Studio Ghibli is the most internationally recognised anime production company. Founded in 1985 by directors Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata together with producer Toshio Suzuki, it has produced 24 feature films, one of which (Spirited Away) holds the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and the long-held title of highest-grossing Japanese-language film.
Founding and structure
Ghibli was founded after the production of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984), made at Topcraft. Miyazaki, Takahata, and Suzuki took the core of the Topcraft team and reconstituted it as a permanent studio backed by the publisher Tokuma Shoten. Unlike most anime studios, which staffed up and down with freelance animators per production, Ghibli built a full-time salaried team for many years, allowing internal continuity across multi-year projects.
Output
Ghibli has produced features approximately every one to three years since 1986, with longer gaps in the 2010s and 2020s. Selected works:
- Castle in the Sky (1986), My Neighbor Totoro and Grave of the Fireflies (both 1988).
- Kiki's Delivery Service (1989), Porco Rosso (1992), Pom Poko (1994).
- Princess Mononoke (1997), Spirited Away (2001), Howl's Moving Castle (2004).
- Ponyo (2008), The Wind Rises (2013), The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013).
- When Marnie Was There (2014), Earwig and the Witch (2020, CGI), The Boy and the Heron (2023).
House style and method
- Hand-drawn animation as the principal mode, with CG used sparingly until the 2020s.
- Backgrounds painted in detail at full feature-film density rather than the abbreviated style of TV anime.
- Storyboards drawn personally by the director, often before screenplay completion.
- Strong recurrence of certain themes — aviation, food preparation, environmental loss — across multiple directors at the studio.