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Studio Ghibli’s animated film Pom Poko presents the tanuki or raccoon dogs which, according to the Japanese myth, have magical power of impersonating human or shape-lifting. Mythology refers to the study of religious or heroic legends and tales created by particular communities or societies. Having the setting in the 1960s of post-war Japan, this animated film mediates the meaning of the tanuki’s moves in selected scenes. Therefore, Barthesian semiotic model is employed as semiotics itself is concerned with the film and its representation. This research is then aimed at finding out the representation of the tanuki. Employing qualitative method, this research selects six data in the forms of images to analyze. The results yield that the tanuki are the heroes of environmental conservation by struggling and using force for the sake of their environment, jungle, food sources, living territory, and future cubs. Their moves of defending nature represent their ecological terroristic ideology or ecoterrorism.

Film has a long history of spectral association, from the possibilities of projection, the dancing image that hangs in the air, to the translucence of the media itself. Taking inspiration from a Japanese animation, Michael Chapman, Professor and Chair of Architecture and Industrial Design at Western Sydney University, has created a series of works that seek to fill in the haunted blanks and uncanny parallaxes that exist between the space we view and perceive in the filmic sequence and an 'objective' reality of that architecture. He uses some of the compositional protocols of the traditional scroll and machinery to produce his proposal – a parallel world that haunts the absences and holes within the original. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studio Ghibli has made great animated films for more than three decades. One of its great animators is Hayao Miyazaki. Being famous for his award-winning and picturesque films, Miyazaki has proven to be a highly skilled animator presenting a catchy shōjo with distinctive characters. His shōjo named Kiki in Kiki’s Delivery Service has peculiar traits. This research aims at proving the opposition of Kiki to the common Japanese female character archetype. Eight pieces of data are in the form of screen captures to be studied semiotically. As part of social science research, this study is qualitative in nature. By employing Barthesian semiotic theory and Sugawa-Shimada’s theory of shōjo, it is evident that Kiki opposes the archetype of Japanese female characters. Kiki is portrayed as independent, assertive, not depending on one specific type of magical weapon, wearing a simple black witch dress, able to make prompt and clear decisions, doing daily chores, and having magical power that might be gone anytime due to some psychological reasons. Theoretically, this study contributes to the development of the linguistic field, particularly the stream of semiotics. This research also benefits researchers, film-makers, film audiences, and Studio Ghibli’s enthusiasts in a semiotic way that Kiki as shōjo is constructed with great empowerment opposing the common stereotype of a female character.

The proliferation of franchise-driven consumption has created a social paradigm where branded symbols are overproduced across an endless array of consumer products. As a paradigm dependent on generating ever-more growth, we argue that transmedia production facilitates social modes which are inherently damaging to the environment. This is accomplished through an examination of the media mix of Japanese animation firm Studio Ghibli, who despite praise from critics and educators for their deeply nuanced environmentalist themes, have heavily commodified their works through plastic merchandise and tourist destinations. While this research demonstrates the studio had already broadly adopted media mix promotion by the early aughts, following the studio's 2014 hiatus in film production, we show a distinct rise in transmedia communication and production of goods made of non-renewable resources. In light of this, we discuss the commodification of Ghibli's themes as a product of recuperation, adding to discussions of capitalism's penchant for co-opting its opposition. Of this instance, we examine the industrial dynamics that led to this specific increase, the cultural-economic paradigms of media mix that frame commodification as a natural extension of texts – despite dissonant values – and consider how contemporary media ecologies may offer any hope of imagining genuinely environmentally conscious societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Female antagonists in animation often fit within the universal archetype of the monstrous mother, yet there is little scholarly research examining her role in Japanese animation. This paper examines the role of Yubaba as an exemplary model of the monstrous mother in Studio Ghibli's highly successful animated film Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi) to reveal the ways in which female antagonists are locally and globally constructed through the transgression of sex, gender and cultural norms. Through an application of Japanese psychoanalytic theory and Barbara Creed's theory of the monstrous-feminine, this study finds that both universal and culturally specific sex-based stereotypes inform Japan's depiction of monstrous mothers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As opposed to most contemporary usage of the word “picturesque” – which is generally taken to mean visually attractive in a quaint or charming way, or else something that resembles a picture – William Gilpin introduced this term to the English cultural debate in 1792. Gilpin used “picturesque” to typify an aesthetic ideal wherein roughness, raggedness, and ruins would be privileged over smoothness, symmetry and perfection. Over time, his conceptualization of “the picturesque” led to a celebration of disorder, decay, and ruin, a kind of glorification of violence also familiar to the Gothic romances of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. However, following the unimaginable havoc and mass destruction caused by the two world wars, ruins and images of ruins started to be viewed very differently. This paper seeks to explore how the picturesque mode has been used as an instrument of caution in the works of Studio Ghibli, spearheaded by two creative artists and directors, Hayao Miyazaki and Takahata Isao, who have experienced the horrors of WWII firsthand in their own childhoods. This paper specifically looks at two famous anime feature films produced by Studio Ghibli – Grave of the Fireflies (1988) and Howl's Moving Castle (2004) – that deal with the impacts of war and convey strong anti-war messages by uniquely employing the picturesque mode of representation.

Este artículo analiza la transformación del personaje principal del filme El Castillo Ambulante (Hauru no ugoku shiro, Hayao Miyazaki, 2004), dado que la metamorfosis es uno de los temas destacados en la filmografía de Miyazaki en general y de esta película en particular. La edad física de Sophie fluctúa a lo largo del largometraje para reflejar su estado psicológico y su visión del mundo, su autoestima y la manera en que quiere representarse a sí misma. La forma en que su apariencia oscila provoca que la protagonista no tenga realmente una edad definida, sino varias al mismo tiempo, dando lugar a una visión realmente innovadora del personaje que influye de manera vertebral en toda la película, y que permite explorar cómo la apariencia física de la mujer puede convertirse en símbolo para desmarcarse del modelo narrativo androcéntrico dominante.

Isao Takahata's Grave of the Fireflies (1988) is the subject of Alex Dudok de Wit's new book, his first, for the British Film Institute's (BFI) Film Classics series. Dudok de Wit's writing has appeared in Sight & Sound, Vulture, Little White Lies, The Telegraph, The i, The Independent and Time Out, and in specialist animation publications such as Skwigly and Cartoon Brew, where he was formerly the deputy editor. He has written and narrated a short documentary for the BBC about British puppet animation. His English translation of director Hayao Miyazaki's graphic novel Shuna's Journey appeared from First Second Books in 2022. In what follows, Dudok de Wit and I explore Fireflies' incredibly sad tone; the potentialities and the limitations of animated films, both Studio Ghibli's and beyond; Takahata's and Miyazaki's depictions of war, respectively, in Fireflies and in the Academy Award-nominated film The Wind Rises (2013); Dudok de Wit's considerable research for this monograph; and finally, how he reads Fireflies' complex ending. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to analyze the transformation of its main character within the filmic discourse, given that metamorphosis is one of the prominent themes in Miyazaki's filmography, and of particular relevance in Howl's Moving Castle (Hauru no ugoku shiro, Hayao Miyazaki, 2004). Sophie's physical age fluctuates throughout the film to reflect her psychological state and her view of the world, her self-esteem, and the way she wants to represent herself. The way in which her appearance oscillates means that the protagonist is not really one age, but several at the same time, giving rise to a truly innovative vision of the character that influences the whole film, and which allows us to explore how a woman's physical appearance can become a symbol to break away from the dominant androcentric narrative model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need for a reconsideration of human-nature relationships has been widely recognized in the Anthropocene. It is difficult to rethink, however, because there is a crisis of imagination that is deeply entrenched within the fundamental premises of modernity. This article explores how 'critical animism' developed by Miyazaki Hayao of Studio Ghibli can address this paucity of imagination by providing alternative ways of knowing and being. 'Critical animism' emerged from the fusion of a critique of modernity with informal cultural heritage in Japan. It is a philosophy that perceives nature as a non-dualistic combination of the life-world and the spiritual-world, while also emphasizing the significance of place. Miyazaki's critical animism challenges anthropocentrism, secularism, Eurocentrism, as well as dualism. It may be the 'perfect story' that could disrupt the existing paradigm, offering a promise to rethink human-nonhuman relationships and envisaging a new paradigm for the social sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the eternally looming spectre of Miyazaki Hayao's retirement, the death of Takahata Isao and the failure to establish a viable new artistic figurehead to follow in their footsteps, Studio Ghibli has been at a crucial crossroads for some time. Over the past few decades, the acclaimed Japanese animation studio has adopted three main strategies to cope with these changes: apprenticeship to foster new talent, co-productions both domestically and abroad, and shutting down their production facilities. Each approach has affected Ghibli's evolving brand identity - and the meaning of the 'Ghibli film' - causing confusion in the international critical reception of the resulting movies. Academic approaches too have shown difficulties dealing with recent shifts. While conceptualizing the 'Ghibli film' as the product of a studio brand or as the work of auteurs Miyazaki and Takahata has proven useful, such frameworks have become inadequate for accommodating these changes. This article therefore proposes a new approach for understanding recent 'Ghibli films', arguing that, rather than being treated as a brand or genre, they have increasingly been fashioned along modular lines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studio Ghibli movies enjoy immense popularity globally, and a special place in the hearts of movie buffs especially because of its aesthetic appeal, and the beautiful relationships portrayed between the characters. However, many critics have been dismissive of these movies because of their anime form which, according to critics, renders the movies less important than motion pictures and are only suitable for children. The suitability of anime for only children could be a potent area open for debate, but Ghibli movies do not only deal with seemingly unimportant problems. The article would argue with special focus on two of the Ghibli movies, Spirited Away, and My Neighbor Totoro, that the creators offer a critical lens that focuses on cultural recovery in an age of capitalism where American pop culture has invaded every home, and how the movies offer ways of reconnecting with nature and environment.

Se parte de Disney y Studio Ghibli como referentes del cine de animaci.n en occidente y oriente respectivamente y se presenta el tratamiento que ambas toman sobre el concepto de migración. Siendo conscientes de la influencia de la cultura visual en quienes la consumen se pretende conocer el posicionamiento que un grupo de estudiantes del Grado en Maestro en Educación Primaria de la Universitat de Valencia tiene sobre el concepto de migración en la cultura visual (Disney y Studio Ghibli) y las potencialidades que en esta perciben como recurso didáctico en las aulas. Para ello se recurre a la metodolog.a cualitativa, concretamente al estudio de caso. Los resultados reafirman el potencial del cine de animación como medio para educar al alumnado, pero concluyen la escasa formación que el profesorado tiene al respecto y el desconocimiento de este sector en relación con la didáctica del audiovisual.

Copyright of Cuadernos del Centro de Estudios de Diseño y Comunicación is the property of Cuadernos del Centro de Estudios de Diseno y Comunicacion and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Este artículo analiza la evolución de Studio Ghibli tras la primera declaración de retiro del maestro japonés Hayao Miyazaki a finales de los noventa, tras el exitoso estreno de La princesa Mononoke, una eventual despedida que repetirá en 2013 tras el estreno de El viento se levanta. El texto, elaborado por Laura Montero Plata "autora de las monografías El mundo invisible de Hayao Miyazaki (Dolmen, 2012) y la más reciente La princesa Mononoke (Héroes de Papel, 2017), segunda entrega de la Biblioteca Studio Ghibli" revisa para Con A de Animación la política editorial del estudio y los cambios producidos desde entonces, estableciendo una doble vía de trabajo mantenida a lo largo del tiempo, con producciones de entretenimiento familiar y obras artísticas más arriesgadas. Asimismo, apunta sus futuras creaciones y el relevo generacional del estudio nipón.

The article focuses on the sources on Miyazaki's anime offering new research insights into Miyazaki's sources and working methods for the creation of the stories and settings for his films. The author draws on research by other critics, such as Susan Napier, to trace the way in which European literary influences, especially children's literature, alongside Europe's geography, are mined to create a 'Euroworld'. Denison also explores the tension between the fantastic and the real in Miyazaki's creative toolbox. While referencing Lindsay Smith's work on 'transformative adaptations', the author argues for Miyazaki's unique use of hybridised adaptation. This, Denison argues, enables Miyazaki to work his stories within a decentred context which nevertheless reflects global themes of industrialisation, the costs of war and the environment. The article argues that Miyazaki's anime 'fantasies' are always purposeful and anchored to the real world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]