Arts

With a tradition going back centuries, Japanese animation, known better as anime, is perhaps one of the country’s greatest cultural exports. While you may feel little interest in cartoons outside of Family Guy and The Simpsons, to eschew Japanese anime entirely is to ignore a huge aspect of the nation in which you reside. Furthermore, if you have children here in Japan, anime will be a crucial cultural touchstone for them in school, and surely knowing what your kids are talking about is a wish that most parents have. Of course, there are many different publishers and animators, but perhaps the best known – and by far the most influential – is Studio Ghibli. About Studio Ghibli Founded in 1985 by Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, and Toshio Suzuki, Ghibli’s first film, “Castle in the Sky,” was released in 1986, becoming a massive commercial success. Since then, the studio has risen to become one of the world’s most acclaimed and commercially successful animation studios, with critics in particular enamored by lead director Miyazaki’s distinctive animation style, which emphasizes detailed hand-drawn artwork. Many of the studio’s films explore complex themes, such as environmentalism, pacifism, and the power of the imagination, endearing them…