Japan’s most famous anime production house is back in the animation saddle, with a European director holding the reins.
Hayao Miyazaki (Page 25)
If you want to feel like you’ve stepped into an animated film from Studio Ghibli, “The Road to Laputa” in Kyushu is one place you won’t want to miss.
Fans around the world say thank you to Hayao Miyazaki by creating some amazing art of their own.
Studio Ghibli’s animated works have won acclaim around the world, and we’re sure many of our readers are familiar with their hit films like Spirited Away and Castle in the Sky. But have you ever wondered what it may be like to actually work in the famous studio? Well, now it looks like we can get a glimpse of what goes on in the studio, as one of Ghibli’s former animators, Hitomi Tateno, will be coming out later this month with a book titled “The Pencil War Chronicles: The Studio Ghibli that Nobody Knew“!
There are many well-known areas of beauty all around Japan, but sometimes you stumble upon something off the beaten path that simply takes your breath away.
That’s what happened to one person in Japan, who came across a waterfall in a tunnel of sunlight, filled with the same muted hues as a scene from a fantastical animated movie. Upon sharing the atmospheric photograph above on Instagram it received thousands of likes, with people all over the country eager to learn where the secret waterfall was hidden.
It might look like something from the foggy mists of a far-flung island many miles from Tokyo, but the beautiful scene is actually located just a short one-hour drive from the bustling metropolis. We decided to make our way there, and we’ve marked out the route so you can visit it too!
Hayao Miyazaki film buffs will appreciate the popular video documentary “Hayao Miyazaki – The Essence of Humanity” created by Lewis Bond, an English film maker. The 16-minute video, featuring a montage of Miyazaki’s much-loved animated films, beautifully explores human nature, Miyazaki’s vision, and the universal appeal of his movies.
It’s no secret that Hayao Miyazaki and his team of animators find inspiration for Studio Ghibli’s movies all over the place. Ponyo’s setting was inspired by a harbor town in Japan, Spirited Away’s world was based on a location in Taiwan, and Princess Mononoke’s forest came from Japan’s Yakushima Island.
But it was recently brought to light that a lot of inspiration for Ghibli’s movies came from a more innocuous place: a manga. The title is Mudmen, named after the Asaro Mudmen of Papua New Guinea, where the manga takes place.
Who are these “mudmen” and where do their inspirations crop up in Ghibli films? Read on to find out!
If you’ve seen Ponyo, Studio Ghibli’s adorable movie about a fish girl who wants to be human, then the above location may seem pretty familiar. That’s because it was taken in the port town of Tomonoura, where Hayao Miyazaki and his team spent months getting the inspiration and imagery to create their next animated film.
As massive Ghibli fans, we had to take a look at the town for ourselves and see what real-life Ponyo looks like. Read on to check out the beautiful scenery for yourself, and see the effect that Ponyo has had on the town, as well as the effect the town had on Miyazaki.
Studio Ghibli, Japan’s famed animation house, has a remarkable talent for captivating audiences around the world with inspiring storylines and loveable characters. What really brings them all to life, however, are their animated backgrounds; beautiful palettes of light and shade and inky hues that draw us into their magical worlds and have us never wanting to leave.
There’s one background illustrator in Tokyo who knows just how to recreate the atmosphere of a Studio Ghibli movie and now he’s bringing out the beauty of Japan’s narrow roads and suburban landscapes in a series of illustrations entitled “Bicycle Boy”. Using a real-life setting from Studio Ghibli’s Whisper of the Heart, the picturesque journey of a boy and his bike through the streets of Japan is so beautiful we’ll happily follow him wherever he goes!
As popular as Japanese animation is, some critics argue that it can have negative psychological effects on audiences. After watching anime martial artists solve their problems with their fists, will fans try to resolve their own conflicts in similarly violent ways? Isn’t is possible that witnessing lewd acts in animated form will cause impressionable viewers to become more sexually aggressive in real life?
We don’t know about those scenarios, but one recently arrested man was led down the path of crime by his love of anime, and the unlikely corrupter was Studio Ghibli’s Totoro.
It’s been 30 years since Studio Ghibli began producing the adorable characters, inspiring storylines and amazing animated scenes that we all know and love. The warmth of the animation house’s distinctive style has created worlds so captivating it’s almost as if our favourite characters might continue on their journey after the credits finish rolling to live in an alternate animated Ghibli universe alongside our own.
So what if there were a way to catch up with all our Ghibli friends to see how they’ve been getting along? Which stories would fans like to explore further, decades after they were originally created? If semi-retired director Hayao Miyazaki ever needed a reason to come back to making movies full-time, he might like to consider the following list of five Ghibli sequels Japanese moviegoers would most like to see.
Hayao Miyazaki and Mamoru Oshii are two of the most successful and influential anime directors in the history of the medium, but their films couldn’t be more different in tone and appearance. The soft-edged natural environments of Miyazaki’s anime are bathed in a nostalgic glow, while Oshii’s animation, such as Ghost in the Shell and The Sky Crawlers, is filled with shadowy ruinscapes and turns its sharpest focus inwards to the human mind and consciousness.
Miyazaki and Oshii are such fundamentally different people that they even communicate with their production teams in completely opposite styles. But that’s not to say that one can’t find things to admire in the works of the other, as Oshii has shared his favorite film and even scene in a Miyazaki anime.
We’ve seen many Studio Ghibli tributes from around the world–some in the form of still artwork, and others in even more ambitious video formats. Today, we’d like to share another fantastic tribute by a South Korean artist that’s sure to please anyone with an eye for some clean graphic design!
When you find something you really like, it’s sometimes hard to express how much it’s influencing your life. To show off how much they love something, some fans try cosplay or rampant consumerism. Others write songs or fan fiction to tell the world the extent of their affection.
But for others, it’s as simple as drawing a picture that perfectly captures all their feelings on the paper. One such artist has put her heart and soul into some fan art that shows the kind of devotion Studio Ghibli inspires in its fans.
While the well-known Ghibli Museum in Tokyo might be at the top of the bucket list for any fan of legendary animated film director Hayao Miyazaki, there’s actually an even better place to get in touch with the semi-retired maestro himself.
It’s a beautiful stretch of nature just north-west of Tokyo. called Sayama Hills. Situated in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture, and nicknamed “Totoro’s Forest”, this area was the actual inspiration for the animated feature My Neighbour Totoro. Miyazaki has been known to take daily walks through the area, and is so enamoured by the place that he actively participates in regular volunteer events and has made generous donations towards its conservation.
Now, the foundation that protects the forest is inviting the general public in for a special guided walking tour to take place on 5 December. The full-day event takes visitors around some very special areas and includes lots of background information for fans.
Tributes to world-famous Hayao Miyazaki have been pouring in from around the world this past year. They all show a deep appreciation for the great director and are maybe even trying to persuade him to work on another film, but since Miyazaki is currently planning his nature preserve off of Okinawa, we will have to tide ourselves over with more beautiful tributes to him. Today’s is a fantastic 8-bit pixel video that features the characters from all our Ghibli favorites.
If the Spirit of the Forest, Cat Bus or Totoro were real, you can be sure they would live in a nature sanctuary created by Hayao Miyazaki. The award-winning film maker has long included his stance on nature and the environment in his movies and now he is going one step further to ensure that at least one small corner of the Earth will stay pristine.
Mount Fuji—its almost perfectly symmetrical shape and towering, snow-topped beauty have long been a symbol of Japan, recognised the world round. It has also recently been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its strong ties to the Japanese culture. And now, in the clear skies following this week’s typhoon, it is also being called Laputa, as Twitter users are posting their impressive photos of the cloud-capped peak.
So a friend and I have a debate about what happens at the end of the Studio Ghibli anime movie Castle in the Sky Laputa. As the credits roll, the floating island is seen drifting into space, which I, as is my simple-minded nature, take literally. On the other hand, my friend argues that the visuals are at least partly metaphoric, and that the mysterious landmass didn’t really escape Earth’s orbit (he also contends that my proposed Laputa/Space Dandy crossover/sequel is too silly to ever get made).
But while it’s likely Laputa director and creator Hayao Miyazai purposely chose to craft an ambiguous ending to the film, we do now know what happened to the island: it became this awesome hanging planter from anime retailer Benelic.
If you’ve ever spent the summer in Japan, you know that it’s not the heat, but the humidity that makes many people want to take refuge indoors with the air conditioning blasting. But the silver lining to this cloud is the clouds themselves, as all that moisture in the air can turn Japan’s summer skies into a stunning puffy white landscape.
On the evening of August 5, skywatchers in the Tokyo/Yokohama area that turned their eyes to the west saw a towering, lightning-spitting thundercloud so powerfully majestic it immediately drew comparisons to one of Studio Ghibli’s most beloved anime.
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