97 Fun Facts About Studio Ghibli

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

A hot Saharan wind is the meaning, and plane lover Miyazaki knew it too as the name Italian pilots gave their wartime scouting aircraft.

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

Animage was the magazine, and Suzuki kept working for its publisher alongside his early film work, only joining Ghibli full-time in 1989.

Which studio animated Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) before Studio Ghibli existed?

Topcraft animated it, the same studio that drew Rankin/Bass's The Hobbit and The Last Unicorn for American audiences.

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

Castle in the Sky drew about 775,000 cinemagoers, fewer than Nausicaä's 915,000 two years earlier, which left Miyazaki and Suzuki disappointed.

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

Wales was the country, and Miyazaki admired how the striking miners battled to save their way of life, a solidarity he poured into the film.

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

Grave of the Fireflies drew on Takahata's own memories of fleeing a US air raid on Okayama at nine, running barefoot through the night with his sister.

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

University lecturer Tatsuo was voiced in Japanese by copywriter Shigesato Itoi, the writer behind Nintendo's Mother video games.

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

Kobe was the siblings' city, and in 2020 a monument partly funded by donations went up near the real pond where author Nosaka had sheltered.

Which real Japanese candy brand fills the tin Setsuko treasures in Takahata's 1988 war film?

Sakuma drops were the candy, first sold in 1908, and red-tin maker Sakuma Seika shut down in January 2023, citing falling sales and soaring costs.

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

Shinchosha had published Nosaka's original story, and in July 2025 the film it produced became the first Ghibli feature streamed in Japan.

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

Eiko Kadono wrote it, and the title's word for delivery, takkyubin, is a trademark of Yamato Transport, the courier firm that helped produce the film.

Which comedian voiced the cat Jiji in Disney's 1998 English dub of Kiki's Delivery Service?

Phil Hartman voiced Jiji, one of his last roles, and the dub reached home video in September 1998, months after his death that May.

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

Japan Airlines got a film pitched for tired businessmen on long flights, which grew to 93 minutes and debuted on its routes 17 days before cinemas.

Porco Rosso's hero says he would rather be a pig than become what?

A fascist is what Porco refuses to become when his old comrade Ferrarin urges him to rejoin the Italian air force.

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

Raccoon dogs, the tanuki of folklore, lose the fight, and those who can still transform end up living among humans as people.

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

Yoshifumi Kondo was the studio's hoped-for successor to Miyazaki and Takahata, but he died suddenly of an aortic dissection at 47.

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

Country Roads got its real Japanese lyrics from producer Toshio Suzuki's teenage daughter Mamiko, and Miyazaki then reworked them.

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

Wolves raised her, and because those wolves are mononoke, or spirits, other people call her Princess Mononoke.

Princess Mononoke is set during which period of Japanese history?

Muromachi was the era, chosen partly because it was when people's relationship with nature shifted and they began to feel they could control it.

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

Neil Gaiman wrote the script, and the film came out uncut even though Harvey Weinstein had pushed for cuts.

In 1997 Princess Mononoke broke the Japanese box-office record held by which Hollywood film?

E.T. had held the record for 15 years, but Princess Mononoke's reign was brief, as Titanic overtook it shortly afterward.

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?

Pigs are what they become, and the girl who watches it happen was modeled on a friend's ten-year-old daughter who visited Miyazaki each 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?

Demon Slayer: Mugen Train took the record in 73 days, opening in a pandemic lull when cinemas were open but few rival films were showing.

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

Diana Wynne Jones wrote it, and the idea came from a boy on a school visit who asked her to write a book called The Moving Castle.

Which Toei director was originally chosen to direct the 2004 Howl film before leaving the project?

Mamoru Hosoda's version was scrapped, so he returned to Toei and later directed The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.

Ponyo was loosely inspired by which Hans Christian Andersen tale?

The Little Mermaid was the spark, and Ponyo's real name, Brunhilde, comes from Wagner's Die Walküre, which Miyazaki played while planning the film.

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

Tomonoura was where Miyazaki spent two months in 2005 reading Soseki's The Gate, whose hero Sosuke, living below a cliff, lent the boy his name.

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

The Borrowers was the novel, which Miyazaki had hoped to film about 40 years earlier, a plan that came to nothing until he revived it in 2008.

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?

The Zero fighter was his design, and Miyazaki, whose father helped run a firm making warplane parts, said he made the film partly to understand his own father.

Jiro's Japanese voice in The Wind Rises belongs to which anime creator?

Hideaki Anno had drawn the Giant Warrior's attack in Nausicaä, so voicing Jiro reunited him with Miyazaki on a film for the first time in about 30 years.

At which film festival did Studio Ghibli announce Miyazaki's 2013 retirement from feature films?

Venice was where Ghibli's president broke the news, though Miyazaki himself told a Tokyo press conference days later that this time he was serious.

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

The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter first drew Takahata around 1960 at Toei, where a planned adaptation was dropped more than 50 years before his film.

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

Quincy Jones was the model: kanji matching the sounds of Quincy became Hisaishi, and Jones became Joe.

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.

What does The Red Turtle, Studio Ghibli's 2016 co-production with a Dutch-born animator, lack?

Dialogue is missing entirely, and the Oscar-winning short Father and Daughter is what led Ghibli to seek out the film's director.

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

How Do You Live? lent the film its title, and Suzuki said Miyazaki made it for his grandson, a way of saying Grandpa is moving on but leaving this film behind.

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

Robert Pattinson voiced the heron in a hoarse rasp so unlike his own voice that, when the dub's trailer arrived, many fans could not believe it was him.

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

An honorary Palme d'Or went to Ghibli, and Suzuki welcomed the news admitting he and Miyazaki had aged considerably, but trusting the staff to carry the studio on.

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

Nippon TV took over after Miyazaki's son Goro declined to lead the studio, saying it would be too hard to carry Ghibli on his own.

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

Mitaka's museum screens Ghibli shorts seen nowhere else, and when each one ends, the theatre's windows open to let the sunshine in.

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

Aichi is home to the park, which opened warning visitors of no big rides, though its later Valley of Witches area added a few small ones.

Earwig and the Witch was Studio Ghibli's first feature made entirely with what technique?

3D CGI was the method, and the experiment landed badly, with the film drawing mostly negative reviews from critics.

Which 1979 film was Hayao Miyazaki's debut as a feature director?

The Castle of Cagliostro was no box-office hit on release, but anime fans kept championing it until it became a cult classic.

Which Ghibli film did its source author call 'not my book' but 'your movie'?

Tales from Earthsea was Goro Miyazaki's debut, though his father had fiercely opposed him directing, saying Goro probably couldn't even draw.

What did Ghibli's producer give Miramax boss Harvey Weinstein before the US release of Princess Mononoke?

A samurai sword came with a blunt warning not to edit the film. Miyazaki later confirmed the story with one correction: his producer was behind it, not him.

Hayao Miyazaki skipped the 2003 Academy Awards, where Spirited Away won, in protest at what?

The Iraq War kept him home, and he later said he did not want to visit a country that was bombing Iraq. At his producer's request he kept that reason to himself until 2009.

Before The Boy and the Heron opened in Japan in 2023, what was Studio Ghibli's only advance publicity?

A single poster was all anyone saw: no trailer, stills, synopsis or cast list. Producer Toshio Suzuki chose the silence, worried that the usual marketing gives too much of a film away.

Which Pixar sequel gives a cameo to Totoro, the giant forest spirit of Hayao Miyazaki's 1988 film?

Toy Story 3 has a family tie to its guest: the art director, Daisuke Tsutsumi, is married to Miyazaki's niece, the girl who inspired little Mei.

The flying island of Laputa in Miyazaki's 1986 film borrows its name from which classic novel?

Gulliver's Travels has a flying island called Laputa too. Miyazaki knew the story well: as a young Toei animator he worked on a loose film version of it and got its ending changed.

In Spirited Away, Chihiro frees the dragon boy Haku by remembering that he is the spirit of what?

A river: Haku is the Kohaku, into which Chihiro fell years earlier before being washed safely ashore. Hearing his true name gives him back his memory.

Which real-life sisters voiced Satsuki and Mei in Disney's 2005 English dub of My Neighbor Totoro?

Dakota and Elle Fanning played the sisters, with Dakota, the elder, as big sister Satsuki. Veteran voice actor Frank Welker supplied both Totoro and the Catbus.

Miyazaki named the heroine of his 1984 film Nausicaä after a princess in which ancient Greek epic?

The Odyssey gave her the name: Homer's Nausicaä is a Phaeacian princess. Miyazaki blended her with the heroine of a Japanese folk tale, The Lady who Loved Insects.

At a rainy bus stop in My Neighbor Totoro, what does Satsuki lend the giant forest spirit?

An umbrella, her father's, because Totoro had only a leaf on his head against the rain. Delighted, he hands back a bundle of nuts and seeds.

What kind of creature is Ponyo when five-year-old Sosuke first finds her trapped in a glass jar?

A goldfish, or something close to one: Ponyo and her many little sisters are fish with human faces. Licking Sosuke's blood is what later lets her change into a girl.

Which silent creature in Spirited Away hands out gold and then starts swallowing the workers?

No-Face mirrors whoever is around him, so the greed of the staff turns him into a glutton. He later follows Chihiro out and chooses to stay with Yubaba's sister.

In Howl's Moving Castle, which fire demon provides the magic that makes the castle move?

Calcifer strikes a bargain with Sophie: he will lift her curse if she breaks the link that binds him to Howl. Billy Crystal gave him his voice in the English dub.

Which tiny creatures fill the old house in My Neighbor Totoro and reappear as workers in Spirited Away?

Soot sprites fill the house the family moves into, then leave once they see the newcomers are good people. In Spirited Away they are thrown handfuls of konpeito candy, the way farmers feed chickens.

In Howl's Moving Castle, Sophie names the living scarecrow she meets after which vegetable?

A turnip gives Turnip Head his name, and he is more than a scarecrow. A kiss on the cheek from Sophie turns him back into Justin, the missing prince of the enemy kingdom.

Which actor voiced the title wizard in Disney's 2005 English dub of Howl's Moving Castle?

Christian Bale voiced Howl in the same year he made his debut as Batman in Batman Begins. The English version was supervised by Pete Docter of Pixar.

In 2020 which streaming service began carrying Ghibli's films in most countries outside the United States?

Netflix took the catalogue for most of the world, while HBO Max carried it in the United States from its launch that May. Disney had lobbied for a streaming deal while it distributed the films and never got one.

What is the first name of Hayao Miyazaki's elder son, who directed From Up on Poppy Hill for Ghibli?

Goro trained as a landscape architect and worked on the design of the Ghibli Museum before he ever directed. His father thought him too inexperienced, and the two reportedly did not speak while his first film was made.

In Princess Mononoke, what kind of animal god, maddened by an iron ball, curses Prince Ashitaka's arm?

A boar: the demon was once the boar god Nago, corrupted by an iron ball lodged in his body. Knowing the curse will kill him, Ashitaka is sent west to find where the hatred began.

In Princess Mononoke, which tiny spirits from Japanese folklore guide Ashitaka through the forest of the gods?

Kodama are spirits that live in trees, and folklore warns that anyone who cuts down a kodama's tree will be cursed. The film sold stuffed versions of them as merchandise.

In Spirited Away, which twin sister of the witch Yubaba turns Yubaba's son Boh into a mouse?

Zeniba arrives as a paper charm that stows away on Chihiro's back, chasing a magic golden seal that Haku stole from her. Chihiro later takes the train to her home to give it back and apologise.

In Spirited Away, Haku sends Chihiro to ask which boiler-room spirit for a job?

Kamaji is the boiler man, and rather than hire Chihiro himself he has a worker named Lin take her up to Yubaba. He later supplies the train tickets for her journey.

In Princess Mononoke, who leads the ironworkers of Irontown in their fight against the forest gods?

Lady Eboshi is no simple villain: her town is a haven for society's outcasts, who find honest work and fair treatment there. She ends the film vowing to rebuild it better.

Which actress voiced San, the girl raised in the wild, in Miramax's English dub of Princess Mononoke?

Claire Danes voiced San in a dub whose script was reportedly first offered to Quentin Tarantino, who passed the job on.

Which actor voiced the villainous agent Muska in Disney's English dub of Miyazaki's 1986 Laputa adventure?

Mark Hamill voiced Muska opposite James Van Der Beek as Pazu. Disney produced the dub in 1998 but it sat on the shelf until 2003.

Which actress voiced the schoolgirl Haru in Disney's English version of The Cat Returns?

Anne Hathaway voiced Haru, who rescues a cat that turns out to be a prince. Her reward is unwanted: catnip, mice and the offer of his hand in marriage.

Which Pixar director persuaded Disney to release Spirited Away and executive-produced its English dub?

John Lasseter was a friend and fan of Miyazaki who would sit his Pixar staff down to watch the Japanese director's films whenever a story was stuck.

Before Ghibli, Miyazaki and Takahata worked together on a 1974 TV anime of which classic children's novel?

Heidi sent the team abroad: Takahata and Miyazaki visited Maienfeld in Switzerland in the summer of 1973 to see the real setting before the series was made.

Which celebrated Japanese live-action director cited My Neighbor Totoro as one of his favourite films?

Akira Kurosawa counted it among his favourites, and its title creature went on to become Studio Ghibli's mascot and official logo.

Which British actor made his screen debut as a voice in the 2011 UK dub of Ghibli's Arrietty?

Tom Holland went from his stage run in Billy Elliot to the British dub, recording alongside Saoirse Ronan. North America got a separate Disney version the following year.

The city in Kiki's Delivery Service draws on towns Miyazaki had visited in which northern European country?

Sweden supplied the look: Miyazaki had seen Visby and Stockholm years earlier, on a trip to win the rights to Pippi Longstocking. He came home without them.

In Kiki's Delivery Service, which young painter in a log cabin helps Kiki get her powers back?

Ursula diagnoses Kiki's lost magic as a form of artist's block and advises her to find a new purpose.

Which leader of an air pirate gang hunts Sheeta's crystal necklace in Miyazaki's 1986 Laputa adventure?

Dola begins as a threat and ends as an ally: she helps Pazu rescue Sheeta, then agrees to fly them to Laputa in exchange for the pair temporarily joining her crew.

In Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, what are the gigantic armoured insects of the Toxic Jungle called?

The Ohm have destroyed whole cities when people tried to clear the forest, which is why the valley's wise woman warns against burning it. Nausicaä is able to soothe them.

Before Sosuke names her Ponyo, what Wagnerian name does her wizard father Fujimoto call her?

Brunhilde is a deliberate reference to the eldest of the nine legendary Valkyries and to the heroine of Wagner's Ring operas.

In Porco Rosso, the bounty hunter Marco Pagot chases air pirates over which sea off Italy?

The Adriatic is the hunting ground of a former World War I flying ace turned freelancer. His name, Marco Pagot, was borrowed from an Italian animator Miyazaki had worked with.

Which cat statuette with emerald eyes from Whisper of the Heart got a spin-off film, The Cat Returns?

The Baron, in full Baron Humbert von Gikkingen, is a figurine given life by the work of his artist. In The Cat Returns he comes to the rescue with a stone raven named Toto.

Which company did former Ghibli producer Yoshiaki Nishimura found in 2015, later releasing Mary and the Witch's Flower?

Studio Ponoc takes its name from a Serbo-Croatian word for midnight, meant to signify the beginning of a new day. Several animators who had worked under Ghibli followed Nishimura there.

Miyazaki took four art directors to which Japanese island to find the forest scenery for Princess Mononoke?

Yakushima had already inspired some of the landscapes in Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. For the hero's home village, a fifth art director went to the Shirakami-Sanchi mountains instead.

Ashitaka of Princess Mononoke is the last prince of which real people of ancient Japan?

The Emishi left so little record of their dress that Miyazaki borrowed from elsewhere: the girls' clothes in Ashitaka's village are influenced by styles from Bhutan and Thailand.

Which town in Alsace, France, did Miyazaki visit to study the architecture for Howl's Moving Castle?

Colmar and nearby Riquewihr were both on Miyazaki's research trip, made to study the buildings and their surroundings for the story's setting.

In Only Yesterday, Tokyo office worker Taeko heads to the countryside to help harvest which crop?

Safflower farmers once laboured for the aesthetic luxuries of women in Kyoto, and Taeko takes off her gloves while picking to feel what they went through.

Which 1993 Ghibli television film was an attempt to let younger staff make a feature cheaply?

Ocean Waves was supposed to be quick and cheap, made solely by staff in their 20s and 30s. It ran over budget and over schedule, and its director blamed the stress for an ulcer.

Takahata's 1988 war film about two orphaned siblings is based on a semi-autobiographical story by which writer?

Akiyuki Nosaka had received many offers for a live-action version. After seeing the storyboards he concluded the story could not have been told by any method other than animation.

In The Wind Rises, which Italian aircraft designer appears in young Jiro's dreams as his idol?

Giovanni Caproni tells Jiro that he has never flown a plane in his life, and that building them is better than flying them. A Caproni scouting plane was also nicknamed the Ghibli.

Which Japanese publishing company, the employer of producer Toshio Suzuki, backed the founding of Studio Ghibli?

Tokuma Shoten stayed in the picture for two decades: Ghibli was spun off from it only in April 2005, re-established as an independent company with new headquarters.

Which Japanese delivery company sponsored Kiki's Delivery Service despite an early dispute over its trademark?

Yamato Transport owns the word takkyubin from the film's Japanese title, and the novel's author had used it without permission. The film's success mended the relationship.

The Royal Shakespeare Company's stage version of My Neighbor Totoro premiered in 2022 at which London venue?

The Barbican sold more tickets for it in one day than for anything before, breaking a box-office record held by Benedict Cumberbatch's Hamlet.

In Whisper of the Heart, Shizuku keeps finding the name Seiji Amasawa written on what?

Library cards in the books she borrows show that he checked every one of them out before her. He turns out to be learning to make violins, with dreams of becoming a master luthier.

In The Boy and the Heron, which man-eating birds keep a kingdom of their own inside the tower world?

Parakeets, giant and hungry, serve a Parakeet King who wants the tower's wizard to keep their world going. Mahito has to slip through their kingdom to find Natsuko.

In From Up on Poppy Hill, what does Umi raise each morning outside her boarding house above the port?

Signal flags spelling out a prayer for safe voyages go up every day. A boy who sees them from his father's tugboat on the way to school writes a poem about them for the school newspaper.