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Beautiful new range comes with director’s penned notes and the signature of Hayao Miyazaki. 

As much as we love the art of Studio Ghibli, most of us don’t have deep enough pockets to purchase official artwork from the studio. However, there’s now an affordable way to own a piece of Ghibli art, thanks to a new collection of greeting cards called the Greeting Card Watercolour Series.

▼ There are currently 13 cards in the collection, all of which come with the studio’s logo on the reverse side.

The front of the cards look so gorgeous you’ll be tempted to buy one to send to a friend and one to keep for yourself in a picture frame. There are five movies appearing in the series, all captured in beautiful watercolour, with some even containing handwritten notes from the studio’s acclaimed director and co-founder, Hayao Miyazaki.

▼ Starting with the earliest film in the collection, we have one card that pays homage to the 1984 film, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.

The card for the 1986 movie, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, features four of the main characters — Sheeta, Pazu, Dola and a Robot Soldier.

▼ As one of the studio’s most popular films, the 1988 film, My Neighbour Totoro, has six cards to choose from.

Some of these cards contain special handwritten notes, with the card below reading “Mada nemui nemui”, which means “Still sleepy sleepy“.

▼ This wintery one reads, “Watashi wa dare da?”, which means, “Who am I?“

This one is particularly special, as it contains the signature of Hayao Miyazaki in the bottom right-hand corner. While it’s unclear whether all the watercolour prints were personally painted by Miyazaki, we can know for certain that this one was, given he’s signed his name to it.

 The 1992 film Porco Rosso gets a look-in with one card showing the famous Savoia S.21, a fictitious seaplane created by Miyazaki that’s said to be modelled on the ‘Macchi M.33’ seaplane.

The 1997 movie Princess Mononoke is honoured with two cards, one of which shows Ashitaka on his giant serow, Yakul…

▼ …and another that shows Ashitaka and Yakul surrounded by forest spirits that look a lot like eerier than the kodama in the movie.

▼ Finally, we have two cards for the 2001 film, Spirited Away.

The card above shows the Aburaya bathhouse in all its glory, while the one below shows main character Chihiro and two giant pigs, with the handwritten note,“otoosan to okaasan” (“father and mother“).

▼ If you’ve watched the movie, you’ll know what this message means.

The cards measure 24 by 15.8 centimetres (9.4 by 6.2 inches) when opened, and come with an included envelope for 550 yen (US$3.69) each. They can be purchased at Donguri Kyowakoku stores and online, where you can also purchase a whole swag of other Ghibli merchandise, including self-righting bathhouse spirit figures from Spirited Away.

Source, images: Donguri Kyowakoku
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