I watched my first Studio Ghibli film in my freshman dorm with an old roommate of mine. There were no windows and the only source of light came from two awful florescent bulbs. My roommate had checked “Princess Mononoke” out of the library and wanted to show it to me. So, we sat there on the damp smelling couch and were transported away for the duration of the film. This began a semester long routine of ours where one of us would check out a Ghibli film every week and we would watch it together. Our friendship may not have stood the test of time, but my love of Ghibli films certainly has.
“The Boy and the Heron” is the latest release from our beloved Studio Ghibli. It made its American box office debut in late 2023. It is the supposed final film of critically acclaimed filmmaker, Hayao Miyazaki. However, I personally highly doubt that this will be the last film he creates due to the fact that he has announced his retirement on 4 previous occasions, and yet he has kept coming back. Since we are not in his brain, I doubt we will ever completely know why he keeps vetoing his retirement but I suspect it has to do with the fact that he keeps dreaming up stories worth telling and he must share them with the world.
Miyazaki has been assisting in the creation of animated films for over half a century. He has been nominated for or won so many awards that you must go to a separate Wikipedia page from his to read about them. There have been multiple documentaries and docu-series created surrounding him and his work at Studio Ghibli. The world as a whole seems to simply love Hayao Miyazaki. Many different people have had many different things to say regarding why they think that Studio Ghibli is as popular as it is. Well, I am here to add my two cents.
Many films created by Studio Ghibli discuss going through different aspects of grief and the loss of innocence. In this respect, “The Boy and The Heron”eek are no different. The majority of Studio Ghibli’s filmography includes films such as this. They produce a great deal of films that surround children going through atrocities, many of which are inspired by the horrors that befell Japan during World War 2. Be it bombings, sickness or famine, Studio Ghibli talks about it all.
Telling such mature stories in films that are not geared just to adults is rare in Western animation. Many American studios only make animated films purely for the entertainment of children and they rarely have deep moral themes or a complex plot structure. However, Studio Ghibli leans into these areas. They tell stories in such a way that people from all different age groups can enjoy them.
Not only are the themes of the films complex but so are the characters. Both the protagonists and antagonists of Ghibli films are complex and three-dimensional. They have ambitions, fears, thoughts and joys. They have people that care about them and people that they care about. Even in the complete fantasy worlds, such as the setting of “Princess Mononoke,” the characters are sympathetic and understandable.
Studio Ghibli is one of the few animation studios that is completely dedicated to a single aesthetic style. Where animation studios like Disney and DreamWorks create a wide range of characters that all have very different appearances, Studio Ghibli characters follow the general rule book from film to film, at least when it comes to the characters’ designs. The characters in the films look incredibly consistent when placed against other Ghibli characters. Most characters wear simple clothing that does not have patterns on it nor elaborate layering of the clothes.
Just because the character designs of Studio Ghibli characters are not especially complex this does not mean that the visual landscape of Ghibli films are flat or barren in any sense of the word. There are rich layers of detail in every frame of every Studio Ghibli movie. Attention to detail in these films is simply astounding.
Hayao Miyazaki worked with a team of sixty animators on “The Boy and the Heron” and was only able to crank out a minute of animation per month, due to the intricacies of the frames and the skill it requires to hand draw a single frame.
This team of 60 animators is a huge reason why I love Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki so much. To simplify a rather complex issue, many animation studios in Japan are having labor problems due to them working their artists to the bone while barely paying them. Yet on this list of problematic animation studios, you will not find Studio Ghibli. They break the mold by having their artists sign long term contracts, doing a far better job of ensuring job security for their animators.
Where studios, such as Studio MAPPA, push animators to get their work done in inhumanly short time periods, Ghibli allows for years of production so each artist can do their best work. Studio Ghibli’s treatment of their artists has allowed them to remain unscathed by the controversies of Japanese animation.
The unparalleled level of love and care that goes into Studio Ghibli films along with just how incredibly beautiful and well-crafted they are, has turned Studio Ghibli into a powerhouse of an animation studio that will go down in history and never be forgotten.