iNJAPAN

Studio Ghibli is like the Walt Disney of Japan. It was founded in 1985, headed by the acclaimed director Miyazaki Hayao.
The name ‘Ghibli’ comes from an Italian word that means ‘hot wind,’ because they believed the studio was going to blow a new wind into the Japanese anime industry. So far they have succeeded. Everybody in Japan grew up watching Ghibli movies, as well as Koreans and Chinese.

Anime created by Studio Ghibli that have won the Animage Anime Grand Prix award have been Castle in the Sky in 1986, My Neighbor Totoro in 1988, and Kiki’s Delivery Service in 1989.

Kiki’s Delivery Service was the first Studio Ghibli film released under the Disney/Studio Ghibli deal, and was premiered in the U.S. at the Seattle International Film Festival on May 23, 1998.

The first Studio Ghibli movie that I saw was My Neighbor Totoro. I actually think it was the first movie I’ve ever downloaded on the Internet and watched on my computer. I was about 13 or 14, and I loved the cute characters, the peaceful scenery, and the subtle meanings behind the childish acts.

My favorite Ghibli movie to this day is Princess Mononoke. I absolutely love it. It was released in 1997, and it is rich with action, beauty, and wild imagination. It is a jidaigeki (period drama) set in late Muromachi period of Japan, and centers on the struggle between the supernatural guardians of a forest and the humans who consume its resources, as seen by the outsider Ashitaka.
You can also get a good glimpse of how the Japanese used to worship everything, and believed every animal and object had a spirit.

The movie that got the most attention was Spirited Away, released in 2001. The film received many awards, including the second Oscar ever awarded for Best Animated Feature, the first anime film to win an Academy Award, and the only winner of that award to win among five nominees (in every other year there were three nominees). The film also won the Golden Bear at the 2002 Berlin International Film Festival (tied with Bloody Sunday).
The movie has many complex themes, including growing up in a world mixed with modern innovations and traditional rules, and about the corruption of the world by greed.
This movie also has so many unique characters and is also very Japanese. The majority of the story is based in a public bathhouse where gods go to wash themselves, which is a perfect way to show various aspects of traditional Japanese culture and mindset.