GHIBLI CUP 2025 Information

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This is the information thread for the seventh annual Ghibli Cup, once again taking place in January and February. As 2025 is the 40th anniversary of Studio Ghibli, the host for this year will be the studio’s first release, Laputa: Castle in the Sky!

As in previous years, the main event will be preceded by a qualifying stage in December. For multiple reasons, all three qualifying groups will be held on Discord this year, one after another. For further details on how this will work, see the post below.
Sticking with our standard format, the main tournament will consist of a group stage, quarter finals, semi finals and a final. Please see the post on voting rules for a reminder of how the different stages operate. Voting is open to all, including non-members!

Here is the schedule for Ghibli Cup 2025:

Qualifying stage: Sunday 8 December - Friday 20 December
Draw for groups: Sunday 22 December
Last Ghibli Tavern Rankings update before the competition: week of Monday 23 December
Group stage (round 1): Wednesday 22 January - Saturday 25 January
Group stage (round 2): Saturday 25 January - Tuesday 28 January
Quarter finals: Friday 31 January - Monday 3 February
Semi finals: Friday 7 February - Monday 10 February
Final: Friday 14 February - Monday 17 February


Rules and other details can be found below, and you can ask questions or give comments in the discussion thread.

Enjoy!

RESULTS AND SCHEDULE

Group stage: Wednesday 22 January - Tuesday 28 January

SHEETA GROUP
The Tale of Princess Kaguya 15pts
Laputa: Castle in the Sky 11pts
Howl's Moving Castle 10pts
The Wind Rises 7pts

PAZU GROUP
Spirited Away 14pts*
My Neighbour Totoro 14pts*
From Up on Poppy Hill 4pts**
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind 4pts**

*Spirited Away and My Neighbour Totoro are tied for first, second and third-place votes, so the first voter's preference is the decider.
**From Up on Poppy Hill is above Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind because it received more first-choice votes (1).

DOLA GROUP
When Marnie Was There 15pts
Princess Mononoke 10pts
Only Yesterday 7pts
Ponyo 4pts

MUSKA GROUP
Whisper of the Heart 13pts
Kiki's Delivery Service 12pts
The Boy and the Heron 8pts
Porco Rosso 3pts


Quarter finals: Friday 31 January - Monday 3 February

Quarter final 1
The Tale of Princess Kaguya 3 v 1 My Neighbour Totoro

Quarter final 2
When Marnie Was There 2 v 2 Kiki's Delivery Service*
*When Marnie Was There wins the tiebreaker because it had more points in the group stage.

Quarter final 3
Spirited Away 3 v 2 Laputa: Castle in the Sky

Quarter final 4
Whisper of the Heart 3 v 1 Princess Mononoke


Semi finals: Friday 7 February - Monday 10 February

Semi final 1
The Tale of Princess Kaguya 3 v 2 When Marnie Was There

Semi final 2
Spirited Away 2 v 3 Whisper of the Heart


Final: Friday 14 February - Monday 17 February

The Tale of Princess Kaguya 3 v 3 Whisper of the Heart*
*Whisper of the Heart wins the tie with the first voter's preference as the decider.


WINNER: Whisper of the Heart

QUALIFYING STAGE

The top six from Ghibli Cup 2024 all qualify automatically, along with the host Laputa. The remaining 9 places will go to the winners of the qualifying stage.

All of this year’s qualifiers will take place on the Tavern’s Discord server. There will be three groups of 6 films each, and the top 3 per group will qualify for the main tournament. As you may remember if you’ve taken part in qualifiers on Discord before, you’ll get to vote for your 3 favourites in each group.


I’ll post a reminder in the discussion thread at the beginning of each group.


Qualified: Laputa: Castle in the Sky, Whisper of the Heart, Spirited Away, My Neighbour Totoro, The Tale of Princess Kaguya, Only Yesterday, The Boy and the Heron, Kiki's Delivery Service, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Ponyo, When Marnie Was There, From Up on Poppy Hill, The Wind Rises, Princess Mononoke, Porco Rosso, Howl's Moving Castle.


Qualifying stage: Sunday 8 December - Friday 20 December

Group A (Sunday 8 December - Thursday 12 December):
Kiki’s Delivery Service 6
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind 4
Ponyo 3
Pom Poko 2*
The Cat Returns 2*
Aya and the Witch 1

*Pom Poko finishes above The Cat Returns due to a superior record in the previous Ghibli Cup.

Group B (Thursday 12 December - Monday 16 December):
When Marnie Was There 4*
From Up on Poppy Hill 4*
The Wind Rises 3*
Arrietty 3*
Grave of the Fireflies 2*
My Neighbours the Yamadas 2*
*When Marnie Was There finishes above From Up on Poppy Hill, The Wind Rises finishes above Arrietty and Grave of the Fireflies finishes above My Neighbours the Yamadas due to their superior records in the previous Ghibli Cup.

Group C (Monday 16 December - Friday 20 December):
Princess Mononoke 5
Porco Rosso 4
Howl’s Moving Castle 3
Ocean Waves 2
Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro 1
Tales from Earthsea 0

GROUPS

SHEETA GROUP
Laputa: Castle in the Sky
The Tale of Princess Kaguya
Howl's Moving Castle
The Wind Rises


PAZU GROUP
Spirited Away
My Neighbour Totoro
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
From Up on Poppy Hill


DOLA GROUP
Princess Mononoke
Only Yesterday
When Marnie Was There
Ponyo


MUSKA GROUP
Whisper of the Heart
Kiki's Delivery Service
Porco Rosso
The Boy and the Heron

VOTING RULES

Voting rules are the same as previous tournaments, and voting is open to all!


One rule that applies to all rounds is that late votes will not count. I will post in the relevant thread to confirm that voting is closed, and at that point I will check the score. No votes cast after this time will be considered in the result.


Qualifying stage

In each qualifying group on Discord, you will be allowed to cast up to 3 votes, by reacting to the first post with the relevant emoji. This will be explained more specifically in the post for each group, but it is the same as previous years.

In the event of a tie in any of the groups, the performance of each film in the previous tournament – and then in all tournaments – will be considered. Basically, if title A finished in 14th place last time, it wins the tie against title B that finished in 15th place; if neither qualified last time, then title C that finished 11th one time wins the tie against title D that has never done better than 13th.


Group stage

Group stage voting takes place in two rounds. You may vote once during the first three days, and then once more during the last three days.

To vote, please rank the group’s Ghibli titles in order of preference. To make calculation simpler, put the top choice first, second choice second, and so on. Please do not include any that you have not seen. This is not something that can be checked, but out of fairness, please respect this rule. At the end of the first round, the current scores will be announced, and you may post your second round vote.

Each title will be given points according to their placement in a vote. The bottom will receive 0, the next will receive 1, and so on. An exception is made if somebody only votes for one, in which case it will receive 1 point. You do not need to vote the same way twice - the purpose of the rounds is to allow people to give more points to titles they think are underrated, and fewer points to those they think have enough already.

One “pity point” is given to a title for every two times per round that it is not mentioned in a list. This helps give less well-known titles an advantage over those that are disliked. In the event that a title is not mentioned three times in a round, it will receive one bonus point, and the third non-mention does not carry over.

At the end of the group stage, the winner and runner-up will progress to the quarter finals.

In the event of a tie in points, the title with more first-choice votes will be placed higher. If they are still tied, second-choice votes will be considered, then third-place. If this still does not solve the tie, the earliest voter’s preference will win.


Knockout stages

From the quarter finals onwards, each round is a one-on-one regular poll, with a three-day limit. You will get one vote in each matchup. When the poll closes, the winner is the title with the most votes.

In the event of a tie, the margin of victory - and then the total number of votes - in the previous round will be considered. If the tie remains unresolved, the round before that will be checked, and then finally the group stage tiebreaker rules will apply.

In the final only, there will be an extra tiebreaker rule, to avoid the winner being decided based on previous results. If there is a tie when voting finishes in the final, the thread will be opened for posting. Members may then post their preference, and the first post will be the deciding vote.