Studio Ghibli

"The fact is that out of the 15 top-grossing animation films made in Japan, eight of them have been credited to the work of Studio Ghibli."

- Jojo Nguyen, "Top 4 Japanese animation companies with shows be loved most across the world", animost.com, April 9, 2021

Studio Ghibli ("jiblee") was founded in the 1985 by celebrated Japanese Anime directors Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata and producer Toshio Suzuki, following Miyazaki's overwhelming success with Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Taking many of the staff from Topcraft, which provided animation services for the film, Studio Ghibli is known for its incredibly rich and detailed animation, exacting attention to detail, imaginative plots (frequently involving flying scenes, a personal favourite of Miyazaki's).

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 (The Caproni Ca. 309 which inspired the studio's name) 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. Their film Laputa: Castle in the Sky is the trope namer for Castle in the Sky. Has absolutely nothing to do with the jibblies.

Has its own museum. The short that evolved into Ponyo was first shown here. The studio opened a theme park on 1st November, 2022, appropriately titled Ghibli Park. Both locations feature cinemas which showcases exclusive short films. The studio has an inactive subsidiary — Studio Kajino — which pursues live action production as well as music videos which deviate from Ghibli's usual style.

Also distributes Western animated films in Japan such as the works of Michel Ocelot, Sylvan Chomet, and Aardman under the Ghibli Museum Library label.

Ghibli is a household name even among non-Otaku. Ghibli is known for high quality and critically acclaimed films: Spirited Away, to this day, is the only Anime to receive an Academy Award win for the Best Animated Feature category. New Ghibli releases are usually nominated for the Japanese Academy Film Prize for Animation of the Year, and are favorablly receieved by audiences and critics alike. Their box office returns are just as promising: new Ghibli films are consistently the top grossers — Spirited Away held the record for the highest grossing anime film for 19 years before it was surpassed by Demon Slayer: Mugen Train in 2020 — for the year in Japanese theaters. 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 and later on GKIDS). The studio tends to focus on films rather than television series, priortising quality over quantity. Whereas other studios release several television series a year, Ghibli usually only release one two hour film each year. Despite this, Ghibli productions are 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, intended to improve the quality of the animator's life and their output.

Despite all the success, however, there were many concerns 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. Miyazaki did choose his successor — Whisper of the Heart director Yoshifumi Kondo — however Kondo died shortly after the decision due to a dissecting aortic aneurysm. The directorial debut from Hayao Miyazaki's son, Goro Miyazaki, titled Tales From Earthsea was not considered a success, being the lowest rated film the studio has produced since its founding in terms of critical response. Miyazaki appears to have chosen The Borrower Arrietty director Hiromasa Yonebayashi as his successor, who later went on to direct When Marnie Was There. Ghibli's troubles weren't over, though. Despite their box office successes, in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis Ghibli started struggling financially, as they can no longer rely on overseas film grosses. Their practices means the studio requires huge amounts of money to run each year. According to interviews with Miyazaki, Studio Ghibli would shut down if The Borrower Arrietty did not do well enough at the box office to allow Ghibli to secure financial backing for another film. Fortunately for the studio, the film did relatively well (over 80 percent of Ponyo's receipts), allowing the studio to release several other films.

In 2014, the founding fathers of the studio all announced their retirements (producer Toshio Sukuzi still remains as a general manager, and was involved in several productions after this announcement), and Takahata died in 2018 from lung cancer. The studio's last film to be produced in "classic Ghibli" fashion is When Marnie Was There, after which the studio's future became uncertain, as Ghibli shut down their animation department. Although the studio was open, it stopped producing films. Potential successor Yonebayashi, following this shutdown, departed to form his own Studio Ponoc, taking some Ghibli staff along with him, leaving the future of the studio in question. In 2016 new hope gathered for the studio when The Red Turtle, a co-production between the studio and several European companies, was released. In the same year, the previously retired Miyazaki, in true Ten-Minute Retirement fashion, returned to direct How Do You Live?, and Ghibli reopened their animation department, presenting a project proposal in 2016. The film was scheduled to be released in 2020 in time for the Tokyo Olympics, although the project did not make this target, and is still in production as of 2022. Producer Toshio Suzuki would also return for the project.

For anyone interested in perusing Ghibli's archives, JesuOtaku (of That Guy With The Glasses) has done a full retrospective of all the Miyazaki/Ghibli films. The Wiki Rule is strong with Ghibli: there's not one, but two wikis dedicated to the work of the company as a whole. See also the Howl's Moving Castle Wiki and The Borrowers wiki, dedicated to book series that Ghibli has turned into movies.

Major film productions:
 * Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, directed by Hayao Miyazaki (1984) (Predates Studio Ghibli. 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 (anime), 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) (a.k.a. Ponyo)
 * The Borrower Arrietty, based on The Borrowers, by new director Hiromasa Yonebayashi (2010) (a.k.a. The Secret World of Arrietty or simply Arrietty)
 * From Up on Poppy Hill, directed by Goro Miyazaki (2011) (a.k.a. Kokuriko-zaka kara)
 * The Wind Rises, directed by Hayao Miyazaki (2013)
 * The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, directed by Isao Takahata (2013)
 * When Marnie Was There (film), directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi (2014)
 * The Red Turtle by Dudok de Wit, a co-production with Why Not Productions and Wild Bunch (2016)
 * Earwig and the Witch directed by Goro Miyazaki (Ghibli's second TV movie)

Studio Ghibli has also produced the following anime series:
 * Sanzoku no Musume Rōnya, 26 episodes, directed by Goro Miyazaki (2014), based on the book Ronja the Robber's Daughter by Astrid Lindgren

They have also worked as a support studio (as many Asian studios have) through their C unit (Hayao Miyazaki runs the A unit and Isao Takahata runs the B unit, their C unit is random) on the following anime:


 * Birdy the Mighty Decode (In-Between Animation)
 * Le Chevalier d'Eon (In-Between Animation & Digital Paint)
 * Crayon Shin-chan (In-Between Animation)
 * Elemental Gelade (Background Art)
 * Both Cardcaptor Sakura movies (Special Effects)
 * Flame of Recca  (Background Art)
 * Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (In-Between Animation)
 * IGPX: Immortal Grand Prix (In-Between Animation)
 * Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (In-Between Animation)
 * Neon Genesis Evangelion (Animation Assistants - Episode Eleven, Uncredited)
 * Overman King Gainer (In-Between Animation)
 * Raideen (In-Between Animation & Digital Paint)
 * S-Cry-ed (In-Between Animation)
 * Tekkon Kinkreet (Background Art)
 * Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (In-Between & Finish Animation)
 * ×××HOLiC (In-Between Animation)

A Video Game produced cooperatively by Studio Ghibli and Level 5 was released in 2010 titled Ni no Kuni: Dominion of the Dark Djinn, later released as the improved Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch. Before that, they provided the character designs and artwork for the PS2 monster battler Magic Pengel.


 * Arcadia: The protagonist in the majority of their films live a simple lifestyle. Many characters reside in a city, but they are never too far away from greenery, and chances that their entire house is covered with plants (such as in The Borrower Arrietty) are high. Other films, such as The Tale of the Princess Kaguya and When Marnie Was There uses this trope as a major plot point.
 * Bittersweet Ending: Some of their films, such as Laputa: Castle in the Sky, When Marnie Was There, and From Up on Poppy Hill ends with a goodbye sequence. Although the characters changed for the better, and new friends were made, the act of saying goodbye makes their ending bittersweet. All Ghibli films produced in the 2010s either has a Downer Ending or a bittersweet ending — thematically reflective of the studio's hiatus starting in 2014. This is usually combined with a Thematic Theme Tune.
 * This is averted in some productions, such as Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, My Neighbor Totoro, and Kiki's Delivery Service, which opts for a standard happy ending with no goodbye sequence.
 * Blush Sticker: Their heroines tend to get them quite often. Some have them permanently, others get them when they are embarrassed.
 * Breakthrough Hit: Spirited Away, which, after its Academy Award win, encouraged Disney to accelerate their distribution deal with the studio, and to bring their films over to American audiences.
 * Broken Streak: Almost all of the works from the studio is acclaimed and beloved, except Goro Miyazaki's Tales From Earthsea, and, more recently, Earwig and the Witch. Every single one of the studio's works, except the aforementioned two films, has a 'fresh' rating on the site, with three films getting the prestigious '100%'.
 * Captain Obvious: Many of their characters repeat what is clearly shown on screen. This is partially intended to bring foreign audiences up to date with some Japanese customs and norms, and as such is more prominent in their dubs than their native Japanese audio tracks.
 * Conspicuous CG: Notably averted. While the studio does use CG in their works, they keep it to a bare minimum, using it to enhance the story, instead of taking over. When they do use CG, they work very hard to ensure that it blends in with the traditionally animated elements.
 * Played straight in Howl's Moving Castle. It's easy to tell that the titular Howl's Moving Castle is CG, however the studio worked hard to ensure that it blends into the 2D animated characters and backgrounds.
 * Note the studio is still fully digital, and their works are often scanned and colored in by a computer. However, these computer rarely adds special effects.
 * Cool Plane: What do you expect from a studio named after an airplane? Miyazaki absolutely loves incorporating these into his works, to the point where you'll be hard pressed to find a Miyazaki film that doesn't have a cool plane. This often moves into Cool Airship territory, especially in their fantasy works.
 * Creative Closing Credits: A large amount of Ghibli movies puts backgrounds from their films over their ending credits. Some, like My Neighbor Totoro, feature original drawings created specifically for the ending credits. If you get really lucky, like in Kiki's Delivery Service or The Borrower Arrietty, you get credits imposed on a fully animated epilogue.
 * However, this is averted in some productions like Howl's Moving Castle and Princess Mononoke, which opt for a standard white names on black background approach.
 * Creator Thumbprint: The thumbprint belongs to Miyazaki more than the studio itself, but elements such as a Cool Plane, pigs, young girls on their Coming of Age journey, and of course Ghibli Hills frequently feature in their works.
 * Early Installment Weirdness: Ghibli's first film, Laputa: Castle in the Sky features elements such as a Big Bad, usage of which is averted in almost every single of the studio's subsequent productions. It places more of an emphasis on the plot, and uses more animation tricks like using prolonged periods of still frames and Everybody Do the Endless Loop. Furthermore, it is Ghibli's only production which can be classified as science fiction.
 * It is possible to see their style develop in the film, however. Traces of Grey and Gray Morality are present in the form of the Dola clan, and their focus on environmentalist themes starts to shine.
 * Expressive Hair: The hair of Ghibli heroines tends to conform to their emotions, and move up or down depending on what they are feeling. Typically combined with GASP.
 * The Film of the Book: Their works tend to be adaptions of existing books (Howl's Moving Castle (anime) and Howl's Moving Castle (novel), The Borrower Arrietty and The Borrowers, When Marnie Was There (film) and When Marnie Was there (novel)), manga, and even folk tales.
 * Food Porn: Their movies are often fulled with mouth-watering food, such as the bacon and eggs in Howl's Moving Castle or the ramen in Ponyo.
 * GASP: Ghibli heroines frequently do this after receiving news from another character.
 * Genre Roulette: The studio often releases two thematically different films next to each other, frequently switching between genres:
 * Want a depressing war story about children trying to survive the aftermath of World War II next to a happy and lighthearted adventure about children interacting with forest spirits, released as a double feature? You got it.
 * What's the most logical film to release after a critically acclaimed coming of age story about a girl stranded in the spirited world? A lighthearted adventure about a teenage girl trying to escape the Cat Kingdom, of course!
 * So you've made a coming of age Teen Drama. The next logical film to release? A sprawling fantasy epic which explores themes about violence and anger.
 * In the 2010s, the studio toned down the variety of their productions, mostly producing Slice of Life films with mild fantasy elements.
 * Ghibli Hills: Of course, the Trope Namer. Your challenge is to find a Ghibli film which doesn't use this trope. Go on, we'll wait.
 * Good Old Ways: Despite pioneering the integration of CG and traditional animation in Princess Mononoke and Howl's Moving Castle, the studio later shut down their 3D CG department for Ponyo, keeping everything hand drawn. The studio still uses physical paper for animation, only sparingly using CG in their productions.
 * It does appear that they have reopened this department, however, as there are some visible CG segments in The Borrower Arrietty, released after Ponyo.
 * This is averted in the production of Earwig and the Witch, a fully 3D animated film intended as a project for the younger staff at the studio.
 * Green Aesop: Many of the studio's works features environmentally conscious messages, partially demonstrated through lush portrayal of the setting.
 * Grey and Gray Morality: If Ghibli has an antagonist, they work hard to ensure that they are established as a just another person, carrying about their day to day tasks. An exception to this is Laputa: Castle in the Sky, where Muska is in the black, however there are still traces of gray here and there in the form of the Dola clan.
 * Leitmotif: A common technique used in all of Joe Hisaishi's scores. Each Ghibli movie scored by him (and many without his involvement) has a distinct and memorable main theme. As a result, most of their works use a Theme and Variations Soundtrack.
 * Mascot: Totoro serves as this for the studio, appearing in its Vanity Plate.
 * Most Writers Are Male: All of the studio's directors have been male. However, this leads to an interesting subversion: the studio is known for bringing audiences many strong female protagonists, and their films are usually dominated by female leads, in addition to the usual male characters. The girls in Ghibli films are just as strong, if not stronger, than their male counterparts, and their films feature no fan-service targeted towards either male or female audiences.
 * No Antagonist: Ghibli's conflicts in their slice of life works are often internal and character driven, instead of being caused by an outside source.
 * Once again, this is averted in Castle in the Sky.
 * No Hugging, No Kissing: This is played straight in half of their works, but averted in others. In some films, like The Wind Rises or Howl's Moving Castle, romance is a major focus in the plot. However, other films, such as Castle in the Sky and Kiki's Delivery Service, has no romance despite having both a boy and a girl as central characters. Others, such as My Neighbor Totoro or The Borrower Arrietty don't have romance simply because it would be inappropriate with the story that's being told.
 * Plucky Girl: To the point of being the image on the trope's page. Ghibli heroines are strong and independent. They will face many hardships, especially from their internal conflicts, but they always get back up.
 * Pragmatic Adaptation: Their adaptions of existing English books tend to be this. For example, The Borrower Arrietty and When Marnie Was There updates the setting from England to Japan to reflect the target demographic of the studio. Howl's Moving Castle places more of an empathizes on War Is Hell messages than the original book.
 * Product Placement: Many Ghibli movies feature products from real life, instead of using a Bland-Name Product. This is partially intended to ground and develop the universe the film takes place in and show audiences that this is their world, and there are little to no remarks or acknowledgements regarding the products. The studio also wouldn't have much to gain from these placements, being one of the most profitable anime production companies before their struggles.
 * Production Posse: Hideaki Anno's Studio Khara, since their establishment, has assisted with many Ghibli productions, like Ponyo, The Wind Rises, When Marnie Was There, and From Up on Poppy Hill.
 * Directors Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata are responsible for most of the studio's output. Not surprising, considering that they're the founders. Them, alongside Toshio Suzuki, Yoshifumi Kondo, Masashi Ando, Goro Miyazaki, Yoshiaki Nishimura and Hiromasa Yonebayashi, are all long time employees.
 * Composer Joe Hisaishi has collaborated with Miyazaki on every single one of his productions at the studio.
 * Retraux: The studio went digital starting from My Neighbors the Yamadas, so film and cel imaging grain is no longer a problem for the studio, but the studio manually adds them back in, through digital software.
 * The Wind Rises has its audio in mono, despite being a fully digital production released in 2013.
 * Scenery Porn: Visible in almost every work from the studio. Miyazaki's films are notable for using this, often having detailed landscapes, rolling hills, or lush grass in almost every single shot. The Borrower Arrietty takes this to the next step, often focusing on detailed shots of foliage, complete with realistic water physics and reflections. Try watching one of their films and not take screenshots.
 * Shown Their Work: Although there are slip ups here and there, the studio typically does a lot of research in the development of a new project. For example, the airplanes in Jiro's dream are real in The Wind Rises. In The Borrower Arrietty, rain and water drops have realistic surface tension. Cats close their eyes halfway to display affection, just like they do in real life. If you see a plane in one of their movies, chances are, it's a plane that exists in real life.
 * Slice of Life: Even in their epic fantasy works, there are still slice of life moments like cleaning a house, waking up in bed, or cooking breakfast, adding a feeling of immersion to the story. Often, the pacing of the entire plot will be interrupted for these moments. This is excluding their actual slice of life films.
 * Silence Is Golden: Ghibli's films are filled with moments like these, often interrupting the story to deliver a relaxing scene for the sake of world building. Examples of this are the train scene in Spirited Away and the bus stop scene in My Neighbor Totoro. In addition, Ghibli's works often have long moments of silence in the soundtrack, to the point where composer Joe Hisashi was asked to extend the Castle in the Sky score when it was dubbed as Disney informed him American audiences are uncomfortable with long periods with no music. Miyazaki has described it as 'mā', calling it the space between claps. The Red Turtle takes this up a notch by having no spoken dialogue.
 * Signature Style:
 * All films from the studio as a whole tend to prioritize world-building over the Plot, leading to moments where the plot is put to a standstill as the studio shows you a work's world. Because of this, Ghibli's works can be perceived as being slow paced. Hiromasa Yonebayashi's works at the studio turns this Up To Eleven, using more long establishing shots, with many of them being on greenery, and often being even slower paced.
 * Hayao Miyazaki movies tend to focus on feelings of magic and wonder within the film's world, evoking child-like senses of imagination.
 * Isao Takahata's works are much more slower paced than the Miyazaki ones, and are identifiable via their heavy focus on human emotions.
 * The Song Remains the Same: Most of their ending songs remain in Japanese once brought over to the west, partially due to their strict "no edits" policy and the difficulty of replicating the original performance. There are some aversions, however, including My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, and The Borrower Arrietty where the ending songs are dubbed into English. In the latter, this is done by the song artist with Surprisingly Good English.
 * Start My Own: Miyazaki and Takahata started the studio after the success of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, taking many employees from Topcraft, the studio which provided animation services for the film.
 * Thematic Theme Tune: Plays over the ending credits of most of their works. These song lyrics, when translated into English, recreate the mood, tone, and themes presented within the film they are used. For example, Spirited Away ends with "Always with Me", which discusses themes of saying goodbye and wonders of the world — just like the film itself. Howl's Moving Castle uses "The Promise of the World", which explores themes of love. The studio occasionally opts for a Title Theme Tune, such as in My Neighbor Totoro and Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea. Sometimes, like in The Borrower Arrietty, the ending song has elements from both tropes.
 * Those Magnificent Flying Machines: Many of the flying machines from Miyazaki and the studio feature unconventional, Steampunk designs, reflective more of dreams of flying machines than flying machines themselves. The trope is prominent in Laputa: Castle in the Sky and Howl's Moving Castle, but also features in The Wind Rises to a lesser extend, the latter capturing the spirit of the machines and mixing it with more conventional aircraft designs.
 * War Is Hell: Miyazaki's works are filled with anti war messages. This is prominent in Howl's Moving Castle, where you can see the effects that war has left on Howl and how it has left him more and more exhausted. Bombings are depicted, along with many, many towns on fire.