Studio ghibli

Founded in 1985, Studio Ghibli is headed by the acclaimed director Hayao Miyazaki along with his colleague and mentor Isao Takahata, as well as the studio's executive managing director and long-time producer Toshio Suzuki. Its origins date back to 1983, with the film Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind, which was popularized as a serialized manga in a publication of Tokuma Shoten's Animage magazine after the original screenplay was rejected. The film was eventually produced by Topcraft and the film's success spurred the formation of Ghibli. Ghibli means "hot wind blowing through the Sahara Desert". The name was used for Italian scouting planes during World War II leading Miyazaki, a fan of airplanes from a young age, to name the studio after it.

Studio Ghibli Works


1984 - Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (Kaze no tani no Naushika)

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind is set in the distant future in the aftermath of a global war that has destroyed human civilization in the ‘Seven Days of Fire’. Only small pockets of people have survived and one such place is the Valley of Wind, where Princess Nausicaa lives. A Toxic Jungle surrounds her valley, expelling deadly poisonous gas and is guarded by giant mutated insects. Although ocean breezes protect the valley from these poisons, a battle for earthly domination threatens this stability. This film, like much of his later work, reflects Miyazaki’s deep concern about man’s relationship with the environment.


1986 - Castle in the Sky (Tank no shiro Rapyuta)

As Pazu, the apprentice of the engineer who maintains a mine's elevator machinery, carries his boss's dinner back to the mine, an unconscious pigtailed girl floats down from the sky into his arms. This girl, Sheeta, and her magical levitation-stone pendant hold the key to a mysterious, mythical sky-castle known as Laputa. Sheeta and Pazu must flee from both air-pirates, who seek the sky kingdom for its legendary treasure, and the army, led by a government agent with his own mysterious agenda for Laputa.


1988 - My Neighbour Totoro (Tonari no Totoro)

While their mother recovers from an illness, Satsuki and her little sister Mei get away from it all in an idyllic rural retreat. Far from the bustle of the city, they discover a mysterious place of spirits and magic, and the friendship of the Totoro woodland creatures.

Conceived as a family film devoid of conflict and suffused with the joy of country living, My Neighbour Totoro is a masterpiece for the whole family. It unites the unique vision of Hayao Miyazaki with a feel-good tale of childlike wonder and true originality.

A universal classic for all generations, My Neighbour Totoro shows anime’s famous Studio Ghibli at its very best, and is an elegy to two ever-fading miracles: the fairytale world of childhood and the disappearing countryside.


1988 - Grave of the Fireflies (Hotaru no haka)

Setsuko and Seita are brother and sister living in wartime Japan. After their mother is killed in an air raid they find a temporary home with relatives. Having quarreled with their aunt they leave the city and make their home in an abandoned shelter. While their father's destiny who was a soldier is unknown the two must depend on each other to somehow keep a roof over their heads and food in their stomachs. When everything is in short supply, they gradually succumb to hunger and their only entertainment is the light of the fireflies.


1989 - Kiki's Delivery Service (Majo no takkyubin)

Kiki, a young witch-in-training, has reached the age of 13. According to tradition, all witches of that age must leave home for one year, so that they can learn how to live on their own. Kiki, along with her talking cat Gigi, fly away to live in the seaside town of Korico. After starting her own delivery service (using her broom as the delivery vehicle), Kiki must learn how to deal with her new life, especially after she loses the power to fly.


1991 - Only Yesterday (Omohide poro poro)

Realising that she is at a crossroads in her life, bored twenty-something office worker Taeko heads for the countryside. The trip dredges up forgotten memories, the first stirrings of childish romance, puberty and growing up, the frustrations of maths and boys. In lyrical switches between the present and the past, Taeko wonders if she has been true to the dreams of her childhood self.


1992 - Porco Rosso (Kurenai no buta)

In Early 1930's era Italy, air pirates, bounty hunters and high flyers of all sorts rule the skies. The most cunning and skilled of these pilots is Porco Rosso, a man cursed with the head of a pig after watching the spirits of the pilots killed in the last air battle he fought in rise to the heavens. He now makes a living taking jobs, such as rescuing those kidnapped by air pirates. Donald Curtis, Porco's rival in the air and in catching the affections of women, provides a constant challenge to the hero, culminating in a hilarious, action packed finale.


1993 - Ocean Waves (Umi ga kikoeru)

The main character travels to his hometown for his high school reunion. During the trip, he recalls the memories of the days in high school. Friendship, subtle love, a trip to Tokyo and so on all came back to him as the film evolves.


1994 - Pom Poko (Heisei tanuki gassen pompoko)

As the human city development encroaches on the raccoon population's forest and meadow habitat, the raccoons find themselves faced with the very real possibility of extinction. In response, the raccoons engage in a desperate struggle to stop the construction and preserve their home.


1995 - Whisper of the Heart (Mimi wo sumaseba)

Shizuku lives a simple life, dominated by her love for stories and writing. One day she notices that all the library books she has have been previously checked out by the same person: 'Seiji Amasawa'. Curious as to who he is, Shizuku meets a boy her age whom she finds infuriating, but discovers to her shock that he is her 'Prince of Books'. As she grows closer to him, she realises that he merely read all those books to bring himself closer to her. The boy Seiji aspires to be a violin maker in Italy, and it is his dreams that make Shizuku realise that she has no clear path for her life. Knowing that her strength lies in writing, she tests her talents by writing a story about Baron, a cat statuette belonging to Seiji's grandfather.


1997 - Princess Mononoke (Mononoke-hime)
Young warrior Ashitaka receives a wound that refuses to heal in a battle with a cursed beast. Searching for a remedy for the supernatural injury, he leaves his remote village for the forbidding forests of the south, where he finds a human enclave under siege from divine powers: deities of times past, wolves of the hills, and San, a wild girl of the woods. Hayao Miyazaki’s masterpiece depicts the clash of the natural world and its old gods, with the rise of humans and the beginnings of modern civilisation. It shows three elements of the Japanese psyche warring for supremacy in an ecological fable of stirring mythic power.


1999 - My Neighbours The Yamadas (Hohokekyo tonari no Yamada-kun)

My Neighbors the Yamadas is directed by Isao Takahata and based on the yonkoma manga Nono-chan by Hisaichi Ishii. It was the first completely digital Studio Ghibli movie. Takahata wanted it to have the art style of watercolor pictures rather than cel pictures. To achieve that, the traditional paint-on-cel techniques were replaced with digital technology, making it the first Ghibli movie to be painted and animated entirely on computers. The story featured the lives of a Japanese family and their crazy life happenings. The movie is funny but possesses a tone of sincerity like many movies by Isao Takahata. My Neighbors the Yamadas received an Excellence Award for animation at the 1999 Japan Media Arts Festival.


2001 - Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi)

Chihiro and her family are on their way to their new house in the suburbs when her father decides to take a shortcut along a lonely-looking dirt road. After getting out of the car and walking along a path for a while, they discover an open-air restaurant filled with food but with no workers or customers present. Mom and Dad don't hesitate to sit down and dig in, but Chihiro senses danger and refuses. As night falls, she is terrified to see the area fill with faceless spirits, but when she runs to find her parents, she discovers that they have been turned into pigs. She is found by a mysterious boy named Haku, who promises to help her. He gets her a job working in a nearby building, which turns out to be a bathhouse for the thousands of Japan's gods and spirits. Though the work is hard and the people strange, she does as well as she can. Her parents, however, are still waiting in the hotel's stockyard, and Chihiro must find a way to break the spell on them before they end up as the main course of some guest's dinner.


2002 - The Cat Returns (Neko no ongaeshi)
A young girl rescues a mysterious cat from traffic and soon finds herself the unwelcome recipient of gifts and favors from the King of the Cats, who also wants her to marry his son, Prince Lune. With the assistance of a fat, grouchy real cat and a an elegant cat statuette come to life (both characters featured in Studio Ghibli's earlier anime "Whisper of the Heart"), the girl visits the Cat Kingdom and narrowly escapes.


2004 - Howl's Moving Castle (Hauru no ugoku shiro)

A young woman named Sophie is cursed by the Witch of the Waste, turns into an old woman, and is unable to tell anyone of her plight. Unable to continue her job at her mother's hat shop, she goes to the ambulatory castle of the notorious wizard Howl and insinuates herself into his household. Sophie befriends Calcifer, the fire demon who powers the castle and who is bound to Howl by a contract, the terms of which Calcifer cannot reveal. They promise to help each other with their problems. Like Calcifer, Howl can also see through the Witch's spell, and he and Sophie fall in love.


2006 - Tales from Earthsea (Gedo senki)

Something bizarre has come over the land. The kingdom is deteriorating. People are beginning to act strange... What's even more strange is that people are beginning to see dragons, which shouldn't enter the world of humans. Due to all these bizarre events, Ged, a wandering wizard, is investigating the cause. During his journey, he meets Prince Arren, a young distraught teenage boy. While Arren may look like a shy young teen, he has a severe dark side, which grants him strength, hatred, ruthlessness and has no mercy, especially when it comes to protecting Teru. For the witch Kumo this is a perfect opportunity. She can use the boy's "fears" against the very one who would help him, Ged.


2008 - Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (Gake no Ue no Ponyo)

The new animated film by the Japanese anime studio Studio Ghibli, to be written and directed by famed anime filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki. The plot centres on a goldfish princess named Ponyo who desperately wants to be a human. In pursuing her goal, she befriends a five-year-old human boy, Sousuke.