Studio Ghibli: A Retrospective, Part One - Introduction

As many of you know, I'm a big animation fan. Western, Eastern, doesn't matter. Animation has the power to achieve stories and types of characters that simply can't be done in live-action. No animation studio understands this ethos more than Studio Ghibli. Throughout their decades of work, few studios rival the imagination and power of Ghibli, in particular the works of studio stalwarts Hayao Miyzaki and Isao Takahata.

One of my last articles before a three year break was about Hayao Miyazaki's retirement (link here) and the influence he had on me as a young film fan. Now, with Miyazaki yet again coming out of retirement to direct a new film, I have decided to embark on a rewatch of the entire Studio Ghibli canon and provide articles exploring what I think of each film.

The purpose of these articles are to share my thoughts on some of my most beloved films. Studio Ghibli meant a lot to me as a slightly lonely teenager and the films have stuck with me well into adulthood. While I don't like to pick, if I was forced at gun point, I would say that Princess Mononoke is probably my favourite film of all time. I also want to give some context to each of the films, explore what works and what holds up. I'm also really interested in highlighting the non-Miyazaki Ghibli films and give them a proper exploration. The works of Isao Takahata (the other great animation god working at Ghibli), Yoshifumi Kondo, Hiromasa Yonebayashi and even Goro Miyazaki are undervalued and deserve closer examination.

** Side-Note - Part Two of the Harry Potter Retrospective is in the final stages of editing. Moving from Yorkshire to Manchester (house and job) meant there have been other priorities over the past few months. For the blog this has meant limiting to myself to snappy film reviews, as opposed to articles or more Criminally Underrated. So Part Two has taken a lot longer than anticipated. However, I'm settled in now so expect a lot more on the blog!