READ ALL ABOUT IT: Be sure not to miss the latest Studio Ghibli news. Like all details on an extensive Ponyo Image Album Review (2nd of April), more on Ponyo in the 27th Ghibli Asemamire (7th of April), even more Ponyo from Ghibli's production diary (8th of April), its official release announcement (11th of April), Panda & Sora o Tobu news (12th of April), a summary of Ghibli Asemamire episode 28 (14th of April), episode 29 (21st of April), an interview with Hisaishi and Suzuki (22nd of April), Howl's Moving Castle Hosoda style (24th of April), a new Ghibli Museum Library title + Oga news (26th of April), new unseen Ponyo art (26th of April), a summary of Ghibli Asemamire episode 30 (28th of April), an interview with Oga Kazuo (30th of April), a summary of Ghibli Asemamire episode 32 (11th of May), a re-release of Hotaru no Haka (12th of May), Ponyo and the Studio Ghibli nursery (15th of May), Ghibli Asemamire episode 33 (20th of May) and new unseen Ponyo art (25th of May).

(sticky), EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH PIXAR STORYBOARD ARTIST ENRICO CASAROSA: GhibliWorld.com is proud to bring its readers another exclusive personal interview. After having had the opportunity to speak with people like Takahata Isao, Miyazaki Goro and Gualtiero Cannarsi, this time we had the chance to have a very amusable talk with Pixar storyboard artist Enrico Casarosa. Find out what he has to say on Studio Ghibi, his work at Pixar, his personal projects and more. And that isn’t all. Enrico Casarosa also specially made a beautiful & funny Ghibli inspired art piece to come with it.

All in all, a must-read and must-see for anyone, so be sure to check it out! Continue reading it now...

25th of May, NEW UNSEEN PONYO ART BY MIYAZAKI HAYAO: Only less than two months of waiting are left for those interested in the works of Studio Ghibli. On July 19 master animation director Miyazaki Hayao will be back with his latest full length feature animation called Gake no ue no Ponyo (崖の上のポニョ, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea). For all of those having a hard time coping with impatience, GhibliWorld.com has a temporary fix.

Shining on the June edition of Yomy, an extra release for those subscribed to Japan’s largest newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun, is a never before seen water color art piece made by Miyazaki Hayao himself. This time it is yet another Ponyo underwater scene and logically GhibliWorld.com has an image of it (click to enlarge).

20th of May, THIRTY-THIRD RADIO GHIBLI / GHIBLI ASEMAMIRE BROADCAST + DOWNLOAD: Last Sunday Suzuki Toshio’s radio talk show Ghibli Asemamire at Tokyo FM was about Studio Ghibli’s tie-up promotions. As usual, a podcast version of this week’s episode will be also available for download and can eventually be found over here.

This week’s guests were Seki Shintaro (関慎太郎) and Fujikami Naoya. Seki is marketing section chief at Asahi beverage and Studio Ghibli does a tie-up with them on advertising Ponyo. As the opening salvo of their campaign Asahi is offering 20,000 people a chance to see a special preview of Ponyo on July 5-6, 11-13 at 17 locations by lottery. Suzuki asked, "We once had a tie-up during the release of Gedo Senki. Do you think you got success in tying up with us on Gedo?" Seki answered positively, "We think so." Fujimaki added, "At that time, the agency was Dentsu, instead of Hakuhodo. Maybe that's the reason..." (laughing).

Note: Fujimaki belongs to Hakuhodo, the competitor of Dentsu.

Suzuki told, "A lot of companies offer us to tie-up with them and we always consider which company to be suited best for that. This time it is Asahi. I happen to like Mitsuya-cider (a brand of carbonated drink) since I was small and got to know it is one of a Asahi’s brands. It was one of the reasons choosing them." According to Seki, Mitsuya-cider's history goes back 125 years.



Suzuki also noted, "For a company wanting to tie-up with Studio Ghibli, we wish for them to lend their hands to make a box-office success. We don't want them to use the movie solely for their product promotions. If they do so, it might spoil the movie and in the end their own company as well. Also, movie box-office is like a gamble. It has a double sided uncertainty. One of it is the content. We aren't sure if the film is interesting, at least not until the completion of filming. The other side is box-office. It doesn't always link to its perfection level. So the tie-upping company must believe in us."

Seki, "To tell the truth, when I was shown the first picture of Ponyo’s image board, I didn't feel Ponyo was so cute and I was a little confused. However, we recently saw the trailer and learned that Ponyo certainly has its charm, so we stopped worrying. My company believes Ponyo will be a success." Suzuki, "That's the point. That not-cuteness is intended by Miyazaki. He says "Japan is overly full of cute kawaii things. So it's useless to add another cute thing to it." He does not intend it to be cute only, but to have something else as well. That's the real thing people expect. So he first drew an ugly face, as he gives affection to ugliness. I believe beverages share a common resemblance with it. Drinks that are just only palatable, aren’t good either."

Suzuki also shared Miyazaki's thoughts on "pet-bottles". Most of Asahi's beverage are being bottled in pet though… like their carbonated drinks, juices and tea. Recently, tea (straight green tea, no sugar) has been the main product for beverage sellers, even for Coca-Cola Japan. Suzuki told, "To tell the truth, Miyazaki hates pet bottles so much." Fujumaki, "Is it because he is an ecologist?" Suzuki, "No. It’s just that he doesn’t like these kind of fashions...Young people have pet-bottled tea in the hands of those wearing dirty pants and a shoulder rucksack... Tea should be served at home." Seki, "You know? Recently, some people do not even possess a tea pot anymore. They don't wet tea in their home." Suzuki," Really?!? Unbelievable. How about you??" Seki answered, "Me neither. I always keep 2 liters of pet-bottled tea in the refrigerator." Fujimaki, "So, recently, kids assume that tea is usually cold." Suzuki, "Ummm... ridiculous. What should we do about it?!? Fujimaki?" Fujimaki "…" (laughing).



Going back in time, these kind of tie-ups are not new to Studio Ghibli. During the release of Tenkū no Shiro Rapyuta (天空の城ラピュタ, Laputa: Castle in the Sky) Ghibli already had a tie-up with another beverage company. A major food company called Ajinomoto made soda cans and bottles named "LAPUTA - ラピュタ", though it did not bring them a box-office success around that time. Examples of their joint advertising campaign can be found in Laputa's program booklet.

15th of May, PONYO AND THE STUDIO GHIBLI NURSERY: One of the settings in Miyazaki Hayao’s soon to be newest masterpiece Gake no ue no Ponyo (崖の上のポニョ, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea) is Himawari nursery. Though it is known that latest film of master animation director Miyazaki will contain over 80% of sea scenes, it does not change the fact that the nursery plays an unmissable role in it. Actually, Ponyo was first to be even largely centered around it: in pre-production it was titled Iya Iya En and Gake no Shita no Iya Iya En, translating as The No No Nursery School and The No No Nursery School under the Cliff. As time went by though, that part became less important for the film, as Miyazaki decided transfer it to his real life and decided to build a real nursery himself.

Build near Miyazaki's atelier Nibariki, last month the Studio Ghibli company nursery called Sanbiki no Kuma no Ie (３匹の熊の家, The Three Bears' House) opened its doors. Its name is inspired by Leo Tolstoy’s The Three Bears on which Ghibli Museum is currently holding a dedicated exhibition and according to Miyazaki’s wife it “is Miyazaki's long-cherished dream”. In fact, for over more then 10 years he had wishes to build one.



One of the triggers of Miyazaki’s wish might possibly have been Studio Ghibli’s most skilled animator and director of Mimi wo Sumaseba (耳をすませば, Whisper of the Heart): Kondo Yoshifumi (近藤喜文), who sadly died in 1998. Kondo and his wife Yamaura Hiroko, who worked as a color checker on Lupin III: the Castle of Cagliostro, Panda Kopanda, Holmes and so on, put their kid in a nursery when it was young. They first put him at a private nursery and paid over 40,000 yen a month in spite of Yamaura’s terribly low salary of 60,000 yen per month. People working in the Japanese animation industry are generally not well-paid (once and now) and the Kondo family was no exception, so Kondo applied for public child-care at the ward office again and again. Finally, their application was accepted and the official approved them as the lowest income group. So he paid only 1,000 yen per month. Of course, this story took place before the founding of Studio Ghibli.



Late March mayor Inaba Takahiko was invited to the nursery preview before opening, as Koganei city government had some involvement in the project. Miyazaki guided him together with Iya Iya En writer Nakagawa Rieko and its illustrator Yamawaki Yuriko, and explained them about his thoughts for children and his architectural plan. In addition, Miyazaki also showed them Sanbiki no Kuma no Niwa (３匹の熊の家, The Three Bears Garden), a garden 100 meters away from the nursery.

Now that the nursery has opened, things only need to get rolling. Recently, Shincho Weekly wrote only 3 kids applied at first. Miyazaki worried why there were so few and recommended his employees to use the nursery. A successful approach, as 7 more kids joined. The low number of kids might be caused due to the fact that the nursery is not convenient for most of Ghibli employees. If they use it, they must take their kids from far away home by train. Either way, the nursery is deemed to be a success eventually, just like everything Miyazaki touches.

12th of May, HOTARU NO HAKA NEWLY REMASTERED RE-RELEASE: Studio Ghibli’s critically acclaimed Hotaru no Haka (火垂るの墓, Grave of the Fireflies) will finally be back where it belongs. In the past Takahata Isao’s highly moving Second World War drama was released by Warner Home Video, but on August 6 WDSHE Japan will reissue a new release, returning it to Studio Ghibli’s Ghibli ga Ippai Collection with "Hotaru no Haka - the complete preserved edition".

Back in 1988 Hotaru no Haka was released as a double feature with Tonari no Totoro. The setting of both films was unusual for that time: Hotaru was set in the Japan of 1945 and Totoro was set in the middle of Japan’s 1950s. Instead of most Japanese animated features from the 1980’s, which were often set in a foreign country or a fictional land. Hotaru depicted Japan directly and set the most universal part of human life as its theme. It wasn't just an antiwar film, but it also depicted the importance of human relationships. The result was a film that became a big success and even today it is considered to be a masterpiece.



The original story of Hotaru no Haka was written by Nozaka Akiyuki in 1967 and won a Naoki Award. Before Studio Ghibli’s version there were already plans to make it into a live action movie, though these had not been brought to realization because of the difficulty of reproducing Kobe city from those days and believably realizing a starving child’s face. Though there was nothing left of the old days, Takahata Isao, Kondo Yoshifumi and other staff hunted for scenery in Kobe with Nozaka and successfully reproduced the air and time, even surprising Nozaka.

"Hotaru no Haka - the complete preserved version" DVD contains some highly precious content. The movie itself has been given a new high quality digital remaster. Unfortunately, this does not mean a Blu-ray version will also be released, as it has not yet been announced.

(note: For those giving up on a Blu-ray release, there might be a sparkle of hope left. The press releases of Ghibli Museum Library’s Panda Kopanda and Snow Queen (to be released on July 2) explicitly stated that a Blu-ray version will not to be released. In the case of Grave of the Fireflies the press release does not mention anything, leaving things in the middle. On the other side, one might still want to be realistic. Instead of Grave of the Fireflies being Studio Ghibli’s first film to receive a Blu-ray treatment, one might consider titles like Tonari no Totoro or Kaze no Tani no Naushika to be more appropriate for that.)



Besides the digital remastering, the new Hotaru no Haka DVD reissue will also contain some very interesting bonus features. Find them in the DVD data below.

"Hotaru no Haka - the complete preserved edition" DVD data:
- Release date : August 6, 2008
- Distributor: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, release being part of ジブリがいっぱい Collection
- 1988 / Japan / 88 minutes
- Price : 4,935 Yen (including tax), 4,700 Yen (before tax)
- Disc specs: 2 discs / dual layer / NTSC / Region 2 + first release limited bonus recitation CD
- Video: 16:9 aspect ratio
- Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0, Japanese
- Subtitles: Japanese, English
- Trailers (including 15 minutes of promotional video)
- Six interviews with director Takahata Isao, art director Yamamoto Nizo and other staff members (audio only)
- Location hunting pictures
- Concept art (art & image boards)
- Multi-angled e-konte feature (newly filmed from the original e-konte / storyboard)
- First release limited bonus: recitation CD of Hotaru no Haka performed by the famous actor Hashizume Isao

11th of May, MOTHER’S DAY AND PONYO AT THIRTYSECOND RADIO GHIBLI / GHIBLI ASEMAMIRE BROADCAST + DOWNLOAD: Last week Suzuki Toshio’s radio talk show Ghibli Asemamire at Tokyo FM was somewhat less interesting. Suzuki was away for business and therefore featured a compilation of some moments from the past shows. However, this week Suzuki is back and needless to say GhibliWorld.com brings a summary of it. As usual, a podcast version of this week’s episode will be also available for download and can eventually be found over here.

Today is Mother's day and Suzuki drove his beloved car (his Mini Cooper) and his beloved mother Chizuko to Asakusa (浅草). The program composition was made of live outdoor recordings around over there and so there was not any organized talk.

Suzuki’s mom is 85 years old and has been living with Suzuki in Tokyo since 4 years ago. She likes to visit temples or shrines and says she can't die because she made a pilgrimage to the 88 temples in Shikoku (四国八十八ヶ所), Japan’s most popular pilgrimage. Recently some people do it as a kind of a pastime, sport or form of tourism. Many of the pilgrims move by bus or cars and walkers are few. The length of the pilgrimage is about 1200 km and it takes about 10 days by bus and about 40 days by walk.

Suzuki took his mom to many of the temples near his place in Shibuya and Meguro. One of them was Asakusa, a popular sight seeing point for foreign travelers. There is a famous temple over there called Sensouji-temple that has remained the atmosphere from the old era, which they first visited and after that they walked some more around Asakusa. There many interesting shops around there and Suzuki went into a sword shop. Logically, because Suzuki likes Japanese swords and collects them. His mother Chizuko also told a related story about it. She visited young Suzuki's apartment when he was a student at Keio University and was surprised to find a sword in his room. She wondered why her calm son had such a dangerous thing...

Some interesting news on Miyazaki’s Gake no ue no Ponyo (崖の上のポニョ, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea) with a minor spoiler was also brought. At the end of the show Suzuki told, "The complete checking of the pictures was already finished on May 9th and the only work that is left is to paint, film and edit. I'm planning to put the plot of Ponyo on its next chirashi (handbill). People ask me not to tell about the story, not to show any pictures or not to make any spoilers, but I'm bored to hear it any more and want to do the opposite. The Studio Ghibli staff were surprised to hear it though. The plot of Ponyo can shortly be summarized like this: a story of a mother and child told by Miyazaki without hesitation. I decided it in spite of there being some objections from our staff. It will fit well with Ponyo’s catch copy: "Umarete kite yokatta" (生まれてきてよかった, I'm lucky to be born).".

30th of April, AN INTERVIEW WITH STUDIO GHIBLI’S OGA KAZUO: When watching animation people usually pay attention to characters instead of backgrounds. However, Studio Ghibli’s Oga Kazuo is the first background artist who showed an audience can also be attracted the other way around. This was once again proven last year with his own dedicated Oga Kazuo exhibition which drew over 300,000 visitors. Recently Oga told about the start-line of his history as a background artist and his painting tools in an article from Tokuma Shoten’s Goods Press. As usual, for those not able to read Japanese, GhibliWorld.com presents a summary of it (the original Japanese PDF version can be found here).

From the early times of animation industry history, animation was produced by a division of labor. Therefore characters and backgrounds had been produced separately. Usually, characters are spotlighted, but backgrounds aren't so much. However, the ones that Oga painted aren't like that.



In 1972, Oga entered Kobayashi production, a professional background company. After that he shaped his career and, thanks to a recommendation of Yamamoto Nizo (note: at that time Yamamoto directed the background art of Takahata’s Hotaru no Haka), he joined Tonari no Totoro (となりのトトロ, My Neighbor Totoro). After that, he joined various Ghibli films like Poroporo, Pompoko, Mononoke as the art director. When he worked on Whisper he quit Studio Ghibli and became a freelancer, working not only for Studio Ghibli but spending time on making background art for many other works of animation as well.

Oga's art is real, yet not inorganic and without wanting to approach super realism. It has something warm and nostalgic. It even gives us some smell or sound. The trigger that made Oga enter his field of work were just only 3 lines from a recruiting ad. "I had an interest in painting till graduating from high school, though I had never seriously painted. So I entered design school to find out what to do. After my graduation from design school, I had no regular job and screened the recruiting ads in the newspaper every morning. Then I found a 3 line ad mentioning: wanted, persons who like to paint." It was Kobayashi's ad that decided his life. He immediately visited Kobayashi production which was in a room of an apartment and found there hung many cloths to wipe paint of brushes and it wasn't very clean. It was over there where for first time Oga got in touch with the art of making background paintings.

"While I was watching them painting, they were painting scenery on the kind of B4 paper that school kids use. The pictures were light and bright and I wanted to try it."

This is the way his background artisan life started. A few months later, Oga got a real anime job. "After I finished my job, I showed them to Mr. Kobayashi. He immediately shouted to me... like, the shapes weren't good or something like that... I couldn't notice what was wrong. In those days, the co-workers left their paintings on their desks and went back home. We over timed guys used to gather at the desks and criticized those paintings disparagingly. Like, the reason that why a certain painting was bad came from the painter’s bad character. Yes, it’s true that one's character appears in his painting, so I couldn't leave the office earlier than others. It was strange, like if I had something hidden in my paintings..." Those days were Oga's precious experiences.



What he wants for tools is that they aren't expensive, but usable.

We amateurs imagine that it might surely need many professional paints or brushes to paint backgrounds. How about that? "Basically, I use poster-color. Because as we have to paint much, we can't use expensive paint. Poster colors can show brightness or depth of color and, above all, it is easy-to-use. Talking about brushes, I use only two kinds of brushes, hira-fude (flat brush) and sakuyo-fude (pointed brush). For example, a sky or feathering clouds, misty distant mountains, rocks, plants… everything rough is done only by this large hira-fude. Old TV series anime used to be done in this way only. The last finish is done by sakuyo-fude carefully. I paint leaves roughly with hira-fude and add a few detailed leaves on it. Which is enough because the backgrounds of anime are shown only 3 or 4 seconds."

He explains the process simply, though we see a high-quality finished painting in his picture. Professional works are like this. They are different from fine art - even if it costs so much, the patrons would pay for it. They must always consider about the costs and delivery deadline.

He showed us his karabake (a wide flat brush) and said, "I have used this brush for over 30 years. It was given to me as a memorial when I quit working at Kobayashi production."



But sakuyo-fude is another way. "Because of everyday use its tip has gotten too round, so I must get a new one. They’re just disposables." However, he pays attention to the manufacturers and doesn't prevail low-priced ones. He now has a cooperation with a brush manufacturer from Hiroshima called Shogetudo (松月堂). Oga got to know it when he worked on Yoshinaga Sayuri's CD The 2nd movement, The wind of Hiroshima (吉永小百合, 第2楽章　広島の風). "I brought a brush that I had used and consulted them. They saw it and said that it included nylon. I don't care if it includes nylon or not, though they never use it and insist on using native materials.

Oga is continuing his work in an “analog” way with brushes and paint. Doesn't digitalization affect him? "My way doesn't need digitalization and I'll keep it this way. If the animation industry becomes this way that it does not need hand painting, I'll quit my job. However, there is one good thing in doing things the digital way. Depicting clouds digitally is better than making them by hand painting. In the past we painted clouds on cel-book (clear cels), They couldn’t be gradated, but needed to be solid shaped. We reprocessed it in one way or another and made a gradient. Now, we paint clouds on the paper and import them with a digital process on the blue sky." Besides clouds, the digital process can make it easy to create images that we had never seen before. However, Oga's paintings have some warmth that only the “analog” way can reach. We can see it in his work for Umigame to Shonen. Seeing the picture along the shore, we can hear the sounds of grasses rubbing in the wind. "I think it is common for animation background artists, we paint the space. Especially at Studio Ghibli, we are expected to do that. I paint the backgrounds considering the scenery around it, like the sound of the waves or something like that. I can't paint what I haven’t experienced or seen. When I painted SF, I imagined as if I were there and imagined what I could see there. As art directors (background section chief) must show examples to the rest of the staffs, I paint boards with a mind as if I were at the location place itself."



Oga has a long career as a background artist and recently he worked on book illustration. His image source is close to him, surprisingly. "I like walking. When I find a good scenery, I try to see it in several ways." Oga also says that the backgrounds he handled on Ponyo have already been finished (note: in case of Studio Ghibli backgrounds, Oga says he paints 1 or 2 pictures on a single day). So logically we are curious to hear about his next work. "In my case, I paint everything I see while I walk around here and stock it. And when I get an order, I can re-paint it to fit the order. I think that is my way. Usually, I get a assignment and then begin thinking on how to paint, which is a bit passive. It is rather natural for me." People know him as an artist. However, he is aware that he is a professional painter or artisan. This modest artisan will continue to move our hearts with his brush.

28th of April, HISAISHI AT THIRTIETH RADIO GHIBLI / GHIBLI ASEMAMIRE BROADCAST + DOWNLOAD: As every week, sunday has passed and so GhibliWorld.com brings a summary of Suzuki Toshio’s radio talk show Ghibli Asemamire at Tokyo FM. Needless to say, as usual a podcast version of this week’s episode will be also available for download and can eventually be found over here.

This week's guest was Hisaishi Joe. He is currently working on the musical soundtrack of Miyazaki’s Gake no ue no Ponyo (崖の上のポニョ, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea), on which more was already to be read in last week’s Yomiuri interview. He was joined by Yomiuri's writer Yoda (note: hence somewhat of an overlap with the Yomiuri interview).

Hisaishi noted, "Since the hero Sosuke and Ponyo are just only 5 years old, they behave and say everything in a very straight way. For example, they don't hesitate to say "I love you". Their minds are also very straight and so the music should be straight as well." Suzuki added, "Miyazaki's characters are usually straight. He doesn't like games or trading in love." Hisaishi, "It would be easy if they worry. Usually music is able to go along with a wavering mind more easily, so this time I'm struggling." Suzuki, "It isn't the first time. Miyazaki's way has been like this before. Maybe he thinks animated characters don't have to worry, because we already worry in our real life and that's enough."



Hisaishi told, "This time, I'm trying a new style. Normally, I like attaching long pieces of music and usually I have pieces of about 2 minutes in length. However, with Ponyo, many of them are 5 seconds or so. Very short. In my idea, it isn't clear when they begin and end but audiences feel the existence." Suzuki, "Over 90% of the picture has already been finished, which is very fast and unusual. Miyazaki says that the rest is only music." Hisaishi, "Ah, what an immense pressure to me!"

Yoda asked, "How was your first time meeting Miyazaki? Was that with Nausicaa…?" Hisaishi replied, "Yes. When I visited his office in Asagaya, he wasted no time telling me about its location or setting, like about the "Ohmu" and "Fukai" and I was a bit mixed-up. I didn't know him at all then. In fact, I thought, "Who are you?"." Suzuki added, "Actually, the man that chose Hisaishi was Takahata (Nausicaa’s producer). As Miyazaki thought he was in the dark with music, he entrusted it to Takahata. In fact, there were some other candidates we considered to compose the soundtrack of Nausicaa. Takahata chose you and said "Hisaishi's music is innocent. So it would fit well with Miyazaki, being romantic and hot-blooded." Of course none of us had met you before that. After that I listened to your music over and over again to study it." Hisaishi, " It was a happy meeting. I worked on Nausicaa and Arion (アリオン, by Yasuhiko Yoshikazu, 安彦良和) both at the same time and both were Tokuma movies. So I almost gave up hope for the next movie Laputa. I didn't thought they would order me to compose for 3 movies successively. So I cried when I got order call."

Suzuki also told the story on Totoro’s bus stop scene music, as to be found in last week’s interview. Hisaishi didn’t seem to want to talk about Totoro anymore. He said his head is already fully filled with Ponyo.



The Ponyo theme song was inserted as well. Suzuki said, "To tell the truth, this song decided the last scene for the film. Miyazaki listened to the song and realized what the last scene should be like. So it was lucky that we made the theme song in time." Yoda, "A lot of pressure rides on your shoulders!" Hisaishi, "I agree. In fact, I think Miyazaki is also a great lyrics writer. To tell you the honest truth, songs are the ultimate form of music. Because when we communicate something to others, first we need words. And the melody helps it and affects it. We need both of them absolutely. So the ultimate form of music must be songs."

Hisaishi furthermore talked about his concert in August. He wants to play 40 to 50 musical pieces from 9 different Studio Ghibli movies. He worries on how to edit it into a 2 hour concert. He doesn't think usual video projectors will be enough to show the images and searched for a huge screen. He found one with a size of 20m X 9m, though he didn't mention the technique behind it.

The Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea soundtrack is scheduled for release on July 16 by Tokuma Japan and will contain 40 tracks.

26th of April (second update), NEW UNSEEN PONYO ART BY MIYAZAKI HAYAO: Shining on the May edition of Yomy, an extra release for those subscribed to Yomiuri Shimbun, is again a never before seen water color art piece made by Miyazaki Hayao for his new film Gake no ue no Ponyo (崖の上のポニョ, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea). This time it’s a picture of a Ponyo underwater scene and logically GhibliWorld.com has an image of it (click to enlarge). Let’s hope Studio Ghibli & Miyazaki Hayao will soon bring the world more of this lovely art!

26th of April, GHIBLI MUSEUM LIBRARY ANNOUNCES CHEBURASHKA, NOZAKA’S & OGA’S UMIGAME TO SHONEN: Today Studio Ghibli announced a new title as to be part of their foreign & classic animation label Ghibli Museum Library. On July 19, the release day of Miyazaki Hayao’s latest full length feature Gake no ue no Ponyo, the Japanese animation studio will also re-release the Russian animation Cheburashka. This Soviet classic actually consists out of four episodes, Gena the Crocodile and His Friends (1969), Cheburashka (1971), Old Lady Shapoklyak (1974) and Cheburashka Goes to School (1983), and all of these will be viewable by the Japanese audience. Additionally worth noting is that the first episode was animated by master animation director and Miyazaki’s friend & inspirator: Yuri Norstein.

Some Cheburashka footage can be found over here.



Furthermore, as reported earlier, last week’s Ghibli Asemamire mentioned Studio Ghibli published and released a picture book called Umigame to Shonen (ウミガメと少年, A Green Turtle and a Boy). The book was written by Hotaru no Haka author Nozaka Akiyuki and pictures were made by none other than Studio Ghibli’s background artisan Oga Kazuo. 7andY just launched a dedicated Umigame page with some absolutely beautiful pictures from the book. In addition, it also features an interesting article on Oga called E-shokunin no 2-hon no fude (絵職人の二本の筆, Two brushes of the artisan) focusing on the details of his paintings. More about its content in a following GhibliWorld.com news post.

24th of April, HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE HOSODA STYLE: Those who followed the production of Studio Ghibli’s magical love story Hauru no Ugoku Shiro (ハウルの動く城, Howl's Moving Castle) in the past, might be familiar with the fact that it was actually first to be directed by Hosoda Mamoru (細田守). Hosoda, who lastly directed the beautiful and Ghibli reminiscent Madhouse production Toki o Kakeru Shojo (時をかける少女, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time), began to work on the film as director for Ghibli Studios, but abruptly departed the project. It is rumored by some that it was caused by a clash with Kondo Katsuya, though this has not been officially confirmed. Either way, later on Miyazaki stepped in and the rest is familiar history.

Old news, but what makes this news article interesting, is that one week ago Mandarake had an auction of Hauru no Ugoku Shiro ekonte, Hosoda style, sold at a price of 211,000 Yen. Earlier only three pictures were to be seen, making it not extremely noteworthy. However, the forum of Ben Ettinger’s Anipages noted more pages of the storyboard turning up online, making this worth mentioning. An interesting style difference…

22nd of April, AN INTERVIEW WITH HISAISHI JOE AND SUZUKI TOSHIO: Today Yomiuri Shimbun published an interesting interview online. On August 4th and 5th musician & composer Hisaishi Joe will have a concert at Nippon Budokan (日本武道館), a huge arena in Tokyo with a capacity of 14000 people. All of his music composed for Miyazaki's movies will be played and Yomiuri interviewed Hisaishi together with Studio Ghibli producer Suzuki Toshio about their enthusiasm towards the concert. For those who can’t read Japanese a summary follows below.

Q: We hear this is your first concert playing only music from Miyazaki's animated films.
Hisaishi: I've wanted to do that…

Q: Furthermore, for your concert you have formed an exceptionally large formation, a 200 member orchestra and a 400 member chorus.
Hisaishi: It’s my own proposition, though it will be tough…

Q: You've come along with Miyazaki for 25 years long...
Hisaishi: We first met during the production of Nausicaa (1984). To tell the truth, I didn't know Miyazaki before that. When I visited his office in Asagaya, he wasted no time telling me about the location or its setting like the "Ohmu" and "Fukai" and I was a bit mixed-up. However, I thought he was really pure and hot-blooded.



Suzuki: Actually, the man who chose Hisaishi was Takahata (the producer of Nausicaa). He said, since Hisaishi's music was innocent it would fit well with Miyazaki, being romantic and hot-blooded. As Miyazaki thought he was in the dark with music he entrusted it to Takahata.
Hisaishi: Yes. I mainly had meetings with Takahata. He surprised me a with a great knowledge of music.
Suzuki: However, Takahata's thought was that a music composer should be changed film by film. So he tried to ask for another composer during the production of Tenkū no Shiro Rapyuta (天空の城ラピュタ, Castle of the Sky) and sought for one. But at last, he decided to return to Hisaishi.
Hisaishi: At that time I almost surrendered. I got very pleased when I got the call. I cried.

Suzuki: The impressive scene and music of Totoro was that Satsuki and Mei met Totoro at the bus stop. At first, Miyazaki didn't thought the scene needed music, but I thought it was better to insert music and consulted Takahata in secret. Takahata advised me some minimal music would be better, something that Hisaishi was good at. Hisaishi excellently did it and even for adults the scene was able to show the real existence of Totoro. Then Miyazaki agreed with it.
Hisaishi: Hearing you talk, I urge to play the music of that scene. We will use a huge screen with this concert, I want to play with images.

Q: How do you usually compose a soundtrack?
Hisaishi: I watch the E-conte or film like walking in a mist and search for a trigger that clicks in my mind. This is the first step. If I’m able to find it, then I begin to struggle seeking for a tone, what kind of main theme or other melody to take... or something like that... Anyway, a lots of worries. The most important point is to be conscious that I'm the first viewer.
Suzuki: Adding to that, you can't have enough time to do it. Generally, in Japan music is added after finishing pictures.
Hisaishi: Now is just that kind of situation (laughing).



Q: How is the progress of Ponyo going?
Hisaishi: Since the hero Sosuke is just 5 years old, the music should also be straight. More easily sounding music is able to enter a wavering mind and so I'm struggling how to express Sosuke. However, this time I have discussed with Miyazaki and Suzuki in making the image album and I strongly feel that we are making it together. The problem is when to let Miyazaki listen to it.
Suzuki: Yes. He tends not to forget the first impression.
Hisaishi: No matter how much I tell him it is a demo, he can't escape from his first image. In the case of Mononoke, I changed the theme song back to the original one. Strangely to say, in the end it was a successful choice. Miyazaki always says that he is unfamiliar with music, though I believe it isn't true.

Q: The poster of the concert is Miyazaki's original?
Suzuki: I thought he would just draw something simple with a felt pen, but he is struggling in painting Hisaishi fronting musical score. He says, "How is his face?" He posts many pictures of you around his desk.
Hisaishi: I can't thank him enough.

Q: What will the program look like?
Hisaishi: If I'm going to do it, I want to show all 9 movies from Nausicaa to Ponyo. I dusted off the old scores and re-watched all movies. I felt the greatness of the images and want to follow them up with my music. We'll play music that I've never played in concert before. Maybe you can enjoy the strength of originality.

21st of April, ABOUT NOZAKA IN TWENTY-NINTH RADIO GHIBLI / GHIBLI ASEMAMIRE BROADCAST + DOWNLOAD: Sunday has passed and so GhibliWorld.com is bringing yet another summary of Suzuki Toshio’s radio talk show Ghibli Asemamire at Tokyo FM. Again, as usual a podcast version of this week’s episode will be available for download and can eventually be found over here.

This week's guest was Nozaka Youko (野坂洋子), wife of Nozaka Akiyuki (野坂昭如), the writer of the original Hotaru no Haka (火垂るの墓, Grave of the Fireflies) novel. Suzuki read it when he was 17 years old and has been a big fan of him ever since. Nozaka got a brain infarct 5 years ago and is currently undergoing rehabilitation training. They talked about Nozaka and his wife's daily life and the good old days. NTV broadcasts Hotaru no Haka every August, and Nozaka surely watches it.

Note: August 15 is the anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II. Nozaka wrote the story of Hotaru no Haka based on his own experiences before, during, and after the firebombing of Kobe in 1945. Furthermore, Nozaka once wrote another sad episode about it. His own sister was 1 year old when she died. As a boy Nozaka couldn't get milk or baby food for his sister. So he tried to chew rice in his mouth and feed her mouth to mouth. He tried it again and again, but couldn't, because he was too hungry to give it to his baby sister. He chewed but swallowed before feeding. In the end he swallowed all of the rice by himself and ended up crying. Terribly sadly the baby died from starvation.



On the day of recording this week’s Asemamire Studio Ghibli published a picture book called Umigame to Shonen (ウミガメと少年, A Green Turtle and a Boy). The story was written by Nozaka and pictures were made by none other than Ghibli’s Oga Kazuo. Ghibli Asemamire will give away the book to 10 of their listeners.

14th of April, MORE PONYO IN TWENTY-EIGHTH RADIO GHIBLI / GHIBLI ASEMAMIRE BROADCAST + DOWNLOAD: With another Sunday having passed, GhibliWorld.com is bringing yet another summary of Suzuki Toshio’s radio talk show Ghibli Asemamire at Tokyo FM. As usual a podcast version of this week’s episode will be available for download and can eventually be found over here.

This week’s show had two guests. The first was Kubo Masakazu (久保 雅一), chief of the character projecting department at one of Japan’s biggest publishers, Shogakukan (小学館). Though Shogakukan was founded primarily as an educational publishing company it grew out to something far bigger than that. One of their businesses includes being one of Japan's leading publishers of Japanese manga. They have published over 10,900 comic books such as Ranma 1/2, Master Keaton and Fushigi Yugi and manage many popular characters like Pokemon, Doraemon, Detective Konan and Tottoko Hamutaro.

The second guest was Fujimaki, of course of Fujioka Fujimaki fame and one of the singers of the Ponyo theme song.



As a guest Kubo was not unexpected. He has been the producer of Pokemon for 11 years. This summer, the 11th Pokemon movie will be released. Pokemon is always released on the beginning or summer vacation every year. It's almost a yearly event in summer vacation. Suzuki, "Why did you set the releasing day on July 19th? That's the day we release Ponyo!". Kubo, "NO! We set it long before you. Ponyo came later than Pokemon.". Suzuki, "Hey, Fujimaki. Are you backing Pokemon? You are standing behind Kubo!" Fujimaki, "Hehehe... I'm backing The Sky Crawlers (note: Oshii Mamoru’s latest work, which is also to be released this summer)."

Suzuki, "When did we get to know each other?" Kubo, "It was more than 20 years ago. I visited Miyazaki to ask him to make a sequel of Rupan Sansei: Kariosutoro no Shiro (ルパン三世 カリオストロの城, Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro). He didn't accept it though and told me about his next movie plan eagerly. It was so interesting." Sukuki, "Yes, like that. You had hair in those days. Then, were you a Miyazaki fan in those days?" Kubo, "Yes. I liked Cagliostro so much."

Suzuki, "By the way, is Pokemon’s character design being done by Kotabe (Kotabe Yōichi, 小田部羊一)?" Kubo, "No, he is general animation supervisor. Sugimori (杉森) is designing the characters now. However, we did get a lot of influence from Kotabe." Suzuki, "Kotabe is a colleague of Takahata and Miyazaki from Toei Doga and they made Heidi or Marco together. I think Pokemon has some Ghibli flavor because of him. I guess Kotabe tells the staffs to imitate Ghibli." Kubo, "Oh! Why do you know this?" Suzuki, "Aha?!? Was that true??" (laughing) Kubo, "Of course. We must learn anything that’s good from every movie there exists." Fujimaki, "You don't need to make a counterargument. It's the same as Suzuki (laughing). By the way, I think Pokemon is such kind of movie: kids find out about it, spend some years and after that they leave. Instead of the common Ghibli pattern: people meet Ghibli and don't leave." Suzuki, "Yes. We never let them go away." Kubo, "Yes. Pokemon is quite different from Ghibli. Doraemon is as well (note: Doraemon is another Shogakukan and Toho character). Kids come and go through."



Suzuki, "Why do you make the same movie every year? We can't do that. Aren't you bored?" Kubo, "No. It is interesting. The same characters, the same director. However, if you watch all of them, you can see it like a Space Odyssey in total. We won 1 time and lost 3 times to Ghibli in box office. Yamadas smashed to Pokemon 2nd." Suzuki, "Is that so?" Fujimaki, "Was that the one that got top of US box office?" Kubo, "No, it was the 1st." Fujimaki, "Aha. Ghibli has never got the top in US box office. They did get Academy awarded though." Suzuki, "I know Pokemon got slumping with their 3th, 4th and 5th film, but came alive again in the middle. It was great that you never gave up." Kubo, "Yes. We made a full-change of it to link the version up of the Nintendo game."

Note: Pokemon raised over 40,000,000,000 yen in total as theatrical business. Kotabe now belongs to Nintendo as an adviser. Super Mario Brothers has also been designed by him.

At the end of program, the 3 of them drew some calligraphy. Suzuki wrote “Asobi wo sentoya umareken” (遊びをせむとや生まれけむ, We were born to play), Kubo wrote “Tomo” (友, friend) and Fujimaki wrote “Ichigo wa yumeyo tada kurue” (期は夢よ　ただ狂え, As our life is just a dream, be mad.) Suzuki's words were taken from Ryojin-Hisho (梁塵秘抄), an old poem book made 1000 years ago. Fujimaki's words were also taken from an old book, called Kanginshu (閑吟集).

Note: Coming back to Suzuki’s comment on Kotabe, Miyazaki and Takahata working together, his comment was somewhat incomplete. Besides Heidi and Marco, Kotabe teamed up with them on countless other works (mostly with Miyazaki). Following is a list of their collaborations.

1961: Anju to Zushiōmaru (安寿と厨子王丸, The Littlest Warrior)
1962: Wanpaku Ōji no Orochi Taiji (わんぱく王子の大蛇退治, The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon)
1963: Wan Wan Chūshingura (わんわん忠臣蔵, Doggie March)
1963-65: Okami-shonen Ken (狼少年ケン, Ken, the wolf-boy)
1965: Hassuru Panti (ハッスルパンチ, Hustle Punch)
1966－68: Mahoutsukai Sally (魔法使いサリー, Sally, The Witch)
1968: Taiyō no Ōji - Horusu no Daibouken (太陽の王子 ホルスの大冒険), Hols: Prince of the Sun)
1969: Nagagutsu wo Haita Neko (長靴をはいた猫, Puss 'n Boots)
1969: Sora Tobu Yureisen (空飛ぶゆうれい船, Flying Phantom Ship)
1969-70: Himitsu no Akko-chan (ひみつのアッコちゃん, Secrets of Akkochan, Secret Little Akko)
1971: Dobutsu takarajima (どうぶつ宝島, Animal Treasure Island)
1971: Aribaba to 40-ppiki no Taizoku (アリババと40匹の盗賊, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves)
1971-72: Sarutobi Ecchan (さるとびエッちゃん, Ecchan the Ninja)
1971: Nagakutsushita no Pippi (長靴下のピッピ, Pippi Longstocking)
1972-73: Akadō Suzunosuke (赤胴鈴之助, Redbreast Suzunosuke)
1972: Panda Kopanda (パンダ・コパンダ, Panda! Go, Panda!)
1973: Panda Kopanda Amefuri-Saakasu no Maki (パンダ・コパンダ 雨降りサーカスの巻, Panda! Go, Panda! the Rainy Day Circus)
1973-74: Kouya no Shounen Isamu (荒野の少年イサム, Isamu, Boy in the wilderness)
1973-74: Samurai Jaianth (侍ジャイアンツ, Samurai Giants)
1974: Arupusu no Shōjo Haiji (アルプスの少女ハイジ, Heidi, Girl of the Alps)
1975: Furandaasu no Inu (フランダースの犬, A Dog of Flanders)
1976: Haha wo Tazunete Sanzen-ri (母をたずねて三千里, 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother)
1977: Sougen no Ko Tenguri (草原の子テングリ, Tenguri, Boy of the grassy plain)
1981: Jarinko Chie (じゃりん子チエ, Chie the Brat)
1981-83: Jarinko Chie (じゃりん子チエ, Chie the Brat)
1984: Kaze no Tani no Naushika (風の谷のナウシカ, Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind)
2003: Fuyu no Hi (冬の日, Winter Days)

12th of April, MORE ON PANDA KOPANDA RE-RELEASE, MIYAZAKI’S SORA O TOBU CONTEST WON BY 10 YEAR OLD GIRL: In a follow-up to yesterday’s news, today more information on the Panda Kopanda re-release, plus details on the winner of Miyazaki’s jet airliner art contest that is part of JAL & Studio Ghibli joint project Sora o Tobu.

As mentioned, Ghibli Museum Library is re-releasing the extremely cute Takahata & Miyazaki animation classic Panda Kopanda. It’s currently screening in various Japanese cinemas and a new DVD version will be available starting July 2 (note: a Blu Ray version will not be released). However, what about its content?

Panda Kopanda DVD data:
- Release date : July 2, 2008
- Distributor: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
- 1972, 1973 / Japan / 72 minutes
- Price : 4,935 Yen (including tax), 4,700 Yen (before tax)
- Disc specs: 2 discs / dual layer / NTSC / Region 2 / amaray packaging
- Video: 4:3 aspect ratio
- Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0, Japanese, English
- Subtitles: Japanese, English

- Main content: Panda Kopanda (パンダ・コパンダ,), Panda Kopanda: Amefuri Saakasu no Maki (パンダ・コパンダ 雨降りサーカスの巻)
- Special features: a talk with Takahata Isao and Miyazaki Hayao (recorded in 1994), Takahata Isao interview "Mimi to Heidi, Papanda to Totoro - the starting point of Takahata and Miyazaki", 3 theatrical trailers, E-konte (recorded as multi-angle, linked to the movie), "Panda Kopanda Exhibition - Miyazaki Hayao, the power of image-boards"



Furthermore, yesterday news was also brought on the JAL & Studio Ghibli joint project Sora o Tobu. Miyazaki’s jet airliner art contest has been won by Yuuko Yamaguchi from Tokushima city, a ten year old girl who’s currently in fifth grade.

Out of 13,470 contestants from eight countries (including Japan, the United States, China and France) Yamaguchi’s drawing was picked as the best. Headed by Miyazaki himself, the jury awarded her design, a white bird-like airplane covered in a the colorful flower motif, the first prize and will be used to decorate the outside of one of JAL’s Boeing 787 jet airliners. Miyazaki told, "It looks very good against the white body. More than anything, I felt it is a peaceful and calm picture."

11th of April, PONYO RELEASE OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCED: Great news from Studio Ghibli, Japan: Ponyo ga kuru! Or for those how don’t speak Japanese: Ponyo is coming! The release date of Miyazaki Hayao’s new film Gake no ue no Ponyo (崖の上のポニョ, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea) was officially announced today by Suzuki Toshio, executive producer and former president of Studio Ghibli. Suzuki showed the trailer of Ponyo at a preview room in Tokyo and announced that it will be released on July 19th.

As Studio Ghibli is located near a station of JR Chuo line (a train line in central Tokyo), most of the staff were late that day due to an accident on the JR line (April 10th). Suzuki told, "Miyazaki is always excited in such a situation, and as usual researched and asked those of the staff how they reached the studio. Anyway, this has no relation with the movie though... (laughing)"



Suzuki watched the rush that was on and said, "Miyazaki is now obviously making progress. On earth, how far can he reach? It scares me." He seems to get a really solid response. "The other day, I talked with his wife and she also told me the same. Miya-san will continue producing till his death. He can't live without making anime."

In the 85 seconds trailer (which will be released on April 19 in theatres all over Japan), Ponyo is swimming freely to the theme song in the sea. In the movie, 80% of it consists out of sea scenes. "Miya-san staked his life in expressing the waves" Our expectations for the release are raising.

Suzuki seems to have a policy not to reveal too much info on this movie. The trailer will be released only in the theatres. He says, "Many fans ask me that they want to enjoy the movie without any prejudice. One of my tasks is realizing it." This way is different from other movies - they usually expose as much as they can to the media to advertise it. Maybe it will be possible that because of this many people will visit the theaters because it is Miyazaki's.



Furthermore, Studio Ghibli’s new DVD/BD summer campaign to commemorate Ponyo’s future theatrical release was also announced today. Those purchasing a Studio Ghibli DVD or BD will be rewarded with a special limited Ponyo matchbox, a follow up to last winter’s Totoro matchbox that was awarded to buyers of the Oga Kazuo Ten - Ghibli No Eshokunin DVD / BD. This was added with the announcement of a Panda Kopanda DVD re-release, a follow-up to it's current theatrical re-release, both under the Ghibli Museum Library label. It will be available starting July 2 at a price of 4,935 Yen (4,700 Yen excluding tax) and, worth noting, will also contain English subtitles.

8th of April, PONYO NEWS FROM STUDIO GHIBLI’S PRODUCTION DIARY: As many know, Miyazaki Hayao’s new film Gake no ue no Ponyo (崖の上のポニョ, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea) is still in the midst of production. For those wondering how things are progressing, GhibliWorld.com presents some new interesting excerpts from Studio Ghibli’s own production diary...

Though progress is certainly being made, production section is currently chasing its schedule. Final cutting is planned at the end of April and Furusawa is checking if there are any cuts that might not be finished in time. A total number of 65 cuts are in the animation process flow (douga) and some might not make it in time. All the “sakukan agari”, the cuts modified by the sakuga director (sakukan / sakuga kantoku / sakkann / 作画監督), that come up after now must be in time for cutting, and the aim is to bring as much as material to dou-satsu (douga filming) as possible.

Anyhow, as to be expected the end result is to be yet another masterpiece. On April 1 the preview of the 1st Ponyo trailer was held at IMAGICA in Gotanda. About 100 related people gathered to see Ponyo moving for the first time. Responses like "Great! Moved!" and "Never show any more!!" followed and the audience kept sitting for a while after it finished. They got a solid response to see it. And, as mentioned earlier, the trailer will be released on April 19 in theaters all over Japan.



One of the “sakukan agari” was also finished last week and the production section felt Ponyo really is a formidable film to watch. This particular scene has over 400 douga and, as some Ponyo cuts contain 1600 and 900, one might think it this is not that much. However, the content of this sakuga is pretty hard. It is the scene made by “genga-man Mr. F” and it is one of the highlights of the film. The douga of the scene has been handled by “animator Mr. S”, who made countless monster cuts on many of the Ghibli films. His speed might be able to finish it by the end of April, though they can't drop their guard because it is a really hard cut.

In terms of background art things are pleasantly progressing. Ponyo’s assistant director recently delivered some finished backgrounds and only 50 cuts are left, with a end total adding up to 1139 cuts.

Furthermore, Studio Ghibli’s new president Hoshino Koji came by to visit executive producer Suzuki Toshio. They decided that the title letters for Ponyo’s foreign version (titled Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea) should be in a handwriting matching Miyazaki’s Japanese handwritten title and so a company audition was held. Hoshino joined the challenge right away, though the end result was an overwhelming victory of Suzuki. In the past Suzuki has been responsible for making many handwritten titles for Ghibli’s films.

To sum things up, time was also spent on Gake no ue no Ponyo’s final minutes: Miyazaki and Watanabe (production) discussed its ending credits. As noted before, this time the style of the ending credits will be different from the existing Studio Ghibli films. What will it bring?

7th of April, MORE PONYO IN TWENTY-SEVENTH RADIO GHIBLI / GHIBLI ASEMAMIRE BROADCAST + DOWNLOAD: Last Sunday was the start of a second season of Suzuki Toshio’s radio talk show Ghibli Asemamire (Radio Ghibli) at Tokyo FM. The episode is available for download over here and as usual GhibliWorld.com presents a summary for the Japanese impaired.

This week’s guest was Yano Akiko (矢野顕子). Besides being an influential Japanese pop and jazz musician, those fond of Ghibli will remember her as the singer who sang on Takahata’s Houhokekyo Tonari no Yamada-kun (ホーホケキョ　となりの山田くん, My Neighbors the Yamadas) and for her voice acting on the Ghibli Museum shorts Mizugumo Monmon (水グモもんもん, Water Spider Monmon) and Yadosagashi (やどさがし, House Hunting). Furthermore, she used to be married to Sakamoto Ryuichi, a famous Academy Award-winning, Grammy-winning and Golden Globe-winning Japanese musician, composer, producer and actor.



Tonight, Yano was on her way from recording at Studio Ghibli. The first recording of Ponyo was done today and Yano voice acted as the sister(s) of Ponyo (note: Ghibli Asemamire's narrator clearly speaks of sisters, though the Ponyo website mentions a singular form.

Yano, "I heard that my role isn't that of a human and has no dialogue. It was true. So I accepted it." Suzuki asked, "How was Ponyo?", to which Yano replied, "Wonderful! I like it much better than Howl’s! Aha... can I say that?". Suzuki, "Are you exhausted?" Yano, "Yes, a little". Suzuki, "Me too, though I was just watching the recording. I was the man who recommended you to Miyazaki to do the voice acting, so I have the responsibility for your recording.". Yano, "Is that so!? Thanks so much!". Suzuki, "Actually, I recommended you to Takahata for Yamada's music as well. When I told him about you, he replied to me like "It is surprising to hear your mouth speaking about the name of Yano Akiko." I asked him why and he replied straightly "Her music is high-grade. Why do you like it?". He was really rude to me." (laughing)

Yano, "I had a concert at Japan Society in New York. At the reception after the concert, many Americans approached me and told that they had got to know me through My Neighbors the Yamadas. I was so glad to hear that." Suzuki, "Wasn't it at MoMA (the Museum of Modern Art in New York)?" Yano, "Yes." Suzuki, "When MoMA had a project of screening all Ghibli movies, I also visited it with Miyazaki. After all movies were screened, the person in charge told me that he liked Yamada the best and asked me to add it to their permanent collection. I was glad to hear it, though I asked him never to tell it to Miyazaki." (laughing)



Suzuki, "By the way, did you read all of the e-konte (storyboard)?" Yano, "Yes, of course. It took me a very long time though. It was very interesting, just as a picture book." Suzuki, "Is that so? This time, it is colored, while usually it is all in black and white." Yano, "Sosuke saves Ponyo and brings her in a bucket to his nursery. Kumiko finds out about it and tells Sosuke to show her. Then Ponyo casts a fierce glance at her. The stage direction says she doesn't trust females. Ponyo just spits water on Kumiko and Kumiko begins to cry. That sentence instantly got me to like Ponyo." Suzuki, "Miyazaki became 67 years old and he began the generalization of his works." Yano, "I think his image of females has cohered till so far. As usual, all female characters in Ponyo are like that, they precede males." Suzuki, "I hope kids will also like this movie" Yano, "Kids will surely like it. Not only boys, but girls as well. Girls will fall in love with Sosuke. I believe it will be welcomed regardless of gender or age or culture." Suzuki, "Yes. Male-female relationships are human fundamentals."

A short recording at a ramen shop was inserted. Takahata and Suzuki were there talking about Yano's concert. They just attended Yano's concert at Sumida Hall and said that it was very nice. The two of them have attended every concert of her since 1999.

At last, Suzuki asked Yano, "Why are you living in New York?". She replied, "I have no reason to live in Japan, but I do have some reasons to live in New York. I must live in New York to create music. For me, life in Japan is too comfortable to create."

This week’s inserted music was Yano Akiko’s E wa ugoite iru (絵は動いている, Pictures are moving) which was recorded in 2005 at Ghibli Museum (note: it isn’t included in the downloadable podcast version).

2nd of April, AN EXTENSIVE REVIEW ON HISAISHI’S PONYO IMAGE ALBUM: Earlier last month music composer Hisaishi Joe released his Image Album for Miyazaki’s new film Gake no ue no Ponyo (崖の上のポニョ, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea). Though there is much to tell about Hisaishi’s latest creation, there actually is someone who is far more capable to write about something musical as this.

Marco Bellano, one of GhibliWorld.com’s friends, possesses a great expertise in the combined field of film, music and Studio Ghibli. Especially for GhibliWorld.com, he has written a highly interesting and extensive review on Hisaishi’s Gake no ue no Ponyo Image Album (崖の上のポニョ イメージアルバム). Continue reading it now...

1st of April, PONYO TRAILER ANNOUNCEMENT IN TWENTY-SIXTH RADIO GHIBLI / GHIBLI ASEMAMIRE BROADCAST + DOWNLOAD: Is this the “final” summary on Suzuki Toshio’s radio talk show Ghibli Asemamire (Radio Ghibli) at Tokyo FM? (available for download over here)

Last Sunday Suzuki said "Asemamire ends tonight"… However, all isn’t sure as the narrator didn't profess it at the ending of the program and it is likely to re-start again: in Japan the new business year or new school year starts on April 1st. Many TV and radio programs end in March and start in April full of cherry blossoms.



This week’s guest was Tsukagoshi Takayuki (塚越隆行). He is a friend of Suzuki and president of Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment Japan, one of Ghibli Asemamire’s sponsors. One of the other guests was Hattori (服部, Suzuki didn't mention his given name), producer and editor of Asemamire and always present while recording the show. Suzuki told, "Tonight is the last broadcast of this program and..." Tsukagoshi was astounded, "Huh?!? I’ve never heard of this. Strange. We are the sponsor of this program..!?" Suzuki responded, "Haven’t you? Anyway, it has been decided. However, I hear this program is well-received, and I want to make it to CD. How about it?". Logically, Tsukagoshi was positive, "That's a good idea. We'll support it." And so they began planning making the CD of Suzuki’s program. Suzuki proposed one of his ideas, like a DVD without any images or movies. It has many entrance doors to each room. He referred to Kästner 's book Nemurenu Yoru no Tameni (眠れぬ夜のために, For a Wakeful Night), and proposed quoting it as the subtitle.

Suzuki also noted that Studio Ghibli will release the first trailer of Miyazaki’s Ponyo on April 19 in theaters all over Japan. He gave much thought on producing the trailer. Usually, a trailer needs be both visually attractive, as well as having a “catch copy”. But, this time, Suzuki didn't think it needed a catch copy. So it hasn’t got one.

Another guest visited Suzuki at his Renga-ya. Most likely Tsukada took the man with him to PR Disney’s second Narnia movie which will be released in Japan this May. The third guest was the producer of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Mark Johnson. He told, "This movie has something similar to Mononoke. In it themes like the coexistence of human and nature or the forest play an important role. The film was shot on location, like in beautiful forests in New Zealand, Praha, Poland and so on. In case of animation, you can paint anything you want, but our live action movie can't do that." Suzuki replied, "Pardon me for saying so, but I can't agree with you on this point. We never paint landscapes we have never seen. Location hunting is one of the things we always do and we paint only what we saw." Johnson was surprised, "Really!!??"

29th of March, EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS OF STUDIO GHIBLI AT TAF 2008: As every year, Studio Ghibli has a booth at the Tokyo International Anime Fair. TAF 2008 is taking place right now and, with a special contribution by none other than Danny Choo for GhibliWorld.com, following are some exclusive photos taken at the Studio Ghibli booth. In specific, the announcement of this summer’s exhibition: Studio Ghibli Layout Designs: Understanding the Secrets of Takahata/Miyazaki Animation at the MOT in Tokyo.

24th of March, KUROSAWA ON GHIBLI IN TWENTY-FIFTH RADIO GHIBLI / GHIBLI ASEMAMIRE BROADCAST + DOWNLOAD: The latest summary on Suzuki Toshio’s radio talk show Ghibli Asemamire (Radio Ghibli) at Tokyo FM had been some time ago, but GhibliWorld.com is back with details on last Sunday’s edition. Though it isn’t up yet, it will eventually be available for download over here.

This week’s guest was movie costume director & designer Kurosawa Kazuko (黒澤和子), daughter of none other than the legendary movie director Kurosawa Akira (黒澤明). Her professional background lists costume work on films like her father’s two final cinematic pieces, together with those of Yamada Yoji (山田洋次), Koizumi Takashi (小泉 堯史) and Kitano Takeshi (北野武). The latest film she worked on is Koizumi's WWII courtroom drama Ashita e no Yuigon (明日への遺言, Best Wishes for Tomorrow), which is currently screening in theaters all over Japan.



Talking about that, Kurosawa Kazuko’s collaboration with Koizumi has quite the background. After Koizumi graduated at Waseda University, he worked as an assistant director of Kurosawa Akira for a long time and is said to be his best pupil. After Kurosawa Akira passed away, Koizumi became a director and directed Ame Agaru (雨あがる, After the Rain) which was written by Kurosawa. Though he has directed only 4 movies, every one of them got good appraisal. For his latest film, today Kazuko just happened to have received an "ooiri bukuro" (大入り袋, full bag) from the movie company, a traditional Japanese show-business custom for when a show is a success. This full-house bonus comes in the form of a specially printed envelope, usually containing a small amount of money and is given away to all related staff. The staff was glad to get the success, but not for the money, because usually the money is very little… 50 or 100 yen.

Suzuki being a big fan of Kurosawa, they logically also talked about the memories of Kurosawa and his movies. Though GhibliWorld.com shares the same opinion and regards the works of Kurosawa very highly, the focus of this summary will lay on the part related to Ghibli.



In his late life Kurosawa liked Miyazaki's movies "quite a lot" (note: Kurosawa died in 1998, aged 88 years old). He first took notice on Lupin III without realizing who had directed it. After that, he watched Nausicaa and Totoro, for which he appreciated Miyazaki very much. Suzuki told, "Miyazaki once got a letter from Kurosawa after we sent our videos to him. The letter read like this: "I watched all of the videos. Of course, Totoro is wonderful, Kiki is also very nice and Nausicaa is needless to say..." These words made Miyazaki very glad. BUT the next words made him confused and disappointed. "But what impressed me the most is Hotaru no Haka (火垂るの墓, Grave of the Fireflies). It’s the greatest movie of all of them. You are really talented!!" Kurosawa mentioned about Hotaru and admired it in long text. Actually, Kurosawa thought all Ghibli films were made by Miyazaki. He didn't know about Takahata…"(laughing). Kazuko told, "Well, I know father's most favorite was Totoro. And he cried when he watched Kiki. But the next day he watched Hotaru, his eyes were terribly swollen of crying."

Suzuki also noted, "While he was alive, we projected a talk with Kurosawa and Miyazaki for a magazine. I remember Miyazaki was very nervous like a young student in front of Kurosawa. But the most surprising thing for me was that Kurosawa seemed to be a person of very fine character." Kasuko joked, "You mean his good physique?" Suzuki, "No. I had never seen such a person mannered very gentle, graceful and confident. I realized that he had made himself fine in the same way he had made his movies: with a big effort. Compared to him, Miyazaki, Takahata or me are very selfish. I always want Miyazaki to become a person with a fine character… but still has a looong way to go..."

22nd of March, A BETTER LOOK AT THE WORLD OF MIYAZAKI’S PONYO: Time to further discover the world of Miyazaki Hayao’s new film Gake no ue no Ponyo (崖の上のポニョ, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea). Of course, like with all of his films, director Miyazaki is sure to yet again create a magical world. But what will it look like? Those in possession the film’s first chirashi (handbill) have already been able to take a look at it… however, a lot of people have not… So what is this talk about? It’s a watercolor that Miyazaki made of his Ponyo world and for the Japanese impaired GhibliWorld.com brings it in a translated version.

Click the picture below for a better look.

16th of March, MIYAZAKI’S INSPIRATION “SNOW QUEEN” TO BE RELEASED ON DVD: Studio Ghibli’s Ghibli Museum Library label is to further expand its library with the DVD release of Lev Atamanov’s Snow Queen (雪の女王, Yuki no Jouou). Earlier this year the Russian animation from 1957 already received a cinematic release and so a disc release was inevitable.

As mentioned earlier on GhibliWorld.com, Snow Queen had a decisive influence on Miyazaki Hayao's career as an animator. "This movie made my destiny and because of this I love it". In 1963 Miyazaki was just a beginning animator at Toei Animation Studio and couldn't agree to the projects he was working on and the projects in plan. He was to abandon his dream to be a manga writer. Luckily, seeing Snow Queen at a screening hosted by the union made him let go of that idea. Miyazaki "decided to continue working on animation with renewed determination".



One of the things worth noting is the origin of Atamanov’s Snow Queen. Just like Ghibli Museum Library’s Ou to Tori, it is based on one of the works of Danish fairy tale novelist Hans Christian Andersen. In addition, one of Andersen’s other works, The Little Mermaid, just so happens to be one of the inspirations for Miyazaki Hayao’s new film Gake no ue no Ponyo (崖の上のポニョ, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea).

Regarding Andersen’s Snow Queen, it has been adapted numerous times. Among these adaptations is not only Lev Atamanov’s animated version, but also 2002’s live-action version starring Bridget Fonda, 2005’s anime version by NHK and TMS Entertainment, and 2006’s Korean live-action adaptation where the original was modified into a modern drama starring Hyun Bin and Sung Yu Ri.

As far as Atamanov’s version of Snow Queen is concerned, it is actually the first time for it to be released in its original form in Japan. The former Japanese version, used for TV and video, was based on the English dub by Universal Studios from 1959. Luckily, for the new release Ghibli Museum Library have used the original Russian version which was earlier limited to film festivals only. One of the results is that it brings the original soundtrack that was composed by A. Ivajan which really manages to accent the drama and brings up fresh emotions. Adding to that, Japan’s most skilled Russian interpreter Kojima Hiroko, who already worked with Studio Ghibli and Yuri Norstein in the past, especially made a new translation for the film’s subtitles.



Starting July 2 Snow Queen will be available on DVD and is up for pre-order now (note: a Blu Ray version will not be released). The official Ghibli Museum Library trailer can be found here.

Snow Queen DVD data:
- Release date: July 2, 2008
- Distributor: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
- 1957 / Soviet Union (Russia) / 63 minutes
- Price: 3,990 Yen (including tax), 3,800 Yen (before tax)
- DVD specs: dual layer / NTSC / Region 2 / amaray packaging
- Video: 4:3 aspect ratio
- Audio: Russian, original 2.0 Mono
- Subtitles: Japanese

Bonus features:
- Lev Milchin's Stojkij Olovyannui Soldatik, based on The Steadfast Tin Soldier by Hans Christian Andersen / 1970 / Soviet Union (Russia) / 18 minutes
- Omoi wo Tsuranuku (想いをつらぬく), an interview with Miyazaki Hayao
- Two trailers

14th of March (updated), STUDIO GHIBLI LAYOUT EXHIBITION AT TOKYO'S MOT: Last year’s enormous success of Studio Ghibli’s Ogo Kazuo background art exhibition Oga Kazuo Ten: Ghibli no Eshokunin is getting a continuation. From July 26 till September 28 the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo (MOT) will be the stage of yet another exhibition focused on conveying the charming art of Studio Ghibli.

The exhibition, called Studio Ghibli Layout Designs: Understanding the Secrets of Takahata/Miyazaki Animation, is a joint project between MOT and NTV. With the full cooperation of Studio Ghibli & Ghibli Museum it will have over 1000 layouts from the works of Miyazaki Hayao and Takahata Isao up for display. Though most of these will be layouts originating from Miyazaki’s own hands for films like Nausicaa to his latest movie Ponyo, layouts from pre-Ghibli works of both Miyazaki as Takahata will be viewable as well.

So what are layouts and what is their function? When producing animation, layouts prescribe everything that is to be expressed in the various cuts. Like relative positions, motion of backgrounds and characters, with or without of camerawork and its speed, filming arrangement and so on. Everything is derived from them, like the genga and douga that makes the motion of animation and backgrounds that show the understanding of the world. In other words, they are like the blueprints of anime. Interestingly, the system they form has nowadays become general, but its history is said to go back to 1974 during the production of Takahata & Miyazaki’s Arupusu no Shojo Haiji (アルプスの少女ハイジ, Heidi, Girl of the Alps) where the layout system was first innovated.

Tickets for the exhibition need to be purchased in advance and will be available, just like at the Ghibli Museum, nationwide through Lawson’s Loppi ticket boxes. Furthermore, basic information can be found at the exhibition’s own dedicated website and more details are to be revealed at this year’s Tokyo International Anime Fair 2008 which will be held at the end of this month.

11th of March, INTERNATIONAL ENGLISH TITLE OF MIYAZAKI’S NEW FILM OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCED: Currently in the midst of production is Miyazaki Hayao’s new film Gake no ue no Ponyo (崖の上のポニョ). The film, destined to become a masterpiece, had not yet been given an international English title and was earlier literally translated to Ponyo on a Cliff. However, that title can now be erased from everybody's mind.

In the past Studio Ghibli releases were sometimes given quite different titles in English compared to their original Japanese counterparts. Like Takahata Isao’s Omoide Poro Poro (おもひでぽろぽろ), which translates to Memories Like Falling Rain Drops, but was released as Only Yesterday. Or Kondou Yoshifumi’s Mimi wo Sumaseba (耳をすませば), which literally means If You Listen Closely, but was named Whisper of the Heart. And Umi ga Kikoeru (海がきこえる), meaning I Can Hear the Sea, but titled Ocean Waves. However, in the case of Miyazaki’s Ponyo the differences are just slight. Studio Ghibli has officially communicated the international English title of Miyazaki’s new film to the general public, as printed on the film’s chirashi (handbill) which has just been released.

The official English title will be: Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea.

8th of March, MIYAZAKI AND SUZUKI TALK PONYO: The news on Miyazaki Hayao’s new film Gake no ue no Ponyo (崖の上のポニョ, Ponyo on a Cliff) just keeps expanding. After last week’s interview with Suzuki Toshio, this time the source is Yomiuri’s Sports Hochi and a corresponding podcast revealing new bits and pieces on the latest film of master animation director Miyazaki. We got an illustration of the town where his film takes place and for the first time director Miyazaki gave some comments on his new movie which already attracts attention from all over the world.

"I moved the location of Hans Christian Andersen's Little Mermaid to the Japan of today and cut off the Catholic color. It will show an adventure and love of small kids." said Miyazaki. Suzuki added, "It will be a movie kind to the old as well as kids." Miyazaki also told, "This is a story about a fish kid that has a selfish wish to get along with Sousuke, a human boy, and carries out her intention. Meanwhile it is a story about the 5 year old boy Sousuke carrying out his promise."



The location is a small countryside town near the sea - Niura (or Shin-ura, 新浦, the kanji doesn't show a clear pronunciation), added with cute place names like Ponyo ga Hama (ポニョヶ浜, Ponyo beach)" and Kujira-jima (クジラ島, Whale island). In 2004, Miyazaki went to a small town in Seto-nai-kai (瀬戸内海) during their company tour. The town is famous of Sakamoto Ryouma having once stayed there (坂本竜馬, a big hero during Japan’s Bakumatsu period). Miyazaki liked the town so much that he lived there for 2 months and expanded his imagination. The boy's name Sousuke (宗介) comes from the hero's name of Natsume Souseki's novel Mon (夏目漱石, 門) which Miyazaki read during his stay at the town.

Miyazaki gave some further hints, "A small town by the shore and a house on a cliff. There are not many characters. The sea is like a creature. A world where magic appears in unconcern. I animated the sea not as a background, but as a main character." Suzuki told, "Since a few years ago Miyazaki used to say "I want to draw the sea properly and would like to try it again." and he tried a new method."

There is a day-care house for the old next to the nursery where Sousuke stays and it has an important key. Miyazaki said, "A boy and a girl. Love and life. I try to depict those without any hesitation and try to counter the age of nervous disease and angst."

5th of March, GHIBLI MUSEUM REDESIGN…, PONYO IMAGE ALBUM: When wanting to experience the world of Studio Ghibli, one should of course first watch their films. In addition, there is “of course” GhibliWorld.com and another obligated place to visit is the Ghibli Museum (三鷹の森ジブリ美術館, Mitaka no Mori Jiburi Bijutsukan) in Mitaka, Japan. It’s a wonderful place that reveals the works of Studio Ghibli in the best way possible and it has just been redesigned. The official Ghibli Museum website that is… For the Japanese impaired an English version has returned so there is an extra reason to pay their new website a visit.

To sum things up, a noteworthy reminder on today’s official release of the Gake no ue no Ponyo Image Album (崖の上のポニョ イメージアルバム). It contains 10 tracks of image songs/music inspired by the "images" from Ponyo's story- and imageboards. Six of these have been based on the poetry of director Miyazaki Hayao himself. Starting today the album is available at shops all over Japan and of course at Amazon.co.jp.

3rd of March, FOLLOW-UP ON “DETAILS OF TAKAHATA’S NEW FILM REVEALED IN TWENTY-SECOND RADIO GHIBLI”: Yesterday’s 22nd episode of Suzuki Toshio’s radio talk show Ghibli Asemamire contained some highly interesting information on the new film of Studio Ghibli director Takahata Isao. GhibliWorld.com brought its details immediately, however this is not where the story ends. There was more Ghibli to be told. Today it is time for a follow up and honor one of animation’s best animators ever…

Suzuki noted "Ujiie likes and respects Takahata very much. Typically, he changes his delivery when he talks to either Takahata or Miyazaki: chatty when talking to Miyazaki, polite when talking to Takahata. Talking about Takahata, I read the original novel of Hotaru (Hotaru no Haka, 火垂るの墓, Grave of the Fireflies) when I was 18 years old and liked it. When we began Ghibli, I proposed it to Takahata. I projected a double feature of Totoro and Hotaru as Miyazaki and Takahata were both rivals as well as best colleagues and it should have been very attractive."



"In those days, Hara (原徹, Hara Toru) was the president of Studio Ghibli and he opposed me so much. He told me, "It's impossible. You know, theatrical animation needs so much budget, time and staff. In the whole history of animation there isn’t an animation studio that ever made two full length feature films both at a time. Even Toei has never done that. You plan it because you are just amateur!" I replied "Yes, I'm amateur. What's bad about that?""

"Anyway, at last we started the project. In those days, our staff wasn’t that large as it nowadays is. In a flash, Miyazaki sensibly drew most of the staff first and hence Takahata got none. However, Kondou (master animator and director of Whisper of the Heart Kondou Yoshifumi, 近藤喜文, Kon-chan for short) had yet to decide which to choose. In fact, Miyazaki wanted Kon-chan even if he would lose all of his other staff, because only Kon-chan could draw better than Miyazaki!"

"If Kon-chan had joined Totoro, we might have seen different a Totoro. Kon-chan might have been the most skilled animator in long history of Japanese anime, I guess. Miyazaki intended to only do the directing and leave up all of the pictures to Kon-chan. He wanted to try a “real type anime” instead of a “manga type” and thought it could be possible if Kon-chan would join him. However, of course Miyazaki knew Takahata needed Kon-chan as well, so he persuaded Kon-chan everyday. Adding to that, Miyazaki was writing his e-konte (storyboards) and every single day he would deliver copies of the ones he made by post from his house in Tokorozawa (所沢) to Koudou's house in Kiyose (清瀬)."



"Takahata also wanted Kon-chan, though he didn't say anything. Instead of trying to persuade him, Takahata's strategy was that he told nothing to Kondou and gave him unspoken pressure. And so the battle between Miyazaki and Takahata over Kon-chan was on. Miyazaki said to me, "Kon-chan is absolutely necessary to Totoro!", while Takahata told me, "It will be impossible to make Hotaru without Kon-chan!". Kon-chan was confused and asked me which to choose. I decided to give Kon-chan to Takahata because he said "Impossible"."

"On the night I made the decision, I visited Miyazaki's office in Asagaya (阿佐ヶ谷). He was writing the Nausicaa manga at that time. Miyazaki realized it before I told him and said, "I can imagine what you'll say. Kon-chan will join Hotaru, right? OK. I'll enter a hospital tomorrow due to inflammation of the tendon sheath. If I give up Toroto because of Kon-chan, it might be stupid. But if it’s because of my illness, the double featuring with Hotaru will be given up as well!!" The next morning Miyazaki gave me a call and told me "I'm refreshed and feel better this morning. I beat Kon-chan in my dreams. I'll do Totoro without Kon-chan.""

2nd of March, DETAILS OF TAKAHATA’S NEW FILM REVEALED IN TWENTY-SECOND RADIO GHIBLI / GHIBLI ASEMAMIRE BROADCAST + DOWNLOAD: Another Sunday has passed on which Suzuki Toshio presented his radio talk show Ghibli Asemamire (Radio Ghibli) at Tokyo FM. This time it contained some information that made it extra interesting: Suzuki revealed details on Takahata Isao’s new film. As always it’s available for download (up tomorrow) and GhibliWorld.com is providing a summary.

This week’s guests was TV caster, novel writer and essayist Agawa Sawako (阿川佐和子). Typically, she apologized to Suzuki about her nowadays being into playing golf. Suzuki asked her "Why do you apologize?", to which she replied "I know Ghibli hates golf!"... Suzuki "???". Agawa replied "Ghibli is always on the side of weak people, loves nature and is kind to the environment" (laughing).

So what about her connection to Studio Ghibli? None other than Ghibli staff member Tai Yukari (田居因) happens to be one of her friends. Tai once asked her to write an article and so she visited Studio Ghibli. She found out they were producing Pompoko at that time and, as since her childhood Agawa had a dream of being a voice actor, she asked Suzuki to join. Takahata accepted her wish and casted her as a TV caster. Agawa was a bit disappointed, because she was already a TV caster in real life and actually wanted the role of one of the female tanukis.



Agawa and Suzuki both graduated at one of Tokyo’s most famous universities, Keio University (慶応大学). Back when she was in university, the student movement was booming (most of them were left wing) and she heard a rumor that there was a very beautiful female campus activist. She happened to see the woman activist was agitating and found out she was Agawa's kindergarten classmate. And besides that, she also happened to be a daughter of Ujiie Seiichiro (氏家斎一郎), the chairman of NTV and a big supporter of Ghibli. His name can be found on the ending credits of every Ghibli film.

Suzuki told an interesting episode about Ujiie and Takahata. "Once a month I have talk with Ujiie and he often tells me he wants to see one more Takahata film before he dies (Ujiie was born 1926 and so is now at an age of 81). He told me "It is your responsibility that Takahata-san's film has not been made." and always tells me to make a plan of it (laughing). He says he can't see Takahata's movie without having a special emotion, because even till now Takahata's film have a smell of Marxism."

Note: During his university days Ujiie used to be a member of the Japan Communist Party. The president of Yomiuri, Watanabe Tsuneo, was a member as well and even now they are still colleagues. They both quit JCP before graduating Tokyo University. In addition, ten years after them Takahata was also in Tokyo University.



Agawa asked "Does it mean Takahata's films remind him of his youth?", to which Suzuki replied "Right. The other day Ujiie and Takahata hotly discussed The Brothers Karamazov. Surprisingly, he remembers so many of its content. Anyway, we are planning to base Takahata’s new film on a Japanese lullaby. Japanese lullabies are a bit different from other ones. Usually, in the west a lullaby is for cradling a baby. In contrast to this, Japanese lullabies were usually sung by babysitters to comfort themselves instead of the baby. Back in the old days, babysitters were indentured servants and they were from impoverished villages. In the cradle songs, they sang about their sad circumstances, melancholy or nostalgia for their village. When Ujiie heard this, he instantly began singing Itsuki no Komori-uta from its 1st to 5th verse, using his surprising power of memory." Afterwards Agawa began singing it and asked Suzuki "Please use me for voice acting again!!"

Note: There are 2 types of Japanese lullabies. One is sung by mothers for cradling their babies. These are called komori-uta (子守歌). The other type is sung by babysitters to comfort themselves and are called moriko-uta (守り子歌). These babysitters were almost always servants or slaves. Itsuki-no-komori-uta (五木の子守歌), which was mentioned above, is one of the famous lullabies about Itsuki-village (熊本県), a mountain village in southern Japan (Kumamoto prefecture) well-known for its beautiful nature and its clean river. In old times, when Itsuki was desperately poor, the people had to send their 7-8 year old daughters to the rich families in the city to work as a babysitter. Living far away from home, the young babysitters had to look after the babies all day long. Nowadays, Itsuki isn’t so poor anymore. Though, with the plan to build the Kawabe River Dam, the village will disappear under the flooding water and only the song will remind us to Itsuki village. Suzuki didn't tell if Takahata will really deal with Itsuki-no-komori-uta in specific, though it does give a hint. Following are some of its lyrics:

おどま盆ぎり盆ぎり
盆から先きゃおらんと
盆が早よくりゃ早よもどる
おどま勧進勧進
あん人たちゃよか衆
よか衆ゃよか帯　よか着物

I'll go home at Bon
If Bon comes soon, I can return soon
We are like beggars, but they are the rich
The rich have good sashes and good clothes

Note: Bon festival is a Japanese Buddhist custom to honor the departed spirits of one's ancestors that takes place in August. Usually, the slaves could have holidays only twice a year: on Bon and New Year's days.

29th of February, AN INTERVIEW WITH EXECUTIVE PRODUCER & FORMER PRESIDENT OF STUDIO GHIBLI SUZUKI TOSHIO REVEALING THE STORY BEHIND PONYO: In the March edition of the Japanese magazine Cut more details behind the story and history of Miyazaki Hayao’s new film Gake no ue no Ponyo (崖の上のポニョ, Ponyo on a Cliff) have been unraveled. The international interview magazine features a highly interesting three page interview with Studio Ghibli producer Suzuki Toshio and logically GhibliWorld.com presents a must-read summary.

Continue reading the interview now…

25th of February, TWENTY-FIRST RADIO GHIBLI / GHIBLI ASEMAMIRE BROADCAST + DOWNLOAD: Another Sunday has passed on which Suzuki Toshio presented his radio talk show Ghibli Asemamire (Radio Ghibli) at Tokyo FM. As always it’s available for download and GhibliWorld.com is providing a summary.

This week’s guests were Nakamura and Yoda. Quite known in Japan, Nakamura Masato (中村正人) is a member of "Dreams come True" (DCT), a 2-person band that tends to use humorous and ambiguous language in their songs. He takes in the position of music writer and base guitar player. The other member, Yoshida Miwa ( 吉田美和), is responsible for writing the lyrics and sings. Anyway, DCT is very popular and during last year’s concert at Tokyo Dome they called a 60,000 person attendance and Suzuki was one of them. This week’s other guest, Yoda, is part of the Yomiuri staff and manages the Ghibli pages of Yomiuri Online: Ghibli wo ippai (ジブリをいっぱい).



During the show Nakamura typically noted the flaws of Ghibli’s music as something he envies. "To us music industry experts the way of Ghibli music is terribly messed up. We are always surprised and amazed by it. For us, we have many kinds of formats and rules on how to handle our music business. We are chained to things like record companies and music publishers. However, in your case you always act freely and are even successful with it. Perhaps it’s because no one chains you. We envy you." Suzuki replied "Well, because we are just amateurs, we don't know any formats or rules!". After listening Nozomi’s demo of the Ponyo’s theme song, Nakamura laughed. "It’s really messed up!!".

They also talked about lack and superflux: The Japanese economy is said to have been in a long depression, though everybody has enough to eat and is even wasting a lot of it. Is it really a depression? Suzuki told "Talking about that, the Japanese movie industry produced a lot of good movies during Japan’s poor period after its WW2 defeat. Good movies don't necessarily need richness and wealth. On a related note, Miyazaki is currently producing Ponyo and it has some Morse code appearing in it. Though nowadays it isn't really used anymore, it is quite useful if we don't have access to internet or other modern forms of communication. By the way, Miyazaki really doesn't like PCs, internet or other digital tools. He is always angry at me for using e-mail."



Furthermore, Nakamura told an interesting episode about the music industry and digital technology. "When I read Miyazaki’s Nausicaa manga I was impressed by a certain scene. In it they use lost high tech mining engines that they can fix and maintain, but can't produce themselves. It didn't feel real when I read it, but nowadays a similar thing is happening around me as well. These days, we often use a sampling technique to record music. We can digitally create any kind of sound, making live drums of strings performances unnecessary. The result is that many young musicians and engineers haven’t heard live drums or strings and don't possess a proper technique to record them. Recording drums sounds isn't easy, but in fact they can't read musical scores either. Miyazaki's forebode came true. Amazing. If we now record live performances, we get many complaints of piano pedal noise, guitar strings rustling or whispering musicians..."

To sum things up, Suzuki also discussed his other guest, Yoda. "Yoda made the Ghibli pages on Yomiuri Online. He didn't get any acceptance from us. Is it possible? The page is hidden at the end of the website. He knows that aged people - like me or Miyazaki - can't handle the internet (laughing). I was surprised to see it for the first time. However, I have no intent to blame him, but instead want to admire him. Newspaper writers used to be so good in the good old days."

This week’s inserted music was DCT's new song Matane! (See you again!). It’s part of the soundtrack of the new theatrical One Piece anime that is up for release this March.

21th of February, COVER ART FOR PONYO IMAGE ALBUM: A noteworthy pointer from our colleagues of the well respected Nausicaa.net. Studio Ghibli’s "home composer" Hisaishi Joe has posted a lovely cover image of the Gake no ue no Ponyo Image Album (崖の上のポニョ イメージアルバム) on the official JoeHisaishi.com website. The cover art features one of Miyazaki Hayao’s imageboards presumably displaying Sosuke’s house on a cliff.

The Gake no ue no Ponyo Image Album contains 10 tracks of image songs/music inspired by the "images" from Ponyo's story- and imageboards. To be more specific, six of them have been based on the poetry of director Miyazaki Hayao himself as well. The album is to be released on March 5 and is up for pre-order at the Japanese division of Amazon.

20th of February, NISSHIN SEIFUN TO SPONSOR GHIBLI MUSEUM LIBRARY: Studio Ghibli is being aided in their quest to promote foreign animation among Japan. As been announced by Ghibli Museum, Nisshin Seifun and Yomiuri Shimbun, one of the core companies of the Nisshin Seifun Group is to co-sponsor Studio Ghibli’s foreign animation distribution label Ghibli Museum Library.

For a period of at least one year Nisshin Flour Milling Inc. will advertise the Ghibli Museum Library movies in newspapers and handle other public-relations operations. The collaboration will start with the sponsoring of Miyazaki & Takahata’s 1972 pre-Ghibli Panda Kopanda (パンダコパンダ, Panda! Go Panda!) which will be re-released together with a dedicated exhibit on March 15. Ghibli Museum curator Nakajima Kiyofumi noted ''Our new enterprise might face tough prospects but there are many good titles.'' and praised Nisshin for their support. Nakajima also mentioned that, when the first year of their contract with Nisshin is over, Ghibli Museum will very possibly extend the term.

19th of February, MIYAZAKI & TAKAHATA ON BLU RAY, NINETEENTH & TWENTIETH RADIO GHIBLI / GHIBLI ASEMAMIRE BROADCAST + DOWNLOAD: Good news from Japan. Starting from July 25 two of Miyazaki’s & Takahata pre-Ghibli pieces will viewable in Full HD. Both Miyazaki’s Meitantei Houmuzu Gekijouban (劇場版 名探偵ホームズ, Sherlock Hound Theatrical Release) from 1984 and Takahata’s theatrical release of Jarinko Chie (じゃりン子チエ 劇場版, Chie the Brat) from 1981 have been given a new High Definition Telecine transfer and will be released on Blu Ray with a mono PCM-track, together with a 16-page full color booklet. Though subtitles have not been confirmed, presumably these will be left out like with the earlier corresponding DVD releases. Anyway, pre-orders are already up over here and here.

In addition, one might also want to order the new release of Miyazaki Hayao’s unmissable pre-Ghibli Mirai Shonen Konan (未来少年コナン, Future Boy Conan) that was released last month: Mirai Shonen Konan 30th Anniversary Memorial Box. It can be seen up close over here.



Last Sunday Suzuki Toshio presented another episode of his show Ghibli Asemamire (Radio Ghibli) at Tokyo FM. As always it’s available for download and GhibliWorld.com is providing a summary.

This week’s guests was Nakazawa Shinichi (中沢新一), a famous religion scholar who in 2007 wrote a long article for the Gedo wo Yomu booklet for which he also handled the editing. Together with Suzuki he talked about various philosophic and religious subjects. One of them related to one of Nakazawa’s many relatives famous for their academic side. In this case it was about his uncle Amino Yoshihiko (網野善彦), a historian who studied the craftsmen of the Middle Ages of Japan. Nakazawa mentioned that his uncle's work greatly inspired Miyazaki's Mononoke Hime (もののけ姫, Princess Mononoke). He pointed out an interesting thing about Mononoke Hime in the way it tried to depict the opposition between the forest and development of civilization. In ancient Europe and Middle East the development of civilization was built on destroying its forest, though in Southeast Asia and with the Mayas and Aztecs, after the perishing of its ancient civilization, the forests soon recovered. As Japan is a humid place, the opposition between forests and the development of civilization wasn't so serious: the forest could easily recover and so Miyazaki's effort was confusing at this point.



Another thing Nakazawa pointed out was the difference between the West and Asia. In the West’s monotheistic religious world man was created by God, but many Asian ethnic groups claim to have animal ancestors. For example, Japan’s Imperial family's ancestor is the gator and Korean's ancestor is the bear. Suzuki was surprised to hear it, "Gator? Is that right? I didn't know that!"

Furthermore, Suzuki replied on some of Nakazawa’s questions, telling him about the number of Ghibli staff members: 170 for the Studio and 150 for the Museum. As Nakazawa was surprised of so many people working at Ghibli Museum, Suzuki explained about it, but as the show’s narrator disturbed it we can’t tell the details. What we did catch was Suzuki telling about Tokyo’s museums. "There are many public museums in Tokyo’s metro area. However, for many of them it isn't easy to manage them because of the lack of visitors. For example, there is Edo-Tokyo Tatemono-en (江戸東京たてもの園) the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum near Ghibli studio in Koganei, which inspired Spirited Away. Miyazaki and I like it very much and often visit it. The Governor of Tokyo once visited it and liked it very much, but after hearing of its management problems he began to entertain closing it. We hope it will survive."

Miyazaki Hayao’s new film Gake no ue no Ponyo (崖の上のポニョ, Ponyo on a Cliff) was also discussed. - spoiler alert! - Suzuki mentioned some details on the beginning of the story which Miyazaki borrowed from the legend of Urashima Taro (浦島太郎): a fish kid called Ponyo is playing with a Aohata (アヲハタ) jam jar and puts her head in it. She can't get it out and is wriggling at the shore, but Sosuke finds the jar and saves her. Ponyo never forgets his kindness.

To end the program Suzuki asked Nakazawa to write a serial story on Studio Ghibli’s free monthly report magazine Neppu on which Nakazawa replied "sounds interesting.".



In addition, we have a summary for last weeks Ghibli Asemamire as well (download). Its guest was Ishikawa Gen, a children's psychiatrist who long ago, back in Nagoya during 4th grade of elementary school, was Suzuki's classmate. He was a guest on Suzuki’s show as a certain magazine recently featured an article about “Suzuki and an old classmate” and Suzuki asked the editor to choose Ishikawa as the classmate.

Though Suzuki remembered him very well, Ishikawa didn't remember Suzuki at all. Suzuki told that Ishikawa was the boss of the kids and Suzuki was his following and together teased other kids. Ishikawa laughed and replied "If it had been true, I should have seen a psychiatrist. I might have been a damned kid, but I don't remember it at all."

Anyway, Ishikawa is an authority in the field of the autism spectrum disorder called Asperger syndrome. Before he met Suzuki again during the magazine project he had never watched a Studio Ghibli movie, but then he finally watched one movie. It was Totoro and Ishikawa had a related story about one of his kid patients. It was about a 2 year old boy fond of cars and motorbikes for whom his mother had bought a Totoro DVD. The boy liked it and everyday he watched it again and again, to a total of 4 times in a day! Ishikawa asked Suzuki "Do you know Yoko-chan in Totoro?", to which Suzuki replied "No, never heard about her." Ishikawa continued "One day the boy said to her mother "Yoko-chan in Totoro...". As his mom sometimes watched Totoro with the boy she was quite familiar with the details of Totoro. She said to her son "Yoko-chan? You know, there appear 3 girls: Satsuki, Mei and Satsuki's friend Michan... but Yoko-chan doesn't exist!" A few months later, the family was talking about Totoro. The boy had become 3 years old and suddenly said "When Mei got lost, Satsuki was looking for her and met a young man riding a motorbike. Satsuki asked him if he had seen Mei. The young man looked back at his girlfriend on the side-car and asked "Yoko-chan, did you see a little girl?" That was Yoko-chan".



His mom checked the DVD and found out it was true. She realized her little boy was different from normal kids and came to me to consult." Suzuki said "I remember that young girl, but didn't know her name was Yoko-chan…" Ishikawa replied "In a drame normal people never care about these slight matters, but Asperger syndrome patients can't see the whole. They only see the segments." Like in the old Japanese saying: seeing only a tree, but never the forest (木を見て森を見ず). The boy didn't really watch the drama, but only watched the cars, buses and motorbikes. Ishikawa said "Asperger syndrome patients can't read the atmosphere and often get into trouble with people around them. They never cure. They have to realize it and have to go along with it through their entire lives. If the parents try to cure it, it just gets worse." Suzuki and Ishikawa talked some more about psychiatric diseases and psychology, but it was a bit abstract and less connected to Ghibli.

13th of February, PRODUCTION OF MIYAZAKI’S PONYO KEEPS PROGRESSING: From Studio Ghibli comes an update on Miyazaki Hayao’s new film Gake no ue no Ponyo (崖の上のポニョ, Ponyo on a Cliff).

Last week an outsourced Genga-artist, who earlier worked on Gedo Senki (ゲド戦記, Tales from Earthsea) and who’s name includes the kanji 田 ("ta"), visited Studio Ghibli. Though checking Gedo Senki's credits list will not solve the mystery on who he is (as there are many options), there is one thing we can say: he is much demanded on many theatrical anime productions. This was once again proven by the fact that Studio Ghibli offered him to join Ponyo and ever since its production started have negotiated with him. Today Studio Ghibli finally had an arrangement with him. The people at Studio Ghibli look forward to seeing his genga and are eager to see how he will work with Miyazaki. Which isn’t strange. Even though he worked on Ghibli films like Gedo Senki and some shorts in the past, it’s his first time working under Miyazaki. On the moment only 20 cuts for saku-uchi are left and they plan to finish all of it in the week after next. UP is coming soon.

In terms of backgrounds things are pleasently progressing as well. Recently, background art master Oga Kazuo brought the background pictures he painted for Ponyo to Studio Ghibli. It were all of those that were charged on him. This time he painted about 100 cuts centering natural surroundings like the sea, mountains, forests, flowers and clouds. All of them are beautiful and soft and while Yoshida was checking them every time he admired them and went "Wonderful!!". Oga encouraged the main staff and said "I'm really looking forward to seeing the 1st preview!". He left the studio and went away in the snow. His back clearly showed the people at Ghibli that he is really an artisan.

6th of February, ENGLISH INTERVIEW WITH PONYO THEME SONG SINGERS FUJIOKA FUJIMAKI: When giving our readers the latest Studio Ghibli news, GhibliWorld.com doesn’t often rely on English written media… Luckily, Midnight Eye contributor Don Brown (Ryuganji) informs us about an interesting interview on the English version of Yomiuri Shimbun: an interview with Gake no ue no Ponyo theme song singers Fujioka Fujimaki. Read the interview now…

4th of February, NEW UNSEEN PONYO ART BY MIYAZAKI HAYAO: Shining on this month’s edition of Yomy, an extra release for those subscribed to Yomiuri Shimbun, is a never before seen water color & pastel art piece made by Miyazaki Hayao for his new film Gake no ue no Ponyo (崖の上のポニョ, Ponyo on a Cliff). It’s a picture showing Ponyo at night standing on a boat and logically GhibliWorld.com has an image of it (click to enlarge). Let’s hope Studio Ghibli & Miyazaki Hayao will soon bring the world more of this lovely art!

3rd of February, MORE NEWS ON SUZUKI TOSHIO’S STEPPING DOWN AS STUDIO GHIBLI PRESIDENT, EIGHTEENTH RADIO GHIBLI / GHIBLI ASEMAMIRE BROADCAST + DOWNLOAD: Last week Suzuki Toshio announced he will be further focusing his work as a producer and stepped down as Studio Ghibli president. Japan’s NTV2 uploaded a 28 minute video of the complete press conference and for the Japanese-impaired GhibliWorld.com brings a summary of what had not yet been mentioned in other Japanese media.

Set at Studio Ghibli Suzuki opened the conference mentioning he would like to tell three things. One of them was about the hardships. "To tell the truth, when we parted from Tokuma and became an independent company, I searched and recruited anyone who could accede the function of Studio Ghibli president. I knew “managing business” would be hard for me, but as I found none to accept I had to become president myself. That’s why this replacement isn't unexpected or strange news. I now realize why all those whom I had asked earlier declined the offer. Maybe they thought it would be hard to go along together with Miyazaki, Takahata and me: 3 selfish bosses."



Suzuki added "Born in 1948, I got old enough, so I therefore once thought of retirement. However, Miyazaki got angry and told me "I'm older than you, you mustn't retire before me." So I'll continue working on making films and made a new post: 取締役プロデューサー (Executive Producer). Now usually presidents want to become a chairman or CEO after they quit as president, but that is something I will never do. I want to make films and to be on site." (Note: Suzuki’s comment shows some sarcasm as the top of NTV is called chairman instead of president.)

Thirdly, Suzuki also explained about why he has chosen Hoshino. "We've known each other since 1991. Back then Disney asked us to let them handle the distribution of Ghibli videos, but our answer was NO. Some years later, we began to get a business relation. I believe that Disney helped us to make Studio Ghibli into a worldwide known film studio. Hoshino was the central figure."

Of course Hoshino himself brought in his side of the story as well. "When I once consulted a person about changing jobs, he advised me three things. First of all: "NO foreign capital" (in the past Hoshino worked on 3 US companies of which one of them was Disney). Second of all: "Work on something related to kids and dreams, just like your job at Disney." Third of all: "You’ve got the age to show your gratitude towards society."."

"I worked at Disney in my 30s and 40s. I'll work at Ghibli in my 50s. The most important difference between these 2 is the following. Walt Disney died long ago and afterwards the company grew big as a global company. However, at Studio Ghibli the founders, Miyazaki and Takahata and Suzuki, are still alive and creating. And now I’ll be able to work with these living legends. It's really great and my most decisive point of joining Studio Ghibli. I think my job is to support creators like Miyazaki and Takahata and Goro. Suzuki has built up a good environment for creating. I must keep it. And I must keep a good a relation with musicians like Hisaishi Joe and promotion companies that always help Ghibli."

With Hoshino obviously motivated, it is interesting to find out what he will bring Studio Ghibli. Despite the huge success of Studio Ghibli’s films, his task might still be hard. Suzuki noted "Honestly speaking, the business management of Studio Ghibli isn't so easy. Business environments are changing along time. For example, video has been replaced by DVD. To tell the truth, I've never made any management programs. For example, we got so much unexpected revenue on 2001 due to the success of Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (千と千尋の神隠し, Spirited Away), but the next year it was almost ZERO. It's impossible to make a single year budget. Usually we make films in a 3 or 4 years cycle. So we have to plan our management program in 3 or 4 years cycle well. However, these are just a simple wild ass guess... Talking about future plans, both Takahata Isao and Miyazaki Goro have plans for new movies…" NTV2 news says these will be released after Ponyo.



To change matters, but remain on the same subject: this week’s Ghibli Asemamire (Radio Ghibli) also handled Suzuki Toshio’s stepping down as president of Studio Ghibli. As always it will be available for download and GhibliWorld.com is providing a summary.

Logically, new Studio Ghibli president Hoshino Kouji was this week’s guest with whom Suzuki discussed some background stories…

Some time ago the Disney head office in the US had the plan of replacing Disney Japan's president from Japanese to American. Last May this resulted in Hoshino changing jobs from president to chairman. Of course Suzuki got word of it and decided to recruit Hoshino as president of Ghibli. This wasn’t handled quickly though. After receiving the offer Hoshino didn’t get in touch with Suzuki for 3 months. Hoshino was worrying and thought he wasn't suitable for Studio Ghibli. In the meanwhile during that period, an American friend of Suzuki told Suzuki "Hoshino will never come to Studio Ghibli. The salary of a Disney president is so immensely high, you will never be able to pay as much as them. He'll search for other offers at companies that pay more." And yes, the common sense of Suzuki’s American friend was somewhat right: Hoshino had indeed received some other good job offers. However, Suzuki believed that people sometimes don’t base their decision on money and thought that Hoshino would change his mind. Suzuki patiently left things as they were for 3 months. After that, Hoshino gave Suzuki a phone call and visited him at his Renga-ya. Suzuki just asked him in short "Decided?", to which Hoshino replied "YES!".

The new and former Studio Ghibli president also went twenty years back in time. A moment in Suzuki's life in which he stayed and worked at Studio Ghibli during the days and at Tokuma during the evenings. While working hard at both of them, Suzuki thought he had to decide on where to further dedicate himself. It just so happened that around that time Tokuma was planning to start a new magazine for adults and had Suzuki in mind as its chief editor. It was a very attractive offer for him, but basically he would be just a magazine editor and, as he had some ambition, he worried. To make a solid desicion he thought of with whom he could work as a magazine editor. Of course, If he’d choose Ghibli, he could work with Miyazaki. And Miyazaki needed him so much. Hence, Suzuki chose Ghibli and afterwards realized it was indeed the best choice for him.

2nd of February, NEW TAKAHATA ISAO & MIYAZAKI GORO FILMS ANNOUNCED, SUZUKI STEPS DOWN AS STUDIO GHIBLI PRESIDENT: Highly interesting news from Japan. As of February 1 former Walt Disney Japan president Hoshino Kouji (51) has taken over the position of Suzuki Toshio (59) as president of Studio Ghibli. Suzuki, who has been responsible for many hits and has been working on many of Miyazaki’s films since Nausicaa, said "The origin of Ghibli is making theatrical animation. As I’ve been willing to dedicate myself on on-site producing again, I’ve been searching for someone who could undertake the position of president in place of me." Therefore Suzuki will start fully devoting his time as a producer again. He also disclosed that after Miyazaki Hayao’s Gake no ue no Ponyo (崖の上のポニョ, Ponyo on a Cliff) the next film is planned to be directed by Takahata Isao and Goro Miyazaki. (Note: As this sentence doesn't show any plural or singular form, it isn’t clear if it means if ONE film or TWO films are to be directed by Takahata and Goro. However, it is assumable both will make a separate film.)



In the past Mr. Hoshino worked at Walt Disney Japan, where he had a relation with Ghibli since 1994. There he handled the video distribution and theatrical releasing of Mononoke Hime all across America. Suzuki chose Hoshino as he wanted a person that was well familiar with Studio Ghibli. Miyazaki welcomes him and said "If he does the job I can do anything I want like always."

In addition, Hoshino told about his intentions "I worked at Disney to give children dreams, so I think it is highly attractive to work with Miyazaki and Takahata. Perhaps the management or business aspect will change, but as a creating group Studio Ghibli will never change. I will keep the environment that Mr. Suzuki has built." Suzuki added "I'm a man who wants to adhere to actual production field. When we got independent from Tokuma back in 2005, I spent so much energy that I couldn't handle even one movie. I realized the limitations of working on both management and production." Besides producing Suzuki will continue his job as board director.

24th of January, MIYAZAKI'S PONYO PROGRESSING AND SIXTEENTH RADIO GHIBLI / GHIBLI ASEMAMIRE BROADCAST + DOWNLOAD: Miyazaki Hayao’s latest film Gake no ue no Ponyo (崖の上のポニョ, Ponyo on a Cliff) is further progressing. Since two weeks SAKUGA meetings (key animation meetings) have been held on an everyday basis. After every meeting director Miyazaki mumbles "The rest cuts of meeting are xxxxx...." They can see something in his face... One relief is that he can take a view at completion now and that the loneliness of production is nearing its end. Talking about the end, Ponyo production staff had a meeting about the movie’s ending credits. Because of Miyazaki’s wishes, this time it will be a little different from what is usually done. They don’t want it spoil the image of Ponyo and are planning to make it warm and fun. It’s a kind of trial and error, but the aim is to give the audience a fun and good afterglow.

Last Sunday Studio Ghibi president and producer Suzuki Toshio presented another episode of his show Ghibli Asemamire (Radio Ghibli) at Tokyo FM. As always it’s available for download and GhibliWorld.com is providing a summary.

This week’s guests were NTV’s Okuda Seiji and Okada Junichi (岡田准一). Of course Okuda was already a guest in previous shows and this time he brought Okada with him. Besides being a member of the popular boy band V6 which belongs to Johnny & Associates (ジャニーズ事務所), he is also an actor, appearing in films like Koreeda Hirokazu’s Hana Yori mo Naho. Those being fond of the works of Studio Ghibli will also know him for his voice acting part from 2006, when he was responsible for Arren's voice in Miyazaki Goro’s Gedo Senki. This time, he acted one of the lead parts in the movie Kage-hinata ni Saku (陰日向に咲く) which is to be released at the end of this week. Okuda is one of its producers.



Recently in Japan, a Japanese kind of stand up comedy called Owarai has been booming a lot. Already starting in the morning till midnight large numbers of Owarai performers occupy the Japanese TV screens. Gekidan-Hitori is one of them and wrote the original best selling novel on which Kage-hinata ni Saku (陰日向に咲く, Blossom in the Shade and Sun) was based (Gekidan-Hitori means "one man theater troupe").

Usually Suzuki is the one asking the questions and spends most of time with a somewhat one-sided talking. However, tonight Okada demanded a turn a of roles. Firstly, Okuda asked Suzuki "Why don't you try producing live-action films? The huge DVD collection on your shelves almost entirely consists out of live-action films." Suzuki "I like them very much and actually prefer them to anime. But it’s only for watching, not making them. Basically, at first I didn't like anime so much, so I could make it for business only." Okuda "So at first you didn't have any vision or spirit for making films? I heard of a legend of your first time meeting Miyazaki. You hung on him for 3 days long. Is it true?" Suzuki "Talking about that story, I was a magazine writer and visited Miyazaki for an interview. At that time he was making Rupan Sansei: Kariosutoro no Shiro (ルパン三世 カリオストロの城, Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro) and unfortunately didn't agree to be interviewed at all. I asked him why, on which he replied "I would be tarnished if my interview would appear in such a cheap magazine!" and he didn’t say anything to me after that. So I set a chair beside him and kept sitting. I declared him I would stay there till he would be willing to talk with me. Three days after he finally started talking to me." Okada "Oh! You are like Toyotomi Hideyoshi!! You must have had some something special with anime, didn't you?" Suzuki "No. It was just my job. And me being frustrated by his words made me behave like that. Anyway, for several months after I stayed beside him day in day out until they finished the movie. He opened up and began talking to me. In those days, Miyazaki was young and every day he began working at 9 am and stopped at 3 am of the next day, so I couldn't do any of my own job." Okada "And what did you think of Cagliostro then? I think it is a masterpiece and it’s one of my big favorites." Suzuki "It was very good, of course. Then, I began to want to work with him. It was not because it was movie industry, but because I felt comfortable around him. After he did Cagliostro he lost his place to make movies and I thought that I should be his producer." Okada "What is your dream for the movies you make?" Suzuki "Now, I only wish we can make movies that I really want to watch." Okada "How about Ponyo?" Suzuki " We watch the rush-films that are brought in every week. Today I also watched one. I have been often excited to see some excellent scenes." Okuda "To tell the truth, I've wanted to do producing of movie some day. So I want to ask you this question. What do you think about that… for you, is a movie producer a creator or a businessman?" Suzuki "Uhmmm…". He couldn't answer.

This weeks’ inserted music was Toki no Uta (時の歌) by Teshima Aoi, a song from Gedo Senki Kashuu, and one of the songs of the Kage-hinata ni Saku soundtrack: Deai no Kakera (出会いのかけら) by Ketsumeishi (ケツメイシ).

18th of January, OGA KAZUO TEN DVD & BLU RAY DISC TWIN PACK REVIEW: Quietly. For a long time that was the way art director and background artist Oga Kazuo worked behind the scenes at Studio Ghibli. Justified, his inconspicuous position changed in the course of time and Oga has become an indispensable part of Studio Ghibli. During the last couple of years he deservingly received “foreground attention” for the moving background art he made. Back in 1996 and 2005 he already released two books: Oga Kazuo Art Collection and Oga Kazuo Art Collection II. In 2006 Oga followed with his directing debut called Taneyamagahara no Yoru (種山ヶ原の夜, The Night of Taneyamagahara) and in the summer of 2007 his work finally received the full attention it had already earned: an exhibition of his work took place at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo.



Though most animation background art is discarded every day and by many thought to have little value in itself, the art of Studio Ghibli’s image artisan Oga Kazuo has managed to capture the hearts of audiences. Photographs can leave a highly detailed record, but there is much they cannot capture. Like the smell of a breeze and the nostalgia that is “memory”. In that way Oga’s works are different. They have the power to awaken those memories within us. Works that were originally backgrounds and art boards used for scenes in animated films were framed for exhibition which was extremely well visited. So well visited, that there wasn’t enough time and room. Each day the exhibition was thronged with visitors. Over 200,000 people came to see Oga’s “empty” backgrounds at his exhibit that ran for 66 days. So what does one do for the visitors that want to relive it? What does one do for those who weren’t fortunate to visit it?

The answer is simple: release a DVD (Amazon.co.jp, Yesasia.com) and DVD & Blu Ray Disc Twin Pack (Amazon.co.jp, Yesasia.com).

It all starts with a wonderful documentary Oga Kazuo Ten: Ghibli no Eshokunin - The One Who Painted Totoro's Forest which runs for about 72 minutes. While taking its viewers through the exhibition, people like Studio Ghibli president Suzuki Toshio, director Takahata Isao, art directors Takeshige Yoji and Tanaka Naoya, Oga’s mentor Kobayashi Shichiro and of course the background art master Oga himself, enlighten us with their “background stories”. From when Oga was 20 years old and started at Kobayashi Production with almost no training in 1972, till now, when Oga has claimed a important role at Studio Ghibli. In the course of time Oga worked with many directors on a diverse range of background art styles, but of course a very important step was when he decided to join Studio Ghibli...



Like the documentary tells its viewers, Oga began working at Studio Ghibli purely by accident. His first production for Studio Ghibli was Miyazaki Hayao’s My Neighbor Totoro which takes place in the countryside outside Tokyo in the late 50’s. Ghibli was producing Totoro and Hotaru no Haka simultaneously and an art director for Totoro was urgently needed. One day Oga received a call from director Miyazaki Hayao. Studio Ghibli producer and president Suzuki Toshio tells “Miyazaki had a close relationship with an art director named Yamamoto Nizo from whom he’d heard about Oga. Miyazaki assumed Oga would be suitable. Miyazaki has this interesting trait that if he trusts you he assumes he can trust your friend as well.”

Once again proven, the documentary shows Oga did a great job on Totoro. The way he managed to change nature’s face with each change in the light. Depending on the weather and time of day the same place can take on a completely different appearance and Oga brilliantly depicted these changes in mood. Of course the most notable Totoro backgrounds depict nature’s transformation as night falls. As Studio Ghibli president & producer Suzuki Toshio mentions “The aspect of Totoro that impressed me most is the sequence where Satsuki goes looking for Mei. The background convey the passage of time. Without Oga, I doubt that sequence would have worked.”



Ghibli art director Tanaka Naoya puts it extremely well “It’s as if Oga has a kind of special filter that he uses to depict the quality of light. It’s not a naturalistic effect. He extracts the essence of important elements of the scene. Then he augments them to enrich the image. What this does is change the landscape from something familiar to something that feels more like déjà vu. The audience shares the experience with the character.”

Logically, director Takahata Isao was extremely impressed by Oga’s backgrounds for Totoro. He began preparing for Only Yesterday and wanted Oga as his art director. Protagonist Taeko, born and raised in Tokyo, feels drawn to rural Japan and in the present day scenes of the film she goes to visit relatives in Yamagata Prefecture. As Oga is actually a native from Akita, Takahata wanted to use Akita as the setting. But to drive the story, they needed to find a special local product. Something distinctive that would work for animation. After a lot of research and they discovered something that Akita didn’t have anything to rival with: Yamagata’s safflowers. The result ended up in a superb film with stunning backgrounds.

Numerous kinds of other stories, added with the visuals of Oga’s lovely backgrounds that show his keen powers of observation, make Oga Kazuo Ten: Ghibli no Eshokunin - The One Who Painted Totoro's Forest not something to cheer your kids up with, but into a perfectly interesting documentary for those having a higher interest in the films of Studio Ghibli or animation in general.



Other content includes The reason why people are attracted with Kazuo Oga and background paintings of animation, a 40 minutes collection of interviews with director Takahata Isao, art scholar Tsuji Nobuo, Studio Ghibli art department head Tanaka Naoya and animation art director Kobayashi Shichiro. While showing some minor overlap with the Oga Kazuo Ten: Ghibli no Eshokunin - The One Who Painted Totoro's Forest documentary, it offers a more in-depth analysis of Oga Kazuo’s work. Think of director Takahata Isao explaining on the core ideas behind the backgrounds that Oga made for his movies. “We wanted to depict reality, just as it is. To convey the appeal of a real in environment we had to give it a sense of immediacy.” Or art director Tanaka Naoya telling about impressive examples of Oga’s style. “There’s little detail, yet everything feels so real, so pristine.” All in all, an interesting feature telling us from four different perspectives why Oga’s work gives us that desire to keep looking.

In addition, a slideshow “Displaying all 600 works of Kazuo Oga’s exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo” offers us a better look at Oga’s work. This is where Blu-ray customers are being rewarded for taking the next step. Besides the immensely better picture quality that Oga’s work deserves, the slides of the Blu-ray version are presented in full screen size. This instead of the DVD version, where backgrounds are presented in a large black window box. Needless to say, this slideshow is a great feature, though honestly I still prefer taking a look in the book that was for sale at the exhibition.

As with every Studio Ghibli release, viewers are also blessed with a collection of trailers, which this time are the following: Snow Queen trailer, Azur et Asmar trailer, Ghibli Museum Library trailer, Iblard Jikan trailer and Taneyamagahara no Yoru trailer.



That isn’t all, but this is where things get different. DVD customers will have to do with the making of the cover painting of Oga Kazuo Art Collection II (about 20 min). However, those in possession of the Blu-ray disc are again rewarded for taking the next step:
- Kirisame: Kazuo Oga paints a picture is a 24 minutes long feature showing the making of the cover painting for the Blu Ray Disc captured in HD.
- An extended 35 minutes version of the making of the cover painting for Oga Kazuo Art Collection II.

In terms of audio and picture quality there is nothing to complain. The Dolby Digital 2.0 audio track isn’t stellar, but perfectly sufficient for the documentaries. In addition, it’s backed up with English subtitles for the Japanese impaired. As far as picture quality is concerned, the DVD will do more then fine. However, if in the possession of a Blu-ray player, then it is highly advised to buy the BD version. As stated earlier, it will not only give a far better picture quality, in terms of content it greatly excels as well (more, better and longer content). And a note for those not living in Japan, US or do not have an imported player: the Blu-ray Disc is region free.

To round up, Oga Kazuo Ten is highly recommended! It does not beat watching an actual Studio Ghibli film, nor is it for everyone, but those wanting to know more about the world of animation, Studio Ghibli and/or Oga Kazuo in specific will not be disappointed.

17th of January, GAKE NO UE NO PONYO UPDATE: Miyazaki Hayao has finally finished the e-conte (storyboard) for his latest film Gake no ue no Ponyo (崖の上のポニョ, Ponyo on a Cliff). Studio Ghibli has stated the total added up to 1,138 cuts (his last two films, Hauru no Ugoku Shiro and Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi, summed up to 1,384 and 1,415 cuts). One week ago Miyazaki pulled back the e-conte, that he once handed out to the staff, in order to make some changes. He completed it and the Ponyo e-conte was finally really finished. The correction wasn't that much so Ghibli production staff got "easy".

Now that Miyazaki has finished his e-conte, he can focus himself on checking and he will able to stay at his desk longer. Therefore not only main staff, but also the SAKUGA staff will be nervous. At the moment SAKUGA and SAKUKAN members even work on national holidays. Starting from the end of January even in-house DOUGA staff must give up national holidays. After checking the schedule, it seems that they will be late reaching the planned target date to finish production, so they acknowledged that must increase the DOUGA pace. "I'm glad that we have an excellent DOUGA staff, they all accepted giving up national holidays."



Yesterday Yomiuri Shimbun posted an interview with the singers of Ponyo’s theme song: Fujioka-Fujimaki and Ohashi Nozomi. Though it did not contain many new details, some small excerpts are all always worth sharing.

Q: What was the trigger to sing the theme song?
Fujimaki “Basically it was planned that only Nozomi would have sung and so the demo was made in that way. However, Miyazaki listened to it and got the idea that a father and his daughter should sing it together. As we’re familiar with that and have a business relation with Studio Ghibli they asked us to try singing it tentative. It was just tentative, so we tried it at ease. Then Miyazki and Suzuki began to say "That singing is all right".”

Q: Were you surprised?
Fujimaki “We said "You should think more serious!!" They said "Your bad singing is rather good".”

Q: And did you accept the situation?
Fujioka “We thought it was a surprising and interesting idea to have it sung by amateurs, even if it wasn't ourselves. Even now we wonder if this is OK.”

Q: What was the way you started Fujioka-Fujimaki?
“When we were students we formed a band called the "Mari-chans". After graduation, we got jobs. One at a record company, the other at an advertising agency, so we hadn't played at all for a long time. A live house owner once asked us to play at his place because he remembered the "Mari-chans". So we played and had a lot of fun and we began making music again. We have no big aim. We don't want to be professionals. It is just our hobby.”



Q: Nozomi-san, what do you think of these two men?
Nozomi “I think they are very kind. I got glad when I heard someone would join me in singing, since I had felt lonely when it was only just me. I like this song very much. It's so cute. My father is also pleased.”

Q: Nozomi-san, do you have any request for the two men?
Nozomi “They often mess up. I hope they make no mistakes in singing.” Fujimaki “OK. We'll try to do so.” Fujioka “I would like this song to be sung by parents and children together. It's wonderful that there is a song which fathers can sing with their daughters. When my daughter was small I used to sing songs like "Tondetta-Banana" with her.”

14th of January, FIFTEENTH RADIO GHIBLI / GHIBLI ASEMAMIRE BROADCAST + DOWNLOAD: Episode number fifteen has been reached. Like every Sunday, yesterday it was time for a new episode of Suzuki Toshio’s Ghibli Asemamire (Radio Ghibli) at Tokyo FM. Of course it’s available for download and GhibliWorld.com is providing a summary.

This week’s guests are part of the advertising staffs of JAL (Japan Air Lines): chief Itaya Shin-ichi, Shishikura Yukio and Furukawa Noriko (Furukawa used to be an employee at NTV and later on worked with Studio Ghibli). They brought some sets of "de sky" air food, like UDON de sky, Soba de sky and Curry de sky. It's a kind of pun, as UDON de sky (うどんですかい) sounds like the Japanese phrase for "Would you like udon?". They are provided as air meal on JAL's flights and are sold on internet by JAL as well. Some time ago Suzuki stocked a large amount of "UDON de sky", but Okuda ate all of them during new years days.



As mentioned earlier on GhibliWorld.com, JAL is currently having their Sora wo Tobu (Flying sky project) campaign for its new Boeing 787 airplanes and choose Ghibli as a partner because it has a suitable image for it. One of its exclusives is that they are screening Miyazaki's short film Kuso no Sora Tobu Kikai-tachi on some of JAL’s flights. In addition, they are also asking children to submit their painting ideas for the new 787.

As they want children to have dreams, the involved JAL staff asked Suzuki on any ideas or thoughts for this campaign. They brought Suzuki their plans and ideas on which he coldly replied "You'll surely fail if your thoughts are so shallow. Don't have any delusions for kids. Not many kids have much dreams these days. Basically, you don't know much about kids." Furukawa added that "After a 2 hour talk, we got rejection and walked to Koganei Station from Ghibli Studio feeling miserable on a cold twilight time." Suzuki "Ah? Did I say such a rude thing to our important sponsor? Hahaha… Actually, this is the second time having a partnership with JAL. The 1st time was for Kurenai no Buta (紅の豚, Porco Rosso). At that time, we were asked to make a short film that was to be screened on JAL planes. Miyazaki instantly made an e-conte that ended at the moment where Porco saves the kids, but to tell the truth, it wasn't interesting for me. I asked him "Is this all? Why a pig? No explanation?" So he added some more story and expanded it to 40 minutes. It made me realize that it would take too much time and budget for JAL only and that it should be made into a theatrical future."



"I asked him to expand it to 70 minutes at least. Later on we had dinner and a meeting with JAL's executives at our studio. Just before making a toast, Miyazaki stood up and told them "I must dare to say one thing to you." The attendants got nervous and listened to Miyazaki telling them "Before engagement you should consider well that in this film the airplanes MUST fall in the sea. Is it OK?" We couldn't have a toast."

That wasn’t all. The title also confused them. "Why does our first movie feature a swine?" was their question. In those days, JAL was considered to be one of the smartest companies in Japan (note: though nowadays, honestly speaking, it has some business difficulties). The staff that was in charge those days brought back the title and researched the reaction of their female staff. They got good impressions like "This Kurenai no Uta is nice. It's romantic (Uta means song)." Of course they misheard that it was actually Kurenai no Buta (Buta means pig).



"So I tried to remove the swine from the movie poster and used the picture that was pinned on the wall of Gina's room: 5 young guys in front of a plane with Marco's face vanished. However, Miyazaki got angry and told me "The hero must be the PIG. He painted another picture which clearly showed Porco's face (note: probably the second Porco Rosso movie poster that features Porco with a hat together with Gina). The staff brought it back to JAL and the women over there were shocked "Oh, no. It's really a pig!!" After completing Porco, we had a preview with JAL executives. JAL President Toshimitsu watched it and was very much pleased."

Itaya mentioned "We are showing the replica of the Alcione at the reception of our head office building. It is popular with our visitors." Suzuki "Miyazaki is pleased to hear JAL is displaying it for a year long and that people can enjoy seeing it. It was originally made for Ghibli Museum and exhibited for a year. We worried where to store such a large thing after the exhibition." Itaya "Our young mechanic staffs saw it and got interested in old planes. They say they will try to build the Wright brothers' airplane." Suzuki "I hope it will fly!"

This week’s inserted music was Kato Tokiko's "Toki niha Mukashi no Hanashi wo" (Once in a While, Talk of the Old Days) - Porco Rosso’s lovely ending song.

10th of January, NEW MIYAZAKI INTERVIEW ON PONYO: Tuesday Yomiuri Shimbun released an interview with Miyazaki in which he told about Ponyo, today we bring a translation for the Japanese impaired…

Four years after Hauru no Ugoku Shiro (ハウルの動く城, Howl’s Moving Castle) Miyazaki Hayao tackled the production of Gake no ue no Ponyo (崖の上のポニョ, Ponyo on a Cliff). Directing to release it this summer, Miyazaki Hayao is being absorbed by his work. We asked him about his thoughts and message to the children.



"We will make its screen simple. But though we will try to make it simple, it will take thousands of man-hours." - declared Miyazaki at the start of production

Up till now Miyazaki and the Studio Ghibli staff pursued elaborateness. This time they threw that style away. "The number of SAKUGA will be unprecedented!" said Miyazaki, daring to try and use hand drawings in an age in which CG can draw so much in a short amount of time. "I always tell my staff that if they don't like to draw by hand deliberately, then they should give up animation. It's easy to distinguish if pictures are drawn by machines or human hands. If we give up the tough way, we will lose the richness in our art."

The only content that was disclosed to us: At a seaside town, Ponyo, who wishes to become a human, and a 5 years old boy make a story.

"It a story like Tsuru no Ongaeshi (鶴の恩返し, The Crane’s Repayment) or like one of those stories in which a mountain lord snake comes back as a handsome man. It's a kind of IRUI-KON-IN-TAN (marriage of human and animal)" He might have thought of Hakuja-den (白蛇伝, The Tale of the White Serpent) which gave him a trigger to decide to join the anime industry back in his youth.



This is an attempt to recover the true richness of anime by drawing a simple story with simple lines. "We have pulled on the oars of the sailboat till so far, so we will continue to do that. It's not bad if there exists a ship like that in the world."

Everyday he starts his work at 10:30 am and leaves for home at 10 pm with a net work time of 7 hours at his desk. He feels his enduring strength and concentration power is half of what it was in his 30s or 40s. "Rather than losing sight, I have stiff shoulders and losing concentration power of my optic nerves. When it’s just one day maybe I can force myself till night, but the next day I won’t be able to work suffering from fatigue. That’s why I never continue working after having turned the off switch of my body." "Even if someone offers me to have a rest under the sail mast, I usually tell him to give the oars to me. If one takes the steer, he might want to continue keeping it. It might be an earthly desire rather than creative eagerness." "The world is thrown into confusion more and more. I don't think that animation can keep cheering up those who live in such a world. But I hope I can a little. Maybe it is just one of my selfish desires."

The trigger for Miyazaki setting Ponyo at a seaside town was when he happened to stay at a town near the fronts of Setonaikai-sea (瀬戸内海, Seto Inland Sea) for 2 months. "I saw many tiled roofs. I had seen many kinds of roofing till so far, but they were different from the ones from the Kanto area where I grew up and lived. Only just seeing them was already very interesting. I thought that the OLD means such. The sea was also different from the Pacific Ocean, where waves roll on one after another. Here it was calm. It was interesting. I hadn't thought so, but finally decided to set the location there."



As like in Miyazaki’s former films, the protagonist of the film is a kid. His thoughts for children go deep. "Telling them "GANBARE" (Hold on, Hang on, Stick it out) is not good and smells rat. It doesn't have any persuasive power. I rather wish I can give them a rich day that they’ll remember through their entire lifes. I often think their one day is superior to our one year. An impressive scene like the shadows of a wood brightened by a west sun can represent a scene of one's childhood to remain in his mind – for example. I hope our movie can remain that, even if it's just a little thing."

The lyrics of the theme song’s lyrics have been written by Kondou Katsuya, animation director and father of his 3 year old child. Miyazaki asked him to the lyrics because he is struggling in both caring for small kid and producing the movie which links to this story. The singers are FUJIOKA-FUJIMAKI, representatives of middle aged men, and 8 years old girl Ohashi Nozomi.

7th of January, FOURTEENTH RADIO GHIBLI / GHIBLI ASEMAMIRE BROADCAST + DOWNLOAD: Due to holidays last weeks episode summary was missed, but like every Sunday, yesterday it was time for another episode of Suzuki Toshio’s Ghibli Asemamire (Radio Ghibli) at Tokyo FM. Of course it’s available for download and GhibliWorld.com is providing a summary.

During this week’s Ghibli Asemamire Suzuki Toshio’s Renga-ya was visited by many guests for New Year's Greetings. NTV director Okuda, Fujioka Fujimaki, movie director Yukisada, Ohta Mistuyo (Ohta Hikaru's wife), actor Yoshioka Hidetaka and Chunichi Dragons coach Ochiai Hiromitsu visited and gathered around a nabe (鍋, a typical Japanese winter party one pot dish).



This year Suzuki is reaching a special Japanese birthday variant called "Kanreki"(還暦). It’s one’s sixtieth birthday when five cycles of the Chinese zodiac have completed and family and relatives celebrate him or her wearing a red vest and red cap. Logically, they talked a bit about it.

In addition, Suzuki told of the old referring to Kurosawa Akira’s movies, mentioning Kurosawa’s portmanteau film based on his actual dreams: Yume (夢, Dream). Suzuki is in particular fond of the dream with the old man at the watermill, Village of the Watermills which featured the famous Ryu Chishu (笠智衆) (and also director Martin Scorsese as Vincent van Gogh). Suzuki told “Ryu Chishu had acted quite some different types of old man, from the ones in Ozu’s (小津安二郎) to Yamada's (山田 洋次) movies. In these movies, the old acted by Ryu are always balanced, calm or lonely, but in Yume he is faithful to his desire. I think it’s a kind of realism. I’d like to be such an old man." Ohta "I like the episode of the fox marriage." Suzuki "Actually, Kurosawa wanted to make each episode into a future length movie. However, as he was getting old and thought he hadn't much time left, he just simply presented those episodes in one movie. His Madadayo is also a story of a bold old man. To tell the truth, I was asked to make a TV commercial at the release of that movie. I inserted a credit "Is this your last film, Mr. Kurosawa?" in it. Of course the expected answer was "Madadayo (Not yet)!". However, people involved with the movie all complained because they thought it was rude to Kurosawa and so the CM wasn't aired. I'm sure Kurosawa didn't see the CM film as I met him just before he died. Kurosawa was a really cool man. The characters appearing in his films are often very serious or strict. I thought he charged himself with things like that." Yukisada "Suzuki really likes old Japanese movies. The great quantity of DVDs on these shelves shows it. I think you know more about old movies than movie critics."



They also talked about "life and death". Fujioka mentioned "In Totoro, the girls haven’t got a shadow in latter half..." Suzuki "Hahaha, like that. Check it again with your video." It is an urban legend that Satsuki and Mei lose their shadow in latter half of My Neighbor Totoro because they are becoming ghosts... Suzuki "Our next movie Ponyo will show another obvious "life and death" theme. It shows the other side world. Someone goes to visit it and meets his deceased mother…”

Ochiai (落合満広) talked his thoughts on managing his baseball team. He is famous for his unique character and management. Ochiai told he has a responsibility to 550,000 fans who share the Dragons' victory. Suzuki agreed and told of his responsibility to many people. During the production of a Studio Ghibli film, 500 people are directly producing, 500 are doing advertising and 500 are working on distribution: a total of 1500 people are being involved!

This week’s inserted music was the ending theme of Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (千と千尋の神隠し, Spirited Away): Itsumo Nando Demo by Kimura Yumi (木村弓).

5th of January, HAYAO MIYAZAKI’S BIRTHDAY, GHIBLI STOPWATCH: Today it’s the 67th birthday of the man who brought us numerous animation masterpieces: Hayao Miyazaki. Being in the midst of making Gake no ue no Ponyo (崖の上のポニョ, Ponyo on a Cliff), chances are he won’t take the time to celebrate it properly.

Talking about time, take a look at the stopwatch below… Noticed something special about it? Even though it doesn’t feature a Totoro on its dial plate, it’s a stopwatch said to be especially custom made for Studio Ghibli. The special thing about it, is that one circumgyration of the long hand shows 6 seconds. As for why it doesn’t just display 60 seconds: movies have 24 frames per second. The use of these analog stopwatches is to make it easier to visualise a 1/2, 1/3 and 1/4 (12, 8, 6 frames) of a second. So is Miyazaki producing Ponyo with it? No, the “God of Animation” must be able to adjust time without such a watch! ^_^

31st of December - 1st of January (updated), HAPPY NEW YEAR!: Over here it’s still December 31, but in Japan it’s already January 1 2008. Reason enough for GhibliWorld.com to already wish everybody a happy new year! Let’s hope it’ll be a good one. Coming summer we have of course Miyazaki’s latest, Gake no ue no Ponyo (崖の上のポニョ, Ponyo on a Cliff), so 2008 will definitely at least be unforgettable in terms of Ghibli. To finish up, below a scan of this year's new year card as been sent by Studio Ghibli and Ghibli Museum (by Miyazaki Goro) to its relations. In the style of 2008: the year of the rat.

24th of December, TWELFTH RADIO GHIBLI / GHIBLI ASEMAMIRE BROADCAST + DOWNLOAD, GOODIES TO GET UNDER THE CHRISTMAS TREE: Like every Sunday, yesterday it was time for another episode of Suzuki Toshio’s Ghibli Asemamire (Radio Ghibli) at Tokyo FM. Of course it’s available for download and GhibliWorld.com is providing a summary.

This week's guests were Kawahito Kenichi, Harada Yasuhisa and Yoshiike Chie of Yomiuri Shimbun’s advertising staff. For those who don’t know, Yomiuri - with a total of about 10,000,000 copies - has the largest newspaper circulation in Japan and, not only being one of the Ghibli Asemamire sponsors, it also has numerous other links with Studio Ghibli. From their weekly Ghibli news reports, to it’s connection to NTV (of which Studio Ghibli is a related company) and of course Ghibli’s lovely Yomiuri Shimbun commercials: Kawaraban-hen (瓦版編) and Dore Dore Hikkoushi-hen (どれどれ引越し編), which headed by Tanabe Osamu (田辺修) was also made into a highly interesting music video for Haigo Meiko’s Dore Dore no Uta (どれどれの唄) (all three can be found on the Ghibli ga Ippai Short Short DVD). Anyway, as you might know Yomiuri Shimbun also has a baseball team (the Yomiuri Giants). As Suzuki is a big fan of Chunichi Dragons and none can keep his mouth shut, today they came to his Renga-ya to try and put a big adhesive bandage over his mouth, but of course couldn't.



This week’s guests brought a list with Yomiuri´s 10 biggest Japanese news items of 2007 and so they talked about those topics. Here’s the top three:
1st: The resignation of prime minister Abe
2nd: The camouflage of food
3rd: The pension problem...

The camouflage of food was exposed in many areas. Like Akafuku, a famous cake maker from Mie prefecture, which falsified its expiry dates for over 30 years. Earlier this month Ghibli diary made a mention of it on December 10: Ghibli staff ate it and told it was very delicious. Yoshiike told “I've been a big fan of Akafuku for 34 years and I can't count how many Akafuku I've eaten. So I was shocked.” Suzuki told “For me it’s been 59 years!! But I'm wondering if it's such a big problem. I asked an American friend about this. He told there are no use-by dates in the USA, only manufacturing dates. None got stomachache by Akafuku or Fujiya (不二家, a big candy and cake maker, famous of its mascot character Peko-chan). Maybe they just thought it was "mottai-nai" (もったいない, mottai-nai is a unique Japanese way of thinking roughly translated as "it is so wasteful that things are not made full use of their value”). When I dropped down food when I was small, my parents told me to eat it because of mottai-nai.” Yoshiike agreed "I also eat it if it's within 5 minutes. It's a 5 minutes rule. Japanese are becoming sticklers for cleanliness too much these days."



Suzuki said "I’d like to say something about smoking as well. Look at the warning on this cigarette package!!" Everyone "Wow. Such a big description!! It's a bit strange that the manufacturer itself makes such a big warning that it might kill the purchaser (laughing)." Suzuki “Japanese have become too strict about smoking recently. We can't even smoke in public streets nowadays. It's too extreme. I read an interesting talk about smoking by Yoro Takeshi and Yamazaki Masakazu. Do you know who’s the first ruler that ordered no-smoking? Surprisingly, it was Hitler and the second was Mussolini. They both didn't like tobacco. So prohibition of tobacco might invite Facism, so I'm smoking to fight for freedom. Ghibli has 3 heavy smokers. Takahata, Miyazaki and me. The power of tobacco has made many Ghibli movies."

This week's music was a song that’s related to the sea just like Ponyo is. It was Umi e Kinasai (海へ来なさい, Come to the Sea) sung by the famous singer writer Inoue Yosui (井上陽水).

Talking about music, with Christmas around it might be possible that some of your loved ones bought you a Christmas present... Perhaps you’ll find the Ponyo Theme Song CD under the Christmas tree. If not, well we can at least make you happy with some pictures of the Ponyo theme song Christmas performance which was held two days ago at Ikspiari, Tokyo Disney Resort.



If you’re lucky this year, you might even get an Oga Kazuo Ten DVD + Blu Ray, which was released last Thursday. We at GhibliWorld.com are and have always been amazed by Oga’s stunning work and highly recommend you to get it (please be patient, a review will follow soon!). It might be worth noting for those who can’t speak Japanese: it comes with English subtitles. Forgot what’s it about? You can refresh your mind with its TRAILER which is available in 3 different tastes: 56K, 500K and 1M connection. While placing your order (DVD version, Blu Ray + DVD Twin Pack), you might as well want to pre-order yourself the new release of Miyazaki Hayao’s unmissable pre-Ghibli Mirai Shonen Konan (未来少年コナン, Future Boy Conan): Mirai Shonen Konan 30th Anniversary Memorial Box which will be released on January 25, 2008. It doesn’t come with subtitles though…



To end this pre-Christmas post, last week we spoke about one of the songs of Ghibli Museum Library’s latest feature: Lev Atamanov’s Snow Queen. Music & Gedo Senki voice cast star Teshima Aoi singing Kishi wo Hanareru hi (岸をはなれる日, the Day of Leaving the Shore), a song that was made from the impressions of Snow Queen and can be found on her album Haru no Kashu (春の歌集, Songs of Spring). The song was originally sung by Taniyama Hiroko (谷山浩子) who also wrote the songs of Gedo Senki Kashu (ゲド戦記歌集). This week we bring you its lovely original lyrics, which tell about Gerda's trip to Kai, together with a literal translation.

Kishi wo Hanareru hi - Japanese Lyrics
その日も川は流れてた
いつもと変わらぬ姿で
なぜだかわけも知らず家を出て
私はひとり歩き出した
赤い靴をはいていた
はじめてはいた赤い靴
夢から生まれでた赤い陽が
とまどう足をせきたてる
私をどこへさそう明け方の道
夜明けの風の岸に立ち
透明な炎のように
心は燃えていたあなたへと
やみくもにただあなたへと
私むぞうさに靴をぬいで
投げた瞬間もうわのそらで
あなたにただあなたに会いたくて
体にただ届きたくて
でも私を乗せた船は
私だけ乗せてすべりだした
これから始まる旅の孤独を
孤独とさえまだわからずに
私をどこへ運ぶ運命の川
体は空にとけて虚空を抱く
岸を離れ走る舟の
風が私の髪を乱し
心は燃えていたあなたへと
やみくもにただあなたへと



Kishi wo Hanareru hi – English Lyrics (literal translation)
On that day the river was flowing
As always it was
I left home without realizing any reasons
I started walking alone
Wearing red shoes
Shoes that I wore for the first time
The red sun that was born from the dream
Hurried me to walk forward
Where would the road of daybreak take me?
At dawn I was standing at the riverbank
Like a clear flame
My heart was burning towards you
Blindly towards you
I put off my shoes without thinking
I was absent-minded at the moment I threw them away
I only wanted to meet you
Wanted to reach you
The boat that I got on left the bank
And began sailing carrying only me
I didn't realize the lonely trip that began since then
I even didn't know it was the loneliness
Where would the river of destiny take me?
My body was melting in the sky and held it
The wind caused by the sailing boat
Disheveled my hair
My heart was burning towards you
Blindly towards you

17th of December, ELEVENTH RADIO GHIBLI / GHIBLI ASEMAMIRE BROADCAST + DOWNLOAD: Like every Sunday, yesterday it was time for another episode of Suzuki Toshio’s Ghibli Asemamire (Radio Ghibli) at Tokyo FM. After last week's visit at Miyazaki's Butaya, this week we’re back at Suzuki’s Renga-ya with Abo Yukiko (movie critic and writer) and Ota Mitsuyo (wife of Ota Hikaru, a very famous and popular comedian) as special guests. Of course a podcast version (music excluded) is available for download in Japanese and GhibliWorld.com is providing an English summary.



During already the eleventh Ghibli Asemamire in a row Suzuki wanted to talk about Ghibli Museum Library’s latest feature: Lev Atamanov’s Snow Queen, though they ended up talking little about it. Unfortunately, both of the guests didn’t bring highly interesting information and the things they did say were rather abstract (adding to that, it was hard to distinguish which one was talking as their voices were similar). Abo did tell she watched Snow Queen on video once long ago, but it wasn’t much more than that. Probably both guests haven’t got much interest in Japanese animation.



One might say that Suzuki kind of miss chose his guests this time. He didn't talk much or gave us any particular info, making it unfortunately hard to make a proper summary this time. Still, there were some minor things worth mentioning. Like music & Gedo Senki voice cast star Teshima Aoi singing Kishi wo Hanareru hi (岸をはなれる日, the Day of Leaving the Shore), a song that was made from the impressions of Snow Queen and can be found on her album Haru no Kashu (春の歌集, Songs of Spring). As always, her singing was touching. Also, Suzuki told that “Snow Queen has started screening at Cinema Angelica in Shibuya. When Miyazaki was a student, the characters and story of the manga he used to draw in those days were rather dark. One day he watched Snow Queen and was beaten by Gerda - the girl protagonist. Since then - for over 40 years - , Miyazaki recalls her when making female characters like Chihiro, (Mirai Shonen Konan’s) Lana and Ponyo.”

15th of December, PONYO STORY NEWS, FIRST RELEASE OF OTSUKA’S & MIYAZAKI’S PRE-GHIBLI “TENGURI, THE BOY OF THE PLAINS”: Yesterday night's NTV’s News Zero brought news on Miyazaki’s latest, Gake no ue no Ponyo (崖の上のポニョ, Ponyo on a Cliff). In it Studio Ghibli president and producer Suzuki Toshio shortly told about Ponyo’s storyline, which he said is to be a simple story just like Ghibli Museum Library’s latest feature: Lev Atamanov’s Snow Queen (to be released today). Interestingly, Suzuki also referred that Ponyo has been influenced by Urashima Taro (浦島太郎), a Japanese legend about a fisherman who rescues a turtle and for this is rewarded with a visit to the Palace of the Dragon. Suzuki said Ponyo is to have a similar story to that of Urashima Taro. In addition NTV’s News Zero showed some more video material of the Ponyo press conference of December 3 like a dancing Nozomi Ohashi. As a Studio Ghibli news resource we would like to note that this isn’t Studio Ghibli’s first time to use Urashima Taro: in Takahata Isao’s Pom Poko (平成狸合戦ぽんぽこ) the tanuki character Bunta identifies himself with Urashima Taro when he comes back to his forest outside of Tokyo and finds it ruined by humans.



To conclude GhibliWorld.com has some other noteworthy (pre-)Ghibli news… On December 21 is to be released for the very first time ever the pre-Ghibli Sougen no Ko Tenguri (草原の子テングリ, Tenguri, the Boy of the Plains), an animation based on a story by Tezuka Osamu that was made in 1977 as the first film of Shinei Animation as an independent company from Tokyo Movie Company.

Chances are very, very likely that you have not seen it before as it’s considered a phantom anime. Tenguri is a 22 minute short animation that served as a theatrical promotion film for Snow Brand Dairy Products Inc. (雪印, Yukijirusi). It hasn’t seen the outside of the company for long time as only those who visited their factory tours or asked Yukijirusi’s advertising section to borrow it have seen it. Responsible for directing it was the one and only Otsuka Yasuo, good friend and mentor of Miyazaki Hayao. Added to its staff list are Miyazaki Hayao (layout) himself as well, Ghibli’s sadly passed away master animator Kondo Yoshifumi (original pictures) and other classic animation staff like Kabashima Yoshio and Otabe Youichi (Alibaba to Yonjubiki no Tozuku, Alps no Shoujo Heidi, Anju To Zushio Maru, Marco: Haha wo Tazunete Sanzen-ri, Jarinko Chie, Taiyou no Ouji: Horusu no Daibouken, Kaze no Tani no Nausicaä, Panda Kopanda!). Added to that, it’s worth noting that its music was composed by Mamiya Yoshio who also composed the music for Taiyou no Ouji: Horusu no Daibouken (太陽の王子 ホルスの大冒険, Horus: Prince of the Sun) and Hotaru no Haka (火垂るの墓, Grave of the Fireflies).



Sougen no Ko Tenguri takes place in similar surroundings of that of Miyazaki's manga Sabaku no Tami (砂漠の民) and Shuna no Tabi (シュナの旅). The story features a friendship between the cheerful boy Tenguri and his calf in the vast plain of Mongolia. In the village where Tenguri lives, it is a custom to kill cows for food during winter when food becomes scarce. Now it is time for Tenguri's beloved calf to be killed. "My friend will be killed!" Tenguri cries, and lets the calf escape. As time passes by Tenguri matures to become one of the main cow hunters in his village. This winter again, Tenguri goes to hunt cows with his fellow men to save the village people from the cold winter. There he meets the full-grown cow that had once been his calf. The cow asks Tenguri why humans kill cows. When Tenguri answers, "To survive the cold winter. We have no choice," the cow teaches him how to make "preserved food to survive the cold winter." This is cheese. So Tenguri teaches the people of his village people how to make the preserved food called cheese. However, people still try to kill cows, so Tenguri fights them to stop the killing. He then leaves the village and goes on a journey with a herd of cows beyond the vast plains in search of nature's great wisdom, unknown to humans...



Though Tenguri is just a promotion film for a dairy company, it turned out to be a fine piece of work made by the major creators of modern Japanese animation. In addition it has been selected by the Ministry of Education for its recommendation film and was recommended by the Central Children's Welfare Council and the Distinguished Cinema World's Introduction. Starting December 21 Sougen no Ko Tenguri (草原の子テングリ, Tenguri, the Boy of the Plains) will be available on deluxe DVD at shops like Amazon.co.jp ( 22 minutes / 35 minutes of bonus material / 3990 yen). A low quality video clip can be seen over here.

14th of December, AN AMAZING GHIBLI MUSEUM XMAS + PICTURE GALLERY: Those visiting Japan this December have an extra reason to stop by and visit Studio Ghibli’s own GhibliWorld. As every year, this month Ghibli Museum adds a beautiful Xmas flavor to their museum. This years edition is inspired by Ghibli Museum Library’s latest feature: Lev Atamanov’s Snow Queen, the Russian animation classic from 1957 which greatly inspired Miyazaki Hayao and will receive a Japanese cinema release tomorrow. Last Wednesday Asahi Shimbun brought its readers an article and gallery dedicated to this years Xmas at Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Japan. Be sure to check it out to find out what they made of it. The Ghibli Museum can be visited in Xmas flavor till December 26.

10th of December (updated!), NEW PONYO DETAILS AT TENTH RADIO GHIBLI / GHIBLI ASEMAMIRE BROADCAST + DOWNLOAD: There was some extra good “sweating on Ghibli” yesterday. Like every Sunday it was time for another episode of Suzuki Toshio’s Ghibli Asemamire (Radio Ghibli) at Tokyo FM. This week's Ghibli Asemamire didn’t take place at Suzuki’s Renga-ya, but at Miyazaki’s office Butaya. It brought us the Ponyo press conference of Monday December 3. Suzuki hid an IC recorder in his pocket, recorded it and added comments in a whispering off-stage voice. Of course a podcast version (music excluded) is available for download in Japanese and GhibliWorld.com is providing an English summary.



Lets flashback to Studio Ghibli's original way of transferring us to their Ponyo press conference...

We hear the sound of the train running… The narrator announces that the train will take us to the interview stage… While almost arriving at our end station, we hear the conductor over the speakers "Thank you for riding this train, you'll arrive at Studio Ghibli soon! If you transfer to Neko-bus (My Neighbor Totoro's Catbus), please change here. Exit doors will be at the right side." The doors open and we hear the ocean waves and seagulls crying...

With a large amount of TV cameras present, Miyazaki Hayao appeared wearing his regular apron which showed that he escaped during the middle of his job. He was joined by composer Hisaishi Joe, Fujioka Fujimaki and Nozomi Ohashi who sat in centre. At first, the host asked Miyazaki to make a statement. Suzuki whispers "It’s different from the plan that was arranged earlier. Miya-san is angry..."

Miyazaki “I'm glad to get such a good song. I would like to reach a good happy ending to go with it, but I haven't completed the storyboard, so I think I'll have to hurry.” Hisaishi “Fortunately, when I was showed the A-part and B-part of the e-conte (storyboard), I immediately got the theme melody: “Ponyo, Ponyo, Ponyo...”. It was so simple that I wondered to be laughed at and left it like that for 2 or 3 months. Afterwards I still liked the melody and played it to Miyazaki and Suzuki. They both liked it and said its simplicity is needed for the movie.” Fujimaki “Sorry... this is my first time being interviewed like this... so I'm very nervous...(he was too nervous to answer). Fujioka “Maybe all of you are wondering why 2 of these unknown middle aged men are here. The two of us have formed a band for 2 years now, just in order to prepare to enjoy our post-retirement years. So we are also amazed at this situation…” Nozomi mentioned "I sang as well as I could!" and was followed by a big applause. Suzuki whispered "I'm jealous! Small kid's statements are always welcomed as they’re so simple!



The host asked Miyazaki "What did you ask Hisaishi for composing the song?". Miyazaki told him "I handed him a memo paper, but I can’t remember what I asked him. Please ask Hisaishi. Maybe he remembers." Hisaishi "I got a long note like a love letter. Of course its love isn't for me, but love for the movie. It was over 10 pages long. I guess in the beginning creators haven’t got a complete image of what they want and just have some core images. I felt images like Ponyo coming or the mother of the sea...” Suzuki whispers "Miya-san always makes memos when he “asks” for music. It’s something Takahata once advised him and Miyazaki he has done it like this for over 20 years."

A Q&A session started. Pia "Can you tell me about the story, if you can?". Miyazaki replied "Later, the producer will tell something except the story. Anyway, till so far we have used computers to make our movies, but I came to think that having paddles and raising the sails is better. So this time we decided to throw off any 3D CG and must make it with pencils only. As it needs so many hand drawn pictures, I can't guess how much pictures we must draw… maybe it will be unprecedented. I think hand drawing on paper is the fundamental of animation." Suzuki whispered "Miya-san is cool-headed today. He fended the question well. He didn’t say anything about the contents of the movie."

A question followed if the theme song is meant to be used for the opening or ending of the film. Miyazaki replied "If it's played at the opening, many of the audiences might go out for picnic. So it would be better to be set it at the end. Then I must fit the ending to this song without any gap. A good ending suitable for this song will carry out my responsibility to Hisaishi and Nozomi.



Tokyo FM also asked a question "We heard the storyboard is delayed. Can you make it in time?" to which Miyazaki answered "I don't think it’s so much delayed... Anyway, we must draw so many by hand... so we are struggling now..." Daily Sport was present as well "I think the song has a father’s theme. This is your first film after your son Goro directed Gedo Senki last year. Are you conscious of it?" Miyazaki "We can't make a movie if we have such evil in mind." (applause)

A live performance of the Ponyo theme song followed.

"Why did you decide to use Nozomi?". Miyazaki noted that "While the lyrics and music was left unclear, we asked her to sing a demo. When we listened to it we were stunned by its innocence. We ojisans (aged men) were beaten. That's all. I hope Fuji-Fuji not to spoil Nozomi's innocence." "Nozomi, what did Miyazaki say to you?" Nozomi "He told me... good job..." (laughing)

This week's Ghibli Asemamire ended with Fuji-Fuji's "Fujimoto's theme" as ending music. Its lyrics were written by Fujioka and the music was done by Hisaishi Joe. In case of the Ponyo theme song, its lyrics were written by animation director Kondo Katsuya and corrected by Miyazaki Hayao (the complete(!) lyrics can be found in yesterdays post), its music and arrangement were made by Hisaishi Joe.

9th of December, GAKE NO UE NO PONYO THEME SONG UPDATE WITH COMPLETE LYRICS: Those having access to the live broadcasts of Tokyo FM were already able to hear the theme song of Miyazaki’s latest, Gake no ue no Ponyo (崖の上のポニョ, Ponyo on a Cliff), during the second episode of Toshio Suzuki’s Ghibli Asemamire on October 14. Together with a summary, GhibliWorld.com presented a part of its lyrics and a literal translation. As since last wednesday the Gake no ue no Ponyo theme song CD is available all around Japan and at online shops like Amazon.co.jp, Yesasia.com and cdJapan, we now present the complete(!) lyrics together with a literal translation.



Gake no ue no Ponyo Theme Song - Hiragana Lyrics
ポーニョ、ポーニョ、ポニョ、さかなのこ
あおい　うみから　やってきた
ポーニョ、ポーニョ、ポニョ、ふくらんだ
まんまる　おなかの　おんなのこ

ペータペタ、ピョーンピョン、
あしって　いいな　かけちゃお
にーぎにぎ、ぶーんぶん、
おてては　いいな、つないじゃお

あのこと　はねると　こころも　おどるよ
ぱーくぱく、ちゅぎゅ、ぱーくぱく、ちゅぎゅ、
あのこが　だいすき　　まっかっかの

ポーニョ、ポーニョ、ポニョ、さかなのこ
あおい　うみから　やってきた
ポーニョ、ポーニョ、ポニョ、ふくらんだ
まんまる　おなかの　おんなのこ

ぶーくぶく　いいにおい
おなかがすいた　たべちゃお
よーくよく　みてみよう
あのこも　きっと　みている

いっしょに　わらうと　ほっぺが　あついよ
わーくわくちゅぎゅ　わーくわくちゅぎゅ
あのこが　だいすき　　まっかっかの

ポーニョ、ポーニョ、ポニョ、さかなのこ
がけのうえに　やってきた
ポーニョ、ポーニョ、ポニョ、おんなのこ
まんまる　おなかの　げんきなこ

(note: The lyrics on the CD cover of the Ponyo theme song include some kanji. As the lyrics contain children’s talk we replaced these with hiragana as we thought it to be more natural.)

Gake no ue no Ponyo Theme Song – Romaji Lyrics
Ponyo Ponyo Ponyo sakana no ko
Aoi umi kara yatte kita
Ponyo Ponyo Ponyo fukurannda
Manmaru onaka no onna no ko
Peta-peta pyon-pyon
Asitte iina kakechao
Nigi-niigi-bun-bun
Otetewa iina tunaijao

Anoko to haneru to kokoro mo odoruyo
Paku-paku chu-gyu, paku-paku chu-gyu
Anoko ga daisuki makkakka no

Ponyo Ponyo Ponyo sakana no ko
Aoi umi kara yatte kita
Ponyo Ponyo Ponyo fukurannda
Manmaru onaka no onna no ko

Buku-buku ii nioi
Onakaga suita tabechao
Yoku-yoku mite miyou
Anokomo kitto miteiru

Isshoni warauto hoppega atsuiyo
Waku-waku chugyu waku-waku chugyu
Anoko ga daisuki makkakka no

Ponyo Ponyo Ponyo sakana no ko
Gakeno ueni yatte kita
Ponyo Ponyo Ponyo onna no ko
Manmaru onaka no genkina ko

Gake no ue no Ponyo Theme Song – English Lyrics (literal translation)
Ponyo Ponyo Ponyo, it's a fish kid
It came from the blue ocean
Ponyo Ponyo Ponyo,
She is a round bellied girl
Peta-peta pyon-pyon
How nice to have feet! I'll try to run!
Nigi-nigi-bun-bun
How nice to have hands! I'll try to hold hands with!

When I jump with her, my heart dances along
Paku-paku chu-gyu, paku-paku chu-gyu
I love her so much!

Ponyo Ponyo Ponyo, it's a fish kid in red
It came from blue ocean
Ponyo Ponyo Ponyo,
She is a round bellied girl

Buku-buku smells good
I'm so hungry, I'll eat it
I'll look carefully
Think she's also looking

When I laugh with her, I feel my cheeks getting hot
Waku-waku chugyu waku-waku chugyu
I love her so much!

Ponyo Ponyo Ponyo, it's a fish kid in red
She's come to on the cliff
Ponyo Ponyo Ponyo,
She is a round bellied girl

Onomatopoeia Info
Peta-peta: walking barefoot
Pyon-pyon: jumping
Nigi-nigi: gripping
Bun-bun: ?
Paku-paku: a breathing gold fish with open mouth
Chu-gyu----chu: kissing (chu), hugging (gyu)
Buku-buku: foaming
Waku-waku: being excited

4th of December, GAKE NO UE NO PONYO WEBSITE, PRESS CONFERENCE PICTURES: After yesterday’s Ponyo press conference, many Japanese newspapers have spend an article today on the Ponyo theme song which will be released tomorrow. Though none of them brought new information on Miyazaki’s latest film that was not yet posted on GhibliWorld.com, it is worth mentioning that today Studio Ghibli especially launched a dedicated Gake no ue no Ponyo website (崖の上のポニョ, Ponyo on a Cliff). In addition, please find below two pictures from the press conference.

3rd of December, GAKE NO UE NO PONYO NEWS, NINTH RADIO GHIBLI / GHIBLI ASEMAMIRE BROADCAST + DOWNLOAD: Today Studio Ghibli finally updated us again with news on Miyazaki Hayao’s latest animated feature Gake no ue no Ponyo (崖の上のポニョ, Ponyo on a Cliff).

Some time ago Studio Ghibli president and producer Suzuki Toshio mentioned on their own Ghibli Channel (Japanese only) that they were not going to publish as much Ponyo material anymore. They had received complaints of viewers of having showed too much, too soon in a dedicated NHK Professional show which featured a making of. As an alternative Suzuki came up with an advertising plan using sound only: they’re releasing Ponyo’s theme song earlier than planned. The song is to be released this Wednesday (December 5) and, like Studio Ghibli informed us last week us, they are backing its release up with an abundance of media appearances.



Today a special press conference with Miyazaki, Hisaishi, Fujioka Fujimaki and Ohashi Nozomi was held. This was added with an appearance and live performance of Fujioka Fujimaki and Ohashi Nozomi on NTV’s オジサンズ11 (Ojisan’s Eleven) which was also held today (on both the press conference and オジサンズ11 info will be posted at later moment on GhibliWorld.com). In addition appearances on 6 different Japanese radio shows are planned for the month December and finally regular print will be used as well, with interviews and articles in 10 different magazines like アニメージュ (Animage Magazine) and Invitation.



Of course we keep “Sweating on Ghibli” (in Japanese: Ghibli asemamire) as yesterday it was time for another episode of Suzuki Toshio’s radio show Ghibli Asemamire at Tokyo FM. Not that strangely, this week's Ghibli Asemamire guests were Fujioka Fujimaki (藤岡藤巻), Sata Miho (YAMAHA music director) and Komatsu Toshihiro (Hakuhodo designer, note: Hakuhodo is Japan’s second largest advertising agency and works for Studio Ghibli). Together they produced the theme song CD of Ponyo which like we mentioned is to be released this Wednesday. Of course the show is available for download and GhibliWorld.com is providing a summary.



During this week’s show much of the talking was done by Suzuki. “This spring we had a talk about management. We’ve been producing Ponyo and it costs so much. I told the attendants that Ponyo should pay or we must recover our investment at least. Then Miyazaki told his opinion and with a fierce look reacted "NO!! Mr. Suzuki, Ponyo shouldn't aim to make a profit. I don't even want to recover this time." I told him "You also are the executive board member of this company. We must consider about management and stockholder income as well." Miyazaki replied "No! This time, I'll never make an effort to get a hit. Basically, the movies that became a big hit are all second-rate ones. I've regretted that I've lent a hand to make a hit." The guests laughed "It means he has made so many second-rate anime?!?"

Logically, Ponyo’s soundtrack was also discussed. At this moment Hisaishi Joe has already composed 6 songs for it. Suzuki mentioned that “Initially, we planned the CD to be released in March 2008. Then a producer of TOHO (distributor) came to our office and I played him the demo. He liked it and wanted me to get him a copy, but I told him "NO. You might upload it on internet." He said "Well, I would like to give it to my children as a Christmas present.", which gave me the idea to release it before Christmas. We tried to make it easily understandable for both kids and adults, in music and design.” The designer Komatsu said “So it is very simple in design. I didn’t aim to go maniac.”



In addition Suzuki told “We'll have a press conference about the CD tomorrow (Monday > today). I wonder if Miyazaki will talk about the details of Ponyo. If he does, I can't stop it and must leave things to chance. In fact, one of the reasons I asked him to be on the interview is that he might recognize the fact that he should finish the storyboard soon. We need it before the year ends. Our progress of work is now delaying a lot.”

Meanwhile Ohashi Nozomi (大橋のぞみ) sings a solo version of the Ponyo theme song…

Suzuki mentioned “I asked Nozomi "What do you feel while listening to your singing?". She replied "I hate it. So bad!" She covered her ears with hands when the song played. I also asked Fujimaki the same question and he replied with the same answer as Nozomi!! An 8 year old girl and 55 years old man have the same way of thinking... When the song came up, we wanted someone to try singing the demo. Nozomi sang it by chance. Miyazaki listened to it and liked her singing very much. He got an idea of adding the father's voice and finally Fujimaki sang it together with Nozomi. But Miyazaki adhered Nozomi's first singing demo and asked me to add it in the CD.

Starting December 5 the Gake no ue no Ponyo theme song CD will be available all around Japan and at online shops like Amazon.co.jp and Yesasia.com.

27th of November, STUDIO GHIBLI AND DENNŌ COIL: Over 20 years ago Studio Ghibli was founded with the intention to make full length feature films only. Miyazaki and Takahata wanted to make real and high quality animation. Animation that probed into the depth of the human mind, and that illustrated the joys and sorrows of life as they really are. Dedicating full energy into each piece of work with sufficient budget and time, never compromising on the quality or content. “Miya-san” and “Paku-san” claimed it was impossible to achieve these goals if they would make TV series: budget was tight and time very limited. Studio Ghibli has never made TV series, but what if…

In that case Dennō Coil (電脳コイル, Coil — A Circle of Children) would quite possibly be one of the series that could have been made by Studio Ghibli. Currently being aired in Japan on NHK Educational and scheduled to run between May 12, 2007 and December 1, 2007 containing twenty-six episodes, Dennō Coil is able to reach those goals that Miyazaki and Takahata claim only to be possible while making full length feature films. It’s a pseudo sci-fi / slice-of-life series which reminds you of Studio Ghibli in many ways, though it’s actually a Madhouse production. So why mention it if it’s not a work by Studio Ghibli? This is GhibliWorld.com, isn’t it?



Dennō Coil is unlike many anime tv series. Though very accessible, it actually has a sense of originality. The basic idea is quite unusual, because it deals with the merge between two worlds: the real world and a virtual-reality like world. It takes place in 2026. Eleven years after the introduction of internet-connected augmented reality eyeglasses and visors, Yūko Okonogi moves with her family to the city of Daikoku, the technological center of the emerging half-virtual world. Yūko joins her grandmother's "detective agency" comprised of children equipped with virtual tools and powerful “metatags”. She quickly crosses paths with Yūko Amasawa, an expert hacker of the virtual environment, as Amasawa relentlessly seeks to gain the powers of a mysterious cyber-entity known as Michiko. The protagonists are driven to unravel the mysteries of the virtual world in the shadow of a powerful hacker that came before them.

While remaining completely original, Dennō Coil really gives its viewers that Ghibli feeling. Starting with the handling of the little girl Kyoko (reminding you of Tonari no Totoro’s Mei) and the children in general, the posing and inventive animation of the characters, the layout, everything made in a nuanced and subtle way, though always full of surprises making every moment interesting. All being very Miyazaki like, while exploring richer drama and the more subtle and complex emotions of life like Takahata Isao.



One of Dennō Coil’s interesting themes is the distance between the characters, such as Yūko's inability to feel the fur of her own virtual pet, in addition to all the relational tensions and divides of understanding between the characters in the series. Like series director Iso Mitsuo (磯光雄) mentioned in Animage "There will always be a distance between people, and even between things that seem within ones' reach. And that one must walk down a long, thin and winding road before they reach one's heart. There's tons of obstacles. It's in fact like the roads in old towns.”

To successfully execute this idea, the makers of Dennō Coil took all the time to do what they needed to do, reaching that quality Miyazaki and Takahata thought weren’t able to get while making TV series. The series has been in development for over a decade and that same patience also transferred to Dennō Coil’s gentle pacing. Heading the high quality and major names staff list, Iso was able to create a world that is genuinely interesting and gently stimulates you to find out about all the little bits and pieces and make you wonder about the things to come. Setting up an ordinary situation in the real world and adding to this reality a thin layer of virtual fantasy. While clearly fantasy, it's all just plausible enough to be believable and, like any of Miyazaki’s or Takahata’s films, the great thing about Dennō Coil is that it can be watched over and over again without getting old and boring.



Of course Dennō Coil’s connection wouldn’t end with its similarities to justify a mention on GhibliWorld.com. Involved with its production is Studio Ghibli’s former parent company Tokuma Shoten. Also, Dennō Coil’s staff doesn’t only contain numerous major names in the Japanese animation industry, they have “quite” the Studio Ghibli resume as well (note: see list below). This December Dennō Coil’s last episodes will be aired on NHK Educational. Though it hasn’t yet been licensed abroad, Japanese R2 DVDs are currently being released (no subtitles). Dennō Coil is highly recommended. Be sure to check out this Dennō Coil video.

Dennō Coil Staff with Studio Ghibli involvement:
Iso Mitsuo (磯光雄) - creator, series director, screenplay:
- Porco Rosso (key animation)
- Ocean Waves (key animation)
- Only Yesterday (key animation)

Kondō Katsuya (近藤勝也):
- Laputa: Castle in the Sky (key animation)
- My Neighbor Totoro (key animation, original design)
- Kiki's Delivery Service (animation director, character design)
- Only Yesterday (animation director)
- Porco Rosso (key animation)
- Ocean Waves (animation director, character design)
- Pom Poko (key animation)
- Princess Mononoke (key animation)
- My Neighbors the Yamadas (key animation)
- Howl's Moving Castle (animation supervisor, key animation)
- Ponyo on a Cliff (key animation)

Morita Hiroyuki (森田宏幸):
- Kiki's Delivery Service (in-between animation)
- My Neighbors the Yamadas (key animation)
- The Cat Returns (director, storyboard)

Sasaki Shinsaku (笹木信作):
- Porco Rosso (in-between animation)
- Pom Poko (in-between animation)
- On Your Mark (key animation)
- Whisper of the Heart (key animation)
- Princess Mononoke (key animation)

Yoshida Kenichi (吉田健一):
- Only Yesterday (key animation)
- Porco Rosso (key animation)
- Ocean Waves (key animation)
- Pom Poko (key animation)
- On Your Mark (key animation)
- Whisper of the Heart (key animation)
- Princess Mononoke (key animation)
- My Neighbors the Yamadas (key animation)

Hiramatsu Tadashi (平松禎史):
- The Cat Returns (key animation)

Kuwana Ikuo (桑名郁郎):
- On Your Mark (in-between animation)
- Pom Poko

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