Special days give fans access to the brand-new Studio Ghibli anime theme park before its public grand opening.

Ghibli Park, the currently under-construction theme park based on the animated films of Studio Ghibli, is scheduled to open on November 1. Passionate anime fans may not feel like they can wait quite that long, though, and lucky for them, they might not have to.

That’s because Ghibli Park has announced that it will be holding a series of special pre-opening preview days on which guests can visit the park ahead of its public grand opening. Obviously, though, demand for preview day tickets is going to be sky-high, which is why they’re being given out not on a first-come, first-served basis, but through a lottery system.

Ghibli Park, in its completed form, is going to be composed of five main areas. Three of those will be opening on November 1, and they’re also the three visitors will have access to on the preview days: Dondoko Forest (i.e. the My Neighbor Totoro-themed area), Hill of Youth (inspired by Whisper of the Heart), and Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse.

A total of four preview days will be held. Two of those, October 15 and 23, are just for residents of Aichi, the prefecture where Ghibli Park is being built. Applications for the other two dates, October 16 and 21, are open to anyone.

▼ Hill of Youth

As previously announced, Ghibli Park’s individual zones each require their own ticket, and that goes for the preview day too, so you’ll need to specify which one you’re applying for a ticket for (separately applying for all three is possible, but being chosen for one area’s ticket doesn’t guarantee you the other two). You’ll also need to select a desired entry time, since, similar to the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo, entry to Ghibli Park is time-gated to prevent atmosphere-spoiling overcrowding. As an added nicety, those selected for preview day tickets will be given their passes free of charge, so Ghibli fans can instead put that money towards, say, one of those festival-style Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke masks that just went on sale.

Applications have started and are open until 11:59 p.m. on July 15. They can be made online through ticketing service Boo Woo Ticket (Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse here, Hill of Youth here, and Dondoko Forest here), and winners will be chosen on the afternoon of July 22.

Source: Ghibli Park, Boo Woo Ticket
Top image: Studio Ghibli
Insert image: Ghibli Park
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