In Hayao Miyazaki’s Porco Rosso (1992), the striking red plane flown by the main character, Porco, allows him to defeat pirates while soaring through the Adriatic skies, as well as allowing him to accomplish a more mysterious and restorative form…
Review of Rayna Denison (ed.). Princess Mononoke: Understanding Studio Ghibli’s Monster Princess, New York/London: Bloomsbury, 2018. In March 2000, during a visit to the cinema, I chanced upon a mysterious poster design featuring a golden medallion embossed with the image of…
‘I don’t like games. You’re robbing the precious time of children to be children.’ – Hayao Miyazaki In 2008, whilst studio founder Hayao Miyazaki was otherwise occupied screenwriting Arrietty (Hiromasa Yonebayashi), other members of staff from Studio Ghibli – despite…
Last year, Studio Ghibli’s producer, Yoshiaki Nishimura, caused something of a stir when he stated that whether or not Ghibli would hire a female director would depend on the type of film it would be produced. He stated: “Women tend…
In June of 1985, creative visionaries Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata joined forces with producer Toshio Suzuki to create what would later grow to be one of Japan’s most highly established and globally admired animation studios. This studio, Studio Ghibli,…
The first time I saw Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away I was in BJ’s, a wholesale club store like Costco or Sam’s Club that my parents frequented for our weekly groceries. I never loved anime as much as some of my…
