Well, gang — we’ve reached the end of our eighteen-movie Studio Ghibli journey. Fortunately, new Ghibli films are just around the corner! Even the biggest dub haters have to admit that the English cast of The Wind Rises is pretty stacked (ALL THE NAMES). And When Marnie Was There was announced as the next Studio Ghibli project, to be directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi. While the end (?) of the Hayao Miyazaki era might take a little — or A LOT — getting used to, I at least have faith in Marnie‘s director, Hiromasa Yonebayashi, to make a faithful adaptation (even though I’m not familiar with the source material), based on his previous film that we’ll be discussing later.
And speaking of today’s slate of movies, there are highs, but daaaaaamn, there are LOWS. (Or, singular low. Singular-ish.) These films feature FYA goddesses (well, half of them do), and SWOOOON (well, two of them do — with some really bewildering feels in the rest). As always, I watched the Disney English dub of each movie, unless otherwise stated.
That’s a wrap on our Studio Ghibli mini-series! So have you watched all of the movies in this set? Which were your faves? Howl’s has grown on me since I first saw it, and I really like Poppy Hill in spite of its… complication.
And with the maybe-for-realsies retirement of Hayao Miyazaki, what do y’all think about the future of Studio Ghibli? The newer directors show a lot of promise, but also a lot of shakiness. I feel a lot better about the realistic films than I do about the more fantastical fare (ahem, Earthsea). I’m cautiously optimistic, although who knows if anyone could ever match Miyazaki’s visual artistry in the near future?
So will you be catching his last film, The Wind Rises, when it opens in (North American) theatres on February 21st? Will you seek out the subbed print in favour of the dubbed? Will I ever stop asking so many questions? Sound off in the comments below!
Exploring the Studio Ghibli Vault
