50 Fun Facts About Studio Ghibli

In what year was Studio Ghibli founded?

The founding date was June 15, 1985, a year after Nausicaä proved a Miyazaki feature could pay its way.

The word 'ghibli' that Miyazaki picked for the studio's name originally refers to what?

The Italian word comes from Libyan Arabic; Miyazaki liked the idea of blowing a whirlwind through a stagnant anime industry.

Before becoming Ghibli's producer, Toshio Suzuki edited which anime magazine?

Suzuki went on to run the studio itself, becoming president in 2005 and later its general manager.

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) predates the studio. Which house produced it?

Ghibli was effectively built out of the Topcraft team once the film succeeded, which is why it is usually counted as an honorary Ghibli picture.

Which 1986 film was the first one animated by Studio Ghibli itself?

It played in Japan on a bill with two episodes of Sherlock Hound and drew about 774,000 viewers in its two-week run.

Pazu's mining town in Laputa was inspired by Miyazaki's 1984 trip to which country during a miners' strike?

He was moved by the miners' fight for their communities, and the film's workers-versus-military tone came straight from that visit.

Which Takahata film shared a 1988 double bill with Totoro's debut in Japanese cinemas?

A children's fantasy paired with one of the bleakest war films ever made is still cited as the strangest double feature in Japanese cinema.

Satsuki and Mei's father, Tatsuo Kusakabe, has what job in the 1988 film with the Catbus?

The family moves to the countryside to be near the hospital where the girls' mother is recovering.

Takahata's 1988 story of the siblings Seita and Setsuko is set in which bombed Japanese city?

It comes from Akiyuki Nosaka's semi-autobiographical 1967 short story; Nosaka lost his own sister to malnutrition after the war.

The tin of sweets Setsuko treasures throughout the film is a real Japanese brand. Which one?

The fruit-drop tins are still sold, and the film's release sent sales of the retro packaging climbing.

The Seita and Setsuko film was excluded from Disney's Ghibli deal because it was made for which publisher?

The same quirk kept it off Netflix's global Ghibli line-up in 2020, so it is often the hardest Ghibli film to stream.

Kiki's Delivery Service adapts a 1985 novel by which Japanese author?

The author disliked the film's changes so much the project nearly stalled until she visited the studio and relented.

Which comedian voiced the cat Jiji in the 1998 Disney dub, released after his death?

Kirsten Dunst voiced Kiki; later reissues trimmed some of Hartman's ad-libbed lines to stay closer to the Japanese original.

Porco Rosso began life as a short in-flight film commissioned by which airline?

It grew into a feature anyway; the airline still got first showings on its flights before the cinema release.

Complete Porco's most quoted line: 'Better a pig than a ...'

The line was revived as a protest slogan during Spain's 2023 elections, six decades after the film's fictional 1930s.

Takahata's Pom Poko (1994) follows which shapeshifting animals fighting a Tokyo development?

It was Japan's top film of the year and its Oscar submission for Best Foreign Language Film, magical testicles and all.

Whisper of the Heart (1995) was the only feature directed by which Ghibli animator, who died in 1998?

He was widely seen as the heir to Miyazaki and Takahata, and his death at 47 is one reason both men kept working so long.

Shizuku spends Whisper of the Heart writing Japanese lyrics for which John Denver song?

Her joke version, 'Concrete Road', mocks her own suburb, and the real song bookends the film.

In Princess Mononoke, the girl San was raised by which animals?

Her adoptive mother, the wolf goddess Moro, is voiced by Gillian Anderson in the English dub.

Princess Mononoke is set during which period of Japanese history?

Miyazaki chose the era so he could show Japan before rice farming and ironworks stripped the ancient forests.

Which fantasy novelist wrote the English-language script for Princess Mononoke's Miramax release?

Ghibli's contract forbade any cuts, and legend has it Suzuki sent Harvey Weinstein a katana with the message 'No cuts'.

Princess Mononoke broke Japan's all-time box-office record in 1997. Which Hollywood film had held it?

The new record lasted only months; Titanic sailed past it the following winter.

What name does the witch Yubaba give Chihiro when she takes her real one in Spirited Away?

Sen is simply another reading of the first character of Chihiro's name; forgetting the original would trap her forever.

Chihiro's parents are turned into what after gorging on food in the abandoned town?

Miyazaki wrote the film for the ten-year-old daughter of a friend who visited his cabin every summer.

Spirited Away shared the 2002 Golden Bear at Berlin with which film?

It then became the first hand-drawn, non-English-language film to win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.

Spirited Away's 19-year reign as Japan's highest-grossing film ended in 2020 thanks to which anime?

Mugen Train did it in the middle of the pandemic, with cinemas at reduced capacity.

How much did Spirited Away gross in Japan?

Its worldwide total eventually passed $380 million, and it stayed Japan's box-office champion for 19 years.

Miyazaki's 2004 film about the wizard Howl adapts a 1986 novel by which British author?

Ghibli returned to the same author for Earwig and the Witch in 2020.

Which director from Toei was originally chosen to make the 2004 Howl film before quitting the project?

He left after the studio rejected his ideas and went on to make Wolf Children and Mirai on his own terms.

Ponyo was loosely inspired by which Hans Christian Andersen tale?

Miyazaki read it at nine and never accepted its premise that the mermaid had no soul, so he gave his fish girl a happier deal.

Ponyo's cliffside fishing village was inspired by which real town in the Seto Inland Sea?

Miyazaki spent two months living there in 2005 and the town has traded on the connection ever since.

Arrietty (2010) is based on which 1952 children's novel by Mary Norton?

The setting moved from an English house to Koganei, the Tokyo suburb where the studio itself sits.

Arrietty was the directing debut of which Ghibli animator, who later made When Marnie Was There?

He left after Marnie to co-found Studio Ponoc, whose first film Mary and the Witch's Flower looks unmistakably Ghibli.

The Wind Rises follows Jiro Horikoshi, the real engineer who designed which aircraft?

Miyazaki's own father ran a company that made rudders for fighter planes, so the film is partly a family reckoning.

Jiro's Japanese voice in The Wind Rises belongs to which anime creator, best known for Evangelion?

Anno had once animated the God Warrior sequence in Nausicaä as a young freelancer, and Miyazaki wanted his stiff, un-actorly delivery.

Which festival city hosted Miyazaki's September 2013 retirement press conference?

It was his second public retirement; the first came after Princess Mononoke in 1997, and neither lasted.

Takahata's final film, about the moon-born Princess Kaguya, adapts which classic Japanese story?

It cost about $49 million, then a record for a Japanese film, and its sketchy watercolour look was deliberate.

Composer Joe Hisaishi's stage name is a playful nod to which American musician?

The kanji for Hisaishi can be read close to 'Quincy', and Joe comes from Jones; his real name is Mamoru Fujisawa.

When Marnie Was There adapts a 1967 novel by which British author?

Miyazaki had listed the book among his favourite children's novels years before the studio finally filmed it.

Earwig and the Witch, Ghibli's first fully 3D-CG feature, premiered on which Japanese broadcaster in 2020?

Goro Miyazaki directed it as a TV movie; critics gave it 28% on Rotten Tomatoes, the studio's worst.

The Boy and the Heron's Japanese title borrows the name of which 1937 novel by Genzaburo Yoshino?

The book appears in the film as a gift from Mahito's dead mother, but the plot is otherwise Miyazaki's own.

Which Twilight star voiced the Grey Heron in the English dub of The Boy and the Heron?

The dub also packed in Christian Bale, Florence Pugh, Willem Dafoe and Dave Bautista as the Parakeet King.

In 2024 Studio Ghibli became the first film production company ever to receive which honour?

Cannes had only ever given the honorary prize to individuals such as Bernardo Bertolucci and Jane Fonda.

Which Japanese broadcaster took a controlling 42.3% stake in Studio Ghibli in 2023?

The network had aired Ghibli films for decades and stepped in when the studio admitted it had no successor to Miyazaki and Suzuki.

The Ghibli Museum, opened in 2001, sits in Inokashira Park in which Tokyo city?

Miyazaki storyboarded the building himself, and photography inside is banned so the place stays a 'storybook world'.

Ghibli Park, opened in 2022 on the old Expo 2005 grounds, is in which prefecture?

There are no rides at all; the park is a set of walk-through worlds, and Satsuki and Mei's house has stood there since the Expo.

In which year did Disney sign the deal making it Ghibli's sole international distributor?

Disney also agreed to fund 10% of production costs, and the first fruit of the deal was Princess Mononoke's US release.

When Disney gave up its Ghibli home-video rights in 2017, which distributor took them over?

The Wind Rises stayed with Disney until 2020 because of a clause in its own contract.

Miyazaki directed his first feature film in 1979. Which was it?

The Lupin III caper was made at Tokyo Movie Shinsha, and its car chase and clock-tower finale were later homaged by Disney and Pixar.

Ursula K. Le Guin's verdict 'It is not my book. It is your movie.' was aimed at which Ghibli film?

It was Goro Miyazaki's debut, made against his father's wishes, and it collected a Japanese Raspberry for worst film of 2006.