When the New York Times’s chief film critics ranked the best movies of the century so far, many readers were surprised by the work at No. 2: Hayao Miyazaki’s animated “Spirited Away.” The rest of us wondered why it wasn’t No. 1.

Spoiler alert: “Spirited Away” is first on my list, a personal ranking of all the feature films (including a few outliers) of Mr. Miyazaki’s production company, the legendary animation house Studio Ghibli. The 32-year-old company’s output has been modest but its influence is profound. Some of its biggest fans routinely copy Ghibli’s moves for their work at Pixar and DreamWorks.

The occasion for the list is a new, handsomely packaged edition of nearly all the Ghibli films by the distributor Gkids. It’s particularly significant because Ghibli is opposed to streaming video for aesthetic and commercial reasons. So beyond occasional screenings — like a series showing “Spirited Away” in select theaters around the country Oct. 29 to Nov. 1 — and a handful of titles streaming legally, discs are the only way to go.