Grab your coat and head to the Studio Ghibli theme park for your chance to see Hayao Miyazaki’s rare follow-up to My Neighbor Totoro.

Winter might not seem like the best time to plan a visit to Ghibli Park. In addition to having a number of open-air attractions, the anime theme park is broken up into multiple sections within the city of Nagakute’s expansive Expo 2005 Aichi Commemorative Park, requiring you to walk or take a Catbus from one to another.

So heading to Ghibli Park in winter means a lot of being out in the elements during the coldest part of the year. On the other hand, there’s a very compelling reason to plan your Ghibli Park visit for winter this year, which is that the park will be screening the My Neighbor Totoro sequel anime.

If you’re wondering why you’ve never seen a Totoro sequel within a streaming list or on the shelf at a video store, it’s because despite being made in 2002, Mei and the Baby Catbus (pictured directly above) has never been released for online viewing, physical commercial release, or regular theater runs. The only places where it can ever be seen are at the theaters inside Ghibli Park and the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo, but even at those venues it can’t be seen all the time, as Mei and the Baby Catbus (also sometimes known as “Mei and the Kittenbus”) is one of a number of Studio Ghibli anime short films that screen for limited periods of time. The screening rotation has no set pattern, but Ghibli Park has announced that Mei and the Baby Catbus will be coming to its theater on December 14, where it will be shown daily through January 31.

And yes, Mei and the Baby Catbus is written and directed by Ghibli-cofounder and Totoro creator Hayao Miyazaki, with a soundtrack by celebrated Ghibli anime composer Jo Hisaishi. At 14 minutes long, it doesn’t match the length of the My Neighbor Totoro feature film, but it’s absolutely packed with adorable charm, with familiar faces and new characters both having roles to play. Ghibli Park describes the story with:

“On a very windy day, while Mei was eating caramels, she spotted a whirlwind and started chasing after it. When she finally grabbed hold of it, it turned out to be a Baby Catbus. Mei and the Catbus became friends, and that night, they ventured into the forest.”

There’s no additional fee for Ghibli Park visitors to watch Mei and the Baby Catbus but you’ll want to make sure to purchase a park ticket that includes access to the Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse section of the park, where the screening room, called Cinema Orion, is located.

▼ Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse map

And if you can’t make it to Ghibli Park this winter, you can always console yourself with the upcoming series of Studio Ghibli concept art books, which are set to include illustrations from Miyazaki which have never been shown to the public before.

Related: Ghibli Park
Source: PR Times
Top image: Studio Ghibli
Insert images: PR Times, Ghibli Park
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