. The happiness and genuine care they seem to have for each other makes me tear up every single time. Then we have the heartbreaking relationship in The Wind Rises. Jiro and Naoko's relationship might be Ghibli's most mature exploration of romantic love. Their connection is built on small moments, sharing a book on a train, drawing together in the countryside, the quiet intimacy of domestic life, Jiro working while Naoko sleeps next to him. But what makes their love devastating is how it exists through Naoko's tuberculosis, in a time where TB was fatal. Miyazaki doesn't use her illness as a plot device to overcome, Disney style. Instead it shows how love can persist in the face of inevitable loss. Jiro doesn't save Naoko, he can't. They simply choose to love each other as fully as possible in the time that they have. This is love as acceptance of impermanence, profound because it can't last forever, not despite it. It's the most real, raw, and relatable depiction of love. Princess Mononoke is another example. Ashitaka and San have to have one of the most mature relationships in all of animation. They meet as enemies and never stop disagreeing about fundamental things. But what grows between them isn't romance in the but more importantly, they listen to each other without trying to change each other's core beliefs, and help each other push towards their version of what's right. I know some people have a problem with the ending, but it's perfect in my opinion. They don't end up together, but Miyazaki lets us imagine what might happen between them in the future. Which makes sense, given how different their lives are. They might part ways, but their clearly remains as ongoing care and respect across distance and difference. Their love doesn't erase their differences, they love each other because of them. Now, onto our favorite Ghibli couple, Hal and Sophie. They start as broken people, he's vain and cowardly, she's convinced she's worthless. Their relationship isn't about completing each other, it's about helping each other heal. Sophie's curse forces her to find her own strength, while Hal's vanity slowly gives way to genuine care for others. It's so imperfect, but beautiful because of it. She deals with his dramatic ass tantrums, helps him slowly gain the strength to stop running away, while his love for her gives her the self-confidence and self-love necessary to slowly start breaking the curse. I also think their love has a hand in breaking the curse slowly as well, but there's a ton of theories online. What's also beautiful about their love is how it radiates outward. The Witch of the Waste, who starts as an antagonist, ends up welcomed into their makeshift family. Calcifer, Markle, even Hal's moving castle itself. Everyone becomes part of a community built on acceptance and unconditional love and care. Plus, I honestly love how Hal was actually looking for her at the beginning of the movie because of how she time travels to his childhood at the end. Peak storytelling. But perhaps the most radical example of Ghibli's approach to love is barely even focused on at all. Osono and her husband in Kiki's delivery service. They're so normal, so wonderfully boring. They bicker gently, work together in the bakery, worry about their coming baby, and show Kiki what secure love actually looks like. People tend to forget that secure love is often boring, fused with routine and small kindnesses. Osono and her husband represent something Disney rarely shows. Love after the fairy tale ends. Love is partnership in daily life. Ghibli has a completely different philosophy about how love works and what it's supposed to do in our lives. Disney's approach creates powerful expectations, that love will be obvious, overwhelming, and transformative, that the right person will solve your problems and complete your story. These ideas can be very inspiring, but they can also set people up for disappointment when real relationships require patience, compromise, and work. But more on this later. Ghibli's approach, on the other hand, offers something different. The idea that love is a skill you develop, not lightning that strikes. That caring for someone means helping them become themselves, not completing them or being completed by them. That relationships can be meaningful even when they're temporary, complicated, or imperfect. Now, I know what a lot of you are going to say. Disney movies are meant for kids. It's different. But honestly, why the hell should that matter when we're talking about something as important as love? Kids are not stupid. They're more than capable of understanding nuance and absorbing things like sponges. They're forming their first ideas about what love looks like, what to expect from relationships, and what they should be willing to accept or sacrifice for love. Why wouldn't we show them that real love involves communication, compromise, and daily choice, that it can exist in many forms, that it doesn't always last forever, and that that's okay? Ghibli proves that you can tell sophisticated stories about love that children understand and adults appreciate. Because Ghibli movies are meant for all ages. But there's a huge problematic reason why the way Disney portrays love can be toxic as f***. See, the amount of influence that studios as massive as Disney, Ghibli, or Pixar have is huge. These are the stories many of us grow up with, and they quietly shape our expectation of what relationships should look like. Disney, and really Hollywood more broadly, has often framed love as something instant and overwhelming. Love at first sight, soulmates, true love's kiss. Again and again, we're told that this kind of fast, passionate, all-consuming romance is the ideal. But in reality, it tends to be the slower, steadier love, the one built on trust, shared moments, growth, real compatibility over time, that actually lasts. Nowadays, it feels like most people don't realize that and fall into the trap of the fast, overwhelming, obsessive love. But does that ultimately mean Ghibli does love better? Well, yes and no. Let me explain. See, if love is supposed to inspire us, give us hope, remind us that beautiful things are possible, Disney takes the cake. Their love stories are pure emotional storytelling. They're designed to make us believe in magic, destiny, and the power of true love. On the other hand, if love is supposed to show us how to live with other people, how to care, compromise, and grow together through difficulty, Ghibli is unmatched. Their relationships feel real because they're built on the small daily choices that actually create intimacy and trust. But honestly, we need both approaches. As someone that is a huge romantic, I love Disney's portrayal of love. It reminds us that life can be bigger and brighter than we ever imagined. It reminds us to love unabashedly and passionately. And especially with how bleak everything seems sometimes, this is exactly what we often need. That being said, we also need Ghibli to remind us of the work required to build something stable and healthy over time. The patience, growth, and acceptance that real people come with complications. It's not all a fantasy. Our own relationships should have both. Grandiose and beautiful romance and long stretches of choosing to care for someone even when it's difficult or boring or routine. But if we're being honest about which approach better prepares us for actual relationships, which teaches us how to love and be loved in ways that last, Ghibli wins by a mile. Because real love isn't just the spark, it's tending the fire. It's not just the wedding, it's the marriage. It's not just falling in love, it's choosing to love someone today, tomorrow, and the day after that, forever. And Ghibli does both, the passion and the patient love, masterfully well. And while Disney might have taught us to dream about love, Ghibli teaches us how to live it. And maybe that's the lesson we needed all along. That real love isn't something that happens to us. It's something we do, choose, and practice every day in ways both magical and beautifully, wonderfully mundane. Quick thanks again to War Thunder for sponsoring this video, by the way. You can download it free on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox, or mobile using my links below. And remember, new players, and anyone who hasn't played in six months, get a massive bonus pack with premium vehicles, but it's limited time only. So don't sleep on it and get signing up.