A Visit to Studio Ghibli
Comments: 2
Yesterday was a big, once-in-a-lifetime day. I had the great honour of accompanying the novelist Peter Carey and his son on a tour of Studio Ghibli, the animation studio founded by Miyazaki Hayao and Takahata Isao. Ghibli is best known in English for “My Neighbour Tottoro” and, more recently, “Princess Mononoke” but everything they’ve done is just superb. Peter Carey’s Japanese translator and I organised the trip to help with research he’s doing for his next book.
We were told not to expect to be able to meet Mr. Miyazaki, which was a bit of a disappointment, but we were happy just to be able to see the studio. When we got to the top floor, I spotted Miyazaki at the far end of the room. As we approached, he came over to greet us and then proceeded to spend half an hour talking to us. He showed us lots of artwork used in some of the films as well as some new work the studio is producing, and spoke at length about his ideas and inspirations. I got a little bit shaky when, halfway through the conversation, I realised I was interpreting between one of the greatest animators in the world and one of the greatest novelists. I think I managed to keep it together, but I’m not sure how (that both of them were very charming and patient with my terrible Japanese may have helped).
Nausicaa.net is probably the best site for English-language information on the studio. If you’re not familiar with Ghibli’s work (or Peter Carey’s, for that matter), you owe it to yourself to do something about that just as soon as you can.
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Posted to The Good • 2002.06.16 (Sun) • 15:19
Comments
Posted by milov 2002.06.18, 07:14
That’s great!
Studio Ghibli tells the most beautiful stories.
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens 2002.06.18, 09:56
Wow! Oh, wow! Oh, wow!
Alex adds, in his inimitable Mancunian accent. “Whoa! That’s impressive!”
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