The Artistic Talents of the Studio Ghibli Fandom

The Artistic Talents of the Studio Ghibli Fandom

    Where can you find a house that moves around the world on chicken legs, a giant cat that can turn into a bus, and a pig that can fly airplanes? Most people might answer that they live in their imagination, the most logical answer they can come up with. However, there is a legitimate answer to this question, and it is the members of its fandom that can answer it the best. All of these out-of-this-world elements and more can be witnessed in the films from the Japanese animation studio, Studio Ghibli. Founded by Hayao Miyazaki in the late 1980s, Studio Ghibli produces visually stunning films with themes and messages that lie deep within their content. One would have to look between the hand-drawn lines and bright colors to find that there is a larger story about environmentalism or growing up that is truly at play. The fans of these films, who tend to be older children, teenagers, and adults, hold onto these stories long after their first time watching them and share them with others in a variety of ways. Artistry tends to be a large component of the fandom, as people are inspired to replicate the visual elements of the films in any way they can. Whether it is through visual art on paper or bringing the films to life in a more realistic manner, there is no denying the desire that Studio Ghibli fans have to escape into the worlds the company has created for them.

A Celebration of Art

Fan art depicting several iconic Studio Ghibli characters (Puhl).

    

    Studio Ghibli fans are completely taken with the artistic visuals that are at play within the films. They possess a unique style that is able to fully immerse the viewer into the world they are witnessing, from the wide-eyed protagonists, the mouth-watering food, and the landscapes that seem to embody nature at its fullest. With such a beautiful art style right before their eyes, fans have often tried to replicate it for themselves in their own ways. There are thousands of pieces of fan art that exist on the internet, all in a variety of styles and on several platforms such as Pinterest or Etsy. Pieces can be created as traditional art, digital art, or art that tends to lean more towards realism. One online community that exists can be found on DeviantArt called studioghibli. Founded in 2007, studioghibli has collected a variety of art pieces from fans and houses them in a single group for fans to browse through. Pieces range from digital art and GIFs to other types of fan material, such as cosplay pictures and fanfiction. On their about page, the group's mission is listed as being "[a] place for fans and deviants to interact and show their fan art of Studio Ghibli's animations!" ("Studioghibli"). Despite being a company that originated in Japan, fan art does not solely come from there. Art for the fandom exists on a global scale, as seen in a CBR article compiling several pieces of fan art. Several of the pieces on this page have a description of where the original artists come from, with some locations being in the United States and even France (White). The thousands of fan art that exist for Studio Ghibli represent the global impact the films have made on others. The fandom is a worldwide one that allows fans to explore their passion for these films in a medium that helps them relate to the company's individual style.

    

A video tour of the Studio Ghibli Museum made by a fan (Ros).

    The artwork that is present within the films has become so popular that it has even spread to a public viewing platform. In 2001, the Studio Ghibli Museum was established in Mitaka, Japan, where fans could witness the animated visuals for themselves as they hang on the walls. The museum is interactive, as the art pieces tend to be animated as well and move for the guests to view them in action. The overall structure of the museum is also reminiscent of Ghibli films due to the architecture resembling locations that can be found in their most popular films (Denison 551-552). Whether it is through the building itself or the animation they are able to watch inside, fans can learn about what goes into creating their favorite works and feel as if they are a part of their creation. Reyna Denison emphasizes this idea by stating, "It is the exhaustive processes involved in animation that become hallmarks of the Studio Ghibli's quality productions in this exhibition space" (Denison 553). When fans visit the museum, they are able to learn how much work goes into creating the films that they love as well as visual art as a whole. It inspires them to work hard enough in their own creations to make something they are passionate about and share it with others, a message that is often present in Studio Ghibli films. The Studio Ghibli Museum celebrates traditional artwork and serves as one of the foundations for fans to immerse themselves in the films' worlds through their own lives.

Bringing Art to Life

   

Several fans cosplaying as a variety of Studio Ghibli characters (joshietakashima). 

Studio Ghibli fans do not only show their appreciation for the company in visual art. Another popular venue that fans often take to is cosplay. One of the things that people love about Studio Ghibli films is the easy immersion that they provide for viewers. This makes it an ample choice for cosplaying, as it allows fans to truly engage in the experience these films provide for them. Cosplay is an elaborate art form due to the level of detail that is involved. While some fans work their hardest to capture every single detail of a character's appearance into their outfit, others work with what they already own to create something simple in a form called "closet cosplaying." Studio Ghibli films lend themselves to both of these concepts, as their characters range from wearing outfits that seem otherworldly in the amount of detail involved in them to clothes that a person could see being worn on a daily basis. Like fan art, there are a variety of online platforms that showcase Studio Ghibli cosplays. One website is dedicated to every piece of news and fan culture involved with the fandom. Studioghiblimovies.com hosts several archives that are filled with pictures of cosplays from the movies. They range from the more elaborate, such as men wearing pig snouts to portray the titular human-pig hybrid from Porco Rosso, to closet cosplays, such as a fan wearing a My Neighbor Totoro-inspired dress while surrounded by the mythical creatures from the film. One picture depicts a group of people dressed as a variety of Ghibli characters, but they have also constructed a replica of the dragon Haku from Spirited Away that stretches across all six people (Aeiko). The website CBR also has an article that displays several remarkable cosplays. The article discusses some of the more prominent details in the Studio Ghibli cosplay community. It mentions the simplicity in cosplay designs for the titular Kiki from Kiki's Delivery Service, the popularity of certain characters like San from Princess Mononoke, and the level of detail some fans are willing to utilize for their cosplays. For example, one photo in the article depicts a cosplayer dressed as the ocean goddess Granmamare from Ponyo. However, it appears to have been taken underwater to enhance the character's embodiment of the ocean itself (Rowell). The designs of Studio Ghibli characters are truly something to behold, so witnessing them in real life must be even more breathtaking than the animation. When in-person fan conventions resume around the world, Studio Ghibli cosplayers are sure to make an appearance.

    The company's popularity has even taken its dedication of full immersion to ideas that extend beyond cosplays. As of 2017, a Studio Ghibli theme park is being constructed at Aichi Earth Expo Memorial Park in Japan. The area is being renamed Ghibli Park and is officially sponsored by the company in order to bring the films fans adore to life. The park will consist of five areas that will house reconstructions of different locations from the films that visitors can go to. They are called Springtime of Life Hill, Ghibli's Giant Warehouse, Dondoko Forest, Princess Mononoke Village, and Witch Valley (Mitchell). Despite the area being referred to as a theme park, the types of activities that will exist for fans to engage in are different from the Western idea of a theme park. While rides are going to be present in the area, Ghibli Park's focus is on the natural land the area sits on. Therefore, its main attractions are much smaller in scale, and they consist of attractions such as gift shops, exhibition rooms, and walking tours through the surrounding forest and constructed buildings (Mitchell). While plans for the park seem to be completed, fans will have to wait a little longer in order to visit it for themselves. Its original goal was to open in 2020, but construction had to be suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, construction has resumed since then, and its new launch date is set for the fall of 2022 (Mitchell). Even though Ghibli Park is not open just yet, it gives fans something to look forward to until then. They can finally live out their dreams of becoming their favorite Ghibli characters by stepping into the fantastical and awe-inspiring worlds the company has created for them to enjoy. Ensuring that viewers are fully engaged with their films is something that Studio Ghibli aspires to accomplish, and the fans take this dedication to the next level by making these stories come to life beyond the screen.

What Ghibli Park is expected to look like (Studio Ghibli).

Artistic Analysis

    More recently, fans have tried to find new ways in which to explore the topics and artistry that can be found in Studio Ghibli films. While art alone can convey their visual beauty, others need several words in order to describe what makes these films so special to others. A popular way this is done online is through video essays found on YouTube. Video essays are a way for fans to focus on a specific aspect of a piece of media they can enjoy and separate it into topics that can be discussed in larger detail. This multimedia format allows fans to utilize scenes from the films alongside their arguments and use them as visual aids for their viewers. These videos also help in exposing Studio Ghibli to a wider audience through a global platform. Video essays vary in length, with some being only as long as five minutes to others going on for over twenty minutes. A popular YouTube account dedicated to pop culture video essays, The Take, has two videos that focus on Studio Ghibli films. One video, "My Neighbor Totoro: Why We Need Totoro," discusses the themes that are present in the film My Neighbor Totoro. The narrator explains that while plot is minimal in the film, the allegory it serves as for growing up provides important lessons to viewers that have helped its status as one of the company's most iconic creations grow (The Take). The other video, "Kiki's Delivery Service: The Millennial Starving Artist," discusses how Kiki's Delivery Service can serve as a representation for millennial creators and their journey to success. It focuses on how the titular character and her journey is similar to modern millennials who try to pursue a career in the arts despite the film being made in a time before millennials were born (The Take). There are dozens of other video essays that exist on YouTube that discuss not only specific Studio Ghibli films but the company as a whole and why their films make such a large impact on their audience. This type of art allows fans who may not have any traditional art skills to still make a larger contribution to the fandom.

A video essay on the themes found in Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind ("Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind - Renegade Cut").

    Studio Ghibli has taken Western culture by storm, as its fans have ensured that it continues to be loved long into the twenty-first century. Despite being a product of the late 1980s and early 90s, fans continue to share these films and their stories with a modern audience in any way they can. Some have even implemented them into modern curriculum. In spring of 2019, Wendy R. Williams created a college course that focused on watching Studio Ghibli films at Arizona State University in Mesa. The goal of the course was to see how students responded to the films through their own hobbies and interests. Williams describes this further by stating, "This decision was rooted in my interests in students' out-of-school literacies, visual/multimodal narratives...and an appreciation for the films" (Williams 639). After watching all of Studio Ghibli's films as well as using readings that related to them, Williams assigned her students with a final creative project of their choice. She found that most students turned to visual artistic works, such as paintings or arts and craft constructions. Others turned to more unconventional projects, such as a video game based on Spirited Away and a cookbook based on foods found in the films (Williams 644, 646). Williams' course shows how Studio Ghibli fans are continuing to keep the company's name alive by sharing it with new audiences. While fandoms consisting of long-time fans help to strengthen their legacy, it is also important to allow new fans to enter them and explore them in their own way. Williams encouraged a variety of creative methods to be used by her students, exemplifying the true fandom spirit of exposure, passion, and individuality without scorn. These goals ring true within the Studio Ghibli fandom, as everyone involved has come to explore these films and what they love about them in their own way. Williams' course shows that fans believe these films should not only be appreciated by those in the fandom but on an academic and intellectual level as well.

My Time as a Studio Ghibli Fan

 

The plush Totoro that sits on my windowsill (Mucci).

    Studio Ghibli films and the culture that surrounds them have always been on my radar throughout my life. I always noticed how much people seemed to talk about Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle and found the fan parodies of the My Neighbor Totoro poster online, but I had never seemed to get into these films myself. I had watched Ponyo and The Secret World of Arrietty when they were first released in theaters, but they had not been enough to allow me to dive into the larger world these films presented to their viewers. It was not until the spring of 2018 that I finally decided I had waited long enough. I made a plan for myself to watch every single Studio Ghibli film and understand what it was that people liked about them so much. I finally finished this task in the spring of 2020, and my life has become all the better for it. I understand the passion fans have towards these films and why they want to share it with others. I have witnessed the beauty of the animation and the way in which they tell stories that I have never experienced before. I have found a love in their otherworldly locations, strong female characters that exemplify feminist ideals, and the power to capture everything you could ever dream about experiencing in your youth onscreen. Every fan has the one film from the company that they are deeply passionate about because it touched them so profoundly. Mine is My Neighbor Totoro. The only emotion I could feel while watching it was pure joy, and its themes on remaining optimistic even in frightening times and appreciating your inner child are ones that I have always held close to my heart. Since viewing it, I have tried to acquire any type of merchandise that I can for it. I currently own a Totoro t-shirt, Totoro-themed bracelets, a small, plush Totoro that sits on the windowsill of my apartment bedroom, and the original DVD of the film. I have also been very passionate about the musical score that exists not only in Totoro but in all of Studio Ghibli's films. I am always amazed by how well they are able to capture the locations and emotions of a scene so vividly, even when listening to them outside of the film. Some of my favorite tracks are the theme from My Neighbors the Yamadas and "Reprise" from Spirited Away, and I always make sure to take some time to stand on the balcony of my family's Florida condo when I visit and listen to "A Town with an Ocean View" from Kiki's Delivery Service. Because my love for Studio Ghibli is still fairly recent, I have been slowly integrating myself into the larger fandom. I would love to attend a convention in a cosplay of some of my favorite characters or visit Ghibli Park once it opens so I could interact with other fans in larger settings. I am also not as artistically talented as other fans when it comes to visual art, but I love looking for and appreciating fan art online nonetheless. Until the day comes when I can do these things myself, I will continue to settle for watching Studio Ghibli films again and again on HBO Max and spread the wonder that they hold to others like the fandom did for me years before.

Works Cited

Aeiko. "A Few Great Studio Ghibli Cosplays!" Studio Ghibli Movies, 18 Aug. 2015, https://studioghiblimovies.com/a-few-great-studio-ghibli-cosplays/. Accessed 17 March 2021.

Denison, Reyna. "Anime Tourism: Discursive Construction and Reception of the Studio Ghibli Art Museum." Japan Forum, vol. 22, no. 3/4, 2010, pp. 545-563.

Joshietakashima. Studio Ghibli Photo-Shoot Acen 2011. 2011. DeviantArt, https://www.deviantart.com/joshietakashima/art/Studio-Ghibli-Photo-Shoot-Acen-2011-299751608. Accessed 22 March 2021.

"Kiki's Delivery Service: The Millennial Starving Artist." YouTube, uploaded by The Take, 29 March 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vv9mL0YjUiE&list=PLY8-JHLY9yDPsZPxyBd7Npsxcjr-Vqoqt&index=2.

Mitchell, Bea. "Studio Ghibli Theme Park: Everything You Need to Know." Blooloop, 24 Sept. 2020, https://blooloop.com/theme-park/in-depth/studio-ghibli-theme-park/. Accessed 17 March 2021.

Mucci, Alexis. The Plush Totoro. 2021.

"My Neighbor Totoro: Why We Need Totoro." YouTube, uploaded by The Take, 9 June 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3EIoM3w_x0&list=PLY8-JHLY9yDPsZPxyBd7Npsxcjr-Vqoqt&index=1.

"Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind - Renegade Cut." YouTube, uploaded by Renegade Cut, 13 June 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJt7OhO0YLI&list=PL97DfOQi77WOsmWN5nlAmcVSfoT49T76Z&index=36.

Puhl, Johanna. Ghibli Fanart. N.d. Johanna Puhl Artstation, https://johannapuhl.artstation.com/projects/rRJdPJ. Accessed 22 March 2021.

Ros. "~Studio Ghibli Museum Tour~." YouTube, uploaded by Always, Ros, 20 Apr. 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvkE6Nq8Pc8.

Rowell, Dalin. "Studio Ghibli: 10 Stunning Cosplays That Look Just Like the Characters." CBR, 13 Dec. 2019, https://www.cbr.com/studio-ghibli-stunning-cosplay-look-just-like-characters-totoro-kiki-ponyo-miyazaki/. Accessed 17 March 2021.

Studio Ghibli. Untitled Sketch of Ghibli Park. N.d. Blooloop, https://blooloop.com/theme-park/in-depth/studio-ghibli-theme-park/. Accessed 22
March 2021.

"Studioghibli." DeviantArt, 20 June 2007, https://www.deviantart.com/studioghibli/. Accessed 15 March 2021.

White, Chris. "Studio Ghibli: 10 Amazing Works of Fan Art That We Love." CBR, 24 Nov. 2019, https://www.cbr.com/studio-ghibli-fan-art/. Accessed 15 March 2021.

Williams, Wendy R. "Examining Studio Ghibli's Animated Films: A Study of Students' Viewing Paths and Creative Projects." Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, vol. 63, no. 6, 2020, pp. 639-650.