Studio Ghibli
Films
Spirited Away (2001): Chihiro enters the world of the Kami after her parents are turned into pigs. She accepts a job at a bathhouse to try and find a way out of the world and back to her home.
My Neighbor Totoro (1988): The story revolves around Satsuki and Mei, two young girls moving closer to the hospital that their mother is in as she recovers from a long-term illness. They discover many spirits which they befriend.
Princess Mononoke (1997): Focuses mainly on gods of the forest versus the humans consuming its resources. Mononoke means 'shape-shifter' in Japanese (loosely) and they cause suffering and death after inhabiting a human host.
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984): A young princess (Nausicaa) becomes entangled in a conflict with a kingdom attempting to use an ancient weapon to eradicate monsters from a forest.
Creative Hallmarks
Behind Studio Ghibli
Hayao Miyazaki: Born in 1941, Bunkyo, Japan. renowned as a master storyteller and artist, he found a passion for creating art and applied it to movies. he opened a studio with Isao Takahata, a fellow artist, and together they formed Studio Ghibli.
Isao Takahata: In 1985, he co-founded Studio Ghibli with Hayao Miyazaki. He recently passed due to lung cancer.
Kiki's Delivery Service (1989): Kiki is an enterprising young girl who must follow tradition to become a full-fledged witch. Venturing out with only her black cat, Jiji, Kiki flies off for an adventure. Landing in a far-off city, she sets up a high-flying delivery service and begins a wonderful experience of independence and responsibility as she finds her place in the world.
Castle in the Sky (1986): The adventures of a young boy and girl in the late 19th century attempting to keep a magic crystal from a group of military agents, while searching for a legendary floating castle.
Visuals
Animation: The animation is done cleanly and frame-by-frame, meaning each frame is hand-drawn by artists in sequence. The lack of hiccups or stutter in Ghibli movies speaks as to how good the animators and artists are and were.
Character Design: Most Ghibli characters are very round feeling, lacking sharp angles and hard edges. Their 'softness' makes the characters seem friendlier and more like-able. However, some Ghibli movies do utilize rougher artwork to support a more grounded feeling.
Stories: All of the stories that were written for the original movies created by Studio Ghibli really capture imagination and use it to its best potential so it would provide a beautiful blueprint for the animation that would be used to tell it.
Themes: Every great tale that was told by studio Ghibli--which were all quite vastly different--all had themes that kept them quite grounded and worthwhile to watch.
Howl's Moving Castle: A 2004 Ghibli film with strong anti-war themes. It centers around a young girl with an old-age curse. she befriends Howl and lives in his castle. She learns Howl is also cursed, too.
Theme(s)
Environmentalism
Anti-War
Theme(s)
Conflict between Innocence and Cynicism
Balance/Coexisting
Anti-War
Theme(s)
Fears
Family
Childhood Innocence
Theme(s)
Emotional Connection
Loneliness
Self-Discovery
Theme(s)
Balance
Environmental Preservation
Feminism
Theme(s)
The Blurred Line Between Good and Evil
The Shock of Entering Adulthood and the World of Work
The Power of Words and Names
Theme(s)
The Battle Between Good and Evil
Courage
Destiny
Feminism
The most common themes used throughout most, if not all, Studio Ghibli movies include anti-war sentiment (which reflects on the outcome that the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during WW2 had on Japan), childhood innocence (to offer an escape from the troubles and responsibilities of adulthood), and feminism (as most of the main characters in all of Studio Ghibli's movies are women).
The character of Totoro exists as a metaphor to interpret the unknown things of the world through the lens of a child.
Change is unpredictable and uncontrollable, but inevitable.
While we as a society are not yet able to coexist peacefully with nature, it is possible.
Loneliness will never truly leave us. It's knitted into the fabric of our lives, whether you can accept it or not. Yet this loneliness helps us appreciate the deep bonds we do have.
Working together to prevent a crisis opens a channel for communication and clarity rather than blind hatred.
If you want to convince those who prevent the good to flow, you have to get closer. You can’t change someone’s head if you attack them, if you put the wall of conflict between you and them. Only when you are on the same side, you can influence each other.
No matter what your age, you hold the ability to thrive in even the toughest of situations.