I've watched Ponyo twice, the first time by myself and the second with my nieces. Didn't care for it the first time, actually really disliked it on the second. Really strange characters that would just do things for no apparent rhyme or reason, and the incredibly bizarre mom that was total pants on/in the head was especially the object of my ire. She was constantly switching between like four very contrary different states: 1. very sweet, 2. unreasonably aggressive, 3. helicopter mom, 4. accepting everything that was happening without question, no matter how insane it was. So many times during it I asked myself "what the hell is wrong with this mom?". So combine that with the entire tone and style of the movie seeming decidedly more aimed at only children than his other works, I would consider it easily the worst Hayao Miyazaki film. ...But it's still not as bad as most of Yoneyabashi's and Goro's Ghibli stuff, so there is that.
I have a friend that said Ponyo was so bad they never tried a single other Ghibli film released after it, which I thought was a pretty extreme reaction, especially considering this is the same person who had their life changed by Princess Mononoke. While there is a bit of a fall-off after Ponyo for Ghibli, they should've at least tried The Wind Rises and The Tale of the Princess Kaguya.
@majestic If you love literally endless random encounters that make it so you can take anywhere between pretty literally 1 and maybe 20 steps before running into another, you'll love Quest 64. Let's just say that the game is much improved by Cheat Engine's speedhack, which I used liberally when I replayed it. ...I still own it along with an actual working N64, mind you, but I never play on actual consoles if I can avoid it for a plethora of reasons.
Samurai Champloo: It really does seem quite good, though obviously there will be an issue of personal appeal.
Tomoyo: Yeah, I felt bad realizing that Meiling had replaced her at some point as my favorite character, but it is something that happened. Between her crazy expressions, emotions, body language, voice-acting...and her tragedy and actual character development (which is probably the biggest contrast to Tomoyo, who has stayed static except in perhaps some very small ways in contrast), she's just such a fun and good character. Tomoyo was awesome in a way that felt totally right for her in this episode too, which I was thankful for because she's been a little too...meta and meme-ish without enough to balance it out in this final arc, I think.
Yeah...she sat there with that sad, knowing smile. She knows all too well, Meiling...