
Studio Ghibli ("jiblee")
* sort-of named after the Caproni Ca.309 Ghibli fighter
was founded in the 1980s by celebrated Japanese
anime directors
Hayao Miyazaki and
Isao Takahata in the wake of Miyazaki's overwhelming success with
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Studio Ghibli is known for its incredibly rich and detailed animation, exacting attention to detail, and imaginative plots (frequently involving flying scenes, a personal favourite of Miyazaki's).
Ghibli was recently rated as the top brand in Japan, and is a household name even among non-
otaku. New Ghibli films are consistently the top grossers for the year in Japanese theaters, and recent releases such as
Spirited Away and
Princess Mononoke have gained a mainstream following in North America (in part thanks to a distribution deal with
Disney). The studio tends to focus on films rather than television series, but it is frequently the "
gateway drug" for new
anime fans. Ghibli is also like Disney in that Ghibli maintains their animation staff as full-time employees instead of the typical Japanese practice of employing freelance artists paid on a piecework basis.
Miyazaki has said that he chose the name of a
World War II Italian fighter for his studio based on his love of aviation and Italy (vis.
Porco Rosso). Unfortunately the wrong characters were chosen to represent "Ghibli" in Japanese based on a mispronunciation (the word is actually pronounced "ghee-blee" in Italian) but Miyazaki didn't discover this until after he'd already named the studio. He has since pronounced himself satisfied with the "jiblee" pronunciation even though it's technically wrong.
Several Maserati automobiles and at least one modern fighter plane have also been named Ghibli, which means "hot wind off the desert". This is actually a Libyan word — the Italian equivalent is "Scirocco" — and it refers to a particular wind that sweeps across the Sahara.
Trope namer for
Ghibli Hills. Has absolutely nothing to do with the
jibblies.
To date,
Studio Ghibli has produced the following movies:
- Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, directed by Hayao Miyazaki (1984) (Technically, Studio Ghibli didn't exist yet when this one was made. However, the team behind it formed the studio, and it was included in Ghibli and Disney's dubbing deal.)
- Castle In The Sky, directed by Hayao Miyazaki (1986)
- My Neighbor Totoro, directed by Hayao Miyazaki (1988)
- Grave of the Fireflies, directed by Isao Takahata (1988)
- Kiki's Delivery Service, directed by Hayao Miyazaki (1989)
- Only Yesterday, directed by Isao Takahata (1991)
- Porco Rosso, directed by Hayao Miyazaki (1992)
- Ocean Waves, directed by Tomomi Mochizuki (1993) (TV movie, a.k.a. I Can Hear the Sea)
- Pom Poko, directed by Isao Takahata (1994)
- Whisper Of The Heart, directed by Yoshifumi Kondo (1995)
- Princess Mononoke, directed by Hayao Miyazaki (1997)
- My Neighbors the Yamadas, directed by Isao Takahata (1999)
- Spirited Away, directed by Hayao Miyazaki (2001)
- The Cat Returns, directed by Hiroyuki Morita (2002)
- Howl's Moving Castle, directed by Hayao Miyazaki (2004)
- Tales From Earthsea, directed by Goro Miyazaki (2006)
- Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, directed by Hayao Miyazaki (2008)
- The Borrower Arrietty, based on The Borrowers, done by new director Hiromasa Yonebayashi (2010)
- The Legend of Ogrest, an OVA for the French series Wakfu (2011)
- From Up On Poppy Hill, directed by Goro Miyazaki (2011) (a.k.a. Kokuriko-zaka kara)
They have also worked on the following Anime as a support studio through their C unit (
Hayao Miyazaki runs the A unit and Isao Takahata runs the B unit, their C unit is random) (as many Asian studios have):
A
game produced cooperatively by Studio Ghibli and Level 5 was released in 2010. Its name is
Ni No Kuni. Before that, they provided the character designs and artwork for the PS2 monster battler
Magic Pengel.
Has its own
museum
that shows exclusive short films. The short that evolved into
Ponyo was first shown here.
Also distributes Western animated films in Japan such as the works of Michel Ocelot, Sylvan Chomet, and Aardman under the Ghibli Museum Library label.
In recent years there has been some concern on the part of Studio Ghibli management over their ongoing lack of a new generation of directors capable of taking over for founding directors Miyazaki and Takahata. Yoshifumi Kondo died prematurely shortly after directing
Whisper of the Heart and Goro Miyazaki's directorial debut
Tales of Earthsea was not considered a success.
Miyazaki appears to have chosen
Borrowers director Yonebayashi as his successor. According to interviews with Miyazaki, Studio Ghibli would be shut down if
Borrowers did not do well enough at the box office to allow Ghibli to secure financial backing for another film. Since
Borrowers did relatively well (over 80 percent of
Ponyo's receipts) a shutdown does not appear to be imminent.
Projects currently in development:
- The Legend of the Bamboo Cutter by Isao Takahata.
- The Red Turtle
by Dudok de Wit, a co-production with Why Not Productions and Wild Bunch. - Unnamed project by Hayao Miyazaki, rumoured to be an adaptation of an autobiography.
- Unnamed project by Goro Miyazaki, rumoured to include samurai.
For anyone interested in perusing Ghibli's archives,
Jesu Otaku (of
That Guy With The Glasses) is currently doing a full retrospective of
all the Miyazaki/Ghibli
films.