Anime will premier this summer and is the first made specifically for the Nagoya-area theme park.

If you’re planning a trip to Ghibli Park, the Studio Ghibli anime theme park near Nagoya, before you reserve your tickets you’ll want to check the schedule of the park’s Cinema Orion. Located within the Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse section of the park, Cinema Orion shows short anime films produced by Studio Ghibli that can only be seen at Ghibli Park or Tokyo’s Ghibli Museum.

Right now, for example, Boro the Caterpillar, directed by Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki, is showing, and from June 1 to July 6 visitors can see Mei and the Baby Cat Bus, the follow-up to My Neighbor Totoro.

But while both of those shorts are definitely appealing, it’s what’s coming after Mei and the Baby Cat Bus that’s really exciting, with the premier of the first new Ghibli short anime since 2018.

Majo no Tani no Yoru, or A Night in the Valley of the Witches, is the first Ghibli short anime produced specifically for Ghibli Park, and its story is set within the park’s Valley of Witches area, which opened in 2024 with recreations of the worlds of Kiki’s Deliver Service, Howl’s Moving Castle, and Earwig and the Witch. The anime will be co-directed by Goro Miyazaki and Akihiko Yamashita, who served as character designer and animation director for Howl’s Moving Castle and The Secret World of Arrietty, and also directed A Sumo Wrestler’s Tail, Ghibli’s short anime about sumo wrestling mice. The pair will be in attendance for a special screening on July 8, when A Night in the Valley of the Witches makes its debut.

The anime’s production is already finished, so that debut date is presumably set in stone, but Ghibli Park has yet to announce how long the short will run for. There’s also currently no word of whether or not it will eventually screen at Ghibli Museum as well.

Admission to Ghibli Park is available only through advance reservations, and tickets for July visits go on sale at 2 p.m. on May 10. Different categories of tickets include access to different parts of the park, but remember that even though the new anime takes place in the Valley of the Witches, you’ll need a ticket that includes admission to Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse in order to see it.

Related: Ghibli Park official website
Source: Studio Ghibli, Ghibli Park (1, 2)
Top image: Studio Ghibli
Insert images: Ghibli Park, Studio Ghibli
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