Portal:Studio Ghibli

Portal topics: Activities; Culture; Geography; Health; History; Mathematics; Nature; People; Philosophy; Religion; Society; Technology; Random portal

Studio Ghibli Portal logo

Founded in June 1985, Studio Ghibli is headed by the directors Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata and the producer Toshio Suzuki. Prior to the formation of the studio, Miyazaki and Takahata had already had long careers in Japanese film and television animation and had worked together on Hols: Prince of the Sun and Panda! Go, Panda!; and Suzuki was an editor at Tokuma Shoten's Animage magazine.

The studio was founded after the success of the 1984 film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, written and directed by Miyazaki for Topcraft and distributed by Toei Company. The origins of the film lie in the first two volumes of a serialized manga written by Miyazaki for publication in Animage as a way of generating interest in an anime version. Suzuki was part of the production team on the film and founded Studio Ghibli with Miyazaki, who also invited Takahata to join the new studio.

The studio has mainly produced films by Miyazaki, with the second most prolific director being Takahata (most notably with Grave of the Fireflies). Other directors who have worked with Studio Ghibli include Yoshifumi Kondo, Hiroyuki Morita, Gorō Miyazaki, and Hiromasa Yonebayashi. Composer Joe Hisaishi has provided the soundtracks for most of Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli films. In their book Anime Classics Zettai!, Brian Camp and Julie Davis made note of Michiyo Yasuda as "a mainstay of Studio Ghibli’s extraordinary design and production team".

More about Studio Ghibli...

edit

Jump to a specific section below


Selected profile	Selected work	Selected article	Selected media	In May...	Things you can do	Categories

—Show new selections below—

edit

Selected profile

Yoshifumi Kondō (近藤喜文, Kondō Yoshifumi, March 31, 1950 – January 21, 1998) was a Japanese animator who worked for Studio Ghibli in his last years. He was born in Gosen, Niigata Prefecture, Japan. He worked as an animation director on Anne of Green Gables, Sherlock Hound, Kiki's Delivery Service, Only Yesterday and Princess Mononoke. Kondō directed the animated film Whisper of the Heart, and was expected to become one of the top directors at Studio Ghibli, alongside Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, and to become their eventual successor.

He attended Niigata Prefectural Muramatsu High School beginning in April 1965, where he was a member of the art club. His senpai was the future manga artist Kimio Yanagisawa. After graduating in March 1968, he began studying in theanimation department at Tokyo Design College. He began working in October 1968 at A Production (formerly Shin'ei Dōga), participating in the production of such shows as Kyojin no Hoshi and Lupin III.

Kondō moved to Nippon Animation in June 1978, working on Future Boy Conan, Anne of Green Gables, and other productions. He coauthored a textbook that same year for beginning animators titled Animation Book (アニメーションの本, Animēshon no Hon).

In December 1980, he began working at Telecom Animation Film, where he was the character designer for Sherlock Hound. After being hospitalized in 1985 for over two months for pneumonia, Kondō resigned at Telecome Animation. He began doing contract work for Nippon Animation in January the following year, and began working for Studio Ghibli in January 1987.

Kondō died of aortic dissection–alternately aneurysm–in 1998. His death is said to have been caused by excess work, and seems to be the main reason for Hayao Miyazaki's announcement of retirement in 1998. Although in the end Miyazaki didn't retire for another 15 years, Kondō's death seems to have influenced Miyazaki to work at a more relaxed pace.

Archives

Read more...

edit

Selected work

Howl's Moving Castle (ハウルの動く城, Hauru no Ugoku Shiro) is a 2004 Japanese animated fantasy film scripted and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. The film is based on the novel of the same name by English writer Diana Wynne Jones. The film was produced by Toshio Suzuki, animated by Studio Ghibli and distributed by Toho. Mamoru Hosoda, director of one episode and two movies from the Digimon series, was originally selected to direct but abruptly left the project, leaving the then-retired Miyazaki to take up the director's role.

The film had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on September 5, 2004, and was released in Japanese theaters on November 20, 2004. It went on to gross $190 million in Japan and $235 million worldwide, making it one of the most financially successful Japanese films in history. The film was later dubbed into English by Pixar's Peter Docter and distributed in North America by Walt Disney Pictures. It received a limited release in the United States and Canada beginning June 10, 2005 and was released nationwide in Australia on September 22 and in the United Kingdom the following September. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 78th Academy Awards in 2006.

Wynne Jones's novel allows Miyazaki to combine a plucky young woman and a mother figure into a single character in the heroine, Sophie. She starts out as an 18-year-old hat maker, but then a witch's curse transforms her into a 90-year-old grey-haired woman. Sophie is horrified by the change at first. Nevertheless, she learns to embrace it as a liberation from anxiety, fear and self-consciousness.

Archives

Read more...

edit

Selected related article

Jade Cocoon 2 (玉繭物語2, Tamamayu Monogatari Tsū, literally "The Story of the Jade Cocoon 2") is a 2001 role-playing video game for the PlayStation 2 and sequel to Jade Cocoon: Story of the Tamamayu by Genki. The game features a full 3D polygonal world, 200 cutscenes, and full voice-overs. The character designs for the game were done by Katsuya Kondō, character designer for the first game as well as the Studio Ghibli films Kiki's Delivery Service and I Can Hear the Sea.

Jade Cocoon 2's plot occurs 100 years after the events in the original Jade Cocoon. The time of the Nagi people and "cocoon masters" has passed. New "cocoon masters" are now called "beasthunters" and are the prominent force of monster raising, with the protagonist named Kahu who visits the Temple of Kemuel in the hopes of becoming a beasthunter and having adventures like the old cocoon masters he's idolized. However, Kahu encounters trouble during his license exam required to become a full-fledged beast-hunter. He encounters a young fairy named Nico, who leaves Kahu cursed, and he's given a very short time to live before his body is consumed by evil. Fortunately, Kemuel Temple's resident guardian and founder, Levant - the hero of the original Jade Cocoon - offers Kahu a chance to heal himself.

Archives

Read more...

edit

Selected media

Credit: Fredrik Strömberg

Part of the rooftop garden at Studio Ghibli, designed by the brother of Hayao Miyazaki.

Archive/Nominations

Read more...

edit

In May...

Feature film releases

1993 - Ocean Waves, television film (NTV)

Other publication releases

1993 - Boku ga Suki na Hito e: Umi ga Kikoeru yori, art book by Katsuya Kondō for the film Ocean Waves

Anniversaries and events

1978 - Animage begins publication; the manga for Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and the novel on which Ocean Waves was based were both serialized in Animage; Toshio Suzuki was the editor for several years

All Studio Ghibli anniversaries

edit

Things you can do...

Here are ideas for how you can help improve the coverage of Studio Ghibli topics on Wikipedia:

Join a WikiProject or task force:

Anime
Japan
Other and related: Animation, Comics, Disney.

Expand a new article:

Expand and update a new Studio Ghibli article from the following list:

Note: If no articles are shown below, please work on those found in the Archive. This list was generated from these rules. Questions and feedback are always welcome! The search is being run daily with the most recent ~14 days of results. Note: Some articles may not be relevant to this project.

Rules | Match log | Results page (for watching) | Last updated: 2024-05-08 22:14 (UTC)

Note: The list display can now be customized by each user. See List display personalization for details.