Studio Ghibli

Do you guys know Studio Ghibli? If you don't I'm gonna tell you what it is, and for you who've already known what it is, here is my review about Studio Ghibli.

Source: The Odyssey Online

Studio Ghibli is a famous for its incredibility and various genre of animation, and it is from Japan. I have fallen in love to it ever since 2013 even though I did not realise it back then. The first film I've ever watched was "My Neighbor Tororo" it was in Disney Channel. I fell in love with how the film is able to bring you to the ambient that are being told in the film, and the story line is often unpredictable which makes it even more interesting.

So far, I have watched:

1. My Neighbor Totoro
2. Spirited Away
3. Howl's Moving Castle
4. The Secret World of Arriety
5. When Marnie was Here
6. Castle in the Sky
7. Only Yesterday
8. Kiki's Delivery Service
9. Princess Monoke

And I recommend all of em! Well, except for "Only Yesterday", it is a great film that describes maturity and how hard it is being a woman and that woman has the power if she knows how to control it well, it might be too hard for children to digest. The specialty of Studio Ghibli is that, it is able to bring the audience into the movie, it knows how to bait the audience's senses whether it is through taste, look, smell, or even emotion. Well, mostly emotions. 

Every single film tells their own story and each of them are amazing, they have lessons, different one each of them and all is about how to make yourself a better person in this cruel world and that no matter how cruel this world is, there is always that one person that's gonna let you believe that kindness still exists. Unlike nowadays' films, always tell either a continuous stories such as: Cars 2, Cars 3, Toy Stories 2, Toy Stories 3, Finding Dory, etc or a retold movies such as Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Spiderman: Homecoming (I mean, how many Spiderman stories are there? Ever since I was born until today, there has been 3 different kind of Spider-Man.). But Studio Ghibli until today, NEVER EVER tells a retold story or a continuous story. They never make "Spirited Away 2", or "Arriety 2", NO. This is why I also love films by Studio Ghibli.

Not only Studio Ghibli serves a creative plots for each films, it also has that one specialty which is the appeal to the audience's emotions. By watching the film, you can feel how it is like living without parents by your side, working while you're on your own, the struggle of living, and how you should always stand for the right thing no matter how many people abandon you because of it. The films also teach me that Japanese people are very discipline and I just love their culture and their lifestyle also. They always eat clean, vegetables, fish, fresh seafoods, sushi, omg I just love how they visualize Japanese custom foods in the films. 

I am by far impress by 3 films out of many that i have watched, those are: Howl's Moving Castle, When Marnie was Here and My Neighbor Totoro. 

In Howl's Moving Castle, I am told that love is the strongest thing in the world after praying, you can conquer anything if you have love inside of you. It's not a conditional love, but an unconditional love and a true love. I always thought that when it comes to "LOVE" you can't change it, because it is one's feeling and only one can destroy it. But this film teaches me that heart can be changed, not only mind. But it needs a great amount of Love, the unconditional one that accept the person you love no matter how they look because you don't judge them by their appearance, but more by their personalities. Well basically when you truly love someone, you will ask yourself: "Why in heaven do I love that person?" and even yourself cannot answer it. That is a true love :)

When Marnie was Here, tells a very rare kind of animation story line. I love it. It tells about a person, called Marnie, who I thought was a ghost at first, and turns out Marnie is a memory. There is this child called Anna, a young girl who suffer from asthma and has an introvert personality. She has to be moved temporarily to a countryside to begin her healing process. In that place she has a "friend" which is Marnie. They becomes best friend, but during their friendship, a short friendship, unexpected things happen which is kinda confusing for children to digest. Sometimes it brings you to the present, but at the other moment it was actually the past. Well, Marnie is actually the grand mother of Anna, who has died years ago. After knowing this I cried so hard, I was sobbing. Marnie tells Anna that she has a tough life, having no friend yet living poverty in her family richness. She has got no one to tell her story to, because her husband died, and her daughter, which is Anna's mother, abandoned Marnie. Anna's mother, however was not raised by Marnie, because Marnie was very busy as she was a single mom and had to make a living for her daughter. That's why she sent Anna's mother to be raised in the dormitory. Anna's mother could not accept this until she becomes adult, and finally abandoned Marnie. Later on, Anna's mom died in car accident and so did Anna's father. It was really sad, that Marnie had to raise Anna alone as she grows older and older. Marnie promised herself that she would raise Anna on her own until she dies as the exchange for not being able to raise her own daughter. Omg YOU SHOULD WATCH THIS FILM! In the end, the film wants to tell you that every person has their own story, a happy one and a sad one, and their story makes them who they are today. So, do not judge them for who they are because you never really understand their whole story, you are not them. And sometimes stories can't be told by words, you have to experience it yourself.

My Neighbor Totoro, told a fun story. The film tells you how to believe that there are magical things in the world as long as you believe it. I can't tell the whole story here, I want you to watch it on your own because My Neighbor Totoro, was rated 93% rating by Roten Tomatoes and becomes internationally known. All in all, the film tells you that when you are kind, generous, and live a good life, then nature, and God, would not abandon you in your hard situation. Life may give you tons of sadness, but you have infinity reasons to make lemonade out of lemons that life gives you. 

Source: juggernaut-art.deviantart.com

And the picture above shows every main character and the mascot of each of Studio Ghibli's masterpieces. Marnie is the girl on the below right corner, using a white dress with blonde hair. And then the black ghost with white mask is the mascot from Spirited Away, and then there is Haku and Chihiro below the gost, next to Marnie. Totoro, obviously is the hamster-like mascot holding the oak seed, on top of the wolf from Princess Monoke. Here is another clearer picture:

Just kidding, that's not the clearer one obviously. Here is the clearer one:

Source: http://orig03.deviantart.net/54a8/f/2016/146/2/d/studio_ghibli___kingdom_of_dreams_and_madness_by_juggernaut_art-da3v856.png

Well I do not see Arriety tho in any of those picture above, perhaps she's too tiny to be included. In case you don't know, Arriety is a young girl, a tiny tiny young girl, half a size of 250 mL Ultra Milk if your want to know. No wonder she's not included tho LoL.

In case you want to watch, here is the list of films by Studio Ghibli:

Year	Title	Director	Screenwriter(s)	Producer(s)	Music	RT
1986	Laputa: Castle in the Sky	Hayao Miyazaki		Isao Takahata	Joe Hisaishi	95%
1988	Grave of the Fireflies	Isao Takahata		Toru Hara	Michio Mamiya	97%
	My Neighbor Totoro	Hayao Miyazaki			Joe Hisaishi	93%
1989	Kiki's Delivery Service			Hayao Miyazaki		96%
1991	Only Yesterday	Isao Takahata		Toshio Suzuki	Katz Hoshi	100%
1992	Porco Rosso	Hayao Miyazaki			Joe Hisaishi	94%
1994	Pom Poko	Isao Takahata			Shang Shang Typhoon	78%
1995	Whisper of the Heart	Yoshifumi Kondō	Hayao Miyazaki		Yuji Nomi	91%
1997	Princess Mononoke	Hayao Miyazaki			Joe Hisaishi	92%
1999	My Neighbors the Yamadas	Isao Takahata			Akiko Yano	75%
2001	Spirited Away	Hayao Miyazaki			Joe Hisaishi	97%
2002	The Cat Returns	Hiroyuki Morita	Reiko Yoshida	Nozomu Takahashi & Toshio Suzuki	Yuji Nomi	89%
2004	Howl's Moving Castle	Hayao Miyazaki		Toshio Suzuki	Joe Hisaishi	87%
2006	Tales from Earthsea	Gorō Miyazaki	Gorō Miyazaki & Keiko Niwa		Tamiya Terashima	41%
2008	Ponyo	Hayao Miyazaki			Joe Hisaishi	92%
2010	Arrietty	Hiromasa Yonebayashi	Hayao Miyazaki & Keiko Niwa		Cécile Corbel	95%
2011	From Up on Poppy Hill	Gorō Miyazaki			Satoshi Takebe	83%
2013	The Wind Rises	Hayao Miyazaki			Joe Hisaishi	89%
	The Tale of the Princess Kaguya	Isao Takahata	Isao Takahata & Riko Sakaguchi	Yoshiaki Nishimura & Seiichiro Ujiie		100%
2014	When Marnie Was There	Hiromasa Yonebayashi	Hiromasa Yonebayashi, Keiko Niwa & Masashi Ando	Yoshiaki Nishimura & Toshio Suzuki	Takatsugu Muramatsu	92%

Source: Wikipedia

Last but not least, here is the link to stream the soundtrack of each films, all credits of the soundtrack goes to its owner and Joe Hisaishi:

https://open.spotify.com/album/5Kg66z2oLCB1uvhO1LMSMw

And here is the YouTube video of the almost-2-hours orchestra performance by Joe Hisaishi, the original artist behind every soundtrack of Studio Ghibli's films:

https://youtu.be/eY1XtWyKlJA

Ps: I love the "Merry-go-round of Life" and "Path of the Wind".

Go watch it now people! You're not gonna regret a thing after watching it. I know that's what I always say whenever I promote something, but believe me, it's like that. Happy watching, listening, streaming and crying, and laughing! :) 

"Treat people the way you wanna be treated, and always be kind to one another." - Ellen Degeneres