Some believe that Studio Ghibli ends with My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away, but the truth is that its production is almost ungraspable: 24 films (including The Red Turtle, which is actually a delightful co-production with several French producers), a television series, a good number of commercials, four plays, and even two video games (the legendary Ni No Kuni). Oh! And even more, if you want to see all the previous work of its leaders, such as Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro, Future Boy Conan, or Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. All wonders.
Trip to Japan!
Surely more than once you have planned your dream trip to Japan or, even better, you have boarded a plane to go to the Land of the Rising Sun. And you know then that one of the things that every serious movie buff must do is visit the Ghibli Museum, a must-see stop near Tokyo where you will see originals, learn how animation is done, see Hayao Miyazaki’s study table, and many more things, with fascinating architecture and where, perhaps, its only downside (depending on how you look at it) is that photos are not allowed.
What not everyone knows is that the entrance to this magical place is a random frame from one of its lesser-known products: the short films that can only be seen at the Ghibli Museum and that rotate throughout the months. They are small masterpieces, some of them directed by Miyazaki himself, that have never been released in physical format and cannot be seen in any way outside of that place. I have had the opportunity to see two of them on two different visits, and they are pure Ghibli, a feast of wonder. I only regret not being able to see each and every one of them!
Among the short films there is a kind of sequel to My Neighbor Totoro (Mei and the Kittenbus) in which Mei goes out at night again with the Kittenbus, a miniature version of the Catbus, and encounters all kinds of adventures. It is also the place where, hopefully, you will be able to see Boro the caterpillar, in which Miyazaki animated for the first time using CGI instead of classic hand-drawn animation, because he couldn’t find another way to tell this story, which the director had been contemplating since the era of Princess Mononoke.
And surely, if you are like me, you are already thinking “Well, but there must be a way to see them, right? They must be filtered on the Internet, where there is everything.” And… the truth is that no. There is some stuff here and there, and even transcripts of the shorts that can be purchased at the Ghibli Museum shop, but that’s about it: they are not lost media because they are more than located in the world, but it is something that is not on the Internet. Perhaps that’s why it is so refreshing to go to the museum and enjoy seeing something for the first time, almost as if you were an audiovisual explorer in search of the lost Atlantis.
While Hayao Miyazaki continues to work on his next film (which he insists will be the last, but we’ve fallen for that lie several times already), there is always the dream and hope that, no matter what happens, there will always be something more from Studio Ghibli to unearth, even if it’s just some shorts in the coolest cinema you will ever be in your life. I don’t think you were exactly lacking the desire to go to Japan, but it doesn’t hurt to add more fuel to the fire.
