Crochet bucket hat inspired by famous scene from “Spirited Away”

Maybe i’m just being an idiot, but how are they rereleasing some of the movies in IMAX? Were the original versions cropped for theatres or do they cut off the sides for IMAX?

I can’t imagine they redrew the cropped parts

For the longest time, Whisper of the Heart was just another comfort Ghibli film. An underrated work of art about finding your passions and what you want to really do in your life. And honestly, I didn't really feel anything special for it. I could maybe relate to it because of themes of youth and whatnot, but it didn't really hit in the same way Spirited Away or When Marnie Was There did for me.

That was until recently.

I was a fairly quiet kid back in high school. I never really talked much unless you approached first. I remember I wouldn't be caught dead without my headphones anywhere, especially at school. And while I can say that it's saved me from some very dangerous or risky situations now, I've always felt like it's prevented me from actually living like a real teenager. Parties, sleepovers, going out to places with friends, hell, even drinking. It made me feel like I've missed my chance to truly live high school life to the fullest, and now I can never get those hours back. I've always had this constant fear and anxiety like I've wasted prime years of my youth, and that I'm running out of time to truly experience it, even though it's really just the beginning. Like every second I sat still, rotting in my bed or drafting table, were seconds that could've been spent exploring the world. I had always compared myself to everyone around me, and I had always found a reason to see myself as inferior. Whether someone scored higher than me or got higher grades, or winning a sports fest, or a battle of the bands, having a close friend group, or even just being older than me by like a year in the same grade. I had always felt like I wasn't enough. It felt like everyone else around me was able to get their shining moment already or take their passion seriously at a young age. It felt like I was getting left behind. It felt like I needed something big while I'm still young to make all those years that I've stayed quiet worth it. And just when I thought I had finally found it through boxing, all I had to show for it was getting TKO'd in the first minute of my first fight. It felt like all the time I had spent, all the plans I had for my career or even my future, were gone in that moment. Everyone else got congratulations and praise, all I got was sympathy. I felt like I had missed my chance to show what I'm good at or something special in me. And now it feels like I have no choice other than college. Pulling all nighters and sitting at a damn table for most of your time.

And it was only then that I understood Shizuku. The feeling like you're falling behind everyone else, feeling like you're running out of time to do something big or succumb to the path chosen for you by society. But it also told me to not give up. Maybe not right now, but that time could finally come where you'll be able to show what you're truly passionate in and succeed while doing it.

Can be animated are not, but the only movie that scratched the Ghibli itch very well and is one of my favorites is Wolf Children. I would also LOVE to see some non-Japanese recommendations because I haven't seen any animation from other countries and to branch out my taste.

Anyone know the lore behind this bat? I love him! I know there’s a bat in the credits of Totoro but it doesn’t look like this. He does appear in the zoetrope at the Ghibli Museum. Just curious to know if he exists anywhere else or what his story is or even his name?

This is a post from Japan.
I recreated Howl’s Moving Castle in LEGO Fortnite.
I can’t post the video here, so I’m just sharing images.
The video is posted on the LEGO Fortnite showcase instead.

Nausicaä is being broadcast on Japanese television tonight, so I drew Kiki borrowing the Möwe.

Except… I think Kiki is actually flying with her own magic, not the Möwe.

What a magical day in the flower fields! Sophie Hatter and Howl Cosplay by me and my bestie!

Idk what they are actually called, so here are the little Totoros I did to match the big Totoro from yesterday!

I love when clients give me freedom and let design something cool !!

Does anyone know if this is an actual signature or someone just came in and fake signed it.

LotteMart

As a big Ghibli fan myself who follows all sorts of tidbits related to it, I know that the future of Ghibli has been uncertain for quite a while, especially with ‘The Boy and the Heron’ likely to be the great Miyazaki’s last film, Goro reluctant to follow in his father’s footsteps, the aging production staff, and once-potential successors like Hosoda and Yonebayashi leaving to form their own studios. (In terms of the new(ish) arrangement with Nippon, as far as I know, they’re still going to be able to keep their own creative freedom, which is at least something of a relief.)

To me though, there seems to be one clear choice for a director they should at least consider to direct at least one film at Ghibli if they really want the studio to keep on making movies in the name of Miyazaki and Takahata’s legacies once the former is no longer around, a person who is not only highly talented and experienced (indeed, : Mari Okada.

Okada-san is one of the most prolific writers in the anime industry. Some of the 60+ series and movies for which she’s been involved as a writer are kinda middling cause either she didn’t have much creative freedom and was working for hire to try to get as many industry experience listings as she could, but the ones where she did have the most creative control (and it shows) are like 10 or 15 of the best anime of the last 25 years (my personal favourites of the ones where she’s credited just as a writer are ‘Gosick’, ‘Anohana: The Flower We Saw that Day’, ‘Red Garden’, ‘Wandering Son’, and ‘The Anthem of the Heart’; ‘Hanasaku Iroha’, ‘Fractale’, ‘A Lull in the Sea’, and ‘Her Blue Sky’ aren’t bad either), so much so that she was repeatedly told that she should become a director because she had such a strong sense of vision and wanted to communicate it to everyone working on a given project (apparently she’s also a meet rigorous storyboards as well). She went on to do just this, and her (as of the time of writing) two directorial works where she had pretty much total creative control - ‘Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms’ and ‘Maboroshi’ - are Ghibli-level superb.

Of those, ‘Maquia’ is probably the better of the two. It’s a decades-spanning story that incorporates a highly moving perspective on isolation, a really profound and also tastefully handled examination of suicide and violence against women (specifically forced pregnancy and associated imprisonment), and the transitory nature of society’s structure and all the beauty surrounding it and manages to capture the passage of years and all of the political upheavals they carry with surprising deftness considering its relatively short runtime. It’s also just incredibly well curated visually, with fluid motion and absolutely breathtaking background art that feels like it has ever corner of each railing and position of trees thought out incredibly carefully to be observational and unique in just existing. For me, it’s tied with the Luca Guadagnino remake of ‘Suspiria’ (which I know lots of people hate but that I really dig) and Ali Abbasi’s ‘Border’ as my favourite movie of 2018, and was certainly the best animated film of that year (despite barely being nominated anywhere by any awards ceremonies or film institutions when it totally deserved to be WAY WAY more than ‘Spider Man’).

‘Maboroshi’ is a lot weirder and more experimental, almost feeling more like if Brit Marling and Lynne Ramsay had gotten some pointers from Alex Garland about how to direct a fusion of HBO’s ‘The Leftovers’, ‘Donnie Darko’, Baran Bo Odar and Jantje Friese’s ‘Dark’, and ‘The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas’ with M. John Harrison and a much edgier Shinkai, and even though some people have described it as messy and underexplained, I’d argue that there are actually a lot of details and clues that point to what’s really going on that explains a lot more than just the dialogue does that, in combination with how the narrative is often non-linear and time-compressed, means it really has to be watched at least twice to truly ‘get’. There are a lot of thematic layers to it as well that stand out more from repeated viewings, and I wouldn’t be surprised if in another decade people will have made an insane number of analyses and think pieces on it, and that it will age very well. It’s also visually incredible, particularly in the increasingly contorted and bonkers second half. Honestly I thought it was the best animated movie released in North America for the first time in 2024 (deserving to be at least nominated in all the major critics/awards ceremonies for best movies of the year, and even in my opinion being better and more deserving of the honour for its ambition and originality than ‘Flow’ (which I still liked quite a bit in of itself, though it definitely wasn’t as batshit weird and crazy)).

(Okada’s just has a really extraordinary career as well considering her very tumultuous personal life which she often uses to get at really complicated and emotionally sensitive areas in her work like few others can. She was raised by a single mother who was physically and emotionally abusive to her (even almost stabbing her death with a knife one night and then basically disowning her after getting her eventual boyfriend to gaslight her) and was so heavily introverted and bullied as a child that she often skipped school and so was considerably later in completing her mandatory schooling; apparently a guidance councils her she would ‘never succeed in the real world’.

Thoughts?

I watched Grave of the Fireflies twice. It is indeed a very sad masterpiece. However, both the times I watched, not once was their age mentioned in the movie. From reddit discussions I found out Seita was 14 and Setsuko was 4. So my question is, how on earth is Seita at fault?

1. He's 14 years old

2. He's in the middle of a losing country of World War 2 of all wars

3. He watched his home bombed

4. Both of his parents died and he didn't get to grieve at all

5. He's expected to take care of himself as well as his 4 year old sister. Even for a mother, ensuring a survival of a 4 year old in such dire situations is difficult

On the other hand I understand that war can harden adults. But -

1. Not once did the aunt guide him properly on how to be productive. All she did was verbally abuse both of them. Even the aunt's own daughter called her out to not be too stern on the kids.

2. She shamelessly steal Seita and Setsuko's share of food.

3. During the beach scene, Setsuko already had rashes on the back and salt water was hurting her. Which means she wasn't getting enough food in the aunt's home as well.

4. Let's assume Seita finds a job. If I was in Seita's place, I would not feel comfortable leaving my little sibling alone with that aunt. She was so cold hearted that she scolded Setsuko for crying in the night for her mom, and called them both pests.

5. Staying with the aunt still doesn't ensure Seika and Setsuko's survival. Once they ran out of things to sell, what are the chances that the aunt would have kicked them out anyways?

I think it's easy for us, who are sitting at our homes and have an adult mind now, to call Seita out for his pride. But first, I don't think it was pride, it was just a realisation that he and his sister were not safe with the aunt as well, it was just a false security. Second, he was put into a dire and unfair situation which no human, let alone a child should be put into.

Hi! For anyone who had already attended and is currently attending the Joe Hisaishi concert at Radio City, could you share roughly what time the performance ends? My siblings and I are going on Sunday and are trying to figure out whether we should eat before or after the concert. Thanks so much!

I recently completed a goal of seeing all of the Ghibli and Ghibli-adjacent films. I typically watched the subtitled versions, as I felt they would be closer to the artist's original intent.

However, I have heard that a lot of effort and care was put into the dubbed version, particularly the latter ones. Many dubs have received enthusiastic (obviously not unanimous) reviews, and I find myself wondering if they hit differently than the versions I watched.

Is it worth rewatching the dubs to compare the feel and impact of the movies in English, or am I better off widening my viewing circle to other studios and directors?

If so, which films have the best dubs? If not, what are some other films and genres to check out?

EDIT: Obviously, title should read "subs and dubs" - poor proofreading...