Studio Ghibli is a Japanese film and animation studio which was founded in June 1985 and is headed by the directors Hayao Miyazaki and isao Takahata and the producer Toshio Suzuki , The studio was founded after the success of the 1984 film "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind" which was written and directed by Miyazaki. the studio's logo (shown above features Totoro (a large friendly forest spirit) from Hayao Miyazaki's 1988 film "My Neighbour Totoro".
It's really hard to summarize the kind of films Studio Ghibli make, they're always beautifully animated (no matter how long ago it was released) they always come with dramatic and well fitting music by some of the most well renowned composers and artists in Japan and the story is always brilliant. but each and every film is so drastically different in plot and design that it always feels like a fresh and new experience.
To get an idea of how drastically different the storylines can be the 1988 film "Grave Of The Fireflies" is an animated war tragedy set near the end of world war II in Japan as it follows the relationship between two orphaned children, 14 year old Seita and his 4 year old sister Setsuko. The first scene of the film starts out in Sannomiya train station and shows Seita dressed in rags and dying of starvation as a janitor comes and digs through his possessions and he finds a candy tin containing ashes and bones. As he throws it out, out from it come the spirits of Setsuko and Seita as well as a cloud of fireflies as the spirit of Seita continues to narrate their story. the film is shocking and gripping at the same time as Seita is such a likeable character but is in a terrible possition.
In contrast to this The 2002 film "the cat returns" follows the story of a quiet japanese school girl named Haru who has the suppressed ability to talk to cats. one day while walking home from school she saves a black cat from being run over by a truck. as it turns out it the cat was lune "prince of the cat kingdom" who thanks Haru by taking her hand in marriage. she is then carted off to the cat kingdom against her will, gradually turns into a cat and can see no way home. she is saved by the cat "Baron Humbert von Gikkingen" or Baron for short, who i swear is THE coolest cat i've ever seen :D.
Anyway I've tailed off. in summary i think studio ghibli is a fantastic film studio and all of their work is excellent :D, they always have such fun and relatable characters making watching any of their films a fantastic experience. There isn't a single Ghibli film I've seen so far that i haven't come out of with a big smile on my face, they are all beautifully made with great stories behind them and even though the storylines are all so drastically different i can always tell when its a Ghibli film whether its because of the anmation style or the characters i have no idea. but all of the reasons here are why i love studio ghibli films and why i chose to do my very first blog about them!
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