Ghibli Park Reveals New Concept Drawings

Progress on the highly anticipated Studio Ghibli theme park in Japan are proceeding rapidly. In February, Ghibli Park, Inc., a joint venture between the studio and newspaper Chunichi Shinbun, revealed new conceptual drawings and details of the park.

The Ghibli Park will incorporate several large sections inspired by the studio's movies such as Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro. The illustrations reveal details of the Ghibli Large Warehouse (Ghibli no Daisoko) and Youth Area (Seishun no Oka).

This first illustration depicts a shopping street in the Warehouse district, inspired by the theme park shown at the beginning of Spirited Away. Cafes, restaurants and souvenir shops will be found here.

This second drawing shows two large buildings: a blue one that will be used to host permanent exhibitions, and a yellow one that will house a 170-seat theater.

This third and fourth illustrations depict Youth Hill, a large forest area that will include a Cat's Office, inspired by the kingdom of cats in The Cat Returns. It will also feature a tall, Western-styled building inspired by Castle in the Sky and Howl's Moving Castle, as well as the Ghibli Museum.

These two areas, plus the third area, Dodonko Forest, will be completed in time for the park's grand opening in the fall of 2021. Two additional areas will be completed and open to the public in the following year.

Ghibli Park is expected to receive one million visitors in its first year, then 1.8 million the following year once all sections are opened. Construction began in 2019 with a budget of 31 billion Yen ($287 million), plus an additional 3 billion Yen ($27.78 million) for planning and conception.