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[Music] Shalom. [Music] I love somebody. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Hey, I vomit.
Studio Ghibli, Inc. (Japanese: 株式会社スタジオジブリ, Hepburn: Kabushiki-gaisha Sutajio Jiburi) is a Japanese animation studio based in Koganei, Tokyo. It has a strong presence in the animation industry and has expanded its portfolio to include various media such as short subjects, television commercials and two television films. Their work has been well received by audiences and recognized with numerous awards. Their mascot and most recognizable symbol, the character Totoro from the 1988 film My Neighbor Totoro, is a giant spirit inspired by raccoon dogs (tanuki) and cats (neko). Among the studio’s highest-grossing films are Princess Mononoke (1997), Spirited Away (2001), Howl’s Moving Castle (2004), Ponyo (2008), and The Boy and the Heron (2023). Studio Ghibli was founded on June 15, 1985, by the directors Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata and producer Toshio Suzuki, after acquiring Topcraft’s assets.
Four of the studio’s films are among the ten highest-grossing Japanese feature films; Spirited Away is third, grossing 31.68 billion yen in Japan and over US$380 million worldwide. Three of their films have won the Animage Grand Prix award, four have won the Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year, and seven[citation needed] have received Academy Award nominations. Spirited Away won the 2002 Golden Bear and the 2003 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.[7] The Boy and the Heron won the 2024 Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film, BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film, and the 2024 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
Name
The name “Ghibli” was chosen by Miyazaki from the Italian noun ghibli (also used in English), the nickname of Italy’s Saharan scouting plane Caproni Ca.309, in turn derived from the Italianization of the Libyan Arabic name for a hot desert wind (قبلي qibliyy).
History
Tokuma Shoten era
Hayao Miyazaki
Toshio Suzuki
Isao Takahata
Miyazaki, Suzuki, and Takahata founded Studio Ghibli in 1985, alongside Yasuyoshi Tokuma.
Founded on June 15, 1985, Studio Ghibli was headed by directors Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata and producer Toshio Suzuki. Miyazaki and Takahata had already had long careers in Japanese film and television animation and had worked together on The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun in 1968 and the Panda! Go, Panda! films in 1972 and 1973. Suzuki had been an editor at Tokuma Shoten’s Animage manga magazine.
The studio was founded after the success of the 1984 film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Suzuki was part of the film’s production team, and founded Studio Ghibli with Miyazaki, who also invited Takahata to join them.[14][15][16]
The studio has mainly produced films by Miyazaki, with the second most prolific director being Takahata (most notably with Grave of the Fireflies). Other directors who have worked with Studio Ghibli include Yoshifumi Kondō, Hiroyuki Morita, Gorō Miyazaki, and Hiromasa Yonebayashi. Composer Joe Hisaishi has provided the soundtracks for most of Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli films. In their book Anime Classics Zettai!, Brian Camp and Julie Davis made note of Michiyo Yasuda as “a mainstay of Studio Ghibli’s extraordinary design and production team”.[17] At one time the studio was based in Kichijōji, Musashino, Tokyo.[18]
In August 1996, The Walt Disney Company and Tokuma Shoten formed a partnership wherein Walt Disney Studios would be the sole international distributor for Tokuma Shoten’s Studio Ghibli animated films.[19] Under this agreement, Disney also agreed to finance 10% of the studio’s production costs.[20] Since then, all three of the aforementioned films by Miyazaki at Studio Ghibli that were previously dubbed by Streamline Pictures have been re-dubbed by Disney.[21] On June 1, 1997, Tokuma Shoten Publishing consolidated its media operations by merging Studio Ghibli, Tokuma Shoten Intermedia software and Tokuma International under one location.[22]
Over the years, there has been a close relationship between Studio Ghibli and the magazine Animage, which regularly runs exclusive articles on the studio and its members in a section titled “Ghibli Notes”. Artwork from Ghibli’s films and other works are frequently featured on the cover of the magazine. Saeko Himuro’s novel Umi ga Kikoeru was serialised in the magazine and subsequently adapted into Ocean Waves, Studio Ghibli’s first animated feature-length film created for television. It was directed by Tomomi Mochizuki.[23]
In October 2001, the Ghibli Museum opened in Mitaka, Tokyo.[24] It contains exhibits based on Studio Ghibli films and shows animations, including a number of short Studio Ghibli films not available elsewhere.
The studio is also known for its strict “no-edits” policy in licensing their films abroad due to Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind being heavily edited for the film’s release in the United States as Warriors of the Wind.[25][26]