Studio Ghibli: The films of Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata

I stumbled upon the work of Studio Ghibli during lockdown in 2020 - with time on my hands and Netflix I was able to catch up with a lot of the International animations that I had missed. The work of Studio Ghibli was a revelation and I was surprised that I had missed it. Given the lack of exposure given to their movies in the UK I decided to do a bit of background reading so picked this little book up to fill in the gaps. If you like movie trivia and the background story behind the studio, then this is a mini-treasure-trove of information. After a general introduction to the Studio each of its works are then analysed and common threads teased out. It is a slim tome weighing in at 171 pages and too often reads like a gushing fanzine. The writers are (mostly) not critical of the studio’s work which is a little frustrating given that (personally) I didn’t like some of the movies. “Princess Mononoke” was weird, “Pom Poko” plain silly, “Nausicaa” baffling, “Laputa” could have been better and “Earthsea” was a car-crash. (Don’t get me started on “The Cat Returns”!) Some of it is cultural, some if it is a matter of taste and some of it is because the studio chose its material poorly. Anime from Japan can be a bit take-it-or-leave-it. When it is good it is delight, but when it is bad you can end up wondering “what the hell were they thinking?” The flaws in the work of Studio Ghibli is what contributes to the humanity of the project yet it is only in their review of “Tales from Earthsea” (2006) that the authors begrudgingly admit that this movie was a mess. Even they could not ignore the fact that it was panned by the critics and you see why. It was awful. The only other criticism you see in this book is of the rushed ending in “Marnie”.If the lack of objective criticism is one problem then the other is that this book doesn’t choose to give any international context for anime. The authors do make a gallant effort to explain some of the Japanese cultural references, specifically in “My Neighbours the Yamadas” but all the anime conventions go without comment. For example: why do none of the romances ever lead to any form of physical affection? Although lovers never hold hands or kiss, you will see a kiss of love between two small children in “Ponyo” as well as much declarations of love between the two teenage girls in “Marnie”. This transcends the cultural norms from a western Hollywood perspective yet Colin Odell & Michelle Le Blanc never raise this. It is almost as if they cannot see how strange this seems. Maybe it is because they are too close to the subject to be objective? Having two authors leads to some overlaps. It is like two books spliced together. You get one author’s perspective, then the other’s, hence some duplication and excess occur. This leads to the writing going overboard and it can seem pretty pretentious to the casual reader. This edition is the 2019 update to the 2009 original (via a 2nd edition in 2015) so includes “Arrietty” (2010), “Poppy Hill” (2011), “Wind Rises” (2013), “Princess Kaguya” (2013) & “Marnie” (2014). “When Marnie Was There” was sadly to be the last movie the studio made before it ceased to be. It is sadly missed but, thankfully, much emulated & influential.

I found this book really disappointing. I wasn't even convinced it was the same book that others have reviewed. One reviewer wrote about the illustrations.. This book is NOT illustrated. It has a couple of pages in the centre with some pictures but that's it. The book is very small. The size of a standard paperback and it could easily be read in an afternoon.The content of the book is interesting enough, but given the price, I do think buyers will be left disappointed. I am returning this book.

This is exactly what we were looking for. My daughter completed a year 8 school project on Studio Ghibli using this as her main reference point. It is really well written in an accessible style.

Two great film makers and a really interesting book to read.

Wonderful insight to the amazing anmie studio. That brought many wonderful stories to screen.