I’d say Cardcaptor Sakura is a must, but even if you’d prefer it dubbed just stay away from Cardcaptors! It can be a bit pedolicious at times but not nearly as much as Bottle Fairy. I bought Angelic Layer for him to try out and he claims to like it just as much as Cardcaptor Sakura, but it’s a bit more violent and male-orientated (despite a female protagonist and almost completely female cast, I think it may have been made for a shônen magazine) and the ages of the characters are also a step up, so I’d say this is one to cross off the list. The same would go for Howl’s Moving Castle, as although it’s very colourful and fantastic and the ecchiness is only unusual by Ghibli standards it’s one of their most adult-orientated films in terms of story and subject. Pom Poko is very much in the same vein as Spirited Away, but two Ghibli films you failed to mention which are perfectly in tune with what your girl seems to like are Whisper of the Heart and The Cat Returns. See them in that order, as they’re related to each other (The Cat Returns is a story which was supposedly written by the protagonist of Whisper of the Heart during the course of that film).

They’re up against some rogue, heavily-stealthed combat robots, which look like giant preying mantises and are spooky as hell. It’s quite dark and violent, and the violence is realistic, not cartoonish.

But a more typical episode would involve (to pick a couple of examples at random) the team airhead (Milfeuille) mishandling alien technology so that the rest of the team end up invisible or blown up to giant size.

There are lots of good, kid-friendly episodes, but there are a handful that will give them nightmares, so you definitely need to screen it first.

* A scene where all of the 14-year old girls are in the locker room, having a conversation in their underwear.

* The main character brings Narue home to see his room, but he hasn’t cleaned it so the place is a mess. Hentai magazines are all over the floor. (We don’tsee the bad pictures) His computer has a cheesecake desktop image.

* The above-mentioned nosebleed

* Narue’s skirt is nearly weightless, and floats up at the slightest provocation. The main character sees this and he becomes flushed. I think this change in context is the crucial difference. We may see the girls’ underwear in Totoro, but we see it as adults. It is harmless. In Narue, she’s just a _little_ older. More importantly, we see her through the eyes of the main character, who is excited or embarassed by seeing her underwear. Either way, the innocence is gone, and that changes a lot.

I’ve only seen the first episode of Narue — I got sidetracked by Kamichu! — but on the basis of that episode I would say that it’s probably too scary for the very young. There was a (slight) nosebleed, too, which is not a good sign. I’ll write about it after I watch some more.

Honey and Clover (so far) is completely unobjectionable and probably mostly uninteresting for kids (and many adults), unless they’re into interior monologues. (The comic relief here really is relief.)

Angelic Layer is a good choice for grade-schoolers; for pre-schoolers, I don’t know. Cardcaptor Sakura is even better, but it’s only available subtitled (well, there is a dub of sorts, but by all accounts Nelvana utterly trashed the story in the process of adapting it).

Howl I have a hard time objectively evaluating. The book is a favorite of mine, and the movie is just so wrong it’s painful. I’d suggest watching Kiki and Totoro again instead, and get her the book when she’s older.

Galaxy Angel I’ll have to check out sometime. From comments elsewhere, I gather that most of it is suitable for youngsters, but some of it is definitely not.