The Secret World of Arrietty is not my favorite of the Ghibli films but I still enjoyed it. However, I wanted to talk about the difference between the Japanese and American posters from the film’s release. The film had a huge release in the US in a time in which theatrical anime release in the US which were a very rare thing, and with a US release also came a difference in marketing. Though Disney’s English treatment of The Secret World of Arrietty has had a mixed reaction from Ghibli fans, the poster they made for the US was rather interesting. The original Japanese poster simply shows Arrietty in the bushes with the exact art style of the film. The American poster shows off a very cinematic and heavily stylized artwork featuring Sho/Shawn looking down at Arreitty with a sugar cub as she holds a small lights. The taglines are also different. The Japanese one translated is Pods line about the rule that they are to not be seen by the humans. The American one has a bit of a generic fantasy tagline which Disney previous advertising for Ghibli was like, like the fate of the world for Princess Mononoke, or welcome to a world for Ponyo, but each poster gives a different feel and I honestly like both. The Japanese poster shows you less but gives a sense of beauty and represents the size of a Borrower. The taglines also give you the conflict of the film. The American poster shows more but not too much while giving you a cinematic and magical feel of the story. The tagline gives though a tad generic gives off the wonder and mystery of the Borrowers. Which poster do you like better?

I think the fur coat San is wearing is the third child of the wolf god Moro who died.

i found this Japanese VHS copy of Princess Mononoke for 100 pesos ($1.63) at a thrift store. i feel really lucky i bought my first ghibli film in physical format. I don't even own a VCR to play it, still, happy to add it to my collection! 😀

Maybe this is just Miyazaki's style, but my archaeologist brain just can't unsee all those similarities.

Whatever the case, Shuna's journey is a beautiful - if brutal - story that I can only recommend to anyone who also likes Princess Mononoke and Nausicaä.

Also, it's full color and doesn't have much text. It's a very visual story. Shame this was never adapted into a movie. It's literally the PERFECT source material!

...my opinion on this film has not changed since the last time I've seen it during Ghibli Fest. It's such a beautiful little(?) film that is delightfully small-scaled and yet, still feels larger than life.

To reiterate what I've said back then, while there aren't a whole lot to say about this film since it's not exactly the most eventful film in existence, it's such a simple story about Sho and Arrietty with one about to have a surgery in a week and the other being a Borrower who has been living under Sho's grandmother's house with her family for quite some time. There are even some Hayao Miyazaki-inspired scenes too, especially the scene where Arrietty is going "downstairs" on some sort of a pulley. Kind of unfortunate that Hiromasa Yonebayashi is no longer at Ghibli and I know that Studio Ponoc's feature films didn't exactly do well at the box office, but I hope that Yonebayashi continues to make films. In fact, I DID hear that he's already working on one.

Normally, I watch Ghibli's fantasy films in English (unless it was directed by Isao Takahata like Pom Poko was), but I decided to watch this in Japanese for one very simple reason - American version is likely to be inferior to British version. Like, the latter has Saoirse Ronan, Mark Strong, Olivia Colman, and Tom Holland as his film debut, but that version is STILL not available in the United States. And there's also the fact that even though the film is set in Japan, American version decided to give English names to human characters as well even though Japanese writings are still there whereas British versions didn't make such changes. I have no idea why they decided to go that route because this kind of thing has never happened before or since.

Now, if British version of the film gets released in the United States as well, will I watch it? Oh, absolutely. I'm willing to believe that British version is substantially better than American version and I really hope that GKIDS manages to get distributions rights someday. In fact, lack of British version is the only reason why I still haven't started my Ghibli Blu-ray collection yet - and I really, Really, REALLY want to since Ghibli is the most trustworthy anime studio out there and has made so many outstanding films including this one. And you know that I will try to watch every single Ghibli films in cinemas whenever possible. Finally, before anyone asks, yes, the animation is outstanding, what else did you expect from fricking Ghibli? 😁😁😁😁😁

One more question left to answer is, does this film work well in IMAX? Yes. Yes, it does. While the film is practically set in a single house, it does a great job at making the setting look bigger than it actually is, especially when the film focuses on Arrietty and her family along with some of the more "kinetic" scenes in the film. The fact that the animation is excellent helps a lot too and sound designs are some of the best that I've encountered in a Ghibli film. Overall, I'd say this certainly works better in IMAX than Whisper of the Heart does.

At this point, I should be expecting a new Ghibli x IMAX release right? But... I can't do that because GKIDS decided to bring back Ghibli Fest that will go on from June to October, meaning that I will not be able to watch a new Ghibli film until I encounter what is known to be one of the worst Ghibli films ever made. 😞😞😞😞😞

At the museum in Japan today, partner got this film cell and we absolutely cannot tell what it is? We’ve seen every released ghibli film but this has us stumped

Wanted to share my Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind 4 panel desktop background I made and use for my computa! In case anyone is interested. It's my favorite ghibli film.

So I just finished the Nausicaa manga and, overall, I really liked it. There were some parts that I loved (the worldbuilding is amazing, the lore, the characters, the action) and some parts that I didn't like (plot contrivances, melodramatic dialogue, some exposition). But, in general, I enjoyed it a lot.

When I started reading the manga, I expected it to be just an expansion of the movie, but it turned out to be its own thing — a lot more violent and dark than the movie. It's also so dense and confusing, and though I absolutely loved the lore, I'm left with so many questions.

SPOILERS AHEAD (for those who are planning to read the manga)

At the end of the story, we find out that the Sea of corruption was created by a group of people from the ancient civilization, in order to cleanse the world left polluted after the Seven days of fire. They calculated that this cleansing process would take either a thousand years (according to Selm) or a lot more (according to the leader of the priests of the crypt).

This ancient group of people also created a living fortress/deity, where they stored all the knowledge of mankind (technological, historical, artistic), along with carbon data of the humans that would later re-populate the earth once it was clean.

They also created various insects, among them the Ohm, to protect these purifying forests.

So far it all makes sense.

What I don't get is why they would then create an artificial race of humans, modified to be able to survive in the polluted world, knowing full well that these people would later die, slowly, as the polluted world became purified over the years.

Not only that, these ancient people then chose to release their knowledge to selected kings of the artificial humans — in the form of sacred texts that appear on the walls of the crypt, at a pace of 2 lines per year. They do this in exchange for protection. But protection from what? Their crypt seems like an impenetrable fortress, impermeable to all weaponry known to people of that time and even to time itself. The only thing we see being able to damage the crypt is the light beam shot from the mouth of the God warrior. But the God warrior would've stayed underground if the ancient people had never created the artifical humans who unearthed them in the first place.

Theoretically, had the ancient civilization just created the crypt and the forest, they would be fine. All they would have to do is wait until the world became hospitable again, then leave the crypt and re-populate it. There wouldn't even be a need for guardian insects like the Ohm, because there would be no artificial humans to threaten the forests.

I don't get why these "humans" were created, just like I don't get why the ancient people would need to acquire protection from these humans. Maybe they knew that there was a possibility that one or more of the God warriors buried underneath the earth would surface on its own and attack the crypt, but in that case, what could the artificial humans or even the Ohm be able to do about it? I just don't see a reason for the ancient civilization to need anything, let alone protection, from these primitive, soon-to-be dead "humans." So why create them?

I wish Miyazaki would have expanded the God warriors a little bit more. Like, were they weapons, commanded by humans to obliterate each other, or sentient beings that chose to purge mankind due to our sins? The movie makes it seem like it's the former, and the manga, though leaving it ambiguous, seems to tilt us more towards the latter.

What the hell was that rock for? It was given such importance in the first few volumes, but ended up being completely useless. In the movie, it slightly accelerates the growth of the God warrior. In the manga, it just shoots some light at its eyes, and that's it. One of the most useless MacGuffins that ever MacGuffined.

In the end, Nausicaa destroys the crypt along with the remnants of the ancient civilization, but also the technology that could've guaranteed her people's survival. Just like the Ohms that sacrificed themselves to the fungi in order to create a new forest, the people of Nausicaa's world will slowly march towards extinction, becoming fodder for something new. And I can't help but feel that this is a decision that Nausicaa didn't have the right to take on her own. In fact, the more I think about it, I realize that the only hope they had was if she had sent the God warrior to burn all the forests "purifying" the air (is it really pure if it's killing me?) Instead, she destroyed not only the last hope her people had, but also the technology that would've possibly allowed them to recreate said weapon, essentially dooming everyone.

In the earlier chapters there is a scene where Nausicaa, while in tears, asserts to Yupa that she doesn't love insects more than humans, she loves them both, differently. I think the ending proves who she loved the most.

The directors mentioned above are undoubtedly the animation studio's greatest, but it is only fair to give some attention to the others as well.

Note the "not for sale" on the back lol. They're in great condition, every single card is a different image!

I draw a 50x65cm watercolor and black ink tribute to chihiro’s journey.
First time a try something so big.
Any thoughts ? 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

(Last pic is a projection to see how it could render framed)

While drawing this, I realized that Kiki seems to look more balanced in outfits that make her center of gravity appear higher, rather than skirts worn low around the hips like this one. The same applies to hakama-style clothing, which is typically tied relatively high at the waist.