Things that you don’t know about Studio Ghibli
So where does the name Ghibli come from anyway? Well, Ghibli is based on the Arabic name for the sirocco (Mediterranean wind). During World War II the Italians used the sirocco for their Saharan scouting planes. Although pronounced with a hard g in both Arabic and Italian, the Japanese pronunciation of the word is with a soft g (ji-bu-ri).
The reason the studio chose to go with this name was because they wanted to “blow a new wind through the Japanese anime industry” changing things up and offering a breath of fresh air – pretty ambitious to say the least. But the studio has certainly lived up to its namesake. Check out this quick list showcasing some of the studio’s top highlights.
- The first real box-office success in Studio Ghibli’s history (just over $18 million) was Kiki’s Delivery Service in 1989, four years after the studio’s creation.
- The highest-grossing film of 1992 in Japan was Studio Ghibli’s very own Porco Rosso(¥2.8 billion in distribution income).
- The first ever Studio Ghibli film to use computer graphics was Pom Poko in 1992, starring a group of tanuki.
- The first Miyazaki film featuring computer graphics, and the first Studio Ghibli film featuring digital coloring was Princess Mononoke in 1997. Roger Ebert placed the movie sixth on his top ten movies of 1999 (after it had been released in the US) and it was also the highest grossing movie in Japan (overtaking E.T.) with $134 million in box office revenue until the achievement was claimed by Titanic several months later (but not for long!)
- The first Studio Ghibli film made entirely with digital processing was My Neighbors the Yamadas in 1999.
- Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away was the first film to gross $200 million worldwide before opening in North America (eventually making about $275 million in total), and it was the only anime film ever to win an Academy award for Best Animated Feature, and it took over Titanic ($135 million) at the Japanese box office, becoming the top grossing film ever in Japanese cinema.
The achievements above, along with a lot of other information can be found on Studio Ghibli’s Wikipedia page. And for those of you who are unfamiliar with the history behind the origins of Studio Ghibli, a good synopsis can be found here.
Image from zo-jo-man
