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Ghibli vanity plate blue

Merely seeing this logo on screen has been known to get cinema audiences to applaud.

Studio Ghibli ("jiblee")[1] was founded in the 1980s by celebrated Japanese Anime directors Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata in the wake of Miyazaki's overwhelming success with Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. Studio Ghibli is known for its incredibly rich and detailed animation, exacting attention to detail, and imaginative plots (frequently involving flying scenes, a personal favourite of Miyazaki's).

Ghibli was recently rated as the top brand in Japan, and is a household name even among non-Otaku. New Ghibli films are consistently the top grossers for the year in Japanese theaters, and recent releases such as Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke have gained a mainstream following in North America (in part thanks to a distribution deal with Disney). The studio tends to focus on films rather than television series, but it is frequently the "gateway drug" for new Anime fans. Ghibli is also like Disney in that Ghibli maintains their animation staff as full-time employees instead of the typical Japanese practice of employing freelance artists paid on a piecework basis.

Miyazaki has said that he chose the name of a World War II Italian fighter for his studio based on his love of aviation and Italy (vis. Porco Rosso). Unfortunately the wrong characters were chosen to represent "Ghibli" in Japanese based on a mispronunciation (the word is actually pronounced "ghee-blee" in Italian) but Miyazaki didn't discover this until after he'd already named the studio. He has since pronounced himself satisfied with the "jiblee" pronunciation even though it's technically wrong.

Several Maserati automobiles and at least one modern fighter plane have also been named Ghibli, which means "hot wind off the desert". This is actually a Libyan word — the Italian equivalent is "Scirocco" — and it refers to a particular wind that sweeps across the Sahara.

Trope namer for Ghibli Hills. Has absolutely nothing to do with the jibblies.

To date, Studio Ghibli has produced the following movies:

Studio Ghibli has also produced the following anime series:

They have also worked on the following Anime as a support studio through their C unit (Hayao Miyazaki runs the A unit and Isao Takahata runs the B unit, their C unit is random) (as many Asian studios have):


A game produced cooperatively by Studio Ghibli and Level 5 was released in 2010. Its name is Ni no Kuni. Before that, they provided the character designs and artwork for the PS2 monster battler Magic Pengel.

Has its own museum that shows exclusive short films. The short that evolved into Ponyo was first shown here.

Also distributes Western animated films in Japan such as the works of Michel Ocelot, Sylvan Chomet, and Aardman under the Ghibli Museum Library label.

In recent years there has been some concern on the part of Studio Ghibli management over their ongoing lack of a new generation of directors capable of taking over for founding directors Miyazaki and Takahata. Yoshifumi Kondo died prematurely shortly after directing Whisper of the Heart and Goro Miyazaki's directorial debut Tales of Earthsea was not considered a success.

Miyazaki appears to have chosen Borrowers director Yonebayashi as his successor. According to interviews with Miyazaki, Studio Ghibli would be shut down if Borrowers did not do well enough at the box office to allow Ghibli to secure financial backing for another film. Since Borrowers did relatively well (over 80 percent of Ponyo's receipts) a shutdown does not appear to be imminent. The fact that multiple films have been released since then also gives one hope for the studio's future.

Projects in development:

  • Hayao Miyazaki's How Do You Live? is scheduled to release in July 2023.

For anyone interested in perusing Ghibli's archives, JesuOtaku (of That Guy With The Glasses) has done a full retrospective of all the Miyazaki/Ghibli films.

Studio Ghibli and their works provide examples of the following tropes:


The following tropes apply to the studio, rather than the works the studio made:

  • Animation Lead Time: Yes. Due to their careful attention to detail, only messing up occasionally, Ghibli requires a lot of time to make their works. For example, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya took eight years to make, and initial concepts for the film date fifty years back to the mid 1960s. Miyazaki's upcoming How Do You Live? is planned to take seven years, beginning in 2016 and ending in 2023.
  • Breakthrough Hit: Spirited Away, which, after its Academy Award win, encouraged Disney to accelerate their distribution deal with the studio to bring their films to American audiences.
  • Broken Streak: Almost all the works from the studio are acclaimed and beloved, except Goro Miyazaki's Tales From Earthsea, and, more recently, Earwig and the Witch. Every single one of the studio's works, except the aforementioned two films, has a 'fresh' rating on the site, with three films getting the prestigious '100%'.
  • Creator Thumbprint: The thumbprint belongs to Miyazaki more than the studio, but elements such as a Cool Plane, pigs, young girls on their Coming of Age journey, and of course Ghibli Hills frequently feature in their works.
  • Early Installment Weirdness: Ghibli's first film, Laputa: Castle in the Sky features elements such as a Big Bad, whose usage is averted in almost all of the studio's subsequent productions. It places more of an emphasis on the plot, and uses more animation tricks like prolonged periods of still frames and Everybody Do the Endless Loop. Furthermore, it is Ghibli's only production which can be classified as science fiction.
    • It is possible to see their house style develop in the film, however. Traces of Grey and Gray Morality are present in the form of the Dola clan, and their focus on environmentalist themes starts to shine.
  • The Film of the Book: Their works tend to be adaptations of existing books (Howl's Moving Castle (anime) and Howl's Moving Castle (novel), The Borrower Arrietty and The Borrowers, When Marnie Was There (film) and When Marnie Was there (novel)), manga, and even folk tales.
  • Genre Roulette: The studio often releases two thematically different films next to each other, frequently switching between genres:
  • Good Old Ways: Despite pioneering the integration of CG and traditional animation in Princess Mononoke and Howl's Moving Castle, the studio later shut down their 3D CG department for Ponyo, keeping everything hand drawn. The studio still uses paper for animation, only sparingly using CG in their productions.
    • It appears they have reopened this department, however, as there are some visible CG segments in The Borrower Arrietty, released after Ponyo.
    • This is averted in the production of Earwig and the Witch, a fully 3D animated film intended as a project for the younger staff at the studio.
  • Iconic Logo: The hand drawn Totoro, the blue background, and the capitalisation on "STUDIO GHIBLI" all make their Vanity Plate memorable. It helps that theirs is often the only vanity plate in their films.
  • Logo Joke: The studio's standard film productions from 1986 to 2014 all use the standard blue vanity plate. Some productions, like The Red Turtle, an international co-production released in 2016, uses a red background, to differentiate them from the studio's usual productions. In Ghiblies Episode 2, the Totoro swings open like a door to reveal a man, who changes the phrase "スタジオジブリ作品" (Studio Ghibli['s] Work) to "スタジオギブリ作品" (Sutajio Giburi['s] work). It's pretty obvious the latter's a joke, although whether the former is for humour is up for debate.
  • Meaningful Name: "Ghibli" is a plane named after the wind descending from Libya towards the Mediterranean Sea. The founders hoped that the studio would sweep a new "wind" across the realm of Anime. In addition, being named after a plane reflects the many films that have flying sequences. They also have "Studio" in their name because they are an animation studio.
  • Most Writers Are Male: All the studio's directors are male. This leads to an interesting subversion: the studio is known for bringing audiences many strong female protagonists, and their films are usually dominated by female leads in addition to the usual male characters. The girls in Ghibli films are just as strong, if not stronger, than their male counterparts, and their films feature no fan-service targeted towards either male or female audiences.
  • Pragmatic Adaptation: Their adaptations of existing English books tend to be this. For example, The Borrower Arrietty and When Marnie Was There updates the setting from England to Japan to reflect the target demographic. Howl's Moving Castle places more of an emphasis on War Is Hell messages than the original book.
  • Production Posse: Hideaki Anno's Studio Khara, since their establishment, assisted with many Ghibli productions, like Ponyo, The Wind Rises, When Marnie Was There, and From Up on Poppy Hill. To return the favour, Ghibli did work on Khara's third and fourth Rebuild of Evangelion films. This relationship goes back to 1995, when Anno was still working at Gainax, and Ghibli co-produced episode 11 of Neon Genesis Evangelion.
    • Directors Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata are responsible for most of the studio's output. Not surprising, considering that they're the founders. Them, alongside Toshio Suzuki, Yoshifumi Kondo, Masashi Ando, Goro Miyazaki, Yoshiaki Nishimura and Hiromasa Yonebayashi, are all long time employees.
    • Composer Joe Hisaishi has collaborated with Miyazaki on every single one of his productions at the studio.
  • Production Throwback: These guys love referencing their prior works, inserting characters (or even their own name) into the background. They never go overboard and spam every other frame with references, though. Totoro is a popular character to reference. Totoro appears in Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea and Kiki's Delivery Service, and a wooden toy Anna holds in When Marnie Was There looks like Totoro. The name "Ghibli" itself appears in Kiki's Delivery Service and From Up on Poppy Hill.
  • Series Mascot: The "Company Mascots" variation. Totoro serves as this for the studio, appearing in its Vanity Plate.
  • Signature Style:
    • All films from the studio as a whole tend to prioritize world-building over the Plot, leading to moments where the plot is put to a standstill as the studio shows you a work's world. Because of this, Ghibli's works can be perceived as being slow paced. Hiromasa Yonebayashi's works at the studio turns this Up To Eleven, using more long establishing shots, with many of them on greenery, and often being even slower paced.
    • Hayao Miyazaki's movies tend to focus on feelings of magic and wonder within the film's world, evoking child-like senses of imagination.
    • Isao Takahata's works are much slower paced than the Miyazaki ones, and are identifiable via their heavy focus on human emotions.
  • Start My Own: Miyazaki and Takahata started the studio after the success of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, taking many employees from Topcraft, the studio which provided animation services for the film. Topcraft itself is a Start My Own studio branching off Toei Animation.
  • Ten-Minute Retirement: After Hayao Miyazaki retired, the studio temporary gave up making animated films, choosing instead to shut down their animation department in 2014 after the release of When Marnie Was There. They returned to their role when Miyazaki came back from his own Ten-Minute Retirement, opening their animation department, and began work on How Do You Live?.

The following tropes show up all the time in Ghibli works:

  • Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene: There are no Ghibli films that are pure, 100% action. Some, like Laputa: Castle in the Sky, Porco Rosso, and Princess Mononoke have more action than others. These films still feature plenty of quiet scenes, whether they be character building moments, Slice of Life actions, or Establishing Shots of the landscape.
  • Action Girl: These heroines are often quite plucky, too. Wherever there is a Plucky Girl, there is an Action Girl, and oh boy, there are a lot of Plucky Girls in Ghibli territory. Examples include Nausicaa, Sheeta, San, Ponyo, Arrietty, and Fio.
  • Arcadia: The protagonist in the majority of their films live a simple lifestyle. Many characters reside in a city, but they are never too far away from greenery, and the chances that their entire house is covered with plants (such as in The Borrower Arrietty) are high. Other films, such as The Tale of the Princess Kaguya and When Marnie Was There use this trope as a major plot point.
  • Bittersweet Ending: Some of their films, such as Laputa: Castle in the Sky, When Marnie Was There, and From Up on Poppy Hill ends with a goodbye sequence. Although the characters changed for the better, and new friends were made, the act of saying goodbye makes their ending bittersweet. All Ghibli films produced in the 2010s either have a Downer Ending or a bittersweet ending — thematically reflective of the studio's hiatus starting in 2014. This is usually combined with a Thematic Theme Tune.
  • Blush Sticker: Their heroines tend to get them quite often. Some have them permanently, others get them when they are embarrassed. Blush Stickers come in all shapes and favours, from characters such as Kiki who always has them, to Arrietty, who temporarily stops responding, indicated by Blush Stickers!
  • Captain Obvious: Many of their characters repeat what is clearly shown on screen. This is partially intended to bring foreign audiences up to date with some Japanese customs and norms, and as such is more prominent in their dubs than their native Japanese audio tracks.
  • Cast of Snowflakes: In almost every single wide establishing shot the studio makes. They're known for attention to detail and completely ignoring The Law of Conservation of Detail, showcasing many real-life details that usually don't end up in animation. The Cast of Snowflakes is one such detail.
  • Conspicuous CG: While the studio does use special effects in their works, they keep it to a bare minimum, using it to enhance the story, instead of taking over. There are some elements like 3D backgrounds and rendered 3D which produce a distinct visual style that cannot be replicated by hand. These elements stand out when put next to traditionally animated characters. Subverted, in that when they use CG, they work hard to ensure that it blends in with the traditionally animated elements, and that it fits into their works. In Ghibli productions, 3D elements are just another part of the world. It does not mean someone stole assets from your PS2 and performed brain surgery on hand-drawn animation.
    • In Howl's Moving Castle, it's easy to tell the titular Howl's Moving Castle is CG, although the studio worked hard to ensure that it blends into the 2D animated characters and backgrounds. Similarly, some elements in Princess Mononoke are distinctively computer generated.
    • Note the studio is still fully digital, and their works are often scanned and colored in by computers. However, these devices rarely add special effects. Miyazaki allows a maximum of 10% of his works to feature special effects.
  • Cool Plane: What do you expect from a studio named after an airplane? Miyazaki absolutely loves incorporating these into his works, to the point where you'll be hard-pressed to find a Miyazaki film that doesn't have a cool plane. Leave it to Miyazaki to find ways of shoving a cool plane into a teenage witch's coming of age journey, a post apocalyptic man vs nature film, and a fantasy fairy tale. There's a film about the creation of a Cool Plane, and another one about a pig flying a Cool Plane. Hopefully you're not sick of these Cool Planes, because we've got Those Magnificent Flying Machines on the horizon. When you've sat through the many magnificent flying machines in Laputa: Castle in the Sky, prepare for Dola's Cool Airship. If it flies, Ghibli probably drew it.
  • Creative Closing Credits: A large number of Ghibli movies put backgrounds from their films over their ending credits. Some, like My Neighbor Totoro, feature original drawings created specifically for the ending credits. If you get really lucky, like in Kiki's Delivery Service or The Borrower Arrietty, you get credits imposed on a fully animated epilogue.
  • Dueling Dubs: Early Ghibli films — Laputa: Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, and Porco Rosso — all had English dubs done by Streamline pictures. In the 2000s, Disney produced another dub as part of their distribution deal, resulting in double English dubs. Kiki's Delivery Service is a notable example, as there are three dubs: the original one produced by Streamline Pictures, the 1998 one produced by Disney, and a revision to the 1998 dub intended to make it more faithful to the original Japanese track. This practice has all but disappeared in the 2000s, as Ghibli finally sorted out a distribution deal to bring their works to the English-speaking world, until The Borrower Arrietty arrived. The British StudioCanal produced a dub for the film, to reflect the British origin of its source material. Disney, as part of their distribution deal, produced another dub. The StudioCanal one is more faithful to the original Japanese track than Disney's one.
  • Ending Theme: Every film has one. Sometimes (Laputa: Castle in the Sky with "Carrying You", My Neighbor Totoro with "My Neighbor Totoro", Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea with "Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea", The Borrower Arrietty with "Arrietty's Song"), the theme is a reprise of the established Leitmotif used in the film. Often the theme is a song that already exists, but isn't popular enough for it to qualify as a Real Song Theme Tune.
  • Everything's Better with Princesses: Princesses often occur in their works. Let's see... there's Nausicaa, the princess of the Valley of the Wind, Princess Lucita Toelle Ur Laputa, San in Princess Mononoke, and even a Rebellious Princess in the form of Princess Kaguya. Some of these characters are informed princesses, however, as it's hard to tell who they are without the film explicitly stating.
  • Expressive Hair: The hair of Ghibli heroines tends to conform to their emotions, and move up or down depending on what they are feeling. Typically combined with GASP.
  • Food Porn: Their movies are often filled with mouth-watering food, such as the bacon and eggs in Howl's Moving Castle or the ramen in Ponyo.
  • GASP: Ghibli heroines frequently do this after receiving news from another character.
  • Ghibli Hills: Of course, the Trope Namer. Every Ghibli film contains some sort of ornate greenery, and the studio emphasizes shots of those. Lush, rolling hills covered with trees spreading out from the landscape are common, and are often inhibited by both humans and animals. It's easier to list the Ghibli movies that doesn't use the trope, even then, the studio can't resist incorporating elements from Ghibli Hills.
  • Good Parents: Ghibli does have a reputation for making wholesome and heartwarming films, as long as you don't go into their dark side, and Good Parents is about as wholesome as you can get.
  • Green Aesop: Many of the studio's works feature environmentally conscious messages, partially demonstrated through lush portrayal of the setting.
  • Grey and Gray Morality: If Ghibli has an antagonist, they work hard to ensure that they are established as just another person, carrying about their day-to-day tasks. An exception to this is Laputa: Castle in the Sky, where Muska is in the black, however there are still traces of gray here and there in the form of the Dola clan.
  • Implied Love Interest: Used between characters such as Arrietty and Spiller, instead of actual love interests due to their usage of No Hugging, No Kissing.
  • Kid Hero: Not surprising given the studio's young target demographic, with the occasional adult film thrown in. Most of the studio's protagonists — Arrietty (14), Umi (16), Fio (17), Kiki (13), Haru (17), and more — are teenagers. Others, such as Souseke (5), Mei (4), Anna (12), and Chihiro (10) are pre-adolescent children. This allows the studio to focus on childhood innocence and the wonders of the world from the perspective of a child.
    • Averted in some films like The Wind Rises and Princess Mononoke, where the protagonists are all adults.
  • Leitmotif: A common technique used in all of Joe Hisaishi's scores. Each Ghibli movie scored by him (and many without his involvement) has a distinct and memorable main theme. As a result, most of their works use a Theme and Variations Soundtrack.
  • Lull Destruction: Averted in the studio's works themselves, but played straight in some English dubs. Whereas western animation seeks to advance the story with every scene, Ghibli often pauses and has quiet, contemplative moments where the soundtrack, story, and dialogue stops. That doesn't stop their dubbers from adding in extra lines and songs, though. Early Disney dubs added extra lines and songs to Kiki's Delivery Service, and extended the soundtrack to Laputa: Castle in the Sky.
  • Mundane Made Awesome: There's a lot of Slice of Life stuff in Ghibli films, stuff that everyone will do in their life like going to the supermarket or driving to school. Ghibli, however, has a method of making these mundane tasks seem awesome without turning anything Up to Eleven or introducing massive explosions. The secret lies within the detail of Ghibli's works, and the realistic depiction of human life, combined with the romanticization of nature and detailed backgrounds. This allows the audience to see gorgeous aspects of the world while being reminded that the "world" is the one they live in.
  • No Antagonist: Ghibli's conflicts in their slice of life works are often internal and character driven, instead of being caused by an outside source.
  • No Hugging, No Kissing: This is played straight in half of their works, but averted in others. In some films, like The Wind Rises or Howl's Moving Castle, romance is a major focus in the plot. However, other films, such as Laputa: Castle in the Sky and Kiki's Delivery Service, have no romance despite having both a boy and a girl as central characters. Others, such as My Neighbor Totoro or The Borrower Arrietty don't have romance, simply because it would be inappropriate with the story that's being told.
  • Plucky Girl: To the point of being the image on the trope's page. Ghibli heroines are strong and independent. They will face many hardships, especially from their internal conflicts, but they always get back up.
  • Retraux: The studio went digital starting from My Neighbors the Yamadas, so film and cel imaging grain is no longer a problem for the studio, but the studio manually adds them back in, through digital software.
    • The Wind Rises has its audio in mono, despite being a fully digital production released in 2013.
    • The Tale of the Princess Kaguya uses a much older art style reflective of ancient paintings, with rougher outlines and less detail, rather than Ghibli's signature style.
  • Scenery Porn: Visible in almost every work from the studio. Miyazaki's films are notable for using this, often having detailed landscapes, rolling hills, or lush grass in almost every single shot. The Borrower Arrietty takes this to the next step, often focusing on detailed shots of foliage, complete with realistic water physics and reflections. Try watching one of their films and not take screenshots.
  • Shown Their Work: Although there are slip ups here and there, the studio typically does a lot of research in the development of a new project. For example, the airplanes in Jiro's dream are real in The Wind Rises. In The Borrower Arrietty, rain and water drops have realistic surface tension. Cats close their eyes halfway to display affection, just like they do in real life. If you see a plane in one of their movies, chances are, it's a plane that exists in real life.
  • Slice of Life: Even in their epic fantasy works, there are still slice of life moments like cleaning a house, waking up in bed, or cooking breakfast, adding a feeling of immersion to the story. Often, the pacing of the entire plot will be interrupted for these moments. This is excluding their actual slice of life films.
  • Silence Is Golden: Ghibli's films are filled with moments like these, often interrupting the story to deliver a relaxing scene for the sake of world building. Examples of this are the train scene in Spirited Away and the bus stop scene in My Neighbor Totoro. In addition, Ghibli's works often have long moments of silence in the soundtrack, to the point where composer Joe Hisashi was asked to extend the Castle in the Sky score when it was dubbed as Disney informed him American audiences are uncomfortable with long periods with no music. Miyazaki has described it as 'mā', calling it the space between claps. The Red Turtle takes this up a notch by having no spoken dialogue.
  • The Song Remains the Same: Most of their ending songs remain in Japanese once brought over to the west, partially due to their strict "no edits" policy and the difficulty of replicating the original performance. There are some aversions, however, including My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, and The Borrower Arrietty where the ending songs are dubbed into English. In the latter, this is done by the song artist with Surprisingly Good English.
  • Thematic Theme Tune: Plays over the ending credits of most of their works. These song lyrics, when translated into English, recreate the mood, tone, and themes presented within the film they are used. For example, Spirited Away ends with "Always with Me", which discusses themes of saying goodbye and wonders of the world — just like the film itself. Howl's Moving Castle uses "The Promise of the World", which explores themes of love. The studio occasionally opts for a Title Theme Tune, such as in My Neighbor Totoro and Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea. Sometimes, like in The Borrower Arrietty, the ending song has elements from both tropes: "Arrietty's Song" has a title from Title Theme Tune, but lyrics from Thematic Theme Tune.
  • Those Magnificent Flying Machines: Many of the flying machines from Miyazaki and the studio feature unconventional, Steampunk designs, reflective more of dreams of flying machines than flying machines themselves. The trope is prominent in Laputa: Castle in the Sky and Howl's Moving Castle, but also features in The Wind Rises to a lesser extent, the latter capturing the spirit of the machines and mixing it with more conventional aircraft designs.
  • War Is Hell: Miyazaki's works are filled with anti-war messages. This is prominent in Howl's Moving Castle, where you can see the effects that war has left on Howl and how it has left him more and more exhausted. Bombings are depicted, along with many, many towns on fire.
  • When It Rains, It Pours: Happens in early Ghibli films due to technical limitations. In My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki's Delivery Service, you have a three-second warning when the first drop of rain hits. If you do not find shelter within the three seconds, expect to become dripping wet in the next second. In later films, such as The Borrower Arrietty where the film-making technology is more advanced, less intense rain can be portrayed on screen, although the trope is still used in The Wind Rises.

Sometimes, you expect a trope to be used in an animated production. Not here, though. Ghibli's Averted Tropes include:

  • The Law of Conservation of Detail: Um, no. Ghibli's works are heavily focused on Slice of Life elements, and as a result, contain lots of background details that you won't need to understand the story. Massive shots of crowds, or long shots into the distance, are present in almost every Ghibli work. While this does nothing for the story, it contributes a lot to the magical feeling of a Ghibli movie.
  • Limited Animation: Ghibli only produces around two hours of animation a year, as opposed to other anime studios tackling multiple series at the same time. In the latter, compromises have to be made to achieve that quantity on a strict deadline with a limited budget. Not here, though. Ghibli has the resources to fully animate everything. The problem with this approach is that Ghibli takes much longer and requires much more money to make anything.
  1. sort-of named after the Caproni Ca.309 Ghibli fighter
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