Ponyo (Official Studio Ghibli Website) is a 2008 animated feature directed by Hayao Miyazaki.
Here, I look back at the characters and voice actors of Ponyo, considering their appeal and their stories. What kind of people inhabit this world?
The following discussion contains plot spoilers, sometimes without further warning.
*This is a translated version. The original (Japanese) is available here.
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Ponyo (2008) Main Characters and Voice Actors List
| Name | Age | Voice Actor (English Dub) |
|---|---|---|
 Ponyo | 5 | Noah Cyrus |
 Sōsuke | 5 | Frankie Jonas |
 Lisa | 25 | Tina Fey |
 Kōichi | 30 | Matt Damon |
 Fujimoto | 100+ | Liam Neeson |
 Gran Mamare | Unknown | Cate Blanchett |
 Toki | Unknown | Lily Tomlin |
Ponyo (2008) Character Map
Sōsuke rescues the runaway goldfish princess Ponyo near his home. She takes a liking to him and wants to live in the human world, but this brings strange changes to the world around them.
Ponyo (2008) Deep Character Profiles and Analysis
Ponyo | Voice Actor: Noah Cyrus
Ponyo’s Basic Information
The protagonist is a five-year-old fish-child, originally named Brunhilde. She is delighted with the name Sōsuke gives her, Ponyo, inspired by her soft, squishy appearance, and calls herself that thereafter.
The story begins with her escape from her father, Fujimoto. She ends up on the shore, where Sōsuke rescues her. Licking the blood from his injured thumb gives her the ability to take a part-human form.
She also develops a taste for the ham he feeds her.
Ponyo’s Astonishing Determination
Fujimoto takes her back once, but she escapes again, driven by her wish to see Sōsuke. She arrives on great waves.
Because she is so cute, our first reaction may simply be ‘Wow!’ Picture the scene in live action, though, and it becomes quite unsettling.
During preparations for Ponyo, Miyazaki played Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries loudly in his studio, as shown in How Ponyo Was Born (ポニョはこうして生まれた, in Japanese).
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Try hearing Ride of the Valkyries in your head as you watch her run across those waves. Perhaps it will bring out the scene’s intensity—and the depth of her determination.
Sōsuke | Voice Actor: Frankie Jonas
Sōsuke’s Basic Information
The other protagonist is a five-year-old boy who attends Himawari Nursery School. He is also friendly with the elderly users of Himawari House, the neighboring day-care center where his mother works.
He calls his parents Lisa and Kōichi, which is not quite the conventional Japanese way. Yet he has a strong independent streak and tries steadfastly to honor his promise to protect Ponyo.
If you want to explore this line and other memorable dialogue from the film, I have collected and explained them in Ponyo Quotes in Japanese and English.
I explore my own thoughts about Sōsuke and his mother below:
Read the full analysis: Why Does Sōsuke Call His Mother “Lisa”? The Meaning of First Names
Lisa | Voice Actor: Tina Fey
Lisa’s Basic Information
Sōsuke’s mother is twenty-five and works at the day-care center beside his nursery school.
Her rough edges, together with her son calling her Lisa, might briefly make us uneasy. In fact, she is a very capable person.
She does the right thing as an adult so naturally that we may overlook it.
Letting her son use her first name is simply one parenting choice among many.
Kōichi | Voice Actor: Matt Damon
Kōichi’s Basic Information
Sōsuke’s 30-year-old father, the captain of the cargo ship Koganeimaru.
He cares about his family but is seldom home because of his work at sea. He is certainly present in the film, yet barely involved in its story: quite a tale of an absent father.
Thinking about it, Himawari House has no elderly men either. Fujimoto is about the only man deeply involved in the plot of Ponyo. Few stories have so few men in them.
Fujimoto | Voice Actor: Liam Neeson
Fujimoto’s Basic Information
Ponyo’s father seems once to have been human. He is now a magician carrying out rather suspicious activities as a creature of the sea.
He speaks of how hard it was to give up being human. Still, there is something uncanny about him that hardly seems attainable through effort alone. He resents humanity’s destructive activities, but when Ponyo causes trouble, he scrambles to put things right.
A background setting makes Fujimoto the only Asian crew member of Captain Nemo’s submarine, the Nautilus, in Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. This is described in Ghibli Textbook 15: Ponyo.
It is a curious background for this magician, rather than a history explained within the film itself.
Gran Mamare | Voice Actor: Cate Blanchett
Gran Mamare’s Basic Information
Ponyo’s mother, a goddess of the sea. She first appears at an enormous size but can shrink to ordinary human proportions.
While Fujimoto tries to reclaim the daughter who wants to be human, Gran Mamare boldly proposes letting her become one.
She looks like a sea goddess, or the sea itself. Yet Miyazaki describes her true form as an anglerfish in The Place Where the Wind Returns, Continued.
Taking that comparison further, I imagine she might have other husbands besides Fujimoto—men similarly captivated by her. I explore that unsettling possibility below:
Read the full analysis: Gran Mamare’s Identity and Sōsuke’s Future: An Interpretation
Toki | Voice Actor: Lily Tomlin
Toki’s Basic Information
A user of Himawari House who is friendly with Sōsuke, like the others, though she is always making sharp remarks.
She arrives in a wheelchair at the start. Near the end, however, she is not merely standing but running.
Could using a wheelchair while being able to stand be her own kind of sarcasm? That is one mischievous reading, rather than a medical explanation: the later scene alone does not establish what she could do before.
Other Characters
Yoshie & Kayo (Noriko) | Voice Actors: Betty White, Cloris Leachman
The two Himawari House users are close to Sōsuke and seem calm in contrast to Toki. Kayo is listed as Noriko in the English cast; both names here refer to the character voiced in Japanese by Tokie Hidari.
Woman in the Boat | Voice Actor: Mona Marshall
The woman with a parasol whom Sōsuke and Ponyo encounter while traveling in their little boat.
She may seem to appear out of nowhere, but How Ponyo Was Born records Miyazaki explaining that Ponyo’s interaction with her baby is meant to suggest she will manage well in the human world after the story.
Fun Fact: In the original Japanese dub, this woman is voiced by Rumi Hiiragi, who famously voiced Chihiro in Spirited Away.
Kumiko & Karen | Voice Actors: Jennessa Rose, Colleen Villard
Sōsuke’s nursery-school friends. Kumiko is lively, likes dressing up, and takes an interest in him. Perhaps that annoys Ponyo, who squirts her with water.
The images used in this article are from the Studio Ghibli Works Still Images collection.
Can you name the movie before the scene comes into focus?
Put your visual memory to the test with a blurred Studio Ghibli scene.
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