Studio Ghibli
Studio Ghibli was founded in 1985 by Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata and Toshio Suzuki after Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind proved a feature could succeed on their terms. Its house style is defined as much by what it refuses as by what it does: villains are frequently absent or forgivable, protagonists are usually girls with jobs to do, environmental damage is treated as a moral question rather than a plot device, and long stretches of screen time are given to nothing happening at all — a practice Miyazaki has described using the Japanese concept of ma, or negative space.
About Studio Ghibli
Studio Ghibli was founded in 1985 by Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata and Toshio Suzuki after Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind proved a feature could succeed on their terms. Its house style is defined as much by what it refuses as by what it does: villains are frequently absent or forgivable, protagonists are usually girls with jobs to do, environmental damage is treated as a moral question rather than a plot device, and long stretches of screen time are given to nothing happening at all — a practice Miyazaki has described using the Japanese concept of ma, or negative space. The studio held out against digital production far longer than the industry, and its films remain substantially hand-drawn.
Miyazaki has repeatedly announced his retirement and repeatedly returned to make another film.
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Key eras
| Era | Years | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| Foundation | 1985–1996 | Laputa, Totoro, Kiki, Porco Rosso, Princess Mononoke. |
| International breakthrough | 1997–2004 | Spirited Away wins the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. |
| Later work | 2005– | Successive retirements and returns; The Boy and the Heron in 2023. |