Fans of Studio Ghibli have begun flocking to a new theme park based on films made by the beloved anime hit factory that opened in Japan this week.
Set in a little over seven hectares of green parkland in Aichi prefecture, about 250km west of Tokyo, Ghibli Park has no rollercoasters or other rides. Its aim, instead, is to immerse visitors in the worlds created by the studio’s co-founder and director, Hayao Miyazaki.
“There were some theme park plans with rides and attractions brought to Studio Ghibli, but they didn’t feel like they were a fit with the Ghibli way,” says a spokesperson for Ghibli Park. “Ghibli Park is a park, not an amusement park … the whole idea was to … harmonise with and improve the existing park and its nature.”
Studio Ghibli was founded in 1985 by Miyazaki, Toshio Suzuki and Isao Takahata. Its first anime feature, Castle in the Sky, took a modest $16m at the box office the following year, though it would later influence both animation and video games. The studio, and Miyazaki’s works in particular, began to attract dedicated fans both at home and abroad during the 1990s.
Miyazaki’s films often touch on issues such as environmentalism, as in 1997’s Princess Mononoke. The studio and director found true global recognition when Spirited Away (2001) took almost $400m at the box office and won an Oscar for best animated feature.
Built on a section of the 2005 World Expo site on land owned by Aichi prefecture, Ghibli Park is operated by a joint venture between Studio Ghibli and the Chunichi Shimbun, a major regional newspaper.
Only three of the park’s five planned areas are currently open, separated from each other by swathes of nature, but that and the lack of white-knuckle rides have not deterred Ghibli fans. Admission tickets are already sold out until the end of the year.
‘Immerse yourself’
The centrepiece of the park is Ghibli’s Big Warehouse, packed with items, exhibits and recreations of scenes from the studio’s numerous acclaimed productions, including hit Spirited Away, which held Japan’s box office record until 2020.
Another area, the Hill of Youth world, is themed on Miyazaki’s 1995 musical anime Whisper of the Heart, while another, the Dondoko Forest, is based around the director’s My Neighbour Totoro (1988). Children can climb inside treehouses built in the shape of star character Totoro. “You can feel and immerse yourself in the world of Ghibli movies,” says the Ghibli Park spokesperson.
A Mononoke Village, based on the film Princess Mononoke, is set to open next year, with an area themed on teenage witch-based production Kiki’s Delivery Service due for 2024.
As with the Ghibli museum in Tokyo, exclusive short films from creators at the studio will be screened at a 170-seat cinema in the park.
At present, tickets can be bought only in Japan. When preparing for the park’s opening, it was unclear when overseas tourists would be allowed back into Japan so the decision was taken initially not to sell tickets to buyers outside the country. But that is set to change early next year. Japan’s Covid travel restrictions for tourists were eventually lifted in October.
The park has high hopes once fully open. More than 1.8 million visitors a year are expected, and it is forecast to generate around 48bn yen ($325m) for the local economy.
Reports that Miyazaki himself was spotted in the background of TV news reports – wearing the distinctive white apron he often wears when drawing in his studio – have already sparked a flurry of excitement among fans, before it turned out it was a cosplayer imitating him.
Miyazaki has announced his retirement on a number of occasions but since 2017 has been working on How Do You Live?, which he has insisted will be his last animated feature. There is no scheduled date for completion or release.
