Since my last round of publishing on Ghibli Blog, I have published another round of art & photography ebooks. The newest titles are Galaxy Four: Modern Art, Fire Shark and The White Album. Each of these are optimized for viewing on smartphones and tablets, which means that everything is easy to read, watch and enjoy. All of my art books are available exclusively on KDP Select and Kindle Unlimited. Take a moment to visit my Amazon author page and download a few titles, or read for free if you're a KU member. As always, please share with family and friends, and always remember to write ..read more

Studio Ghibli recently surprised the world by releasing hundreds of high resolution screenshots from their catalog films into the public "within the realm of accepted practice." It's a tremendously generous move and one that I hope fans will embrace. I know it certainly makes my work much easier, and I do wish the studio had supplied these art assets to animation websites ages ago. It's a pity that blogs are virtually extinct in 2020, but what can you do? Time marches on, kids. Anyway, here are some excellent screenshots from Isao Takahata's final masterwork, The Tale of the Princess K ..read more

Alright, everybody, here are the first test pages for the Conversations on Ghibli book. What do you think? Any opinions, thoughts, advice to share? I have been promising a Studio Ghibli book for nearly as long as I've had a Ghibli Blog. It was always my great ambition for this ongoing study of the works of Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki, and it was a project that suffered through multiple bouts of fits and starts. I was actually working on the book almost four years ago when I was hit by the first major roadblock, at which time I decided to work on a couple other book projects instea ..read more

In 1983, an arcade videogame called Dragon's Lair featured fully animated movie scenes that were streamed off LaserDisc. It was a great success and spawned a mini-boom of likewise imitators. Stern Electronics, the US publisher known for many successful video and pinball games, sought to get in on the action, but lacked the resources to finance a million-dollar production of their own. Instead, they turned to Japan in search of animated movies to use. They found two anime films based on the popular Lupin the 3rd franchise: The Mystery of Mamo and The Castle of Cagliostro. After securing th ..read more

I've added a host of new links to the Videos section, including a number of Toei Doga classic features that have never been released in the West and are now frightfully difficult to track down. Don't forget that Heidi, Marco and Anne are also available with English subtitles, and I strongly urge you to watch these while you can. As always, I strongly urge the owners of these classic films and television shows to release these titles on our shores on Blu-Ray and DVD. There is a small but dedicated following of fans who would scoop them up in a heartbeat ..read more

Hustle Punch is a TV anime series created by Toei Doga and broadcast in 1965. It ran for only 26 episodes, but is an excellent cartoon with a very strong Hanna-Barbara groove. The series was masterminded by Yasuji Mori, Isao Takahata directed the opening sequence, Hayao Miyazaki and Yoichi Kotabe were key animators, and pretty much the whole gang of regulars that we all know and love worked on this series, which took place while Horus, Prince of the Sun was in pre-production. Youtube user Felipe Jimenez has compiled all 26 episodes into this single video. It's a great discovery, although the ..read more

GeGeGe no Kitaro is a popular manga comic that has spawned a number of TV anime series over the years. The first series was produced by Toei Doga and ran from 1968-1969. A second series, this time in color, was created in 1971. Isao Takahata had a minor involvement on this show, directing episode 62 of the original series and episode 5 of the second. Takahata also directed the opening and ending sequences for the 1971 series, making this his final work with Toei Doga before leaving with Hayao Miyazaki and Yoichi Kotabe to A Productions to join Yasuo Otsuka for Lupin the 3rd and Pippi Longstoc ..read more

Moretsu Ataro (Ataro the Workaholic) is a television anime series created by Toei Doga in 1969-70. Adapted from a gag comic that ran from 1967-1970 in Weekly Shonen Sunday, it's a purely zany and wacky kids cartoon. Isao Takahata directed episodes 10, 14, 36, 44, 51, 59, 71, 77 and 90 (the series finale). Thanks to Youtube user Mr. Batsugoro, the entire series run has been posted online. There are no English subtitles, but as is the case with most vintage anime, you learn to live with it. What matters is that we are finally able to watch these episodes. I am posting all of the Takahata-direc ..read more

This week, Studio Ghibli provided a series of background images from their movies that can be used in online conference calls or podcasts. Eight backgrounds are currently available with more to follow in the coming weeks. I have posted four, and the others can be found by clicking on the link. Ghibli also posted the following notes (courtesy of Google Translate): It is provided for the purpose of being used by individuals as a background for Web / TV conference applications such as telecommuting, teleworking, and distance learning. It cannot be used for commercial purposes or for adv ..read more

Ghibliotheque, the excellent podcast dedicated to all things Ghibli, is currently running a poll of the studio's best movies. Simply click on the link below to participate and cast your votes. Good luck! Ghibliotheque Studio Ghibli Poll ..read more