I found this terrific illustration of San the Princess Mononoke at the Reddit Ghibli thread. It was created by a person named "Gio Gio Art," who also has an Instagram account at "Giorgio.rt."
This piece has a great sense of tension in its pose, a sense of action and motion. I think it defines the character very well, who is defined by action and assertiveness. San is not a "cutesy" anime character but a tough gal who will whomp you six ways from Sunday.
I also enjoy the color palette with its light brown fur and ample use of empty space. The red tones on the mask are especially nice as well, as are the blood splatters. All in all, great work.
I present to you 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother (aka "Marco") in its entirety. This 52-episode series was the 1976 season of World Masterpiece Theater, and the second in Isao Takahata's celebrated Heidi-Marco-Anne trilogy of masterworks.
This video contains the playlist for all 52 episodes, presented in Japanese audio with English subtitles.
Now a few quick notes about its creators. This series was a teamwork collaboration between Takahata (director), Hayao Miyazaki (layout, scene design) and Yoichi Kotabe (character design). It is the direct followup to Heidi, Girl of the Alps, which became a groundbreaking success in Japan and throughout the world. The trio had begun at Toei Doga and continued as a team for a number of years, first teaming with alum Yasuo Otsuka on Moomin and Lupin the 3rd, then working tirelessly on the Pippi Longstocking project that was notoriously scuttled by author Astrid Lindgren, then finally to Heidi.
Heidi succeeded because the trio of Takahata-Miyazaki-Kotabe worked together as a team, contributing story ideas and characters together. With the Marco series, however, Takahata took a more firm control over the story, pushing relentlessly in the direction of emotionally-charged melodrama. Its scale became epic, spanning two continents, an ocean and a widely varied cast of characters, and all stylized after the Italian Neo-realists. Flights of fancy or imagination are almost nonexistent. Marco's journey is not driven by wonder or discovery, but obsession, suffering and pain. Imagine the Book of Job starring James Dean and you'll have some idea of what to expect.
It would seem that Marco's obsession reflected Takahata's, and is it said that his relationship with Miyazaki and Kotabe suffered as a result. By the end of the series, Kotabe walked away, effectively breaking up the band that had stuck together throughout the decade. He would return five years later to work with Paku-san again in the 1981 movie Jarinko Chie, and later with Miyazaki in Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind, but his animation career began to decline. In the mid-1980s, he found himself working at the most unlikeliest of places: Nintendo. There, he would help with art and character design for many of the company's most beloved videogames, including Super Mario Kart and Pokemon. Remember Pikachu? That's Kotabe.
Hayao Miyazaki would finally begin his solo directing career (not counting the 1972 Yuki's Sun pilot film) with the spectacular 1978 series Future Boy Conan. Yasuo Otsuka, who served as the animation director, famously noted how his friend's relentless creative drive and work ethic had exploded during his time as Paku-san's right hand. And while Miyazaki did return one final time to serve as layout/scene designer for Anne of Green Gables in 1979, he left the series after 13 episodes to join TMS's Telecom studio to direct his first feature-length movie, Lupin the 3rd: The Castle of Cagliostro, once again with old friend Otsuka by his side.
The next time Takahata and Miyazaki worked together was on the infamous Nemo movie project, traveling to California as members of the Japan delegation. Both walked away over creative differences, and while Takahata continued to thrive with the wonderfully sublime 1982 film Gauche the Cellist and the 1982-83 TV version of Jarinko Chie, his colleague struggled after several years of commercial and creative failures.
Miyazaki retreated to his first love, drawing manga comics, creating a serial comic for Animage Magazine called Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind in 1983. After a long period of begging and pleading by the magazine's young editor, Toshio Suzuki, Miyazaki was convinced to direct a film adaptation of Nausicaa which was released to great success in 1984. Its success led directly to the founding of Nibariki, Miyazaki's production company, and, of course, Studio Ghibli, which found its first commercial success in 1989 with Kiki's Delivery Service*. The rest, as they say, is history.
Takahata, as I've said, continued to enjoy success as a director, and he was the top dog at the time. He helped Miyazaki by guest-directing two episodes of Conan, and brought along young animator Yoshifumi Kondo as the animation director/character designer for Anne of Green Gables. Kondo had previously worked on Lupin Series One and he quickly became Paku-san's new prized student, the right-hand-man for the famous "director who cannot draw" in Grave of the Fireflies, Omohide Poro Poro and Pom Poko. Kondo died in 1998 from a brain aneurism, leaving Takahata reportedly guilt-stricken over working his prodigy so hard**.
3000 Leagues in Search of Mother sits at a fascinating crossroads in these three careers. It represents the peaks of the post-Toei years, drives the evolution of 1970s anime and sets the stage for Studio Ghibli. It represents a beginning, middle and end of converging eras. And despite any creative turbulence behind the scenes, this series remains a masterpiece of dramatic storytelling and naturalist animation. In my opinion, it is the greatest of the Heidi-Marco-Anne trilogy, the richest and deepest and most compelling, filled with mythic grandeur.
Watch this series. Just put down whatever is on your Netflix playlist and watch this instead.
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(*Note: That's correct, the first three Ghibli features -- Laputa: Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro and Grave of the Fireflies -- all lost money in their initial theatrical runs. Their success, especially Totoro, would come years later with home video and merchandising.)
(**Note: This story came from a rather strange rant last year by Toshio Suzuki, who accused the late Takahata of being a tyrant who drove away talent and led Ghibli to ruin. It's very odd as this portrayal of the director as a hotheaded control freak is greatly at odds with his image as the epitome of zen cool ("walking logic" in Mamoru Oshii's words) and more descriptive of Miyazaki.)
Phoenix-based artist and illustrator Courtney Doom, aka Iggy Starpup, has created a series of lovingly crafted Studio Ghibli felt embroideries. According to her bio profile, she crafts pop culture-themed embroidery hoop art and subjects also include Harry Potter and Pokemon.
Iggy Starpup is an arts graduate of Arizona State University and enjoys crafting, drawing, photography and film. You can purchase her work directly from her Etsy page.
More photos of her Studio Ghibli craft works are available below the jump.
This charming and artistic poster design for My Neighbor Totoro was created for the film's theatrical release in China on December 2018. It marked Studio Ghibli's long-awaited foray into mainland China and has already been followed by Spirited Away in June of this year. Four more Ghibli features are planned for release as well: Castle in the Sky, Princess Mononoke, Howl's Moving Castle and The Wind Rises.
I enjoy the spaciousness of this poster design, very much in a classical Asian style of utilizing negative space. You can almost feel the fur of the giant Totoro as the two girls wade through, like walking through boundless fields of grass. The text simply describes the title, Hayao Miyazaki's name and the voice cast. No need for any tag line or description as this is a well-known children's classic.
Chinese movie lovers, of course, have long been able to watch My Neighbor Totoro on home video formats, to say nothing of pirated bootlegs. But this theatrical release was a first and marks a new development in the growth of Ghibli across the globe. Whatever becomes of the studio, its catalog titles are guaranteed a long and bright future.
This is great news for all animation lovers. Toei Doga's seminal 1958 animated feature Hakujaden is now available in Japan on Blu-Ray. This wonderful box set includes a treasure trove of memorabilia, including a copy of the poster, illustrations, newspaper clippings and a color booklet.
Hakujaden is Japan's first feature-length animated movie, as well as the first animated movie in color. The story is based on a Chinese folk myth of a magical serpent who transforms into a young woman and falls in love with a young man. She is pursued by a monk, and a pair of cartoon animals tag along for the adventure. The key animation was drawn entirely by the studio's founding veterans, Yasuji Mori and Akira Daikubara, and young animators who began their careers here include Yasuo Otsuka, Reiko Okuyama and Akemi Ota, as well as visionary anime director Rintaro, who I absolutely adore for his masterful 2001 Metropolis that he created with Katsuhiro Otomo.
Unfortunately, it does not appear that English subtitles are included in this release, which is extremely fortunate for those of you who have not seen it. A fansub translation was released a decade ago, but it has completely disappeared since then as the related anime sites have disbanded or shut down. It would have helped greatly if Toei would include subtitles in their home video releases, now that their legendary movies are (finally) arriving on Blu-Ray.
The Hakujaden Blu-Ray is available on Amazon JP for 10,258 Yen, or roughly $94USD. Be sure to spend a few minutes begging your favorite anime publisher to pick up this title for a Western release. Hey, GKIDS, is anybody listening? Discotek? Anybody? Bueller?
This is an old news post, but bears repeating as there has been very few updates in the past year. As we all know, Hayao Miyazaki returned from his "retirement" to create one more animated feature with Studio Ghibli. Titled "How Do You Live," this movie is based on a 1937 novel by Genzaburo Yoshino.
While originally planned for a theatrical release in time for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, the extremely slow production schedule has pushed back that date to 2021 or even 2022. As always, Miyazaki is drawing the storyboards himself, and animation is reportedly progressing at the pace of one minute per month (I'm still trying to find the source on that).
The pace of this production is far slower than in the past, owing greatly to Miyazaki's age (now 78) and reduced work schedule. Studio Ghibli has also had to completely hire a new staff of artists and animators, since the disbanded its animation teams in the wake of Miyazaki's retirement. Many of the biggest names such as Kazuo Oga, Yoshiyuki Momose and Katsuya Kondo have moved on to other projects and studios, most notably Studio Kajino.
For these reasons, we should not expect to see the new movie for another two or three years. Progress is being made slowly but consistently. The greatest challenge, of course, is time, as last year's passing of Isao Takahata makes all too clear. Let us hope and pray that Miyazaki-san will stay in good health long enough to complete this final work.
Western Ghibli fans should also be aware that Miyazaki's new movie will not be a fantasy in the style of My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away or Ponyo, but will be a "realistic" story similar in style to The Wind Rises. Don't let the Harry Potter-ish illustration above fool you. In any event, expect one last brilliant masterwork from the sensei.
