Tokyo Exhibition Celebrates 30 Years of Studio Ghibli Animation

A major exhibition at the Tokyo City View Observation Deck Sky Gallery in Roppongi Hills showcases thirty years of Studio Ghibli's work, running until September 11. The show features preparatory sketches, posters, advertisements, videos, themed gadgets, 3D models, sets, flying machines, airships, and maquettes that have fueled the magic of anime by Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata. The display begins with Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984), directed by Miyazaki a year before the studio's official founding, recognized as a precursor to Ghibli's signature themes like environmentalism and poetic storytelling. It progresses through classics such as Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, Spirited Away, Porco Rosso, Princess Mononoke, and The Cat Returns, culminating in the recent The Red Turtle, a Franco-Belgian-Japanese co-production that won the Un Certain Regard award at the Cannes Film Festival in May. After a previous stop at the Niigata Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, the Tokyo iteration is strengthened by additional materials related to The Red Turtle, directed by Michaël Dudok de Wit, which tells the story of a man whose life is changed by an encounter with a giant turtle.