The Studio Ghibli Museum

It seems to me that if you have Asian parents, or have lived in Asia you will definitely know of Studio Ghibli and its many films. Their movies are an example of anime, Japanese animation, cartoons if you will. My rather convoluted route into anime went like this:

- I am 7 years old and go on a family holiday to France. On French TV I see one of the weirdest cartoons I have ever seen. Discovered later that it was called Dragonball Z.

- I am 17 and we get satellite television. I watch a lot of the Sci-fi channel and about 1AM on a Friday morning I turn on to see anime. It is something called Neon Genesis Evangelion, I sit, watch it and get hooked. They show anime every week for about 2 hours, from midnight till 2am and I try my best to record it on the huge Ferguson video recorder my parents gave me when they replaced it with a younger model, the Ferguson one is actually older than I am. Occasionally the Sci-fi channel shows anime films and one of the first I saw was a very famous Studio Ghibli movie called My Neighbour Totoro.

- I am 19 years old and get to university. I join the anime society and struggle through being afraid of some of the people who made the same decision, then feeling lonely but eventually finding someone called Anthony who becomes a close friend (Hi Anthony). I also get to see 3 hours of strange but mostly good anime every week.

- I am 22 and in Japan, anime is everywhere. The book shops are stacked with manga (Japanese comics), there are arcades with anime characters all over the machines and above me are billboards advertising animes and related things.

Nowadays it is easier to get into anime because it's even on British TV. You remember Pokemon, that’s anime, not particularly good anime but still it is well known. In 2001 when Studio Ghibli released Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi, it got released in Britain and America also (I think via Disney) under the name of Spirited Away.

So in summary anime is Japanese animated films and television series and Studio Ghibli is the most famous anime production company in the world. In Tokyo there is a Studio Ghibli museum, it’s very famous yet somewhat secretive as you have to book in advance and are not allowed to take any pictures inside. I went there with Yan and Miyagi on Sunday. When we were walking towards the museum I started humming the theme tune to My Neighbour Totoro, I don’t know the words but that didn’t matter. Both of my companions began to sing along. That is what Studio Ghibli is; its films are so good and so well known that they are both able to stay with you for a lifetime and appeal to all cultures.

Ok enough of an introduction, here are some pictures. This is on the walk to the museum, it was a slow walk as the tickets we had allowed us entry at 4pm and it was only 2pm. The road was lined with trees, some of which were still in blossom but there were a lot of blossom petals blowing in the air quite magically. I took it to be a photo opportunity.

This is a picture of me, looking like a smiling mannequin, and Yan.

This is me and Miyagi.

And predicatbly it's Miyagi and Yan.

Moving on.

Down this street were little signs pointing the way to the museum, for example.

To take up some time, and because it was a beautifully sunny day with so many petals blowing in the air that it was like the trees were getting married, we went to a park. This is a picture of a flower on the ground.

My companions found it strange that I took that picture since it is essentially a dying flower, but hey.

We found a small playground with two swings. One was occupied by a little girl and the other Yan commandeered for himself. This is a picture of him on the swing and don’t you think the girl is giving me the evil eye.

Miyagi went on next but she got scared after reaching an altitude of one metre and came off. When it was my go a strange thing happened. As I gained height I started losing weight. I first heard a clunk and saw my lipsill lying on the ground, Yan picked it up for me. Then there was a larger clunk as my wallet landed on the grass; the swing was robbing me blind. I got off.

Yan, who is Korean, was conscripted into the Korean military for 2 years. He wanted to find some monkey bars for old times sake. When we found some low ones Yan and Miyagi tried to do a roll on them, you know where you lift yourself up onto the bar and then revolve forward till you are back where you started…ok I give up trying to explain. It is something kids do in school. I had never tried before but had a go. The world went above me and then stayed there as I just got half way round and hung there like an idiot.

Ok so the museum. Here is me and Yan outside the gates and by god don’t worry, this is the last boring picture of me standing in front of something.

At the rear of the museum is a reception manned by Totoro himself. Here he is, and here is what he looks like in his film.

Whenever anyone goes to this museum they always take the same pictures. Firstly it is of Totoro and lastly the robot from the film Laputa, which is on the roof of the building. I can only describe what goes on inside the museum as no pictures were allowed, here though is a picture of the leaflet they give you.

Everything is Ghibli. Through a small passageway they check your tickets and you walk down some steps with white walls and stained glass windows where Totoro and other characters are watching you. The main area of the museum is like the bathhouse from Spirited Away. It is all wooden except for the narrow wrought iron lift. At the top is a small glass roof with a massive fan slowly rotating.

The first room you enter tells you about the beginnings of cinema. In sophisticated displays you see it going from the early zoetropes (see below) to more and more impressive technology as you near modern animation.

By far the most impressive and truly magical thing in the museum is in this room in a large cabinet. Inside are many models of Ghibli characters in slightly different poses. While you are appreciating the detail and recognition of these characters you realise they are all on a circular platform that starts to rotate, very fast. At the same time a strobe type light flicks on and off something like 18 times a second. The timing of the lights, the speed of the platform and differences in the models are all perfectly synchronised. What you see, ladies and gentlemen, is your favourite Ghibli characters jumping, skipping, running, flying, smiling for all the world as if they are real flesh and blood. It is an amazing combination of cinema and reality, the methods of cinema but brought into 3D. The little girl from Totoro jumps a skipping rope held by little Totoro helpers. Totoro himself stands near the back jumping up and down with a big smile on his face. Kiki rides her bike. Lots of Totoro helpers run around the outside while one continually breaks away, runs into the middle and then jumps into the large tree at the centre of the platform. A bat flies above them all its wing flapping and a manic smile on its face. And then, it all slows down, the lights stop flashing and again you see the characters still smiling but now burdened with the same curse as all other inanimate objects in the world. But then, it all starts again J

Upstairs are a series of rooms that sort of show you some of the inspiration for the films. Each room is absolutely full of things; literally hundreds of books, objects, paints, maps etc. I saw such books as “Wooden fighting vessels”, “The handy guide to garden rock pools”, “The Weekend Gardener.” There were loads of picture books in all sorts of languages, the kind of book you would wonder who on Earth would buy. I saw the bicycle from Kiki’s delivery service sitting there covered in dried flowers, I saw phones and hats I recognised from the films, or at least I thought I did. There are notices in Japanese telling you about the art process but the displays are detailed enough to give you the overall idea. And then, strangely, you meet Wallace and Grommit.

I think it is just a temporary installation at the Ghibli Museum but they do have quite a few rooms devoted to Aardmam animation. Big vesions of Wallace and Grommit are there, also Shaun the sheep and the evil penguin. There are pictures from every single Aardman production, even those adverts they did for British Gas etc. They have some of the sets from the Wererabbit film, like Grommit’s greenhouse. It was a strange sight of home for me. They also have an installation by a Russian called Alexander Petrov - a superbly talented painter who draws using his finger, and admittedly a brush for things like eyebrows. They had some of his pictures and clips from his animated films which look weirdly lifelike.

On the top floor is a giant cat bus for children to play on. If that sentence made little sense then I am sorry, the best I can do is show you a picture of the real cat bus and you can go from there. Miyagi wanted to play on it, she wasn’t allowed, only for kids.

Afterwards the shop, where I bought these…

There was a 15 minute film to watch as well. We all crammed into this beautiful little cinema with painted walls of ivy. I did sort of expect the film to tell me something about Ghibli and I guess it did, but it was itself about a girl and her lost dog. Basically a young girl says goodbye to her cute little dog one morning as she goes to school. Her dog, though, manages to open the gate and run after her but loses her scent and becomes lost. On its journey it gets into all sorts of mishaps, meets some humans, some dogs and a cat with the deepest meow ever heard. At the end the predictable happens but this ok because you really want it to; even though I was actually wondering at the time how the audience would react if the cute little dog exploded for no reason at the end. I would have been scarred for life if it had.

Up to the roof and there is the robot from Laputa. Here is a picture of one of the robots in the film to compare, and ok and another picture of me standing in front of something.

So that was the Ghibli Museum, 1000 yen for a taste of childhood and magic and worth every penny (which is 427 in case you were wondering).