Studio Ghibli, Best-known Animation Studio in Japan

What’s Studio Ghibli?

Image from:Studio Ghibli Official website.

Studio Ghibli was founded in 1985, and in the next year, 2015, the company will be celebrating its 30th anniversary of its history of feature-length animation production. The name “Ghibli” means hot blast in the Sahara Desert, also there is another source of the naming that came from an Italian reconnaissance plane, “Ghibli”. The top three records' of Japanese films at the box office in Japan are all Ghibli movies, from the top, it’s Spirited Away ($304million), Howl’s Moving Castle ($136 million), and Princess Mononoke ($193million).

The Founders

Image from:“Yume to Kyouki no Oukoku” official website.

The most important people in Studio Ghibli are Hayao Miyazaki, Toshio Suzuki, and Isao Takahata (Image above from left to right). They first met when Suzuki was involved with launching an animation magazine, “Animeju” as its general manager. At that time, Takahata’s first film, Horus: Prince of the Sun, was popular among the youth, and Hayao Miyazaki was a newcomer who was working in an art department under the director Isao Takahata. Suzuki then asked them to have an interview with him and cover a story about animation. This is how they met and the beginning of Studio Ghibli.

The History of Ghibli Films

What’s your favorite Ghibli film?

When you see Ghibli films, at first you always see the logo for Totoro, so some of you might think the most successful film in Ghibli is My Neighbor Totoro. However, the film was not that successful at the box-office when it was screened together with Grave of the Fireflies. On one hand, My Neighbor Totoro received many film awards, and that helped Studio Ghibli acquire an established position in the film industry.

Later when Princess Mononoke was screened, the film set a new record in box-office revenue. The following Miyazaki’s film, Spirited Away received the best award, Golden Bear at Berlin International Film Festival; the first time to receive the award as a feature-length animation film. In 2013, Miyazaki’s last film, The Wind Rises, and Takahata’s new film, The Tale of Princess kaguya, were show. Then, Miyazaki announced his retirement officially. But you don’t have to be sad. This summer, a new Ghibli director, Hiromasa Yonebayashi’s, When Marnie Was There, will be screened!

Let’s Get Lost in Ghibli World!

You can actually visit the world of Ghibli in real life in Tokyo! There is a museum called Ghibli Museum in Mitaka city. The concept of the museum is “Let’s get lost together”. There is no direction inside or outside of the buildings so that children and even adults can wonder around the museum by themselves.
The official name of the museum is called Mitaka City Animation Museum. There are rooms that introduce the process of animation production, and visitors can even experience some of the processes in the rooms of “The Beginnings in Motion” and “The Place Where Films are Produced”. At the small theater, Saturn (Dosei-za), a different short film is shown each month. If you are planning to visit the museum, you have to reserve a ticket that has a specific time schedule to enter the museum so be careful!

The Coming Generation

Studio Ghibli has been a pioneer in Japanese film animation industry for 30 years. Even though Hayao Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki retired from their careers, the new generation is already producing a new film and the Ghibli spirit will be passed on to those young animators and producers. Oh, after Miyazaki announced his retirement, he said he has been making a comic story. We better check out if he is going to publish it or not in the future… Lastly, all we know is that Studio Ghibli will be “the hot blast” in the next generation as well, and we are fortunately able to appreciate its creative, amazing work today.