169-528: Studio Ghibli, Inc. ( Japanese : 株式会社スタジオジブリ , Hepburn : Kabushiki-gaisha Sutajio Jiburi ) is a Japanese animation studio based in Koganei, Tokyo . It has a strong presence in the animation industry and has expanded its portfolio to include various media formats, such as short subjects, television commercials, and two television films. Their work has been well received by audiences and recognized with numerous awards. Their mascot and most recognizable symbol,
338-611: A DVD release was distributed through Warner Home Video . Walt Disney Studios Japan released the complete collector's edition DVD on 6 August 2008. WDSJ released the film on Blu-ray twice on 18 July 2012: one as a single release, and one in a two-film set with My Neighbor Totoro (even though Disney has never owned the North American rights, only the Japanese rights). It was released on VHS in North America by Central Park Media in
507-473: A DVD release was distributed through Warner Home Video . Walt Disney Studios Japan released the complete collector's edition DVD on August 6, 2008. Walt Disney Studios Japan released the film on Blu-ray twice on July 18, 2012: one as a single release, and one in a two-film set with My Neighbor Totoro . StudioCanal released a Blu-ray in the United Kingdom on July 1, 2013. Madman Entertainment released
676-569: A "national fantasy of war", which leads him to neglect his sister. The music for the film was composed by Michio Mamiya . The theme song, " Home Sweet Home ", was performed by coloratura soprano Amelita Galli-Curci . Dialogue of the film is part of the soundtrack as the music and dialogue are not separated in any way. Mamiya is also a music specialist in baroque and classical music. During an interview about his music, Mamiya stated that he creates his music to encourage peace. The songs in Grave of
845-488: A "whimsical and joyful aesthetic". Studio Ghibli's art style tends to be more of a cozy European style that put a lot of undertones on the background and nature in the scene. A notable exception is The Tale of the Princess Kaguya , directed by Takahata, which departs from Ghibli's typical style by employing a soft watercolor palette and storybook-like aesthetic reminiscent of Japanese folk art. This approach aimed to reflect
1014-641: A 95-minute English dub of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind , titled Warriors of the Wind , which was released theatrically in the United States by New World Pictures on June 14, 1985, followed by a VHS release in December 1985. The voice actors and actresses were not credited, and the film was heavily edited to give it a faster pace. The film received a PG rating just like Disney's later English dub. By removing several of
1183-601: A Blu-ray in the United Kingdom on 1 July 2013, followed by Kiki's Delivery Service on the same format. It was the UK's tenth annual best-selling foreign language film on home video in 2019 (below seven other Japanese films, including six Hayao Miyazaki anime films). Madman Entertainment released the film in Australia and New Zealand. On September 16, 2024, the film started streaming exclusively on Netflix in over 190 countries, excluding Japan, as part of ongoing efforts to expand
1352-624: A benefit from the in-group to the out-group) means "[I/we] explained [it] to [him/her/them]". Such beneficiary auxiliary verbs thus serve a function comparable to that of pronouns and prepositions in Indo-European languages to indicate the actor and the recipient of an action. Japanese "pronouns" also function differently from most modern Indo-European pronouns (and more like nouns) in that they can take modifiers as any other noun may. For instance, one does not say in English: The amazed he ran down
1521-558: A deal with Disney. Pony Canyon also fully distributed the standalone version of Earwig and the Witch on home media. Before the Disney deal, Tokuma Shoten released Ghibli movies themselves through their "Animage Video" imprint, as well as all LaserDisc releases of the movies, as the Disney deal did not include that format. After purchasing the global distribution rights from World Film Corporation, Manson International and Showmen, Inc. produced
1690-582: A deal with Ghibli's international sales rights partner Wild Bunch . Seven of twenty-one films in the studio's catalogue were released on February 1, 2020, with the others following on March 1 and April 1. Netflix then struck a separate deal with GKIDS for streaming rights in Canada which was announced on June 22, and came into effect on June 25 for most films. As of 2024, no streaming rights deals have yet been announced for Studio Ghibli's home country of Japan, nor for markets such as China where neither Netflix nor HBO Max
1859-414: A distinct language of its own that has absorbed various aspects from neighboring languages. Japanese has five vowels, and vowel length is phonemic, with each having both a short and a long version. Elongated vowels are usually denoted with a line over the vowel (a macron ) in rōmaji , a repeated vowel character in hiragana , or a chōonpu succeeding the vowel in katakana . /u/ ( listen )
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#17328527532442028-510: A distribution clause) to GKIDS, which handles all theatrical and home media distribution of Ghibli films in North America along with Mary and the Witch's Flower . Nevertheless, Disney still continues to handle select distribution in Japan (home media), Taiwan and China. GKIDS' home media releases have been handled by multiple distributors. Cinedigm distributed the home media release of Poppy Hill , Universal Pictures Home Entertainment distributed
2197-624: A distribution deal. Originally, the Ghibli films were meant to headline a line of videos called Animation Celebration , highlighting critically acclaimed animated films from around the world. These plans never materialized in full, but the Animation Celebration logo can be seen on Disney's original VHS release of Kiki's Delivery Service . During Disney's tenure, the studio produced the English dubs and released 15 of Ghibli's films, plus Nausicaä of
2366-446: A four-year-old in English. That, unfortunately, is a big negative, since a good chunk of the pathos the movie delivers is at least partly dependent on that performance". On 25 December 2016, Toei Company made a Twitter post that read "Why did Kiriya have to die so soon?" ( なんできりやすぐ死んでしまうん , Nande Kiriya sugu shinde shimaun? ) in order to promote an episode of Kamen Rider Ex-Aid . The hashtag became popular, but Toei deleted
2535-413: A girl younger than five. Takahata said that "In that respect, when you make the book into a movie, Setsuko becomes a tangible person", and that four-year-olds often become more assertive and self-centered, and try to get their own ways during that age. He explained that while one could "have a scene where Seita can't stand that anymore", it is "difficult to incorporate into a story". Takahata explained that
2704-419: A glide /j/ and either the first part of a geminate consonant ( っ / ッ , represented as Q) or a moraic nasal in the coda ( ん / ン , represented as N). The nasal is sensitive to its phonetic environment and assimilates to the following phoneme, with pronunciations including [ɴ, m, n, ɲ, ŋ, ɰ̃] . Onset-glide clusters only occur at the start of syllables but clusters across syllables are allowed as long as
2873-429: A listener depending on the listener's relative social position and the degree of familiarity between the speaker and the listener. When used in different social relationships, the same word may have positive (intimate or respectful) or negative (distant or disrespectful) connotations. Japanese often use titles of the person referred to where pronouns would be used in English. For example, when speaking to one's teacher, it
3042-466: A new film from Gorō Miyazaki is in development at Studio Ghibli. On June 3, 2020, Studio Ghibli announced that the film would be an adaptation of the novel Earwig and the Witch by Diana Wynne Jones . The film was announced as the first full 3D CG animated Ghibli film and slated for a television premiere on NHK in late 2020. The company had a net income of ¥1.253 billion , and a total asset worth ¥24.521 billion by August 2021. On November 1, 2022,
3211-451: A pivotal role in creating fluid, realistic animations of the characters in the animation. Takahata drew from his personal experience to create a realistic depiction of the air raid on Okayama . In an interview, he criticized TV shows and movies that had recreated images of incendiary bombs, "They include no sparks or explosions, I was there and I experienced it, so I know what it was like." The film features Niteko-ike pond (ニテコ池), which
3380-553: A police officer sympathizes with Seita as he is only stealing in order to feed Setsuko. Setsuko falls ill, and a doctor explains that she is suffering from malnutrition . Seita desperately withdraws the last of the money from their mother's bank account. After doing so, he becomes distraught when he learns from a few people that Japan has surrendered and that his father is most likely dead, as most of Japan's naval fleet have been sunk. Seita returns to Setsuko with food but finds her hallucinating. She later dies as Seita finishes preparing
3549-530: A price of at least ¥4,935 , this is equivalent to at least ¥1.974 billion in sales revenue. The film received universal critical acclaim. The film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 100% approval rating based on 46 reviews with an average rating of 9.30/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "An achingly sad anti-war film, Grave of the Fireflies is one of Studio Ghibli's most profoundly beautiful, haunting works." Metacritic assigned
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#17328527532443718-517: A producer, rather than demanding this from his employees. Suzuki decided to hand over the presidency to Hoshino because Hoshino has helped Studio Ghibli to sell its videos since 1996 and has also aided the release of the Princess Mononoke film in the United States. Suzuki still serves on the company's board of directors. Takahata developed a project for release after Gorō Miyazaki's (director of Tales from Earthsea and Hayao's son) The Tale of
3887-528: A second dub exclusive to the United Kingdom, produced by StudioCanal UK, likely due to the film's origins being from Mary Norton 's British novel The Borrowers . Disney formerly held international sales rights until they were sold off to Goodfellas (then Wild Bunch) in 2003. Disney kept the French distribution rights to Ghibli's library until September 2020, when it had expired and transitioned off to Wild Bunch. Since 2021, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment serves as
4056-408: A sentence need not be stated and pronouns may be omitted if they can be inferred from context. In the example above, hana ga nagai would mean "[their] noses are long", while nagai by itself would mean "[they] are long." A single verb can be a complete sentence: Yatta! ( やった! ) "[I / we / they / etc] did [it]!". In addition, since adjectives can form the predicate in a Japanese sentence (below),
4225-428: A single adjective can be a complete sentence: Urayamashii! ( 羨ましい! ) "[I'm] jealous [about it]!". While the language has some words that are typically translated as pronouns, these are not used as frequently as pronouns in some Indo-European languages, and function differently. In some cases, Japanese relies on special verb forms and auxiliary verbs to indicate the direction of benefit of an action: "down" to indicate
4394-522: A still-living Warrior shown briefly in a flashback. Overall, approximately 22 minutes was cut for North American release. Warriors of the Wind also prompted Miyazaki to allow translator Toren Smith of Studio Proteus to create an official, faithful translation of the Nausicaä manga for Viz Media . In the late 1980s, an English dub of Castle in the Sky was produced for international Japan Airlines flights at
4563-428: A streaming deal with Ghibli during their distribution tenure, but such attempts were never materialized. The studio heads changed their minds after hearing a quote from American actor and director Woody Allen about how there should be multiple outlets for feature films. On October 17, 2019, Warner Bros. Discovery 's HBO Max (now Max) announced it had acquired exclusive streaming rights to Studio Ghibli's catalogue in
4732-528: A studio which Miyazaki, Takahata and Toshio Suzuki later purchased and renamed Studio Ghibli. As a result, the film has often been rereleased and marketed as a Studio Ghibli movie. The Red Turtle was a collaborative effort by Studio Ghibli with Dutch animator Michaël Dudok de Wit and was branded as a Studio Ghibli release internationally. It was distributed by Sony Pictures Classics in North and Latin America. For
4901-479: A subsidiary of Nippon Television Holdings, Inc. . Studio Ghibli's leadership transitioned to Hiroyuki Fukuda, a senior executive at NTV. Toshio Suzuki became chairman and Hayao Miyazaki became Honorary Chairman. Nippon TV acquired a 42.3% stake in Studio Ghibli. The decision was driven by the advanced ages of Miyazaki and Suzuki, aged 82 and 75, respectively. The studio had considered Miyazaki's son, Goro Miyazaki, as
5070-443: A subtitled form on 2 June 1993. They later released the film with an English dub on VHS on 1 September 1998 (the day Disney released Kiki's Delivery Service ) and an all-Regions DVD (which also included the original Japanese with English subtitles) on 7 October 1998. On 8 October 2002, it was later released on a two-disc DVD set, which once again included both the English dub and the original Japanese with English subtitles as well as
5239-463: A successor but opted for external leadership due to concerns and Goro's reluctance. NTV started to handle management, allowing Studio Ghibli to focus on creative endeavors. The takeover took effect on October 6. In 2024, the studio received an honorary Palme d'Or at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival , the first film production company to receive the award. In Japan, most of the company's films are distributed by Toho theatrically, except for Castle in
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5408-624: Is compressed rather than protruded , or simply unrounded. Some Japanese consonants have several allophones , which may give the impression of a larger inventory of sounds. However, some of these allophones have since become phonemic. For example, in the Japanese language up to and including the first half of the 20th century, the phonemic sequence /ti/ was palatalized and realized phonetically as [tɕi] , approximately chi ( listen ) ; however, now [ti] and [tɕi] are distinct, as evidenced by words like tī [tiː] "Western-style tea" and chii [tɕii] "social status". The "r" of
5577-421: Is topic–comment . Sentence-final particles are used to add emotional or emphatic impact, or form questions. Nouns have no grammatical number or gender , and there are no articles . Verbs are conjugated , primarily for tense and voice , but not person . Japanese adjectives are also conjugated. Japanese has a complex system of honorifics , with verb forms and vocabulary to indicate the relative status of
5746-445: Is also seen in o-medetō "congratulations", from medetaku ). Late Middle Japanese has the first loanwords from European languages – now-common words borrowed into Japanese in this period include pan ("bread") and tabako ("tobacco", now "cigarette"), both from Portuguese . Modern Japanese is considered to begin with the Edo period (which spanned from 1603 to 1867). Since Old Japanese,
5915-519: Is also used in a limited fashion (such as for imported acronyms) in Japanese writing. The numeral system uses mostly Arabic numerals , but also traditional Chinese numerals . Proto-Japonic , the common ancestor of the Japanese and Ryukyuan languages , is thought to have been brought to Japan by settlers coming from the Korean peninsula sometime in the early- to mid-4th century BC (the Yayoi period ), replacing
6084-440: Is appropriate to use sensei ( 先生 , "teacher"), but inappropriate to use anata . This is because anata is used to refer to people of equal or lower status, and one's teacher has higher status. Japanese nouns have no grammatical number, gender or article aspect. The noun hon ( 本 ) may refer to a single book or several books; hito ( 人 ) can mean "person" or "people", and ki ( 木 ) can be "tree" or "trees". Where number
6253-684: Is associated with comedy (see Kansai dialect ). Dialects of Tōhoku and North Kantō are associated with typical farmers. The Ryūkyūan languages, spoken in Okinawa and the Amami Islands (administratively part of Kagoshima ), are distinct enough to be considered a separate branch of the Japonic family; not only is each language unintelligible to Japanese speakers, but most are unintelligible to those who speak other Ryūkyūan languages. However, in contrast to linguists, many ordinary Japanese people tend to consider
6422-516: Is available. Most of the above deals exclude Grave of the Fireflies ; unlike most of the other films, which were published by Tokuma Shoten , Grave of the Fireflies was produced and is owned by Shinchosha , which also had published the short story it was based on, and as such, fell into different rights holdings. It was released in Japan on VHS by Buena Vista Home Entertainment under the Ghibli ga Ippai Collection on August 7, 1998. On July 29, 2005,
6591-462: Is better documentation of Late Middle Japanese phonology than for previous forms (for instance, the Arte da Lingoa de Iapam ). Among other sound changes, the sequence /au/ merges to /ɔː/ , in contrast with /oː/ ; /p/ is reintroduced from Chinese; and /we/ merges with /je/ . Some forms rather more familiar to Modern Japanese speakers begin to appear – the continuative ending - te begins to reduce onto
6760-509: Is correlated with the sex of the speaker and the social situation in which they are spoken: men and women alike in a formal situation generally refer to themselves as watashi ( 私 , literally "private") or watakushi (also 私 , hyper-polite form), while men in rougher or intimate conversation are much more likely to use the word ore ( 俺 "oneself", "myself") or boku . Similarly, different words such as anata , kimi , and omae ( お前 , more formally 御前 "the one before me") may refer to
6929-569: Is described as the "birthplace" of the novel and where Nosaka conducted his daily routines of dishwashing and personal ablutions. Notably, during the final days of the Pacific War, Nosaka, then 14 years old, sought refuge with his younger sister-in-law in a relative's house and nearby bomb shelters near the pond. The location and background in the film is based on a style created by 18th century Japanese artist Hiroshige and his follower Hergé , who created Tintin . Film critic Roger Ebert examines
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7098-417: Is important, it can be indicated by providing a quantity (often with a counter word ) or (rarely) by adding a suffix, or sometimes by duplication (e.g. 人人 , hitobito , usually written with an iteration mark as 人々 ). Words for people are usually understood as singular. Thus Tanaka-san usually means Mx Tanaka . Words that refer to people and animals can be made to indicate a group of individuals through
7267-722: Is less common. In terms of mutual intelligibility , a survey in 1967 found that the four most unintelligible dialects (excluding Ryūkyūan languages and Tōhoku dialects ) to students from Greater Tokyo were the Kiso dialect (in the deep mountains of Nagano Prefecture ), the Himi dialect (in Toyama Prefecture ), the Kagoshima dialect and the Maniwa dialect (in Okayama Prefecture ). The survey
7436-420: Is often called a topic-prominent language , which means it has a strong tendency to indicate the topic separately from the subject, and that the two do not always coincide. The sentence Zō wa hana ga nagai ( 象は鼻が長い ) literally means, "As for elephant(s), (the) nose(s) (is/are) long". The topic is zō "elephant", and the subject is hana "nose". Japanese grammar tends toward brevity; the subject or object of
7605-489: Is preserved in words such as matsuge ("eyelash", lit. "hair of the eye"); modern mieru ("to be visible") and kikoeru ("to be audible") retain a mediopassive suffix - yu(ru) ( kikoyu → kikoyuru (the attributive form, which slowly replaced the plain form starting in the late Heian period) → kikoeru (all verbs with the shimo-nidan conjugation pattern underwent this same shift in Early Modern Japanese )); and
7774-646: Is the principal language of the Japonic language family spoken by the Japanese people . It has around 123 million speakers, primarily in Japan , the only country where it is the national language , and within the Japanese diaspora worldwide. The Japonic family also includes the Ryukyuan languages and the variously classified Hachijō language . There have been many attempts to group the Japonic languages with other families such as
7943-402: Is the version of Japanese discussed in this article. Formerly, standard Japanese in writing ( 文語 , bungo , "literary language") was different from colloquial language ( 口語 , kōgo ) . The two systems have different rules of grammar and some variance in vocabulary. Bungo was the main method of writing Japanese until about 1900; since then kōgo gradually extended its influence and
8112-471: Is used for the present and the future. For verbs that represent an ongoing process, the -te iru form indicates a continuous (or progressive) aspect , similar to the suffix ing in English. For others that represent a change of state, the -te iru form indicates a perfect aspect. For example, kite iru means "They have come (and are still here)", but tabete iru means "They are eating". Questions (both with an interrogative pronoun and yes/no questions) have
8281-405: Is why some linguists do not classify Japanese "pronouns" as pronouns, but rather as referential nouns, much like Spanish usted (contracted from vuestra merced , "your ( majestic plural ) grace") or Portuguese você (from vossa mercê ). Japanese personal pronouns are generally used only in situations requiring special emphasis as to who is doing what to whom. The choice of words used as pronouns
8450-555: The Ainu , Austronesian , Koreanic , and the now-discredited Altaic , but none of these proposals have gained any widespread acceptance. Little is known of the language's prehistory, or when it first appeared in Japan. Chinese documents from the 3rd century AD recorded a few Japanese words, but substantial Old Japanese texts did not appear until the 8th century. From the Heian period (794–1185), extensive waves of Sino-Japanese vocabulary entered
8619-665: The Italianization of the Libyan Arabic name for a hot desert wind ( قبلي qibliyy ). The name was chosen by Miyazaki due to his passion for aircraft and also for the idea that the studio would "blow a new wind through the anime industry". Although the Italian word would be more accurately transliterated as "Giburi" ( ギブリ ) , with a hard g sound, the studio's name is written in Japanese as Jiburi ( ジブリ , [dʑiꜜbɯɾi] ) . Founded on June 15, 1985, Studio Ghibli
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#17328527532448788-455: The Japonic language family, which also includes the Ryukyuan languages spoken in the Ryukyu Islands . As these closely related languages are commonly treated as dialects of the same language, Japanese is sometimes called a language isolate . According to Martine Irma Robbeets , Japanese has been subject to more attempts to show its relation to other languages than any other language in
8957-504: The Philippines , and various Pacific islands, locals in those countries learned Japanese as the language of the empire. As a result, many elderly people in these countries can still speak Japanese. Japanese emigrant communities (the largest of which are to be found in Brazil , with 1.4 million to 1.5 million Japanese immigrants and descendants, according to Brazilian IBGE data, more than
9126-627: The Totoro dub as a theatrical release, and the dub was later released onto VHS and eventually onto DVD by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment . In the early 1990s, an English dub of Porco Rosso was produced by an unknown company, again for international Japan Airlines flights. The original dubs can be seen on the 1996 Ghibli ga Ippai Laserdisc set, and on the initial copies for the Japanese DVD releases of Totoro , Laputa and Porco . In 1996, Walt Disney Studios acquired worldwide distribution rights to
9295-716: The United States (notably in Hawaii , where 16.7% of the population has Japanese ancestry, and California ), and the Philippines (particularly in Davao Region and the Province of Laguna ). Japanese has no official status in Japan, but is the de facto national language of the country. There is a form of the language considered standard : hyōjungo ( 標準語 ) , meaning "standard Japanese", or kyōtsūgo ( 共通語 ) , "common language", or even "Tokyo dialect" at times. The meanings of
9464-794: The de facto standard Japanese had been the Kansai dialect , especially that of Kyoto . However, during the Edo period, Edo (now Tokyo) developed into the largest city in Japan, and the Edo-area dialect became standard Japanese. Since the end of Japan's self-imposed isolation in 1853, the flow of loanwords from European languages has increased significantly. The period since 1945 has seen many words borrowed from other languages—such as German, Portuguese and English. Many English loan words especially relate to technology—for example, pasokon (short for "personal computer"), intānetto ("internet"), and kamera ("camera"). Due to
9633-582: The "Studio Ghibli" and "Hayao Miyazaki" labels on the poster, helping to bring greater awareness to the studio through the success of Spirited Away . In 2011, GKIDS acquired the North American theatrical distribution rights of the aforementioned Ghibli films, with Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment retaining the home video rights. Afterwards, in 2013, GKIDS acquired the US and Canadian distribution rights to From Up on Poppy Hill . The film, which Disney passed on to GKIDS due to dealing with potential incest, marked
9802-518: The 1.2 million of the United States ) sometimes employ Japanese as their primary language. Approximately 12% of Hawaii residents speak Japanese, with an estimated 12.6% of the population of Japanese ancestry in 2008. Japanese emigrants can also be found in Peru , Argentina , Australia (especially in the eastern states), Canada (especially in Vancouver , where 1.4% of the population has Japanese ancestry),
9971-571: The 2003 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature . The Boy and the Heron won the 2024 Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film , BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film , and the 2024 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. The name "Ghibli" was chosen by Miyazaki from the Italian noun ghibli (also used in English), the nickname of Italy's Saharan scouting plane Caproni Ca.309 , in turn derived from
10140-556: The Fireflies Grave of the Fireflies ( Japanese : 火垂るの墓 , Hepburn : Hotaru no Haka ) is a 1988 Japanese animated historical war drama film written and directed by Isao Takahata , and produced by Studio Ghibli . It is based on the 1967 semi-autobiographical short story of the same name by Akiyuki Nosaka . The film stars Tsutomu Tatsumi , Ayano Shiraishi [ ja ] , Yoshiko Shinohara [ ja ] and Akemi Yamaguchi [ ja ] . Set in
10309-401: The Fireflies author Akiyuki Nosaka said that many offers had been made to make a live-action film adaptation of his short story. Nosaka argued that "it was impossible to create the barren, scorched earth that's to be the backdrop of the story". He also argued that contemporary children would not be able to convincingly play the characters. Nosaka expressed surprise when an animated version
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#173285275324410478-473: The Fireflies an "unusually personal adaptation" of Nosaka's short story as Takahata had similar experiences during the war, though noted it deviated significantly in its portrayal of the children as ghosts in its opening sequence whereas the short story began immediately with the children losing their mother during the air raid. Some critics in the West have viewed Grave of the Fireflies as an anti-war film due to
10647-604: The Fireflies as well as other pieces by Michio Mamiya, such as Serenade No. 3 "Germ" , express this theme. The soundtrack album titled Grave of the Fireflies Soundtrack Collection ( 火垂るの墓 サウンドトラック集 , Hotaru no Haka Saundotorakku Shū ) was first released on April 5, 1997, by Studio Ghilbi Records and Tokuma Japan Communications [ ja ] and later released on June 25, 1988, by Animage . The soundtrack does not contain standalone music and instead features both dialogue and music as they appear in
10816-519: The Fireflies on his popular TV series. He praised the film for the honorary image of the soldiers of Japan through the depiction of the fireflies, and the moving depiction of a heartbreaking experience many people of Japan had lived through. After seeing the reactions of the audience after a screening of the film at Festival « Pour éveiller les regards » , Jean-Jacques Varret, head of Les Films du Paradoxe, knew he had to distribute it in France. It
10985-481: The Fireflies , "and it was done on a challenge". Yasuda explained that brown is more difficult to use than black because it does not contrast as well as black. Grave of the Fireflies was Takahata's first animated film produced with Studio Ghibli . Takahata insisted on working with well known animators Yoshifumi Kondō who was working for Nippon Animation at the time and Yoshiyuki Momose . Both animators played
11154-638: The Fireflies . Miyazaki himself praised the film as Takahata's masterpiece, but criticized Seita for not behaving how he believes the son of a navy lieutenant should behave. The film ranked number 12 on Total Film ' s 50 greatest animated films. It was also ranked at number 10 in Time Out ' s "The 50 greatest World War II movies" list. Empire magazine ranked the film at number 6 in its list of "The Top 10 Depressing Movies". The film ranked number 19 on Wizard's Anime Magazine on their "Top 50 Anime released in North America". The Daily Star , ranking
11323-474: The Japanese audience to recognize Seita's misguided attempts to withdraw from society and family. Furthermore, he says that his decision to show the audience that Seita and Setsuko have died at the beginning of the movie is to protect the audience from heartbreak, "If an audience knows at the beginning of the film that the two will eventually die, they are more prepared to watch the film in the first place. I try to lessen an audience's pain by revealing everything at
11492-482: The Japanese language is of particular interest, ranging between an apical central tap and a lateral approximant . The "g" is also notable; unless it starts a sentence, it may be pronounced [ ŋ ] , in the Kanto prestige dialect and in other eastern dialects. The phonotactics of Japanese are relatively simple. The syllable structure is (C)(G)V(C), that is, a core vowel surrounded by an optional onset consonant,
11661-724: The Old Japanese sections are written in Man'yōgana , which uses kanji for their phonetic as well as semantic values. Based on the Man'yōgana system, Old Japanese can be reconstructed as having 88 distinct morae . Texts written with Man'yōgana use two different sets of kanji for each of the morae now pronounced き (ki), ひ (hi), み (mi), け (ke), へ (he), め (me), こ (ko), そ (so), と (to), の (no), も (mo), よ (yo) and ろ (ro). (The Kojiki has 88, but all later texts have 87. The distinction between mo 1 and mo 2 apparently
11830-622: The Princess Kaguya – an adaptation of The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter . Miyazaki announced his retirement with The Wind Rises which is about the Mitsubishi A6M Zero and its creator, but returned with The Boy and the Heron in 2023, earning the director his second Academy Award . On Sunday, September 1, 2013, Hayao Miyazaki held a press conference in Venice to confirm his retirement, saying: "I know I've said I would retire many times in
11999-488: The Ryūkyūan languages as dialects of Japanese. The imperial court also seems to have spoken an unusual variant of the Japanese of the time, most likely the spoken form of Classical Japanese , a writing style that was prevalent during the Heian period , but began to decline during the late Meiji period . The Ryūkyūan languages are classified by UNESCO as 'endangered', as young people mostly use Japanese and cannot understand
12168-489: The Sky , Kiki's Delivery Service (which were distributed by Toei Company along with Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind ) and My Neighbors the Yamadas , which was distributed by Shochiku . For home media, a majority of Studio Ghibli releases are distributed by Walt Disney Studios Japan . Pony Canyon occasionally releases Ghibli documentaries on home media, and also distributes rental versions of Ghibli's movies under
12337-526: The Studio Ghibli library, with Disney redubbing all previously dubbed films. In addition, Walt Disney Studios Japan agreed to contribute 10% of the funding for all future releases, starting with My Neighbors the Yamadas , in exchange for right of first refusal regarding international distribution. Disney continues with this practice to this day, even extending it to the works of Studio Ponoc and to co-productions like The Red Turtle in Japan. It reportedly took four years for Disney and Studio Ghibli to reach
12506-574: The Studio Ghibli themed amusement park Ghibli Park opened. On April 4, 2023, Koji Hoshino announced that he had stepped down as chairman, and would serve as a representative director before planning to exit Studio Ghibli completely during the company's annual general shareholder's meeting in June, one month prior to the release of director Hayao Miyazaki's final movie The Boy and the Heron on July 14. He also announced that Toshio Suzuki would be replacing Kiyofumi Nakajima as president of Studio Ghibli, assuming
12675-460: The United States as part of a deal with GKIDS ; these films were available when the service launched in May 2020. On January 20, 2020, it was announced that Netflix acquired the exclusive streaming rights to this catalogue in all regions where it operates except for the United States (in which Netflix does have streaming rights to The Castle of Cagliostro and Mary and the Witch's Flower ), as part of
12844-620: The Valley of the Wind , through the Walt Disney Pictures , Buena Vista Home Video , Miramax and Touchstone Pictures banners. Disney and Ghibli have also selectively chosen not to promote and record an English-dubbed version for films and works deemed less internationally marketable, including some of Takahata's more developmental and obscure pieces. Although the Studio has a "No cuts" policy in terms of international versions and dubs, this does not apply to promotional posters, etc., for which
13013-543: The addition of a collective suffix (a noun suffix that indicates a group), such as -tachi , but this is not a true plural: the meaning is closer to the English phrase "and company". A group described as Tanaka-san-tachi may include people not named Tanaka. Some Japanese nouns are effectively plural, such as hitobito "people" and wareware "we/us", while the word tomodachi "friend" is considered singular, although plural in form. Verbs are conjugated to show tenses, of which there are two: past and present (or non-past) which
13182-456: The anime, the live-action version of Grave of the Fireflies focuses on two siblings struggling to survive the final months of the war in Kobe, Japan . Unlike the animated version, it tells the story from the point of view of their cousin (the aunt's daughter) and deals with the issue of how the war-time environment could change a kind lady into a hard-hearted woman. The film stars Nanako Matsushima as
13351-422: The audience believes that the story has nothing to do with them. Takahata argued that he wanted to dispel this mindset. When Nosaka asked if the film characters were "having fun", Takahata answered that he clearly depicted Seita and Setsuko had "substantial" days and that they were " enjoying their days". Takahata said that Setsuko was even more difficult to animate than Seita, and that he had never before depicted
13520-450: The aunt and Mao Inoue as the cousin (who also portrays the cousin's granddaughter). A different live-action version was released in Japan on 5 July 2008, Reo Yoshitake [ ja ] as Seita, Rina Hatakeyama [ ja ] as Setsuko, Keiko Matsuzaka as the aunt, and Seiko Matsuda as the children's mother. Like the anime, this live-action version of Grave of the Fireflies focuses on two siblings struggling to survive
13689-414: The aunt becomes resentful of the children as Seita does nothing to earn the food she prepares for them. At her suggestion, Seita withdraws some money from his mother's bank account to buy a charcoal stove and other supplies. One night in the summer, following an air raid, the two decide to move into an abandoned bomb shelter. They capture and release fireflies from the marshes into the refuge for light. By
13858-467: The background to further pique the viewer's interest with more supernatural themes, creating an association between the pictures spirits and what most American people would think of as "ghosts". For the Japanese poster, there are fewer spirits as the Japanese Shinto religion normalizes the existence of spirits, so less emphasis is needed to convey the importance of non-human spirits. Also, Disney enlarged
14027-473: The beginning." The fireflies in the film are portrayed as symbols of various themes such as the spirits of the lost children, the fires that burned the towns, Japanese soldiers, the machinery of war, and the regeneration of life through nature. Okypo Moon states in her essay "Marketing Nature in Rural Japan", that hundreds of fireflies were caught nightly in the 1920s and 1930s. In the 1960s and 1970s, there
14196-456: The candy tin and throws it into a field. Setsuko's ashes spread out, and her spirit springs from the container and is joined by Seita's spirit and a cloud of fireflies. The two board a ghostly train and, throughout the journey, look back at the events leading to Seita's death as silent, passive observers. Their spirits arrive at their destination: a hilltop bench overlooking present-day Kobe, surrounded by fireflies, healthy and content. Grave of
14365-508: The character Totoro from the 1988 film My Neighbor Totoro , is a giant spirit inspired by raccoon dogs ( tanuki ) and cats ( neko ). Among the studio's highest-grossing films are Princess Mononoke (1997), Spirited Away (2001), Howl's Moving Castle (2004), Ponyo (2008), and The Boy and the Heron (2023). Studio Ghibli was founded on June 15, 1985, by the directors Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata and producer Toshio Suzuki , after acquiring Topcraft 's assets. Four of
14534-493: The city of Kobe, Japan , it tells the story of siblings and war orphans Seita and Setsuko, and their desperate struggle to survive during the final months of the Pacific War . Universally acclaimed, Grave of the Fireflies has been ranked as one of the greatest war films of all time and is recognized as a major work of Japanese animation. In March 1945, American Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers destroy most of Kobe during
14703-580: The close of the Pacific War . Military children of an Imperial Japanese Navy captain, Seita and his sister Setsuko, survive, but their mother is severely injured and later dies. Seita conceals their mother's death from Setsuko to keep her happy. The siblings move in with a distant aunt, and Seita retrieves supplies he buried before the bombing and gives everything to his aunt, save for a tin of Sakuma drops , which he later gives to Setsuko. The aunt convinces Seita to sell his mother's silk kimonos for rice, which devastates Setsuko. As rations continue to shrink,
14872-416: The company since the couple met in 2013 and was the reason for his planned departure from the company, although a spokesperson for Studio Ghibli in a statement to Variety denied that Hoshino's departure had anything to do with these reports. The source of the allegations came from the tabloid paper, Shūkan Josei and was not corroborated by the mainstream media in Japan. In October 2023, the studio became
15041-410: The contrast of the style of the background in comparison to the cartoonish animation of the characters. He claims that there is an unusual amount of detail in the evocative landscape, while the characters are a take on the modern Japanese animation style, with childlike bodies and enormous eyes. Ebert believed that this deliberate animation style embodies the true purpose of animation, which is to recreate
15210-407: The distribution rights to the film in 2024 and began featuring it for digital streaming outside of Japan on September 16, 2024. Horus and Cagliostro were the feature-length directorial debuts of Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki respectively, and were produced by Toei Animation and TMS Entertainment years before the founding of Studio Ghibli. Nausicaä was directed by Miyazaki at Topcraft ,
15379-564: The effect of changing Japanese into a mora-timed language. Late Middle Japanese covers the years from 1185 to 1600, and is normally divided into two sections, roughly equivalent to the Kamakura period and the Muromachi period , respectively. The later forms of Late Middle Japanese are the first to be described by non-native sources, in this case the Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries; and thus there
15548-428: The emotions and inner struggles of the characters and highlight the hand-drawn animation. The films often focus on the lives of youth, especially school children. Common themes include the risks posed by progress to tradition, environmentalism and the natural world, independent female protagonists, the cost of war, and youth. Japanese language Japanese ( 日本語 , Nihongo , [ɲihoŋɡo] )
15717-466: The film 4th on its list of greatest short story adaptations, wrote that "There is both much and little to say about the film. It is simply an experience—a trip through the lonely boroughs of humanity that the world collectively looked, and still looks, away from". Theron Martin of Anime News Network said that, in terms of the original U.S. Manga Corps dub, while the other voices were "perfectly acceptable", "Setsuko just doesn't sound quite convincing as
15886-499: The film a score of 94 out of 100 based on 16 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times considered it to be one of the best and most powerful war films and, in 2000, included it on his list of great films. Filmmaker Akira Kurosawa praised the film and considered it his favourite Ghibli production. He wrote a letter of praise to Hayao Miyazaki , mistakenly believing he directed Grave of
16055-409: The film and made overall profits for the company to the extent that it stabilized subsequent productions of Studio Ghibli. Grave of the Fireflies is the only theatrical Studio Ghibli feature film prior to From Up on Poppy Hill to which Disney never had North American distribution rights, since it was not produced by Ghibli for parent company Tokuma Shoten but for Shinchosha , the publisher of
16224-416: The film for not emphasizing Japanese victimhood to avoid responsibility for atrocities of the war they played a role in. They interpret that Seita's character embodies working towards healing historical trauma and victimization, because it is his nationalistic pride and selfishness which ultimately contributed to his sister's death. The film was released on 16 April 1988, over 20 years from the publication of
16393-605: The film gives little context to the war, Takahata feared a politician could just as easily claim fighting is needed to avoid such tragedies. In general, he was skeptical that depictions of suffering in similar works, such as Barefoot Gen , actually prevent aggression. The director was nevertheless an anti-war advocate, a staunch supporter of Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution , and has openly criticized Japan's penchant for conformity, allowing them to be rallied against other nations. He expressed despair and anxiety whenever
16562-471: The film in Australia and New Zealand. It was released on VHS in North America by Central Park Media in a subtitled form on June 2, 1993. They later released the film with an English dub on VHS on September 1, 1998 (the same day Disney released Kiki's Delivery Service in North America) and an all-Regions DVD (which also included the original Japanese with English subtitles) on October 7 the same year. It
16731-408: The film is from Seita's point of view, "and even objective passages are filtered through his feelings". Takahata said that he had considered using non-traditional animation methods, but because "the schedule was planned and the movie's release date set, and the staff assembled, it was apparent there was no room for such a trial-and-error approach". He further remarked that he had difficulty animating
16900-465: The film makers collaborate with Disney to produce cultural appropriate international versions. The Studio has not shied away from rebranding on the international stage in order to convey tweaked promotional imagery for different cultural norms. One example of these tweaks to international promotional materials can be seen between the Japanese and English versions of the movie poster for Spirited Away (2001). For American and other English-speaking audiences,
17069-431: The film was an anti-war film. In his own words, it "is not at all an anti-war anime and contains absolutely no such message". Instead, Takahata had intended to convey an image of the brother and sister living a failed life due to isolation from society and invoke sympathy particularly in people in their teens and twenties. Takahata also describes Japan at that time as "repressive", a time when "totalitarianism at its lowest"
17238-399: The film was canceled before production could start due to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests . Public opinion in Japan had turned against China, and Ghibli's distributor felt a film partly set there was too risky. NTV in Japan produced a live-action TV drama of Grave of the Fireflies , in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the end of the war. The drama aired on 1 November 2005. Like
17407-629: The film's release in the United States as Warriors of the Wind . Between 1999 and 2005, Studio Ghibli was a subsidiary brand of Tokuma Shoten ; however, that partnership ended in April 2005, when Studio Ghibli was spun off from Tokuma Shoten and was re-established as an independent company with relocated headquarters. On February 1, 2008, Toshio Suzuki stepped down from the position of Studio Ghibli president, which he had held since 2005, and Koji Hoshino (former president of Walt Disney Japan) took over. Suzuki said he wanted to improve films with his own hands as
17576-405: The film's storyboards with the second disc containing a retrospective on the author of the original book, an interview with the director, and an interview with critic Roger Ebert , who felt the film was one of the greatest of all time. It was released by Central Park Media one last time on 7 December 2004. Following the May 2009 bankruptcy and liquidation of Central Park Media, ADV Films acquired
17745-488: The film. Another soundtrack album titled Grave of the Fireflies Image Album Collection ( 火垂るの墓 イメージ・アルバム集 , Hotaru no Haka Imeji Arubamu Shū ) was first released on April 5, 1997, by Studio Ghilbi Records and Tokuma Japan Communications, and later released on November 25, 1987, by Animage . All music is composed by Michio Mamiya In his book about the film, Alex Dudok de Wit called Grave of
17914-515: The films. On January 31, 2014, it was announced that Gorō Miyazaki will direct his first anime television series, Sanzoku no Musume Rōnya , an adaptation of Astrid Lindgren 's Ronia the Robber's Daughter for NHK . The series is computer-animated , produced by Polygon Pictures , and co-produced by Studio Ghibli. In March 2014, Toshio Suzuki retired as producer and assumed the new position of general manager. Yoshiaki Nishimura replaced Suzuki in
18083-465: The first time since 1996 that Disney handed a Studio Ghibli film off to another distributor. Afterwards, GKIDS would go on to distribute the films Disney found to be too mature or unmarketable for American audiences: Only Yesterday , Ocean Waves , The Tale of the Princess Kaguya and When Marnie Was There . In July 2017, Disney relinquished its home video rights (with the exception of The Wind Rises , which remained with Disney until 2020 due to
18252-455: The flow of loanwords from European languages increased significantly, and words from English roots have proliferated. Japanese is an agglutinative , mora -timed language with relatively simple phonotactics , a pure vowel system, phonemic vowel and consonant length, and a lexically significant pitch-accent . Word order is normally subject–object–verb with particles marking the grammatical function of words, and sentence structure
18421-507: The following morning, the fireflies have died; Setsuko buries them and reveals their aunt told her their mother died, then tearfully asks why the fireflies had to die so soon. Things quickly become grim when they run out of rice and a friendly farmer insists that Seita swallow his pride and return to their aunt as they can't survive outside the system. This leads Seita into stealing crops from farms and breaking into people's homes during air raids. One farmer catches him and severely beats him, but
18590-459: The food. Seita cremates Setsuko's body and her stuffed doll in a straw casket. He carries her ashes in the candy tin along with his father's photograph. Seita dies of starvation a few weeks later at a Sannomiya train station surrounded by other malnourished people. A janitor is tasked with removing the bodies before the Americans' arrival. As the janitor sorts through Seita's possessions, he finds
18759-609: The genitive particle ga remains in intentionally archaic speech. Early Middle Japanese is the Japanese of the Heian period , from 794 to 1185. It formed the basis for the literary standard of Classical Japanese , which remained in common use until the early 20th century. During this time, Japanese underwent numerous phonological developments, in many cases instigated by an influx of Chinese loanwords . These included phonemic length distinction for both consonants and vowels , palatal consonants (e.g. kya ) and labial consonant clusters (e.g. kwa ), and closed syllables . This had
18928-449: The graphic and emotional depiction of the pernicious repercussions of war on a society, and the individuals therein. The film focuses its attention almost entirely on the personal tragedies that war gives rise to, rather than seeking to glamorize it as a heroic struggle between competing nations. It emphasizes that war is society's failure to perform its most important duty: to protect its own people. However, Takahata repeatedly denied that
19097-468: The home media distributor of Studio Ghibli's catalog via its distribution deal with Wild Bunch through the Wild Side Vidéo label. Prior to 2019, Studio Ghibli opted not to make its films available digitally, feeling that physical media and theatrical events like GKIDS ' Studio Ghibli Fest would work more towards their goal of mindful care and curation for their films. Disney had previously lobbied for
19266-1000: The home media releases of Kaguya , Marnie , Mary , Yesterday and Waves , and Shout! Factory all subsequent releases thus far. The Ghibli films owned by GKIDS were made available for digital purchases on most major services in the United States and Canada on December 17, 2019, through Shout! Factory. Outside Asia (including Japan) and North America since 2003, Goodfellas (a former subsidiary of Wild Bunch , formerly known as Wild Bunch International) has been Studio Ghibli's international sales holder. Individual rights to Ghibli's films are held by various third parties, including Elysian Film Group and Anonymous Content (United Kingdom and Ireland), Wild Bunch (France and Belgium), Leonine (Germany), Lucky Red (Italy), Vértigo Films (Spain), Crunchyroll Store Australia (Australia and New Zealand) and Encore Films / mm2 Entertainment in Southeast Asia. Notably, The Secret World of Arrietty received
19435-430: The language, affecting the phonology of Early Middle Japanese . Late Middle Japanese (1185–1600) saw extensive grammatical changes and the first appearance of European loanwords . The basis of the standard dialect moved from the Kansai region to the Edo region (modern Tokyo ) in the Early Modern Japanese period (early 17th century–mid 19th century). Following the end of Japan's self-imposed isolation in 1853,
19604-453: The languages of the original Jōmon inhabitants, including the ancestor of the modern Ainu language . Because writing had yet to be introduced from China, there is no direct evidence, and anything that can be discerned about this period must be based on internal reconstruction from Old Japanese , or comparison with the Ryukyuan languages and Japanese dialects . The Chinese writing system
19773-449: The languages. Okinawan Japanese is a variant of Standard Japanese influenced by the Ryūkyūan languages, and is the primary dialect spoken among young people in the Ryukyu Islands . Modern Japanese has become prevalent nationwide (including the Ryūkyū islands) due to education , mass media , and an increase in mobility within Japan, as well as economic integration. Japanese is a member of
19942-427: The large quantity of English loanwords, modern Japanese has developed a distinction between [tɕi] and [ti] , and [dʑi] and [di] , with the latter in each pair only found in loanwords. Although Japanese is spoken almost exclusively in Japan, it has also been spoken outside of the country. Before and during World War II , through Japanese annexation of Taiwan and Korea , as well as partial occupation of China ,
20111-472: The longer dialogue scenes, some of the environmentalist themes were simplified as was the main subplot of the Ohmu, altered to remove Nausicaä's childhood connection to them. Most of the characters' names were changed, including the titular character who became Princess Zandra. The North American poster and VHS cover featured a cadre of male characters who are not in the film, riding the resurrected God Warrior—including
20280-462: The name of the film was changed from the Japanese version, which directly translates roughly to, "The Disappearance of Chihiro and Sen", to Spirited Away to suggest more mystical, otherworldly themes, since the direct Japanese translation could be taken to mean that Chihiro/Sen disappeared due to some more dangerous reason. On the American movie poster, more pictures of spirits from the film were added to
20449-425: The only strict rule of word order is that the verb must be placed at the end of a sentence (possibly followed by sentence-end particles). This is because Japanese sentence elements are marked with particles that identify their grammatical functions. The basic sentence structure is topic–comment . For example, Kochira wa Tanaka-san desu ( こちらは田中さんです ). kochira ("this") is the topic of the sentence, indicated by
20618-446: The original short story (although Disney has the Japanese home video distribution rights themselves, thus replacing the film's original Japanese home video distributor, Bandai Visual ). It was one of the last Studio Ghibli films to get an English-language premiere by GKIDS . Grave of the Fireflies was released in Japan on VHS by Buena Vista Home Entertainment under the Ghibli ga Ippai Collection on 7 August 1998. On 29 July 2005,
20787-470: The out-group gives a benefit to the in-group, and "up" to indicate the in-group gives a benefit to the out-group. Here, the in-group includes the speaker and the out-group does not, and their boundary depends on context. For example, oshiete moratta ( 教えてもらった ) (literally, "explaining got" with a benefit from the out-group to the in-group) means "[he/she/they] explained [it] to [me/us]". Similarly, oshiete ageta ( 教えてあげた ) (literally, "explaining gave" with
20956-415: The particle wa . The verb desu is a copula , commonly translated as "to be" or "it is" (though there are other verbs that can be translated as "to be"), though technically it holds no meaning and is used to give a sentence 'politeness'. As a phrase, Tanaka-san desu is the comment. This sentence literally translates to "As for this person, (it) is Mx Tanaka." Thus Japanese, like many other Asian languages,
21125-488: The past. Many of you must think, 'Once again.' But this time I am quite serious." In 2013, a documentary directed by Mami Sunada called The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness ( Japanese : 夢と狂気の王国 , Hepburn : Yume to kyōki no ōkoku ) was created delving into the lives of those working at Studio Ghibli and the productions of the animated films The Wind Rises and The Tale of the Princess Kaguya , including storyboard sketching, inking, painting, and voice actor selection for
21294-416: The perfect iteration of it. Each of these cuts remained unfinished and unused in the end. Most of the illustration outlines in the film are in brown, instead of the customary black. Black outlines were only used when it was absolutely necessary. Color coordinator Michiyo Yasuda said this was done to give the film a softer feel. Yasuda said that this technique had never been used in an anime before Grave of
21463-466: The platform’s extensive lineup of best-in-class anime from Japan. The film was modestly successful at the Japanese box office, where it grossed ¥1.7 billion . As part of the Studio Ghibli Fest 2018, the film had a limited theatrical release in the United States, grossing $ 516,962. The Ghibli ga Ippai Collection home video release of Grave of the Fireflies sold 400,000 copies in Japan. At
21632-424: The producer role. On August 3, 2014, Toshio Suzuki announced that Studio Ghibli would take a "brief pause" to re-evaluate and restructure in the wake of Miyazaki's retirement. He stated some concerns about where the company would go in the future. This led to speculation that Studio Ghibli will never produce another feature film again. On November 7, 2014, Miyazaki stated, "That was not my intention, though. All I did
21801-477: The proposed larger Altaic family, or to various Southeast Asian languages , especially Austronesian . None of these proposals have gained wide acceptance (and the Altaic family itself is now considered controversial). As it stands, only the link to Ryukyuan has wide support. Other theories view the Japanese language as an early creole language formed through inputs from at least two distinct language groups, or as
21970-448: The purposes of the list below, films that appear in Studio Ghibli's official filmography are listed. Other Studio Ghibli productions are listed here . Studio Ghibli films are mostly hand-drawn using rich watercolor and acrylic paints. The films use traditional methods of making animation where every frame is drawn and colored by hand. Computer animation techniques are used sparingly. All the Studio Ghibli films use bright colors, and have
22139-413: The raw emotion of human life by simplifying reality to emphasize ideas. He concludes his analysis with saying, "Yes, it's a cartoon, and the kids have eyes like saucers, but it belongs on any list of the greatest war films ever made." According to Wendy Goldberg, Takahata's film also includes criticism of the emphasis on nationalism in Japan. In a particular scene, Seita's desire to join his father reflects
22308-427: The request of Tokuma Shoten. The Castle dub was briefly screened in the United States by Streamline Pictures . Carl Macek , the head of Streamline, was disappointed with this dub, deeming it "adequate, but clumsy". Following this, Tokuma allowed Streamline to dub their future acquisitions My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki's Delivery Service . In April 1993, Troma Films , under their 50th St. Films banner, distributed
22477-418: The rights and re-released it on DVD on 7 July 2009. Following the 1 September 2009 shutdown and re-branding of ADV, their successor, Sentai Filmworks , rescued the film and released a remastered DVD on 6 March 2012, and planned to release the film on digital outlets. A Blu-ray edition was released on 20 November 2012, featuring an all-new English dub produced by Seraphim Digital . StudioCanal released
22646-456: The rights and re-released it on DVD on July 7, 2009. Following the September 1, 2009 shutdown and re-branding of ADV, their successor, Sentai Filmworks , rescued the film and released a remastered DVD on March 6, 2012. A Blu-ray edition was released on November 20, 2012, featuring an all-new English dub produced by Seraphim Digital , along with a digital release that same year. Netflix acquired
22815-403: The role for the first time since 2008, while Nakajima would continue to serve as a director. This change of management came about amidst reports that Suzuki had allegedly been mismanaging company funds by directing them towards his girlfriend's failed business ventures. This reportedly created tension between Suzuki and Hoshino, with the latter reportedly citing it as a long-term internal problem at
22984-459: The same structure as affirmative sentences, but with intonation rising at the end. In the formal register, the question particle -ka is added. For example, ii desu ( いいです ) "It is OK" becomes ii desu-ka ( いいですか。 ) "Is it OK?". In a more informal tone sometimes the particle -no ( の ) is added instead to show a personal interest of the speaker: Dōshite konai-no? "Why aren't (you) coming?". Some simple queries are formed simply by mentioning
23153-440: The scenery since, in Japanese animation, one is "not allowed" to depict Japan in a realistic manner. Animators often traveled to foreign countries to do research on how to depict them, but such research had not been done before for a Japanese setting. While animating the movie, Takahata also created several different cuts of the scene in which Seita cremates Setsuko's body. Takahata spent a lot of time on this scene, trying to create
23322-420: The short story. The initial Japanese theatrical release was accompanied by Hayao Miyazaki 's light-hearted My Neighbor Totoro as a double feature . While the two films were marketed toward children and their parents, the starkly tragic nature of Grave of the Fireflies turned away many audiences. However, Totoro merchandise, particularly the stuffed animals of Totoro and Catbus, sold extremely well after
23491-523: The sole international distributor for Tokuma Shoten's Studio Ghibli animated films. Under this agreement, Disney also agreed to finance 10% of the studio's production costs. Since then, all three of the aforementioned films by Miyazaki at Studio Ghibli that were previously dubbed by Streamline Pictures have been re-dubbed by Disney. On June 1, 1997, Tokuma Shoten Publishing consolidated its media operations by merging Studio Ghibli, Tokuma Shoten Intermedia software and Tokuma International under one location. Over
23660-536: The soundtracks for most of Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli films. In their book Anime Classics Zettai! , Brian Camp and Julie Davis made note of Michiyo Yasuda as "a mainstay of Studio Ghibli's extraordinary design and production team". At one time the studio was based in Kichijōji , Musashino , Tokyo. In August 1996, The Walt Disney Company and Tokuma Shoten formed a partnership wherein Walt Disney Studios would be
23829-439: The speaker, the listener, and persons mentioned. The Japanese writing system combines Chinese characters , known as kanji ( 漢字 , ' Han characters') , with two unique syllabaries (or moraic scripts) derived by the Japanese from the more complex Chinese characters: hiragana ( ひらがな or 平仮名 , 'simple characters') and katakana ( カタカナ or 片仮名 , 'partial characters'). Latin script ( rōmaji ローマ字 )
23998-797: The state as at the time the constitution was written, many of the elders participating in the process had been educated in Japanese during the South Seas Mandate over the island shown by the 1958 census of the Trust Territory of the Pacific that found that 89% of Palauans born between 1914 and 1933 could speak and read Japanese, but as of the 2005 Palau census there were no residents of Angaur that spoke Japanese at home. Japanese dialects typically differ in terms of pitch accent , inflectional morphology , vocabulary , and particle usage. Some even differ in vowel and consonant inventories, although this
24167-476: The street. (grammatically incorrect insertion of a pronoun) But one can grammatically say essentially the same thing in Japanese: 驚いた彼は道を走っていった。 Transliteration: Odoroita kare wa michi o hashitte itta. (grammatically correct) This is partly because these words evolved from regular nouns, such as kimi "you" ( 君 "lord"), anata "you" ( あなた "that side, yonder"), and boku "I" ( 僕 "servant"). This
24336-572: The studio's films are among the ten highest-grossing Japanese feature films ; Spirited Away is third, grossing 31.68 billion yen in Japan and over US$ 380 million worldwide. Three of their films have won the Animage Grand Prix award, four have won the Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year , and five have received Academy Award nominations. Spirited Away won the 2002 Golden Bear and
24505-528: The topic with an interrogative intonation to call for the hearer's attention: Kore wa? "(What about) this?"; O-namae wa? ( お名前は？ ) "(What's your) name?". Negatives are formed by inflecting the verb. For example, Pan o taberu ( パンを食べる。 ) "I will eat bread" or "I eat bread" becomes Pan o tabenai ( パンを食べない。 ) "I will not eat bread" or "I do not eat bread". Plain negative forms are i -adjectives (see below) and inflect as such, e.g. Pan o tabenakatta ( パンを食べなかった。 ) "I did not eat bread". Grave of
24674-491: The tweet after receiving complaints that referencing the Grave of the Fireflies line "Why do fireflies die so soon?" ( なんで蛍すぐ死んでしまうん , Nande hotaru sugu shinde shimaun ) was in poor taste. Before that, the ranking website Goo's readers voted the film's ending the number 1 most miserable of all anime films. In June 2018, USA Today ranked it 1st on the 100 best animated movies of all time. Film director and critic Haruo Mizuno [ ja ] reviewed Grave of
24843-419: The two consonants are the moraic nasal followed by a homorganic consonant. Japanese also includes a pitch accent , which is not represented in moraic writing; for example [haꜜ.ɕi] ("chopsticks") and [ha.ɕiꜜ] ("bridge") are both spelled はし ( hashi ) , and are only differentiated by the tone contour. Japanese word order is classified as subject–object–verb . Unlike many Indo-European languages ,
25012-577: The two methods were both used in writing until the 1940s. Bungo still has some relevance for historians, literary scholars, and lawyers (many Japanese laws that survived World War II are still written in bungo , although there are ongoing efforts to modernize their language). Kōgo is the dominant method of both speaking and writing Japanese today, although bungo grammar and vocabulary are occasionally used in modern Japanese for effect. The 1982 state constitution of Angaur , Palau , names Japanese along with Palauan and English as an official language of
25181-472: The two terms (''hyōjungo'' and ''kyōtsūgo'') are almost the same. Hyōjungo or kyōtsūgo is a conception that forms the counterpart of dialect. This normative language was born after the Meiji Restoration ( 明治維新 , meiji ishin , 1868) from the language spoken in the higher-class areas of Tokyo (see Yamanote ). Hyōjungo is taught in schools and used on television and in official communications. It
25350-407: The verb (e.g. yonde for earlier yomite ), the -k- in the final mora of adjectives drops out ( shiroi for earlier shiroki ); and some forms exist where modern standard Japanese has retained the earlier form (e.g. hayaku > hayau > hayɔɔ , where modern Japanese just has hayaku , though the alternative form is preserved in the standard greeting o-hayō gozaimasu "good morning"; this ending
25519-454: The widespread burning of wooden houses in Japan. Critic Dennis H. Fukushima, Jr. believes that this modification of the title is to emphasize parallels between beauty and devastation, citing the relationship between fireflies, M-69 incendiary bombs , naval vessels, city lights, and human spirits. In the book Imag(in)ing the war in Japan representing and responding to trauma in postwar literature and film , David Stahl and Mark Williams commend
25688-548: The world. Since Japanese first gained the consideration of linguists in the late 19th century, attempts have been made to show its genealogical relation to languages or language families such as Ainu , Korean , Chinese , Tibeto-Burman , Uralic , Altaic (or Ural-Altaic ), Austroasiatic , Austronesian and Dravidian . At the fringe, some linguists have even suggested a link to Indo-European languages , including Greek , or to Sumerian . Main modern theories try to link Japanese either to northern Asian languages, like Korean or
25857-496: The years, there has been a close relationship between Studio Ghibli and the magazine Animage , which regularly runs exclusive articles on the studio and its members in a section titled "Ghibli Notes". Artwork from Ghibli's films and other works are frequently featured on the cover of the magazine. Saeko Himuro 's novel Umi ga Kikoeru was serialised in the magazine and subsequently adapted into Ocean Waves , Studio Ghibli's first animated feature-length film created for television. It
26026-469: The youth are told to fall in line, a reminder that the country at its core has not changed. Despite the public's emotional reaction, Takahata expressed that the purpose of the film was not to be a tragedy or make people cry. Moreover, he regretted depicting Seita as a boy from that era because he wanted him to come off as a contemporary boy who acted like he had time-traveled to the period. He didn't intend for it to be retrospective or nostalgic. He wanted
26195-436: Was a co-production between Studio Ghibli and Wild Bunch . In February 2017, Toshio Suzuki announced that Hayao Miyazaki had come out of retirement to direct a new feature film with Studio Ghibli. On November 28, 2017, Koji Hoshino stepped down as president; he was replaced by Kiyofumi Nakajima (former Ghibli Museum director). Hoshino was then appointed as Chairman of Studio Ghibli. In May 2020, Toshio Suzuki confirmed that
26364-537: Was a shift to reinstate this tradition and "there are now eighty five 'firefly villages' ( hotaru no sato ) registered at the Ministry of the Environment in Japan. The movie uses fireflies to visually represent both deadly and beautiful imagery, such as fire-bombs and kamikazes. Takahata chooses to use the kanji "fire" instead of the normal character for the word firefly in the title, which has been interpreted to represent
26533-444: Was announce that I would be retiring and not making any more features." Lead producer Yoshiaki Nishimura among several other staffers from Ghibli, such as director Hiromasa Yonebayashi , left to found Studio Ponoc in April 2015, working on the film Mary and the Witch's Flower . The 2016 animated fantasy film The Red Turtle , directed and co-written by Dutch-British animator Michaël Dudok de Wit in his feature film debut,
26702-535: Was based on 12- to 20-second-long recordings of 135 to 244 phonemes , which 42 students listened to and translated word-for-word. The listeners were all Keio University students who grew up in the Kanto region . There are some language islands in mountain villages or isolated islands such as Hachijō-jima island , whose dialects are descended from Eastern Old Japanese . Dialects of the Kansai region are spoken or known by many Japanese, and Osaka dialect in particular
26871-545: Was called Border 1939 , based on the novel The Border by Shin Shikata, and would have told the story of a Japanese teenager from colonial Seoul joining an anti-Japanese resistance group in Mongolia. The film was intended as an indictment of Japanese imperialist sentiment, which is briefly touched upon in Grave of the Fireflies . Although Takahata finished a full outline (which is republished in his book Thoughts While Making Movies ),
27040-512: Was directed by Tomomi Mochizuki . In October 2001, the Ghibli Museum opened in Mitaka, Tokyo . It contains exhibits based on Studio Ghibli films and shows animations, including a number of short Studio Ghibli films not available elsewhere. The studio is also known for its strict "no-edits" policy in licensing their films abroad due to Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind being heavily edited for
27209-515: Was endorsed in social life. He said "Seita defies such totalitarianism and tries to build a 'pure family' with Setsuko alone. Is such a thing possible? No, it is not possible, so he lets Setsuko die. [...] But can we criticize him? The reason why we modern people can easily sympathize with Seita emotionally is because the times have reversed. If the times are reversed again someday, the time may come when many people have more opinions to denounce Seita than that widow. I find it frightening." Since
27378-547: Was founded after the success of the 1984 film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind . Suzuki was part of the film's production team, and founded Studio Ghibli with Miyazaki, who also invited Takahata to join them. The studio has mainly produced films by Miyazaki, with the second most prolific director being Takahata (most notably with Grave of the Fireflies ). Other directors who have worked with Studio Ghibli include Yoshifumi Kondō , Hiroyuki Morita , Gorō Miyazaki , and Hiromasa Yonebayashi . Composer Joe Hisaishi has provided
27547-506: Was headed by directors Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata and producer Toshio Suzuki . Miyazaki and Takahata had already had long careers in Japanese film and television animation and had worked together on The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun in 1968 and the Panda! Go, Panda! films in 1972 and 1973. Suzuki had been an editor at Tokuma Shoten 's Animage manga magazine. The studio
27716-718: Was imported to Japan from Baekje around the start of the fifth century, alongside Buddhism. The earliest texts were written in Classical Chinese , although some of these were likely intended to be read as Japanese using the kanbun method, and show influences of Japanese grammar such as Japanese word order. The earliest text, the Kojiki , dates to the early eighth century, and was written entirely in Chinese characters, which are used to represent, at different times, Chinese, kanbun , and Old Japanese. As in other texts from this period,
27885-421: Was later released on a two-disc DVD set (which once again included both the English dub and the original Japanese with English subtitles as well as the film's storyboards with the second disc containing more extensive Bonus Features) on October 8, 2002. It was released by Central Park Media one last time on December 7, 2004. Following the May 2009 bankruptcy and liquidation of Central Park Media, ADV Films acquired
28054-465: Was lost immediately following its composition.) This set of morae shrank to 67 in Early Middle Japanese , though some were added through Chinese influence. Man'yōgana also has a symbol for /je/ , which merges with /e/ before the end of the period. Several fossilizations of Old Japanese grammatical elements remain in the modern language – the genitive particle tsu (superseded by modern no )
28223-673: Was offered. After seeing the storyboards, Nosaka concluded that it was not possible for such a story to have been made in any method other than animation and expressed surprise in how accurately the rice paddies and townscape were depicted. Isao Takahata said that he was compelled to film the short story after seeing how the main character, Seita, "was a unique wartime ninth grader". Takahata explained that any wartime story, whether animated or not animated, "tends to be moving and tear-jerking", and that young people develop an " inferiority complex " where they perceive people in wartime eras as being more noble and more able than they are, and therefore
28392-461: Was released in two Parisian arthouses and the reaction was modest. Following the release however, Les Films du Paradoxe chose to release the film on video cassettes and on the streaming service Canal+. After the international release, it has been noted that different audiences have interpreted the film differently due to differences in culture. For instance, when the film was watched by a Japanese audience, Seita's decision to not come back to his aunt
28561-421: Was seen as an understandable decision, because it was understood how Seita had been raised to value pride in himself and his country. Conversely, American and Australian audiences were more likely to perceive the decision as unwise. Following the success of Grave of the Fireflies , Takahata drew up an outline for a follow-up film, based on similar themes but set in 1939 at the start of the Pacific War. This film
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