Studio Ghibli: Realising A Dream

Studio Ghibli is a bit of an obsession for many people. I am included in that group of people but I am a Hayao Miyazaki fangirl more than anything else so visiting the Ghibli museum was somewhat of a dream come true for me. If you don't know what Studio Ghibli is they are a Japanese  animation company that started in the 1980s. They are home to the few "anime" style films that make it to cinemas overseas but more impressively they always receive a positive response. My favourite film produced by them, Spirited Away, is the highest grossing animated film ever to be released in Japan (many of their films are in the top ten list of highest grossing animated films in Japan). I know a lot of people dislike anime but I still urge them to give a Studio Ghibli film a go. They touch upon so many subjects, for example Princess Mononoke centres on gender, disability and environmental issues, not to mention a good dose of Japanese folk lore. 

These are Totoros ON TOTORO ORIGAMI PAPER. I got these origami papers and OH GOD I needed to use them immediately. They're brilliant. We were actually shown a short film featuring Totoro and the Catbus in the museum. It was perfect and you can only see it in the museum so that was cool.  

No pictures are allowed inside the museum. I have no idea why as the museum is fairly small and I don't really see what you could gain apart from a nice momento of a pretty building but oh well. Since Spirited Away is my favourite and there's very little coverage of it in the museum so I was happy to see Haku the dragon in their stained glass windows. 

(There was a radish spirit inside on a window pane over a doorway. He's my FAVOURITE and kind of obscure so I did try to sneak a picture..I was told off..)

This is the forest spirit from Princess Mononoke. Another somewhat obscure character so that was nice. We got to see original paintings and sketches of a lot of Princess Mononoke as well as Nausicaa, Porco Rosso and Kiki's Delivery Service. They had coated the walls with them as you walked through a reimagining of Miyazaki's work space. They were just pinned to the walls, originals! It was pretty exciting. We also got to see original paintings of the famous Ghibli backgrounds. They're just as moving and vibrant in real life as they are in the films. 

You could climb a tower onto the roof garden and have your picture taken with this guy. He is from the first film Studio Ghibli ever produced called Laputa: Castle in the Sky. 

Susuwatari! I love these guys, I'm desperate for a really big one but all the ones I find are super small (they're meant to be small..I just like to be difficult..)

I also got Spirited Away collage papers. AMAZING. I know the characters in Spirited Away don't lend themselves so easily to merchandise so I wanted to give making my own little characters a go. If you click through and view them larger on flickr you can see the little Ootori-Sama (Bird Gods) on Boh the mouse. 

Is there anywhere you would like me to visit while I'm in Tokyo? I have lots of plans but I'd love to go somewhere I've not read about yet.