Totoro in Your Neighborhood

Ghibli Studio was founded in June 1985, the studio is headed by the directors Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata and the Producer Toshio Suzuki. Before forming Ghibli Studio, Miyazaki and Takahata were in Japanese television animation industry and Suzuki was an editor at Tokuma Shoten’s Animage manga magazine. The studio was formed after the successful film on 1984, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. Ghibli Studio is well known for its high quality animation and vigorous imagination. For example, in Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Ghibli Studio depicts of the world after the disastrous war called “Seven Days of Fire” which has annihilated human civilization. From a review of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, the author praised of this anime as “it is highly detailed and unusually cinematic for animation that was released in the mid ‘80s. The characters are detailed and unique, already showing the wonderful expressions and reactions that would later characterize the studio’s work. The backdrops are awesome as well, creating a world that’s easy to get lost in” (Pearce). In fact, Miyazaki now confesses that Ghibli Studio was never meant to be a long term plan for him. However, as Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind became so popular, Miyazaki and his colleagues decided to continue producing anime. As matter of fact, Ghibli Studio continued its fame with another successful anime, Laputa: Castle in the sky.

One of reviewer who had watched Laputa: Castle in the sky wrote, “I believe that Laputa: Castle in ths Sky is, in fact, the greatest animated film ever made…The design work on “Laputa”, nearly twenty years later, is still revolutionary. Flying machines of all sorts abound, the mechanics utterly impossible but so meticulously designed that you instantly accept them without hesitation.”

Furthermore, Ghibli’s achievement in US was also sensational. Its new anime called Spirited Away brought to US and presented via US’s box offices. I believe it’s very rare to see a foreign cartoon to be on theaters in US, and yet, Ghibli Studio’s Spirited Away made a significant debut of its work to American audience. In addition, this film received the second Oscar ever awarded for Best Animated Feature, the first anime film to win an Academy Award, and the first (and so far only) non-English speaking animation to win.

I personally think the reason why Ghibli Studio could be so successful is not only because it had high quality pictures, music, but with Hayazaki’s own unique ability to create such a wonderful imaginary world. Miyazaki’s imagination does not only stay within Japanese culture, but it goes global, which gives audience nostalgia and fantasy at the same time. That is why Ghibli Studio became famous not only in Japan, but in US and worldwide.