The Tale of Studio Ghibli | Hacker News Reader

The Tale of Studio Ghibli

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186 pointsaaronbrethorst59 comments

If you haven't seen any Studio Ghibli/Miyazaki films, I highly recommend them. The animation is unique and gorgeous. The stories involve conflict with nature or mistaken antagonists, not evil caricatures. While many of the films contain violence, it rarely resolves things. Also, most Studio Ghibli films have strong female leads. I think Grave of the Fireflies and The Wind Rises are the only ones with male protagonists.

In all, Studio Ghibli's works are a refreshing contrast to the romance-obsessed princesses and 3D talking animals so often put-out by Disney and Dreamworks. Even if you're an adult, they're enjoyable to watch.

I enjoy Miyazaki films, a lot. My favourite is Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind[1] but all of them are beatiful pieces of art. I also encourage people who do not know Miyazaki to see some of his works. Princess Mononoke is a good one to start with.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nausica%C3%A4_of_the_Valley_of_...

Definitely agreed, if you've got kids Totoro and Spirited Away are good excuses to become introduced to Miyazaki's work.

If you like the anime film of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, it's worth checking out the manga drawn by Miyazaki between 1981 to 1994, over a thousand beautiful B&W pages [1]

It is a very sophisticated work that stands on its own and really deserves more attention. He is a very talented illustrator and painter.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Nausicaä-Valley-Wind-Box-Set/dp/142155...

Totoro is the only movie I can just as easily watch with my five year old niece as my 71 year old mother. Wonderful film.

The scene in Totoro of the children growing seeds into trees during the night is one of my favorite moments of that film. Really captures a kind of childhood wonder.

The comment about how accessible the film is reminds me of watching Ponyo together with my grandmother a few weeks before her passing. It was something she really appreciated, and one of the few positive things she talked about in the following days.

Although not my favorite Ghibli film, and not such a fan of that particular dub there is something delightful and honest about all the studio's films that I find special.

Seconding the manga. One of the best graphic novels of all time, easy.

just watched princess mononoke last night. =)

> Definitely agreed, if you've got kids Totoro and Spirited Away are good excuses to become introduced to Miyazaki's work.

totoro and spirited away are my two favorite miyazaki movies. not that you're necessarily implying it, but these are not simply kid's cartoons. like a great poem, they're the kind of movie that has multiple layers of meaning and connects with people of all ages.

and i'd recommend watching them in the original japanese, with subtitles if you don't understand japanese (i don't). you lose the essential asianness & the original emotional nuance of the dialog when it's dubbed, just imho.

> I think Grave of the Fireflies and The Wind Rises are the only ones with male protagonists

It's been a while since I watched it, but didn't Princess Mononoke have a male protagonist?

Yes, I think so (I can imagine an argument that San is the protagonist but it doesn't seem very convincing).

Castle in the Sky definitely does.

While Porco Rosso has a good female character in Fio, the lead is male, so that's another.

Basically, while there's a lot of excellent female characters in Ghibli films, there are still a number of their films with male leads.

Another worthy recommendation is Porco Rosso [1]. Set in inter-war period Italy, pays homage to early aviation. The lead is split between titular Porco Rosso, a male fighter pilot and female Fio, engineer.

Aerial fights, pilot rivalry and general adventure drawn against backdrop of beautifull mediterranean views and fascism slowly rearing its ugly head.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porco_Rosso

There was a touching scene in this movie inspired by a short story [1] by Roald Dahl, author of wonderful children's books and adult short stories, who also took part in WW2 as a fighter pilot. It was strange coming across the short story having seen Porco Rosso several years earlier and immediately realizing the connection.

[1] http://www.roalddahlfans.com/shortstories/they.php

Wow, that's an amazing connection (though not unexpected given Miyazaki's predilection for adapting Western children's writers). I was rather impressed by that ethereal scene of the graveyard of planes in the sky (in Porco Rosso), and now I know the source. I think the same scene occurs in The Wind Rises; no doubt Miyazaki wants to make full use of the immense poetry of the image. Thanks for sharing that bit of trivia.

The animation is gorgeous but at times it can be a little too smooth for me. The greatest animation I've ever seen is still in End of Evangelion. It's not the best movie ever, but the way Asuka's Evangelion is animated during her final battle with the S2 engine Evas is incredible. Whoever animated it definitely groks momentum, inertia and how to create these effects with a limited budget/number of frames at his disposal. No amount of CGI or money could be thrown at that fight to make it look better.

Interestingly, the director of End of Evangelion, Hideaki Anno was mentored by Miyazaki and was an animator on Nausicaa. He did the protagonist's voice work for Miyazaki's last film "The Wind Rises" and Miyazaki has said that he would entrust a Nausicaa sequel to Hideaki Anno.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2013-08-22/hayao-miyaza...

Don't forget Isao Takahata another founder of Studio Ghibli and director of Grave of the Fireflies, Only Yesterday, Pom Poko and The Tale of the Princess Kaguya. Yet have to see The Tale of the Princess Kaguya which is discussed in the article but the drama Grave of the Fireflies is a masterpiece to me. The only truly beautiful film in my memory which I bitterly regret having watch. To me the best movie to give you the feels of World War II, even more than acclaimed titles like "The Pianist" or "Life is Beautiful". A must see.

IMHO Isao Takahata is the primary reason why an end to Studio Ghibli doesn't make sense despite Miyazaki bitter vision of the Studios. For those who know Miyazaki's temperament it's not a big deal. My interpretation is that he would have wanted the Studios to be as true, ambitious and fantastic as a Ghibli movie. Well by visiting/knowing the Studios, I bet most of us would be quite taken aback by the lovely people and the atmosphere reigning there.

Worth watching the documentary Kingdom of Dreams and Madness.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_kingdom_of_dreams_and_ma...

The documentary is an amazing peek at Studio Ghibli (primarily of the group working on Miyazaki's last film "The Wind Rises"), even though the atmosphere is not what I'd call delightful, it doesn't lessen but increases my admiration of their work, to be able to create something beautiful in spite of the amazing pressures of animated feature film production is an incredible achievement in itself.

Thanks. I am sure I have seen at least a part of this but I had (purposefully?) forgotten all about it. One nice thing about not being Miyasaki is that my reverie about Ghibli can remain whole. :)

This article also mentions somebody's reaction to Princess Kaguya as looking "unfinished" - I saw the the same comment elsewhere (on HN maybe?)

I am really taken aback by this - the watercolor/ink style may be a little bit unusual these days, but it's not as though animation has never been done in this style before, nor that artwork of this style is completely alien. There is a ton of this stuff.

Nor is this film extremely minimalist, and minimalism been done before too.

I'm starting to feel that the overly-detailed, extremely complicated CG animation and action scenes in most movies are having an adverse affect on our expectations, so we are becoming less able to appreciate something simple.

I could tie this back to software - so much of what we deal with evolves over time to be rather complicated, with a million features, and we beg for more.

Geez, things can be simple. It's not "unfinished" to be simple.

Couldn't agree more. I recently saw Princess Kaguya after being essentially dragged to the movie theatre by a friend. I've never really developed a taste for Japanese animation, and went in with no expectations.

Frankly, it's the most emotionally engaging movie I've seen in half a decade. It blew me away. At no point either did the animation ever look unfinished. That's just a weird characterization, and I'm kind of annoyed at the implication that the audience expects a certain baseline of eye candy on the screen at a given time.

Anyhow, the movie's the bomb. Sad to hear that this studio is going on an extended hiatus. I hope someone else fills the void, because I would definitely be in the market to throw money at my screen for anything of this caliber.

After the comments I've seen here I'm tempted to see it. But it was a big budget flop in Japan (cost 50MUSD, (compared to 6MUSD for Kiki's deliver service) and took 25MUSD at the box office).

I think this may partly be because other recent Ghibli films have been quite poor, and expectations are low.

> I've never really developed a taste for Japanese animation, and went in with no expectations.

To be fair, the vast majority of it is crap. (In much the same way the majority of American entertainment content is also crap)

But there's also fantastic stuff out there, like Miyazaki films.

Makoto Shinkai has some excellent films.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makoto_Shinkai

Garden of Words, 5 Centimeters Per Second, Children Who Chase Lost Voices, The Place Promised in our Early Days, and Voices of a Distant Star are all excellent.

Mamoru Hosoda's recent works have all been quite good as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mamoru_Hosoda

I'm not really a fan of his earlier works, but everything he's done since The Girl Who Leapt Through Time has been very high caliber.

I wouldn't say either is quite at the level of Miyazaki and Ghibli, but they're both quite good, and some of the better examples of the medium at it's best.

Wolf Children is another great non-Miyazaki film done in a similar style: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_Children

Yep! That's one of Hosada's works

Sturgeon's Law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon's_law

"I repeat [Sturgeon’s Law], which was wrung out of me after twenty years of wearying defense of science fiction against attacks of people who used the worst examples of the field for ammunition, and whose conclusion was that ninety percent of SF is crud.

Using the same standards that categorize 90% of science fiction as trash, crud, or crap, it can be argued that 90% of film, literature, consumer goods, etc. is crap. In other words, the claim (or fact) that 90% of science fiction is crap is ultimately uninformative, because science fiction conforms to the same trends of quality as all other art forms."

Check out the post the OP was referring to[1]. The author was reacting to a teaser trailer with footage of the most expressionistic part, without really any context at all. He is clearly very excited by the movie. I think his description is entirely reasonable and not in the least shallow or philistine. (I myself quite liked the movie myself and loved this particular scene.)

[1] http://www.firstshowing.net/2013/watch-first-unique-teaser-f...

From same director, the comedy My Neighbors the Yamadas has been done in the same style. Didn't read westerners reviews (and won't :) but it would be genuinely more difficult to enjoy because of the Japanese wordplays/culture related humor. I still enjoyed it a lot with limited knowledge of the culture.

As an 80's anime kid, I remember when I first saw Castles in the Sky and My Neighbor Toro Toro. It left lasting impressions on my world views of flying robots and bus-shaped giant cats.

But Princess Mononoke straight out floored me. The surprising heaviness and violence felt like they backdoored a complex film for adults. In Japan it was the highest grossing film of ALL TIME until Titanic came along.

My growing years have been enriched beyond measure by the Ghibli/Miyazaki films. May my curiosity and joy of trekking hidden paths be the legacy of Studio Ghibli.

The Studio Ghibli film Spirited Away (2001) overtook Titanic and is still the highest grossing film in Japan.[1] Another Ghibli film, Howl's Moving Castle, also passed Mononoke on that list.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_films_...

I still remember my first watching of Grave of the Fireflies. It was gut wrenching, brutal, and to be honest, depressing and demoralizing to the point of wanting to slash your own wrists at the pain and suffering that people went through after the war (especially the orphans).

It's a great film, but getting myself to watch it is seriously tough each time.

I wish there was another animator out there who would/could do something remotely close to what he did for his studio.

A friend once described Grave of the Fireflies very aptly: "It's like watching Schindler's List while chewing broken glass, but without the refreshing salty taste."

And it is truly a great film.

They complain near the end that Disney dubs all the Ghibli films. This is an odd complaint since all the DVDs have the choice of sub/dub, and Disney does a good job with the dubs. Kiki's Delivery Service, for example, is one of the best dubs I've ever seen.

What's more, iirc Miyazaki explicitly approves of the dubbing, saying that the films "are meant to be watched, not read".

I have to take issue with this particular choice. The quality of the acting may have been good, but the editorial changes Disney made to the movie are downright offensive.

Adding music to quiet scenes was annoying, but changing the ending was unforgivable.

How did they change the ending in the dub? I have only seen the subtitled version.

Phil Hartman, who voiced Jiji (the cat), ad libbed a line at the end. This might not seem like much but in the Japanese version Jiji, having stopped talking about half way through the film, doesn't talk again; possibly this represents another way in which Kiki matures. It's a small point but seemed to go over the head(s) of the director(s) of the English dub. Either that or they didn't think it mattered.

Anyway, there is much in Miyazaki's and Takahata's films that is misinterpreted or misunderstood by audiences and critics outside Japan. For a long interpretation of some of the themes in Spirited Away, by a friend of mine, see this post i made to the Miyazaki Mailing List over a decade ago: http://www.imasy.or.jp/~fukumoto/n/nshow.cgi?50927

Miyazaki/Ghibli stand apart from the rest of the anime industry. Their sensibilities are both out of sync with the film and TV output of other companies[1], different from mainstream manga; yet when they put something out, the world watches. I think it stems from Miyazaki's unique outlook, which seems far less influenced by pop culture but instead hews to the dreams, whimsy, and imagination of children. It's less "modern", more "storybook", and that makes his films unique and widely appealing.

That's not to say there aren't other anime film directors who have put out impressive work:

- Satoshi Kon (a visionary sadly deceased, a true loss to the world)

- Makoto Shinkai (purveyor of the most beautiful animated scenes to exist[2])

- Mamoru Hosoda (works naturalistic yet fantastical, grounded in family and the real world)

All three have been labelled "the new Miyazaki" or compared to him.

Finally, since people are posting recommendations of Miyazaki's work:

On Your Mark, a 6-minute animated music video, is the sort of thing that you watch once and remember years down the road as a strange memory, a sci-fi short story from your teenage years. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1yx4sf_hayao-miyazaki-s-on...

=========

[1] In fact, Miyazaki has criticized the anime industry for being too full of people who don't observe other people, resulting in works that don't resonate with a wider audience; it's anime by anime geeks for anime geeks, full of stereotypes and a culture unto itself. That's why directors like Satoshi Kon and Shinichiro Watanabe are so needed, who paint rounded, real characters who're accessible to a wider audience. Discussion: http://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/1wltx5/miyazaki_the_p...

[2] Shinkai's most recent work is The Garden of Words, a lush feast for the eyes which might as well have been titled The Garden of Wallpapers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTTRweJ7jVs

The article mentions the treatment these films receive in the West, but I would like to add that there is also a general aversion to anime. In Catalonia, where I live, only the young generations are (more than) open to anime, while the rest will miss beautiful artistic experiences like the Sutdio Ghibli films because of their prejudices against anime. In the US I've seen similar reactions but mostly I have found people who will classify all anime (including films such as these) as "cartoons" for children.

I've been a Miyazaki/Ghibli fan for a long time. At this point I have so many Ghibli-themed shirts my wife jokes that I am nearing the Miyazaki-event-horizon and will collapse into the form of Totoro.

If you have not watched any of their films, I highly recommend you do so. Sheer joy of life is what they impart and it will stay with you for years.

Possibly of interest to fans of Miyazaki Hayao's work is the series he did for Nippon Animation in '78: Future boy Conan[1]. Despite the cheesy name, in my opinion it is his greatest work. I have watched the complete 26 episodes of this series multiple times with my kids, and they've watched it on their own many times. Anyone I turn onto this series is absolutely slackjawed with how good it is. Most of the character archetypes, themes and famous sequences from his subsequent movies are to be found in this series.

[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Boy_Conan

Whether you like watching animation or not, Studio Ghibli ones will open your eyes. From the iconic Totoro, to the classic Spirited Away, each one with different themes, told via simple, animated scenes that aren't as fancy or pretty as the Pixar or Disney ones, but are works of art. They also provide good insight into Japanese culture.

>> They also provide good insight into Japanese culture.

After I watched Spirited Away, I went online and found a treasure trove of information about a lot of the underlying cultural themes I obviously missed - but it was well worth it to understand all the layers of the story.

Here's a few of the resources I found:

http://www.sparknotes.com/film/spiritedaway/themes.html

http://www.flixist.com/deep-analysis-spirited-away-207051.ph...

https://circleofmeditation.wordpress.com/2011/04/18/spirited...

I disagree that Ghibli films are not as pretty as Pixar or Disney. In my (arguably subjective) eyes Ghibli animation seems much more aesthetically pleasing and "warmer-feeling" than CGI. And on a second notice, although I have huge respect for the artists that are involved in the production of Pixar films, it deeply saddens me to see that traditional animation seems like a second-class citizen in modern-day Hollywood. It's been years since I've last watched a high-profile traditionally animated film from western studios. And it's not just the style, I think that thematically and character-wise Pixar et al. films feel so generic when compared to eg. Nausicaa or Spirited Away or even Whisper of the Heart. And it's not only studio Ghibli, it always seemed to me that Japanese animators try to innovate a bit more thematically than their western counterparts. See for example the movies of Sathoshi Kon (like Paprika, or Millenium Actress). They have such a unique adult-oriented perspective on animated storytelling that is unlike anything Pixar has put out.

> a high-profile traditionally animated film from western studios

traditionally animated (read: hand drawn) movies costs way more to produce, requires skill sets that are difficult to get now-a-days, and also some (undeserved) social stigma regarding "cartoon" movies, all of which contribute to the decision that it's not a wise investment.

The first Miyazaki film I watched was Spirited away. The moment I saw it I became a life long fan of his work.

I've been to the museum in Mitaka twice, seen all his movies and despite pushing 35, I'm just as amazed and gleeful watching his work today with my three year old.

I can't think of any artist that had a greater influence on me. Much love.

This is just a review, and as such it glosses over what has been reported elsewhere as the real reason Ghibli might not survive Miyazaki: the big man himself hoped to hand the reins to his own son, but the "young scion" failed short. Rather than look for alternatives, Miyazaki just gave up; which was a very Japanese thing to do.

Prior to that a previous protege also died young [1]. Miyazaki himself also carried the productions he worked on to a frightening degree. The man was/is a complete workaholic and expecting anyone to fill that role is essentially unreasonable.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshifumi_Kond%C5%8D

For anyone curious about the behind the scenes of the studio during production, especially surrounding the tireless work of Miyazaki, the Making of Princess Mononoke documentary [1] is a superb watch. The film was translated by a Youtuber, and missing a few parts but very much gave me a great appreciation for what goes into creating one of their films.

[1] http://ghiblicon.blogspot.com/2008/11/making-of-princess-mon...

I am a huge fan of Studio Ghibli's work. I read a really great book on Miyazaki and Takahata this year that discusses their early competition and the birth of Studio Ghibli. It also does a pretty in depth analysis of most of the Studio's films that came out before The Wind Also Rises.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005E7AN1A/ref=oh_aui_searc...

I hope the article is wrong about "When Marnie was There." I saw it in Japan just as it was about to leave the theaters, and it was amazing. The releases do tend to lag about a year behind, though, so I wouldn't be surprised if it just hasn't been announced yet.

Myself and my children aged 4 and 6 have seen most of the Ghibli movies... they are amazing. Obviously, Totoro is well liked... but Ponyo and Kiki are the favorites here (we have re-watched them many, many times) and that was a surprise for me.

For an Economist article I was expecting more covering the Studios economic troubles, periodic retirement of Miyazaki, and more contentious films [1].

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wind_Rises#Controversy

To elaborate on the economic troubles I think part of the problem is possibly the lack of a successor to Miyazaki. His son's work is often considered quite poor [2] and there's no clear successor to Miyazaki who often announces his retirement, then comes back for one last film.

In addition to this, they've have a series of big budget flops. While The Tale of the Princess Kaguya has received critical acclaim for it's artistic quality, it cost 50MUSD to make (compared to 6MUSD for Kiki's delivery service), while bring in 25MUSD at the box office. And while it's received critical acclaim, informally I've been told it's not well liked in Japan (looks good, but content is poor).

So, I was curious to hear more about their financial troubles, and how much they have been effected by these large budget flops and what the future might be (there's a rumor that Nico Nico Douga might buy them, or that they might shut down completely). It's unfortunate that this wasn't covered in the article.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wind_Rises#Controversy

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gor%C5%8D_Miyazaki

The studio just can't survive after Hayao's retirement.

I was especially disappointed when Ursula Le Guin trusted her Earthsea series to him, and he gave it to his idiot son.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0495596/

Miyazaki had desired for many years to make an adaptation of Earthsea, but was turned down by the author as she wasn't aware of the studio's reputation and quality [1].

It wasn't until after the Oscar winning Spirited Away that he received approval, but was unfortunately in the process of animating and directing Howl's Moving Castle and had to regretfully pass responsibility to his son.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_from_Earthsea_%28film%29#...

>Ursula Le Guin trusted her Earthsea series to him, and he gave it to his idiot son.

That's not really fair.

For one, Gorō was basically forced into the industry. He didn't want it, and was pressured into it.

Second, it was not Hayao's choice for his son to direct Earthsea. Suzuki Toshi, president of the studio, was the producer, and Gorō was originally attached just as a consultant. He drew the storyboards, and Suzuki decided upon seeing them to entrust Gorō with the role of director.

Hayao actually was very against it, and outright said his son did not have enough experience yet to be a director, and then refused to speak to him until after the movie had aired.

From Up on Poppy Hill was significantly better than Earthsea, and I think there is still a chance yet of Gorō becoming a worthy successor to his father.

This films looks to be the death knell of Studio Ghibli. Not a single ounce of the originality, character or detail that makes Studio Ghibli films unique.

I imagine you haven't seen the film? It is a wonderful movie (just watched it yesterday), with terrific characterization and attention to detail (grounded, even more so than Miyazaki's own movies, if I would dare say so). I wouldn't have expected any less from the director of My Neighbors the Yamada, which is, in my opinion, Ghibli's best film.

http://www.canistream.it/search/movie/grave%20of%20the%20fir...

I realize that copyright is eternal and the producers have the right to set any terms they want, but it is the best set of options (for producers or comsumers) really pay $19 for a 26 year old movie or torrent it for $0 with no options for rentals, streaming, etc...?

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